{"id":514,"date":"2021-08-28T21:08:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T01:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?p=514"},"modified":"2025-01-16T21:18:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T02:18:59","slug":"retro-computers-and-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?p=514","title":{"rendered":"Retro Computers and Status"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Over the years I&#8217;ve purchased quite a few retro computers. I thought maybe if I list them and their associated status, maybe it would encourage me to get off my backside and start fixing them as quite a few of them are in various states of disrepair (or just completely broken).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TRS-80 Model III<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Video completely out of adjustment. Also, internal &#8220;ribbon&#8221; cables are completely junked. Have replacements but never got them to work since video is crap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#2: Video completely out of adjustment. Won&#8217;t power up properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?page_id=573\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?page_id=573\">Apple IIe Platinum<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Works properly, needs RTC installed but otherwise works fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Apple IIe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1, #2, #3: Various states of disrepair, keyboards missing keys, video outputs flaky, etc. Actually no plans to repair at this time since Platinum works<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Apple IIGS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Power supply trashed, changed RIFA caps, still not working<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#2: Works great, has 8 MB, SCSI, lots of stuff but CP\/M board not working<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#3: Recently purchased ROM0 off Facebook group, need to test and possibly update RIFA caps<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Apple IIc<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Irish keyboard, seemed to work okay when tried but video connector needs repair<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?page_id=561\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?page_id=561\">Apple II+<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Forgot about this one, needs to have video connector replaced. Otherwise, need to test and learn more about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Additional testing found that the video cables included with the Viewmaster board were in very poor condition 2022-06-17<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Replaced RIFA in power supply 2022-06-18<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Disk II drives neither work, possibly 74LS125 chip in the drives, suspect they were incorrectly plugged in 2022-06-20; Additional testing on 2022-06-21 found that Titan Accelerator IIe was possibly causing problems with drives, need to retest<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ADTPro works great with the SSC in slot 1 [edit] for Bootstrapping only, cannot get it to operator in DIR or RECEIVE mode with MacBook running Catalina. Switching over to IIe Platinum to see if it behaves differently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TRS-80 CoCo II<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1, #2: Untested, both in very good condition along with several drive controllers<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Multi-expansion unit: 1 works, 1 flaky due to compatibility issues<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TRS-80 CoCo I<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Need more testing, has floppy and multi-expansion, all need more testing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Heathkit H89<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Works, also have external dual floppy (hard sector on all 3 drives)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#2: Pacific Scientific: Needs recap, blew cap when first started, has 2 builtin drives but torn down and now I don&#8217;t remember a damn thing about it<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Heathkit H-8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Boards for H-8 backplane, CPU, etc., to build, need to order parts<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TI-99\/4A<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#All: Lots of these, most of them seem to work. However, very disappointed with design, probably going to sell most of them<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peripheral Expansion Box: Untested, has memory board, 1 floppy, serial board, extra floppy but nothing to install yet<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?page_id=536\">HP 9816<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Sweet unit, also 9131 and 9133. Need repair on one of the 3-1\/2&#8243; drives. Need to copy 9133 hard drive, maybe with MFM emulator board from PDP\/8 projects. Have memory card not yet tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Machine doesn&#8217;t start properly, cycling power quite a few times may result in working fan and, ultimately, machine might show video. 2022-06-11<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Found 5 RIFA safety capacitors on power supply, all showing cracks and signs of impending death. Removed, planning to order soon. 2022-06-11<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Atari 800XL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Basically untested, have a 1050 drive to go with it but power rectifiers were blown. Replaced but haven&#8217;t tested<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Amigas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#1: Amiga 500: Boots but essentially untested as I don&#8217;t have disks, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#2: Amiga 2000: Battery cut out (no apparent damaged), needs reassembly and testing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#3: Amiga 1000: Untested, no video adapter or keyboard\/mouse, extra external floppy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bridgeboards: Have 3 of these, need to test<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>PC-based Stuff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of these systems need testing. Have 2 XT clones, 1 of which worked when stored but didn&#8217;t have good storage at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lots of unassembled CP\/M and other systems, mainly newer projects<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some items I plan to just sell off as I don&#8217;t have much desired to repair (TI-99\/4A stuff particularly).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?page_id=587\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/marstella.net\/?page_id=587\">Amdek COLOR-I Composite Monitor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This monitor came with the Apple IIe Platinum mentioned above. It had gotten buried in a pile of stuff and had been an attraction for a group of mice at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-vivid-green-cyan-color has-text-color\"><strong>Z280RC Z280 Single Board Computer with CP\/M installed on Compact Flash<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few months ago I purchased a Z280RC, a single board computer with compact flash. It includes CP\/M 2.2 already installed and just required a TTL Serial adapter. Since most of my S-100, RC2014, and other Z80, 6502 machines aren&#8217;t working, it&#8217;s good to have one of these (see RetroBrewComputers board inventory) that is fully functional and helps me see what things should look like when they are working properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-vivid-purple-color has-text-color\"><strong>STDBUS &#8211; Started looking into STDBUS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve purchased several boards on eBay but don&#8217;t have sufficient hardware to make a fully operational, bootable system. However, it&#8217;s a very compact system so I hope to get the system booting by the end of 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Commodore 128 &#8211; Unused?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gentleman in Gainesville, FL, had a Craigslist listing for a Commodore 128, in box (serial numbers match unit), described as &#8220;complete&#8221; and &#8220;not used&#8221;. Wife picked it up while traveling (3\/4\/2024) and confirmed that it looked unused. I won&#8217;t have it available for a few more days, need to determine best way to bring it up. Price was hard to beat but owner was happy to sell it as part of estate sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Another Commodore 128 &#8211; Definitely Used<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also have another C128 that seems to work but has poor video output quality. Need to eventually fix this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>IBM 5155<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just picked up an IBM 5155 Portable PC (XT) from an auction (1\/15\/25). Hard to beat the price. Will followup with some photos and details. So far, though, very clean, everything except the original power cable&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the years I&#8217;ve purchased quite a few retro computers. I thought maybe if I list them and their associated status, maybe it would encourage me to get off my backside and start fixing them as quite a few of them are in various states of disrepair (or just completely broken). TRS-80 Model III #1: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-retro-computers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644,"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marstella.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}