Yep, yet another Mike. And another victim of Big Mike's incessant (?brutal?) aggrandizement of the PCjr over vintage-computer.com. ;-o
I started in the late 70s when I bought an unused TRS-80 from a fellow sailor in Japan. The first free Saturday after the purchase, I hoped on a commuter train up to Tokyo, then a subway ride to the Akihabara (electronics) district. Sketchy directions in hand, I found the only TRS-80 dealer in Tokyo, where I bought a 0k expansion lnterface, then wandered around looking for the cheapest RAM to fill the EI.
Somewhat later, I purchased a pair of Aerocomp DSDD floppies, about $1000 shipped from Texas to FPO Seattle. I eventually upgraded to an LNW-80, then, back in the States to, an LNW-80 Model 2.
Then I moved on to a PCjr, which ended up with 2 drives and 640k. I have fond memories of that little machine, but eventually I moved up to an XT clone and then beyond.
Now, it looks like I'm getting an ex-Brutmanworks PCjr* from Hargle, so in the next couple of weeks, I'll be be back in the jr world.
Mike
*actually, nothing special: just a 128k machine that wasn't worth taking west.
YAM!
Re: YAM!
Hi Other Mike ... welcome to our little club.
The TRS-80s were the machines I was looking at in the store window. Literally. And now we hear that Radio Shack is slowly folding in on itself.
I was really trying to test the new mTCP web server, but it just seemed so appropriate to do so by letting a PCjr host its own web site. Most classic machines can't do that, or at least not with the style that the PCjr did it. A lot of the credit goes to having a real hard drive interface; serving from a Zip drive would have worked, but it would have been a bit slower and it probably would have worn holes in the media.
If you are local to Hargle then those machines are just about a steal. I read he's having some problems with the monitors, so I'm a little concerned - I did not knowingly leave him with junk. He's working on it, and there are plenty more unloved PCjr monitors in existence.
Mike
The TRS-80s were the machines I was looking at in the store window. Literally. And now we hear that Radio Shack is slowly folding in on itself.
I was really trying to test the new mTCP web server, but it just seemed so appropriate to do so by letting a PCjr host its own web site. Most classic machines can't do that, or at least not with the style that the PCjr did it. A lot of the credit goes to having a real hard drive interface; serving from a Zip drive would have worked, but it would have been a bit slower and it probably would have worn holes in the media.
If you are local to Hargle then those machines are just about a steal. I read he's having some problems with the monitors, so I'm a little concerned - I did not knowingly leave him with junk. He's working on it, and there are plenty more unloved PCjr monitors in existence.
Mike
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geoffdaddy
- Posts: 132
- Joined: Wed May 15, 2013 5:22 pm
Re: YAM!
Greetings, Other Mike!
PCjr: 10MB RACore 01 hard drive expansion, Hotshot 640kB RAM expander, optical mouse, Xircom PE3, speech sidecar.
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MikeModified
- Posts: 136
- Joined: Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:10 pm
- Location: Portland, OR
Re: YAM!
Thanks, Geoff!
Mike, somehow the emoticons didn't make it into the final, saved draft of my intro. The first part was supposed to be <humor>. Using your jr as the web site server was the final straw in my decision to get a jr. Cool stuff.
Hargle is charging me really close to what you charged him. Shipping shouldn't (hopefully) be killer as I like just down I-5 from you.
Mike
Mike, somehow the emoticons didn't make it into the final, saved draft of my intro. The first part was supposed to be <humor>. Using your jr as the web site server was the final straw in my decision to get a jr. Cool stuff.
Hargle is charging me really close to what you charged him. Shipping shouldn't (hopefully) be killer as I like just down I-5 from you.
Mike
