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Welcome to old-computers.com, the most popular website for old computers.
Have a trip down memory lane re-discovering your old computer, console or software you used to have.
There are actually 1253 systems in the museum.
SHOW ME A RANDOM SYSTEM !
 LATEST ADDITIONS
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 TERAK CORPORATION 8510 Data Processor
The Terak 8510 is a complete stand-alone micro-computer based on DEC's LSI-11 chipset (16-bit !), in other words, it si a PDP-11 compatible. It was one of the first high-end microcomputers and among the first desktop personal computers to offer a bitmap graphics display.
It was capable of running a stripped version of UNIX version 6. It was the first personal machine on which the UCSD p-System was widely used. Various universities in the USA used it in the late 1970s through mid-1980s to teac...
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 TOSHIBA Visicom 100
This beautiful but obscure Japanese system was released in january 1978. It's basically a clone of the RCA Studio gaming system, one of the first videogame console of all time (released in january 1977).
Made by Toshiba, this beauty was also based on the RCA 1802 micro-processor, and its video counterpart, the CDP 1861. However the main difference with the Studio II is that the Visicom 100 offers colour display thanks additional hardware.
Another nice difference, is that unlike the Studio ...
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 BIT CORPORATION Dina 2-in1 / Bit 7200 / Chuang Zao Zhe 50
The Dina, also known in Taiwan as the Chuang Zao Zhe 50, is a video game console originally manufactured by Bit Corporation, later sold in the United States by Telegames as the Telegames Personal Arcade.It is a clone of both the ColecoVision and Sega SG-1000 consoles, with one cartridge slot for each platform, and came bundled with the game Meteoric Shower, which was built into the system. Telegames never advertised its compatibility with the SG-1000.
The Dina's controllers are modeled after ...
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 OHIO SCIENTIFIC Challenger
In 1977 computing industry is changing fast. Ohio Scientific Instruments who were making a lot of expansion boards for their 400 single-board computer, called "Superboard", realize that it would be nice to sell all this hardware, all assembled, in a single case, ready to plug and use.
That's what is a Challenger computer, more a concept than a single system. Indeed under the name Challenger came different configurations based around the Superboard system:
- Challenger 65-1k: 6502A CPU, ser...
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 WANG LABORATORIES Wang 2200
The Wang 2200 appeared in May 1973, and was Wang Laboratories' first minicomputer that could perform data processing in a common computer language: BASIC. It had a cathode ray tube (CRT) built-in its case and also an integrated computer-controlled cassette tape storage unit. 65,000 systems were shipped in its lifetime and it found wide use in small and medium-size businesses worldwide.
There has been quite several diffent models of the 2200:
- 2200A : first models released in 1973
- 2200B :...
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 MATTEL ELECTRONICS Keyboard Component
Sometime before the failed Aquarius home computer scheme was hatched by Mattel, the Intellivision team had attempted to expand Intellivision into the growing home computer market by turning it into a full fledged computer dubbed as the "Intellivision Keyboard Component", much in the same way Coleco was soon to do with their Adam computer.
The unit featured a built-in cassette tape drive for loading and saving data. The Keyboard Component would plug into the cartridge slot on the Intellivision...
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 RCA Fred 2
This Fred 2 computer is a prototype designed by Joseph Weisbecker, engineer at RCA. He already imagined several early computer designs before this Fred 2 model, such as the System 00 or the original Fred concept.
Fred is rather a concept imagined by Joseph Weisbecker for educational computer able to play games. This concept emerged in several hardware versions through time. The first models could be dates as early as 1970 or 1971 !
Unlike the System 00 which used only small-scale digital T...
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 BANDAI TV Jack 5000
The TV Jack 5000 from Bandai released in 1978 is one of the first cartridge based system from Japan.
It's the equivalent of european and american systems like the Hanimex SD-050, Acetronic Color TV Game, Prinztronic Micro 5500, SHG Blackpoint, Binatone Cablestar, Radofin telesports, etc. There have been tons of systems like these.
The TV Jack 5000, like all these systems, use cartridges based on General Instruments chipsets which offers different games on each chip. That's why all these sy...
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 OLIVETTI A5
Olivetti introduced a mainframe about 1960 which was called ELEA, then in 1965 the Programma 101 - which was probably the world's first real desktop computer. Then a little later they introduced the Audiotronic range of "office computers". The first was the A770, which was replaced by the A7. The A5 was the desktop version.
The Olivetti Audit 5 or A5 was largely an electro mechanical computer. It printed via a golf ball typewritter mechanism at the astonishing speed of 16 character per second...
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RANDOM SYSTEMS
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 MICROCOMPUTER ASSOCIATES INC. Jolt
On December 1975, the coveted inside-front-cover of Byte magazine contained a two-page advertisement for "the world's lowest cost computer system". This was perhaps the first non-MOS Technology 6502 based computer system to come to market, behind only the TIM and possibly KIM-1. The computer was named Jolt, and it was marketed by Microcomputer Associates Inc. as both a kit for $249, or fully assembled and tested for $348 (Dec. 197...
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 VIDEO TECHNOLOGY LASER 310
The Laser 310 is an improved version of the Laser 200/210. Both computers are compatible with each other, for both software and hardware.
Basically, it has an enhanced keyboard and more memory.
This model was also sold worldwide, the most popular version being the VZ-300 from Dick Smith Electronics....
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 GEMINI GALAXY
The Gemini Galaxy range of computers were of "all British" origin, being manufactured by Gemini Microcomputers Ltd., Amersham, Bucks.
Also called the 'Multiboard Microsystem', the Galaxy systems were built around the 80-BUS, specifically designed for the Z80 microprocessor. They had two Z80A processors, one acting as the CPU and the other running the 'programmable' video card (Called the IVC).
The video card memory was composed of: 2 KB Monitor ROM (SIMON), 2KB User workspace RAM (it was ...
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 ORIC NOVA 64
The NOVA 64 seems to be a legal copy of the Oric Atmos for the Yugoslavian market.
Here is what the Oric FAQ by Jim Groom says :
"A Yugoslavian company (believed to be Avtotehna, based in Ljubljana) obtained a licence to make 5000 machines. Machines were made, but whether they were under license or not is not known in any detail. It is thought that they assembled parts shipped from the UK. I have a contact in Yugoslavia who says there were several in his village and about 30 in a schoo...
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 ONTEL OP-1
About Ontel OP-1 systems and Ontel company, Bob Hanrahan sent us this testimony:
Memories of Ontel, Woodbury NY
I worked for Ontel Corporation from 1979 to 1982, designing various controller boards for their line of 8008/8080/8085 based computer terminals.
The OP-1 computer family included their high end 64K DRAM system called the OP-1/64. The OP-1/64 had a 10 card backplane (similar to VME) allowing it to be configured as a terminal, wo...
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 LEANORD SIL'Z Model 5 / 6
SIL'Z systems from the same company seem to be an evolution of the Silex. SIL'Z systems had some success, particularly in french administrations and schools.
According to somone who worked at the plant (Haubourdin city in France) the Sil''z was an Apple 2 machine with some enhancements (graphics) in a hard case (aluminium), and with a better power supply, built in video CRT and strong keyboard. It was possible to connect 8" and 5.25" drives.
The floppy d...
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 TIMEX COMPUTERS TC-2048
In fact, two different systems were called Timex 2048.
The first, called TS-2048 (for Timex-Sinclair) was designed by Timex USA but never passed the prototype stage. It was a 16K version of the TS-2068 with the same silver case but reduced features, a Kempston joystick interface and additional video modes. At the time when it was ready to be launched, the market had moved to 48K and 64K systems, and there was no future for a new 16K machine....
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 ENTEX Gameroom Tele-Pong
Very interesting and early pong system but sadly nearly nothing is known about it.
It might be an analogic pong, using no dedicated chipset. The back of the manual says "Semi-conductors: 8 ICs, 26 transistors".
The controllers are weird : two knobs for each player, integrated into the plastic case. One for vertical movements and the other for horizontal movements. Two other knobs at the top of the case are used to set V-Hold and H-Hold values of the display. Another control (dial or push b...
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 DURANGO F85
The Durango was built by Durango Systems, Inc in San Jose, CA. It came with a 8085 processor running at 5 MHz, 64K memory as standard and could be expanded to 128K in the multiuser version.
The F-85 was marketed as a portable computer with integrated 180 cps dot matrix printer, two floppy disc drives and a 9" monitor. Well, only very strong users could carry it ;-)
The Durango ran a proprietary operating system, DX-85, as well as CPM. DX-85 had multiuser extensions an...
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 THOMSON MICROMEGA 32
The Micromega was built by Thomson (in France) and System Fortune Corp in Great Britain (see this entry for more info).
Two other floppy drives can be connected and four hard disks (5, 10, or 20 MB).
It can be used on a network with several users: 3 computers can be linked by one rs232 port.
It ran under UNIX and an optional Z80 card was available, so it also could run under CP/M.
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Grosminet (France) recalls:
I ...
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LATEST COMMENTS
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REGNECENTRALEN RC 700 Piccolo
nice memories.
Had even a 10MB winchester HD.
And what about a daiswheel printer with a near 99dB noise level.
But when the keyboard failed it was 2 months of tracking down the failing 10kB buffer memory :-(. With just a 10Mb osciloscoop
Gave it away to some east-europeans. Never new if it was, as promised, for education or for all the gold used in these eary computer PCB''s.
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DATAVUE Spark
To Harie Elkiess: I''ve sold one for 15€ without a power supply. Still have another to sell, hope to get a bit more.
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APPLE MACINTOSH Plus
I am looking for someone that can convert a power point version 1 to something readable?
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APPLE MACINTOSH Plus
I am looking for someone that can convert a power point version 1 to something readable?
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APPLE MACINTOSH Plus
I am looking for someone that can convert a power point version 1 to something readable?
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FORTUNE 32:16
I worked for Western Digital (WD), the company that supplied the disk controller for the on the Fortune 32:16. I designed the parallel section and firmware for the hard disk controller. Fortune’s controller was based on the WD’s WD1001 ECC disc controller that was intended for Seagate ST506 drives. It was based on five 20-pin WD-designed gate arrays and the Signetics 8X305 processor.
The 8X305 was a special beast. It could execute instructions 3x faster than the Fortune 32:16’s native 68000 processor. But the 8X305 only had EIGHT instructions. Its speed allowed me to read 5Mbits/sec parallelized data off the disc and make real time decisions on that data. It also allowed me to implement the WD1001’s eight virtual host-facing registers in software.
Since the Fortune 32:16 was all about performance, the disk controller needed to implement DMA. DMA controllers of the era typically handled only 8 bit data and 16 bit addressing. The 32:16 bus had 16 bit data and 24 bit addressing.
I came up with a DMA solution that required no LSI devices nor counters. I had the 8X305 run the 24 bit counters and 8-to-16 bit bus conversion in software. The 8X300 would send addresses and data to simple, cheap octal latches.
The Fortune engineers did not like this software solution because they perceived it as slow. Yet, in their own DMA specification, they required devices to not hog bus bandwidth.
I demonstrated that the 8×305 software solution met both Fortune’s performance and non-bus hogging goals. The software loop required to update 16 bits of data, update the least significant byte of the address, maintain a word counter, initiate the DMA state machine, and wait for completion was only 8 8X305 instructions or 2 microseconds (us). The required 256 16-bit word DMA transfer could happen in just 512 uS. The sector time of the disk drive was about 1000 us. So my software DMA could deliver data to/from memory at full disc speed.
(DMA transfers that crossed 8 bit and 16 bit boundaries took 2.75 us and 3.25 us, respectively.)
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RANDOM SOFTWARE TITLES
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 game - backgammon
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game - puzzle
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game - shoot them up - vertical scrolling
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game - shoot them up - vector graphics
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application -
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game - duel - space
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game - commercial simulation - space
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game - car - rally
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game - helicopter
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game - beat 'em up
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game - helicopter
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game - maze - puzzle
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game - isometric 3d - platform
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game - shoot them up - vector graphics
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game - 3d (real) - shoot them up - space - vector graphics
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RANDOM ADVERTS
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