PCjr Resources and Links

The IBM PCjr was first shipped over 24 years ago and was discontinued in 1985 after becoming a commercial failure. As was standard IBM policy at the time, IBM provided hardware support for another five years after that. Obviously there is no official support anymore; support comes from your like minded vintage computer collectors.

First off, be gentle! These are antiques! I have enough machines where I don't have to worry about destroying anything but I am still ridiculously careful with them.

Here are some useful links:

Mike's PCjr Page Forum ( http://www.brutman.com/forums )

I should have probably provided a web forum to augment these pages years ago, and now I finally have! Traffic is fairly low and I'm hoping that some more PCjr owners come out of the woodwork.

This is intended to be a replacement for 'PCjr Reborn' which served us well, but is getting to be a problem to maintain.

PCjr Reborn ( http://www.micro-zone.com)

Years ago this was the official hang-out for PCjr owners. It's been quiet for a few years, and plagued by a poor web hosting company and script kiddie attacks.

The forum section is still up and running, and is a good reference.

The Vintage Computer Forums (http://vintage-computer.com/vcforum/index.php)

An excellent resource for anybody interested in any vintage computer!

The Vintage Computer and Gaming Marketplace (http://marketplace.vintage-computer.com/)

A new auction site that is the companion for the Vintage Computer Forums. No listing fees, and an audience specifically targetted at vintage computer people!

OldSkool.Org (http://www.oldskool.org/)

This web site has more information about the PCjr, and about the Tandy 1000 which is a close relative of the PCjr. The author is a confessed closet PCjr enthusiast.

Computer Reset (http://www.c-reset.com/)

Computer Reset has been supporting the PCjr and other vintage hardware since at least the late 80's, and you can still purchase PCjr parts from them today. Richard has been great to deal with over the past few years.

Palmzip.sys (http://leute.server.de/peichl/palmzipe.htm)

This wonderful little device driver lets you use an old parallel port Iomega Zip 100 on your machine with a DOS version as primitive as DOS 2.1. It has very low memory requirements (3KB), works on many different machines, and of course works very well on a PCjr. A demonstration copy is available; a license is very reasonable.

PC Enterprises (http://www.pcenterprises.com/catjr/default.htm) (Historical snapshot via archive.org)

If you needed it for your PCjr, these guys made it! They custom designed SCSI adapters, memory boards, and all sorts of upgrades for the PCjr. They supported the PCjr well into the late 90s. Some of their upgrades are the rarest and most coveted PCjr add-ons ever, including the SCSI cards/sidecars, VGA sidecar, sound sidecars, motherboard modifications, etc.

IBM Canada PCjr Page (http://www.can.ibm.com/helpware/4860.html) (Historical snapshot via archive.org)

A basic web page showing the history and specifications of the PCjr.

In the previous version of this page I had links to NCSA Telnet (a telnet and FTP program that ran on a PCjr) and TeleGames (a vendor of games for old systems). Sadly, those links are now dead and there are no replacements. Interest in older software and machines is declining.

If you know of a good link for PCjr hardware or software, please email me and I will post it here.

Created in November 2000, Last updated June 30th, 2008
(C)opyright Michael B. Brutman, mbbrutman@yahoo.com

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