{"id":1254,"date":"2010-03-03T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T08:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=1254"},"modified":"2010-03-02T11:50:01","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T19:50:01","slug":"i-want-an-old-computer-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=1254","title":{"rendered":"I Want An Old Computer! Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scope of ancient and antqiue computers was broader than what I owned back in the early 1980s. If you want to relive the past, then you’ll have to explore options other than the Radio Shack and IBM computers I used.
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\nOther popular computers, er, microcomputers<\/em> of the early 1980s included the Commodore, the Apple II, the Macintosh, the Sinclair, and the Kaypro.<\/p>\n

There was also the Compaq, which was essentially a portable (suitcase-sized) IBM PC. It was pretty popular, but because it was a PC I don’t think it has the nostalgia factor of the other systems.<\/p>\n

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Commodore 64<\/p><\/div>\n

I believe the Commodore 64 was the most popular computer system in the 1980s, probably because it was the cheapest. Therefore, you find a lot of C64s on eBay, including many complete systems. All you need is a TV set for the C64’s monitor, and you’re good to go.<\/p>\n

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Apple II+<\/p><\/div>\n

The Apple II was the king of the microcomputers as far as I was concerned. I really, really<\/em> wanted an Apple II, but couldn’t afford it. Well, I could have afforded it, but I was eager to get started and didn’t want to work another 6 months to get such a system.<\/p>\n

I remember dreaming about owning an Apple II, specifically the Apple II Plus.<\/p>\n

Today I could have an Apple II Plus for about $200 on eBay. It was $1200 back in the day, which didn’t include floppy drives or a monitor.<\/p>\n

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Macintosh SE<\/p><\/div>\n

The early Macintosh was a classic. The original system was a slug, of course, with only 128K of RAM and puny 800K floppy drives. The Mac Plus was marginally better. I ended up getting a Mac SE in 1987 or so. I saw plenty of Mac SEs on eBay, ranging from $20 up to $60.<\/p>\n

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Timex-Sinclair T1000<\/p><\/div>\n

The Sinclair was known here in the States as the Timex-Sinclair. It originally sold for $100 and got a lot of people started in computing. I see plenty of those systems on eBay for about $10 each. I never got a Sinclair because the keyboard was a membrane thingy. As someone who types a lot, I couldn’t abide by a membrane keyboard.<\/p>\n

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Kaypro 4<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, you’ve probably never heard of the Kayrpo. It was a local company back in San Diego, where I lived. They manufactured CP\/M computers and made them portable. The Kaypro was really popular for a long time in the early 1980s. I see a Kaypro 4 on eBay for $120, which is a good price.<\/p>\n

Eventually Kaypro started making IBM PC clones, which was their downfall; they couldn’t compete with IBM itself or Compaq. That’s the way things went back then, and why such vintage computers are rare today.<\/p>\n

There’s a nostalgic part of me that would enjoy playing on the systems I “grew up” with, but there’s also a practical part of my brain that realizes how much more fun, useful, and speedy are today’s computers. So if you really, really want an ancient computer, and to live a digital life where 64K of RAM was consider oodles of storage, you’re welcome to try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The scope of ancient and antqiue computers was broader than what I owned back in the early 1980s. If you want to relive the past, then you’ll have to explore options other than the Radio Shack and IBM computers I used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1275,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions\/1275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}