The Antique Computer Page

Perhaps the most recent form of collecting, antique computers are rapidly becoming the coolest thing with which to fill up your basement. With computers, however, the term antique is relative. Home computing, my main interest, has only been around for about 20 years. In that short time, we have come from the lowly Apple II to whatever comes NeXT.

The Hardware

two or three Commodore Vic 20's with cassettes and some cartridges.
two or three Commodore 64's with one 1701 color monitor and several 1541 drives. Lots of software including Talking Sam and Mission Impossible. Mission Impossible is a really fun game, very complicated when you consider the RAM it runs on. It also has a great scream when you miss and the hero falls into the pit. That scream is used in Duke Nukem 3D in the Abyss section. One of these 64's is shown in the New York Times Magazine dated September 28, 1997. I shipped it down with one of my CoCo's after being contacted by the photographer who discovered this humble page on the web. The photo is on page 98 and the credits are on page 105. Well, have YOU ever had your name in the New York Times?????
one Commodore 128 with two 1802A color monitors and a 1571 drive. Software includes the Pocket Series (Writer (wp), Planner(db) and Filer(ss)) a very nifty set of programs by, I think, a Canadian company. You can still order copies from them.
an Atari XE with a ton of games, notably Linking Logic and Dance Fantasy which my kids love. Also a decent Flight Simulator. The Atari models are very big in some corners of the world and it is fun, for me at least, to tour the various and sundry pages dedicated to the Atari. What a totally different world of computers we would be in if Atari and Commodore had been able to do the marketing job that Apple did, or any of the IBM makers. For years, the home market was owned by many makers not by only two. Just as everyone learned to drive in a Valiant or a Dart, most 40ish types learned their computing on a Commodore or an Atari or an Apple. Magazines came with programs you could copy onto tape or disc, copy meaning type by hand. In many cases, if you didn't write your own stuff, this was about all that was available for little cost.
several Colecovision units with add-on adaptors including a gas pedal and steering wheel assembly and lots of games. These may not be computers but they are fun. I have a Cabbage Patch Kids game which is fun, and a Smurf game which is pretty neat. (Strangely enough, our pool filter is also a Coleco. Blue tub, looks like a pressure cooker?)
Three IBM PCjr's. One is a basic unit, the other has an add-on disk drive with extra memory. This aftermarket piece matches the original in size and colour perfectly. I hear IBM only sold 30,000 of these and I am surprised that such a good aftermarket add-on was produced. Need a power supply for the Racore add-on drive.
several XT's including at least two IBM brand name units. One clone has a a video card you have to see to believe. It is actually two boards linked together and sitting in two slots. The unit included a graphic tablet with an electronic pen. There is a program on the harddrive that allows you to do designing on the tablet.
one IBM PC, no hard drive.
a Radio Shack TRS80 Color Computer 1
another TRS80 Model III. This is a standalone unit, monitor, keyboard and dual 5 1/4 floppies all together in one medium size case. This came with all the manuals and software.
a Tandy 128K Color Computer 3
a Tandy 1000
a Tandy 1000HX - 256K RAM and a 720K - 3 1/2 inch floppy. DOS in ROM.
a Tandy 1000EX with a 5 1/4 drive.
a Tandy MC-10 mini computer
two Apple IIPlus(es?)
one Apple II
one complete Apple IIc with an external 3.5 inch floppy and lots of software
An Apple IIe PLATINUM. Complete with two 5 1/4 external drives. The drives are the more modern design with direct connectors to the port on the back of the CPU, not hooked up to a card like the earlier Apples. Interestingly, the motherboard looks positively barren with far fewer chips than any of the other Apples. This model came out in 1987 and has all the enhancements available at that time. I have two small Apple monitors, the high res ones that you see with the IIc usually. They are actually great to work with in spite of their size. (My kids even watched Barney for a weekend at the cottage on one, hooked up to a VCR. The monitor was hooked to the VCR....not the kids.)
2 Franklin Ace 1000's - need info on this and the next. Bigger cases than the Apples but the innards look the same only neater. Both Franklins work perfectly.
something called a Decider, (click the name to see a photo) believe it or not, which is an Apple clone and has a wooden and metal case. It works perfectly.
a Microcom Apple II clone. Looks the same as an Apple but with a numeric keyboard on the right. This particular unit looks like it just came off the production line, immaculate and pristine with a shiny, clean motherboard and keys that look as if they have never been used. There were obviously more Apple clones up here in Canada than there were in the States. Had there been more Stateside, perhaps Apple wouldn't be in the pickle they are now. Hate to say it but all of the clones I have, the Decider, the Microcom, the Franklins and the Laser, all seem to have better workmanship than the Apples I have, IMHO.
a couple of Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computers, the first 16 bit home units. Lots of info on these.
a Laser 128EX/2 which is an Apple IIe/c clone. Works just fine.
a Dynalogic Hyperion portable unit with 256K, two floppies and a 4X5 1/2 inch orange screen. It has a modem and a CGA card inside as well as the usual ports. The case is 10X18X8 1/2 inches. The keyboard slips into a slot underneath the screen. It weighs about ten pounds and is extremely well made, with spring loaded floppy doors and two fashionable circle finger dials for adjusting contrast and brightness. It was made in Canada in 1983 and was similar to a Compaq model. Compaq made the cut but Hyperion didn't.
a Panasonic Executive Partner. Portable 8086-2 model with a gas plasma screen and a full size keyboard, 256K RAM, two 5 1/4 drives, , clock speed of 7.16MHz and could be switched to 4.77MHz.. Includes a thermal printer that sits at the far end of the unit. Screen flips up and is 11" square, very quick response. Weight: 29 lbs.
a Compaq Portable, 8088 based with a 10 meg hard drive and 640K of memory. Works fine, has bank software on it which includes a raft of once-private info on how to deal with customers who want discounts on loans, free service charges etc.
Orange + Two This was formerly the unknown computer but in a November 1983 issue of Compute I discovered what it really was. It has two processors, the Z80 plus a 6502. It has a built-in disk drive controller for two Apple type drives, color graphics, upper and lower case keyboard with numeric keypad with its own return key, the lower case being termed 'true descenders'. It originally sold for $1095 or you could lease it for $59.95 for three years in a closed end deal. This included a disk drive and green monitor. A 10 meg hard half-height Winchester hard drive was $1495.00.

Peripherals (an expanding list.)

lots of printers (dot matrix only) and many monitors, three RGBs at last count.
something called a Z80 card (I think). It allows an Apple to use CP/M programs. It has a Z80B chip on it and an interface you could tow a Buick with, real heavy rubber.
lots of Apple cards and printer interfaces, none of which make any sense to me but if anyone can point me to a list of these, that would help.
games, programs, tapes and floppies in abundance. Some day you will see a list here. (About the same time the U.S. elects a female president.)

Reading Material - Take this link to the new page which lists my collection of computer books and mags.

Take this link to a new page with some tips about computer collecting.

As well as hardware and peripherals, I also collect computer books and magazines. This list will take much longer to compile, obviously, but it may turn out to be the most valuable reference source for other collectors. My favorite piece now is a 1980 Popular Mechanics Special Issue on home computing with an article by Alvin Toffler on the Electronic Cottage, an early description of the wired world, plus reviews and ads on all manner of early home computers most of which had about 8K or ram, believe it or not, and cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Some Comments

Computer collecting is in its infancy, just as computers themselves are. No one knows which will be really 'collectible' but, from my point of view, that's not really the point. Any old computer is worth saving, whether it is so ancient as to be unuseable or just sort of out-of-date. The former will soon disappear completely and the latter should be of use to someone who can't afford anything better. For word processing alone, even the Commodore 128 (on which I started my journey) works extremely well. So save those disks, hold onto all the bits and pieces and find out who wants what you have. Our landfills are full enough without adding these valuable relics to them.

Here are some links to other computer sites. There are lots of collectors and many have very interesting sites, if you're into things like this.

The Computer History Association of California - these guys know their stuff and have an exhaustive list of links. If you need it, they have it. If they don't have it, you don't need it.
The Home Computer Hall of Fame - Home computers listed with some pix and details. He has some of the ones I have. Good layout.
Belgian Microcomputer Museum Lucien is in Belgium and has checked out over 100 pages like mine, made a list and even rated the sites. He has done a lot of work, so check out his pages. (Ask him to give me another star!)
Kevan's Computer Bits - Lots of interesting stuff here.
More to come.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Last Updated on March 14, 1999 by Brian Mahoney