I’ve been programming, building and designing computer systems professionally since the 70’s. As a hobby I’m a collector of “antique” computer and calculating gear.
I try to collect complete and operational computers, and work really hard to keep them in operational condition. Quite a bit of the gear in this collection is old stuff which I was the original owner or builder of. The focus is on computers that I have had personal experience with during my career, liked, and would still like to play with.
I try to be a “good citizen” in the collector community. If I have spares of something you need, I’ll arrange a trade to help you out. If I have documentation that you need to complete a restoration, I’ll arrange a loan or make copies for you.
Willing to Trade:
I’m always on the lookout for “old cool stuff,” and am very often willing to trade stuff I’ve got for stuff you have that I want more. I have a large collection of unibus and qbus cards and associated documentation. I’m also always on the hunt for that last wacky accessory, part, documentation, maintenance print, book or piece of software to make some item I already have fully operational again. I have enough Sun Sparc gear. Really. I have too many working Sparc 1’s (hint, hint).
Wanted:
Because I spent a lot of time (when I was young and impressionable) hacking on bare 8’s, 11’s running RT-11, RSTS, RSX-11 and V7, 2.xBSD and Vaxen running 4.xBSD, and these were happy times, relatively speaking, this is the current focus of the collection. I’m most interested in collecting documentation, parts and peripherals for my PDP 11/70, a PDP-8/L, and a PDP 11/35. Also desirable are additional PDP-8 or PDP-11 Unibus systems and peripherals.
Most Wanted:
I need HPUX 8 for HP-9000 700 series.
I need a M7239 KE11-F for my PDP 11/40.
I need a M7161 M7162 UDA50 or M7845 M7846 UDA50 for my PDP 11/70.
I need two M7521 DELUA or M7792 M7793 DEUNA.
I need another 16KB Core memory card for the Nova/2 to bring me up to 64KB.
I need paper tape software for the Nova/2 (System Diagnostics, Basic or a Focal-like language would be ideal).
Among the things in my collection:
Digital Equipment Corp stuff:
Dec MicroVAX II, MicroVAX III, MicroVAX 3100, Vax 4000-300, [the Vaxen run NetBSD/VAX, or Ultrix]. I also have an PDP 11/73 [running 2.9BSD]. Most excellent are the PDP 11/70 (Actually a blue Datasystem/570) [I'm trying to restore it to the point I can run 2.11BSD on it], a PDP-8/L (with 4KW and no peripherals), and a PDP 11/35 [for which I need some 2.9BSD compatible storage]. Finally, there’s an Alpha 2100 Server and a 3000/300x [the alphas run Ultrix, OSF/1 and Tru64].
HP 9000 Stuff:
I have three HP-9000 712/60’s four HP-Apollo 735’s, one HP-9000 715/80 and one HP-9000 720/50’s. I run the 712’s headless, which is not normally supported. I’ve got HPUX 10.01, 10.20 and 9.03, and am looking for HPUX 8 for these old workhorses. It’s also possible to run PA-RISC Linux on these.
Sun Microsystems Stuff:
About two dozen Sun Sparc 1 and 1+’s, a Classic, two Sparc 5’s, a Sparc 10, [running Solaris, NetBSD/sparc, SunOS 4.1.x and RedHat/Sparc], Sun 3/80 [running NetBSD/Sun3], a Sun 3/160, a 3/50, some 3/60’s, several Sun 4/110’s. I also have two Solbourne 6/900 series, two 6/600 series and two 6/300 series. [these run OS/MP 4.1C now that I finally have a copy]. Finally i have two Tadpole Sparcbook 3GS’s [running Solaris 2.5 and 2.6]
IBM RS/6000 Stuff:
Three RS/6000 7011-250’s and one RS/6000 7011-220 these microchannel beasties are running AIX 3.2.5, 4.1.2 and 4.3.2.
S-100 and CP/M Stuff:
Imsai 8080, Altair 8800b, Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1, Seattle Computer Products Gazelle, Cromemco Z2D, Cromemco System3, Cromemco System1, Kaypro2, Compupro/Godbout, Xerox 1800. I’m no longer actively collecting this stuff.
Data General Stuff:
DataGeneral Eclipse MV/4000, Data General Nova/2 (for which I’d love to get RDOS compatible storage).
Wacky Stuff:
Sage 68000 [running CP/M-68K], Altos 586T, an AT&T 3B1,
Calculators:
HP-67, HP-45, HP-32S, HP-33S, HP-16C, HP-20S,
x86 PC gear:
a Grid Gridpad, a NCR 3125, a Sharp Actius A100, a Toshiba Libretto 50, a Toshiba T3400CT, a Dell Latitude 433, a Gateway Nomad 4/25, and lots of other x86 PC’s [mostly running Debian Linux, Beowulf or NetBSD].
Most Excellent Wanted:
Of course, it’s obligatory for me to say I’d love to have a PDP-6, Dec-10 or Dec-20, and to also claim my wife will kill me if I get one. My first email address was badob@mit-ai, before DNS, on the MIT AI Dec-10, running ITS. I’m green with envy at Megan Gentry and her KS10. While I’d also love to have a Xerox Alto, Lambda, Symbolics or Xerox D-Machine, I never had personal experience with them so I’m not really the right one to “archive” such a device.
Emphatically Not Wanted:
While I first learned to program on a CDC Cyber/6600 running Kronos, I do not want one. If you ever used one you know why. Also in the not wanted category are any Apple, Commodore, TRS, Tandy, Atari, TI, Timex Sinclair, Coleco, Psion, Compaq, Columbia, Franklin, Sega, Mattel Intellivison, Magnavox Odyssey, Sharp, NEC, Toshiba, IBM, 3do, Sears, Laser or Ohio Scientific.
In Memoriam:
Among the computers I have owned but don’t have any more were:
A Motorola M6800-D1 Development Kit (with 1K of ROM and 256 bytes of memory). A buddy of mine and I designed and built a 4K dynamic ram board for the Motorola M6800-D1 using the notoriously unreliable National Semiconductor 4k by 1 dynamic rams of the day. This was soon followed by a Commodore KIM-1 development kit, and a COSMAC ELF. I also used to have a PDP-8 (straight-8, Serial # 206) and am now sad I don’t anymore. I also used to have an Ohio Scientific C-1p, C-2D and C-3D (which I don’t miss – they were tremendously unreliable), two working Apple Lisas (with both the twiggy and normal floppies) and three working Apple ProFile drives for the Lisas. I traded away an IBM 5110, IBM 5120, and an IBM System/23 (and got the PDP-8/L in exchange).
Disclaimer: Not a complete listing, most of the links are to other collectors’ pages – one day I’ll get around to using the digital camera on my stuff
