ZX81 T-shirts!
Ready prompt T-shirts!
ZX Spectrum T-shirts!
Arcade cherry T-shirts!
Spiral program T-shirts!
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Vectrex ship T-shirts!
Moon Lander T-shirts!
Competition Pro Joystick T-shirts!
Elite spaceship t-shirt T-shirts!
Atari ST bombs T-shirts!
C64 maze generator T-shirts!
Pak Pak Monster T-shirts!
BASIC code T-shirts!
Breakout T-shirts!
Vector ship T-shirts!
Pixel adventure T-shirts!
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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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 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTER SYMBOLICS 3600
This scientific computer had characteristics which were incredible. It had a 170 MB hard disk, when other computers used 10 MB hard disks!
It was designed to make CAD or artificial intelligence applications. It used a graphic interface very similar to the Macintosh one (!) and was sold with a mouse.
Several languages were supplied with the computer: Lisp, C, Fortran and, InterLISP (developed by Xerox).
It used a custom CPU, the 68000 was used to run the keyboard, the mouse and to boot ...
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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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 KAYPRO Kaypro IV
The Kaypro IV (aka IV'83 later) is not to be confused with the Kaypro 4 (aka 4'84) released one year later. I know, Kaypro model names are REALLY confusing...
The Kaypro IV is basically a Kaypro II with DS/DD full-height floppy drives.
Wordstar started being included in addition to the Perfect Software suite....
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 GRANDSTAND T.V. Game Model 3000
The Grandstand T.V. Game 3000 is a classic pong system sold in U.K. It can be also found under different other brands worldwide. It's in fact the same model as the T.V. Game Model 2000 but with a colour display (Model 3000 is in black & white).
The system itself seems to have been made in Korea. The electronic board is labeled "F'GAMATIC-7600". Indeed many Gamatic 7600 systems identical to this one can be found worldwide, the earliest one being a japanes...
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 BINATONE Colour TV Game MK 6 (model n° 01 / 4761)
This pong is one of the many Binatone systems. As its name indicates, it offers 6 games : 4 pong games (squash, squash practice, football, tennis) and 2 shooting games (target, shooting).
In order to understand how this system fits into the Binatone pong range, here is simplified list of the systems :
TV Master MK IV
TV Master 4 plus 2
TV Master MK 6
TV Master MK 8
TV Master MK 10
Colour TV Game
Colour TV Game 4 plus 2
Colour TV Game MK 6
Colour TV Game MK 10
The Colour TV Ga...
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 NINTENDO Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo's follow up to the NES arrived in 1990. Bundled with the classic Super Mario World the console proved to be very popular, but never had the same level of success in the States as the NES did. In fact, the SNES could only manage second place in the 16 bit era until the Genesis was discontinued. A similar situation occurred in Europe, where the SNES was competing with the Mega Dr...
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 MATRA MAX 90
Like the MAX 20, the MAX 90 was derived from the AX 25, a computer designed by Axel, a small and innovative French company.
It was an almost PC-compatible system including some rare features at that time: 8 MHz 8088 processor, high resolution capability, and especially one or two 5.25" floppy disk drives of 2.7 MB capacity each. To our knowledge, it's the highest capacity ever seen for a 5.25" floppy drive unit.
A few thousa...
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 FORTUNE 32:16
When the 32:16 was launched, Fortune Systems Corp. advertised that it was the first integrated Unix-based system for $5000. Actually, the cheaper version was a single floppy disc, single user system that was never sold. A practical small business multiuser configuation, called System 10, and including a 10 MB hard disk and 512 KB of RAM costed about $9000.
The system could support up to 4 four-port serial terminal controllers and several other peripheral controllers: storage modules, Paralle...
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 SHARP AX 286
Very little information about this japanese computer. It is a PC compatible laptop.
It has no floppy disk drive built-in but a 20 MB hard disk inside.
It was also called MZ 8376 (Perhaps it is the last member of the MZ series ?)....
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 MATRA HACHETTE ALICE
As the Sinclair ZX-81, the Alice was clearly marketed as an initiation machine.
In 1981, Matra signed a deal with Tandy/RadioShack to develop a MC-10 clone for 1983 : the Alice. Matra then worked with Hachette (both were owned by the Lagardčre group) to produce the documentation and to organize the distribution. Last but not least, the well known and excellent french illustrator Moebius drew a beautiful illustration for the doc...
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LATEST COMMENTS
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ACORN COMPUTER ABC 310
I recently had the opportunity to collect and own and large collection of BBC equipment which included a number of 2nd processors including a working 80286 Issue 0 board also a 30Mb acorn hard drive unit full of master 512 type files and applications
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ACORN COMPUTER ABC 310
I recently had the opportunity to collect and own and large collection of BBC equipment which included a number of 2nd processors including a working 80286 Issue 0 board also a 30Mb acorn hard drive unit full of master 512 type files and applications
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ACORN COMPUTER ABC 310
I recently had the opportunity to collect and own and large collection of BBC equipment which included a number of 2nd processors including a working 80286 Issue 0 board also a 30Mb acorn hard drive unit full of master 512 type files and applications
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ABS COMPUTER ORB
"...it was one of the first, if not the first, multi-user user microprocessor systems".
I had an Alpha Micro AM-100 in my living room in 1978. A multi-user system, it was based on the WD16 microprocessor chipset from Western Digital (clone of a PDP-11, IIRC).
But ... wow, I''d love to have an Orb!
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DATAPOINT CORPORATION Datapoint 2200
My dad worked as technician for Datapoint in Germany from 1980 until 1998. He died in 2004. Last winter when I visited my mum I ve found an old 2200 (16k version), 6600 and 6640 in their basement. My plan is to "refurbish" them... Is anybody here who can give me technical advise if I have any questions? That would be great! $)
(in return, i would provide nice photos of the computer''s inner workings)
You can mail contact me by mail: effes@freenet.de
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NCR Decision Mate V
In the early 1980’s, I was an administrator at SOITA at Miami University in Ohio. SOITA was a non-profit, technology service agency to 200 school districts in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. We started offering computer hardware and software discount purchasing to our member schools. We sold an average of about 3 million dollars worth of computer hardware (mostly Apple) annually in the 1980s. NCR, headquartered in Dayton, wanted to explore the school computer market. They contacted us and donated 10 Decision Mate 5 units so we could try them out. They also donated several machines to schools around Dayton. I remember doing a few activities on the machine (I took one home) but found it difficult to operate for someone that had no computer background. In the meantime, we purchased several Apple IIe’s and were able to utilize inexpensive but high quality educational software from the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) and AppleWorks. All of this software was on 5.25 floppy disks. AppleWorks was an easy to learn utility program that gave us word processing, database and spread sheet capabilities. So the easy to use Apple IIe became the machine of choice for our schools driven by high quality and easy to use software. MECC was also a non-profit like SOITA and gave SOITA generous duplication rights to their educational software under a licensing agreement. SOITA duplicated $ distributed tens of thousands of MECC 5.25 disks to our member schools. MECC developed new educational programs every year that kept their products (like Oregon Trail and Number Munchers) very popular. Unfortunately for NCR, they were late to the school computer marketplace. There was no easy way to use high quality educational software for their DM 5. Eventually for schools, NCR ran into the classic situation for their DM 5 “they couldn’t give them away.†IBM, Commodore, Radio Shack and Atari had small footprints in the educational computing marketplace at this time. Their platforms were mostly easy to use and some software did exist (some through MECC). Eventually, after a decade, IBM $ Microsoft became strong rivals to Apple (and the Macintosh Computer) in the school market. MECC dissolved as a state supported non-profit and became a private company. NCR ceased to show interest in the educational marketplace after this failed experience. Their manufacturing and headquarters in Dayton eventually shut down with the HQ moving to Atlanta. SOITA eventually was no longer able to sell discounted hardware or software through group purchasing (Apple and MECC eliminated their volume purchasing structures) and concentrated their activities on teacher training.
I was disappointed after reviewing Steve Jobs’s autobiography that he did not give much (if any) credit to the educational community for the early success of Apple. Once children started learning computer skills on an Apple II or Mac computer at school, they took that knowledge home and drove home purchases to Apple. I am guessing our early computer experiences in Ohio were similar to others throughout the country. So, in my opinion, the education marketplace was primarily responsible for Apple’s success. The software drove the hardware purchasing. This story could have been rewritten for any computer platform (including NCR) had high quality, easy to use software been available.
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NCR Decision Mate V
In the early 1980’s, I was an administrator at SOITA at Miami University in Ohio. SOITA was a non-profit, technology service agency to 200 school districts in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. We started offering computer hardware and software discount purchasing to our member schools. We sold an average of about 3 million dollars worth of computer hardware (mostly Apple) annually in the 1980s. NCR, headquartered in Dayton, wanted to explore the school computer market. They contacted us and donated 10 Decision Mate 5 units so we could try them out. They also donated several machines to schools around Dayton. I remember doing a few activities on the machine (I took one home) but found it difficult to operate for someone that had no computer background. In the meantime, we purchased several Apple IIe’s and were able to utilize inexpensive but high quality educational software from the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) and AppleWorks. All of this software was on 5.25 floppy disks. AppleWorks was an easy to learn utility program that gave us word processing, database and spread sheet capabilities. So the easy to use Apple IIe became the machine of choice for our schools driven by high quality and easy to use software. MECC was also a non-profit like SOITA and gave SOITA generous duplication rights to their educational software under a licensing agreement. SOITA duplicated $ distributed tens of thousands of MECC 5.25 disks to our member schools. MECC developed new educational programs every year that kept their products (like Oregon Trail and Number Munchers) very popular. Unfortunately for NCR, they were late to the school computer marketplace. There was no easy way to use high quality educational software for their DM 5. Eventually for schools, NCR ran into the classic situation for their DM 5 “they couldn’t give them away.†IBM, Commodore, Radio Shack and Atari had small footprints in the educational computing marketplace at this time. Their platforms were mostly easy to use and some software did exist (some through MECC). Eventually, after a decade, IBM $ Microsoft became strong rivals to Apple (and the Macintosh Computer) in the school market. MECC dissolved as a state supported non-profit and became a private company. NCR ceased to show interest in the educational marketplace after this failed experience. Their manufacturing and headquarters in Dayton eventually shut down with the HQ moving to Atlanta. SOITA eventually was no longer able to sell discounted hardware or software through group purchasing (Apple and MECC eliminated their volume purchasing structures) and concentrated their activities on teacher training.
I was disappointed after reviewing Steve Jobs’s autobiography that he did not give much (if any) credit to the educational community for the early success of Apple. Once children started learning computer skills on an Apple II or Mac computer at school, they took that knowledge home and drove home purchases to Apple. I am guessing our early computer experiences in Ohio were similar to others throughout the country. So, in my opinion, the education marketplace was primarily responsible for Apple’s success. The software drove the hardware purchasing. This story could have been rewritten for any computer platform (including NCR) had high quality, easy to use software been available.
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RANDOM SOFTWARE TITLES
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 game - jungle - pitfall - platform
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game - duel - maze - tank
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game - 2d - beat 'em up
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game - first person shooter - world war II
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game - puzzle
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game - maze - shoot them up - tank - vector graphics - war
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game - dogfight - duel - plane
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game - platform
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game - ball and paddle - sport - squash
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game - 2d - beat 'em up
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game - 3d - adventure - haunted - text interface
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game - 3d - 3d (real) - shoot them up - space - vector graphics
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game - plane - shoot them up - shooting gallery
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game - maze
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game -
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RANDOM ADVERTS
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