Archaeological Find

[bassvax]

I've just come into possession of an Epson personal computer. I got the ad flyer with it, but I don't have it with me now to tell you the model number. It's an 8086 design. I came about this when I told a friend I was looking for an older pc to learn LINUX. I meant a P133 or the likes. What I got was a pc clone with 640Kb of RAM and an 8-10MHZ processor and I don't remember how small the hard drive is. I don't really know how to access the bios setup (if this possible). Anyway, it works great with the installed software Eight In One contains word processor, spreadsheet and database. MD-DOS 3.30 is installed. Sleuth and Monopoly are installed also. This thing is running games designed in 1983. I see where there were a couple of internet connections through Compuserve and Prodigy and even an AOL disk was included. The command "reindex drive" I believe is a primative version of defrag. Just thought I would mention this dinosaur as I know some of you take kindly to the older pc's. Now...any suggestions as to what to do with it? Do you think it is worth $$ to someone for a collection? Sure I could donate it, but who would want it? Do you folks know of any "antique" web sites? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Jerry

[This message has been edited by bassvax (edited 11-13-2000).]

[Paleo Pete]

The CPU is probably 4.77 MHz I think that's what the PC/XT (8086/8088) was...if it's 8 or 10MHz it has the Turbo board. Still an XT though...
The hard drive is most likely either 10 or 20 MB, usually MFM. Several companies made them, the most common is Seagate. They still have the drive specs posted!
The BIOS is not accessible. Some brands came with a setup floppy (5 1/4") that had limited configuration ability.
Obsolete Computer Museum's Helpdesk (http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/helpline/helpline.html) is a message board devoted to the old dinosaurs. I lurk around there a lot and answer questions.

I have 4 of those machines, all in working order, those and the 286/386/486 machines I have sitting around here are what I learned computer building and repair on. (a number of those are now dead...) If you can get one of those things to work when it comes out of a resale shop dead, you can get just about anything to run...Soon as I can get my van fixed and get back to work, I plan to try and find network cards for the beasts and set up a DOS network.

By the way, they will run any version of DOS you want to put on them, up to 6.22. You can install DOS 6.22 and have scandisk and defrag, etc. DOS 5 had a couple neat games, Gorilla and another, (can't remember the name) both written in Basic. Defrag in DOS on a 20MB drive takes about 45 seconds...scandisk takes maybe 5 minutes.

Memory cards were also made to up the available memory from 640K to a whopping 1 MB! I have found several 2400-9600 baud modems that originally came in them, know where a Zoom external is now real cheap. Think I have a sound card around here that should work too, uses an RCA jack instead of the contemporary 1/8" minijack. They sometimes had monochrome monitors, but all mine have CGA cards. 4 colors. woo hoo!! Also have an original IBM color monitor. One machine is in an original IBM case. I have it set up as a dual floppy machine, no hard drive. All have mouse support, except the dual floppy, can't install the drivers, that requires a hard drive..

Took me some searching, but I have about 25 or 30 games that were designed to run on XT/AT machines. Also have word processors, Norton Utilities, spreadsheets, shell applications, Paint programs, Dot Matrix printers that work with them...about anything you can think of that will work with an XT except the networking hardware. Have the software for it...

Need to know anything else about them? hehe...


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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[will729]

Although it's not as old as yours I just found a 486 (I guess it's a 486) i have that i never knew I had it stills has the promotional sticker on the top that boasts about how great it is with it's 4 MB of RAM, 32 bit 20MHz Intel proccessor, an SVGA card with 512k ram and a 130MB HD!!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

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I AM WILL729 I DON'T NEED A SIG!!!

[This message has been edited by will729 (edited 11-14-2000).]

[Paleo Pete]

will: In its time, that was a state of the art machine, top of the line stuff...Now, lots of folks would laugh if you tried to sell it to them.

Cool thing is, you can still use it, if you have DOS 3.3 or higher and win3.11. Makes a great game machine...And if you know a bit about networking, you can network it and use it as a print server, and even browse the Net on it. IE 4 is still available if you look, in 16 bit form for win3.11. RAM is still available too, pump it up to 16MB or more, it would run great, but still wouldn't run win 95, you'd need at least a 33MHz CPU for that.

Games? Quake, maybe, Doom definitely, Duke Nukem, Heretic, Mech Warrior, Druid, Hexen and lots of others, all DOS based, and the 486 handles them pretty well. Get a 66MHz CPU and it will handle tons of older games, made when you didn't have to have 3D graphics and a zillion megabytes of RAM just to boot the thing...

OK, I'll shut up... http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)