This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the OHIO Scientific  C2 computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

I have a lot of info on OSI as I was selling them back in 1979-1980. I even still have a Challenger C3 without hard drive and a 19" rack supplied by OSI. I would be happy to help with anyone looking for details of the time.

I now regret dumping my Okidata 22 line printer, only two years ago. It still worked but had trouble with PC parallel port interface. The trouble was that the standard PC was sending something that woudl do a page eject about every two lines. This is an era before the laser printer. The paper was wide 15"(i think) tractor feed fanfold computer paper. A page eject on the Oki22 was very fast, about two seconds. (I was never able to find a PC driver for the printer.)

I still have a C2-OEM. I have a Televideo terminal and a NEC Spinwriter printer for it. The C2-OEM I have is in a single case with dual 8" floppies. I have added memory and a printer card. I still have the OS 65D Tutorial and OS manual, and I may even have the full schematics. Have not started it up for years. In 2000, I took it to a vintage computer fair and ran Adventure on it. I would have to take it out of the attic to do an inventory of the cards.

This was my first serious computer (I started with TRS-80) which I bought in Boston in 1980 or 1981 (I think). I did a lot of work with this guy and even earned a living with it here on the downeast coast of Maine for several years.

It is a C2-OEM with 1 6502 cpu, 2 8" disk drives, and a serial port for a terminal (Hazeltine model ??, long gone) and a long parallel cable for my old Centronics tractor feed(also long gone).

I purchased and used an Ohio Scientific in 1978 for personal and business purposes. Here is a partial list:

C8P DF GT
Microprocessor - 6502C 4Mhz. (GT option)
Ram - 48k 150ns. (GT Option)
Disk - 2- 8" floppies each 170k
I/O Video Board 64 x 32 Colors
1-RS232 Port (Software addressable to 2 connectors) Sound Output Home Security Interface BSR Remote control Hi Speed DAC C8P-DF-48k
2 Joystick Inputs GT Option

Expansion Serial RS232 Board CS-10-2
48 Line Parallel I/O CA-21
D/A, A/D CA-22
16 Channel input multiplex to one A/D
2 D/A
6 TTL Input
2 TTL Output

Serial Terminal AC-07C
Haziltine 1420
Total Price $7,815.00

Lots of software.
OS-65D V3.2, OS-65U V1.2, HC-1, HC-2,Graphics 1, Plot Basic, DAC1,PD 1-2, ED 1-4, BD 1-3, GD 5-10, WP6502U, WP3-2, WP3-1, OS-DMX, OS-Inventory, OS-DMS, OS-65U V1.42 - CD74 CD-36 MOS for Business, Demo Disk, Customer Demo, Dealer Demo.

I used the system for word processing and BASIC development for the company I worked for. I programed a customer equipment reception, tracking, and billing system. This required hacking the OS to remove the ''LF'' at the end of each write to the serial terminals so the text could be kept at the same location and be updated. Great fun.

I sold this system to my nephew in 1984. I think he still has it in storage. Don''t know.

I had a Ohio Scientific C2-4P. I bought over the Apple which did not have floating point arithmetic unless you bought a 5 inch 37 KB floppy drive. Over the Radio Shack, whos keys tended to repeat, and
over the Comodore which had a non standard key arangement. It came with a keyboard made into the case. The C2-4P was ROM based with 8 K of Microsoft Basic on 3 chips. It had 4 K of RAM and sockets for an additional 4 K. It would read from and write to a audio cassette player. It would output video to a television but was much clearer outputting to a vidio monitor. It had a sound port which would make audio tones.