Vintage Computers

[Minerva]

Computers as we know'em today started in the 70s... now, if that's vintage, I'm insulted!

They had computers way back in the day. My father went to college in the 1950s after he got back from the War, and went through his share of punchcards. And the same machine (more or less) was still sitting there when my brother went to college in the 1960s. [huh]


Not a computer in the modern sense, but I just got a pocket arithmometer (looks a lot like this -- not my shop, btw). I need to sit down with the manual and figure it out, but it's a completely analog calculator. Not even a battery.

 

[Flivver]

One of my best friends collects early computers...he finds them at Ham Radio swap Meets.

I don't collect vintage computers, but my two home computers (still in use) date from 1999 and 2000, and my work-supplied laptop was made in 2001. I think using those is about equivalent to driving a '41 Chevy on a daily basis!.

 

[ScionPI2005]

I don't collect vintage computers, but my two home computers (still in use) date from 1999 and 2000, and my work-supplied laptop was made in 2001. I think using those is about equivalent to driving a '41 Chevy on a daily basis!.

That's true! Seems like any new computer is considered obsolete or vintage within three or four years...

 

[Craig Robertson]

This is what I like to call "Trailing Edge Technology"

 

[Warbaby]

When I was living in San Francisco a few years ago I got interested in vintage computers and started collecting them. I thought they had the potential of appreciating in value as geeks aged got hit with the nostalgia bug. Within a couple of years I'd accumulated a garage full, but alas, the anticipated market hadn't happened yet and we had decided to move to Amsterdam so rather than ship or store them, I donated them to a friend who was establishing a computer museum. The only ones I kept were a Commodore 64 outfit because it was my first computer and a lot of my old writing existed only on 5 1/4 floppies, and four NeXT Cubes (which I think are the coolest computers ever built).

I recently acquired a huge lot of Tandy Color Computer gear that belonged to a retired mathematician who was involved with early fractal stuff. The cool thing is that there are hundreds of floppies of his research and hundreds of color prints of his fractal images, all annotated on the backs with the computer data. I didn't really want the stuff, but either I took it or it was going to the dump. I saved it because I think it might be of historical interest to someone. Now I just have to find that someone...

 

[mannySpaghetti]

Now this is vintage!

 

[MPicciotto]

How about video game systems since Pong and some other games were mentioned? At my house we have a Nintendo NES and a Super Nintendo. Next on my agenda is the Atari.

And yes we do have the gun for Duck Hunt.

Matt

 

[vitanola]

If anyone is interested, I know of an IBM System 360 for sale in the Twin Cities, along with a Univac 1004.

I still have a complete DEC PDP-11 put away in the barn.

 

[just_me]

I've got a Nixdorf LK-3000.

When I started working in high tech in 1980, my first job was with Systems Engineering Laboratories (SEL). They made real-time and UNIX super minicomputers. They started in the early 60s and they had one of their original computers in the lobby of the main building.

 

[vitanola]

I learned ALGOL programming on a UNIVAC 1108. This was the Chi Univac, at Case institute, in Cleveland. It was the first commercial timesharing system, using Univac 1004 machines as I/O terminals.

This was back in th late 1970's, when the Chi machine was already quite long in the tooth. I did free-lance work for Sorbus in those days, servicing the surviving vacuum tube IBM unit record systems (mostly 701's) located in northern Ohio.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Not a computer in the modern sense, but I just got a pocket arithmometer (looks a lot like this -- not my shop, btw). I need to sit down with the manual and figure it out, but it's a completely analog calculator. Not even a battery.

Hmm! I remember paying with one of these when I was a kid. I can't recall whose it was or how I'd gotten my hands on it, but I remember sliding the numbers up and down.


Lee

 

[MrNewportCustom]

How about video game systems since Pong and some other games were mentioned? At my house we have a Nintendo NES and a Super Nintendo. Next on my agenda is the Atari.

And yes we do have the gun for Duck Hunt.

Matt

I have a Super Nintendo, too.


Lee

 

[sirnerd]

Built an early "binary computer" in '57 at age 12 but foolishly stored it in a garage in the desert - finally put it out for recycle in the 90's. All I have to show is a photo taken by a news reporter. It used Army/Navy surplus relays (couldn't afford vacuum tubes) for the XOR and AND gate logic and all it could do was add and subtract binary numbers.

Later built an IMSAI 8080 from a kit around 1974; used asm and BasicE. Then worked in C on Pdp 11-70, Perkin Elmer etc.

Now just use slide rules (and when no one is looking, TI and HP graphing calculators).

Thanks for the thread; it does my old heart good to read your posts!

 

[just_me]

Now just use slide rules (and when no one is looking, TI and HP graphing calculators).

I have a friend who has an impressive collection of slide rules. He decides to collect something and then goes crazy buying loads of whatever it is. They're probably packed away somewhere because he lost interest in them when he moved on to the next item of desire (pens, ham radio equipment, computers, guitars, etc.).

 

[Dr Doran]

I believe my brother still has a Vic 20. That is by Commodore. He may still have a TRS-80 from Texas Instruments, too.

 

[Matt Deckard]

I prefer the punch card... takes longer, but this internet thing is just too convenient.

 

[Brinybay]

I use a 1933-vintage Burroughs Portable adding/subtracting machine to do my bills, does that count?

I used to know a guy in the military who said his first MOS (Military Occupational Skill) was a "computer", i.e. his job title was a "computer". He did clerical work that involved accounting of some sort.

Speaking of vintage adding machines, can you shed some light on this old Wales? http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh22/Brinybay/Wales register/

I forgot all about it until I saw your pic. This was taken last February in a barn in my area. They were having a "barn sale" so I stopped in and browsed. I only bought two vintage bottles, one of which I accidently broke trying to clean it. I was going to research the Wales register and maybe go back and get it, but the guy conducting the barn sale was such a jerk that I didn't want to go back.

 

[dhermann1]

Punch cards

Punch cards are pretty cool in their own way. They derive from the old Hollerith cards, developed for the 1880 US Census. So you could almost even call them Steam Punk Technology.
The unique thing about punch cards is that they're the only medium that can be read by both people and computers.
(I suppose that now that we have optical scanning that's not exactly true, but still you have to do a lot of interpreting with optical scanning.)
My first MOS was keypunch operator, the old IBM 024 machine. BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was the summer (1967) when I was stationed at Camp Smith, above Honolulu. Instead of working, I stood at the window all afternoon and watched them bomb Pearl Harbor when they were filming Tora! Tora! Tora!
But I digress.

 

[MEDIUMMYND]

E Mac 1.25ghz which must be old in computer years posting this using an Eee Pc running Linux

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to know a guy in the military who said his first MOS (Military Occupational Skill) was a "computer", i.e. his job title was a "computer". He did clerical work that involved accounting of some sort.

Speaking of vintage adding machines, can you shed some light on this old Wales? http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh22/Brinybay/Wales register/

That looks to be about the same vintage as mine -- maybe late '20s/early '30s. Wales was a competitor to Burroughs and made pretty much the same type of machine for the same market. That particular model was designed for office bookkeeping -- note the platen. You'd roll a looseleaf ledger page into it and print figures directly, eliminating the need for a Bob Cratchit-like clerk to spend hours writing in figures by hand.

There is something very satisfying about using an old adder. The whole business of cranking the handle gives bookkeeping a much more tangible aspect than just pecking away at a calculator.