December 2018 - vcf-midatlantic

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Museum report - 12/16/18
by Douglas Crawford 04 Jul '20

04 Jul '20

Again? This isn't getting through. On 12/17/2018 12:28 PM, Douglas Crawford wrote: > Great day at the museum. Visitor flow was non stop in the afternoon. > I am grateful for the assistance of Chris and Tony, with their help we > cycled > through the visitors and gave everyone good attention. > Its fun to docent in teams! > > The museum looked sharp and with Tony's help we had most everything > running that is > demo-able.

8 12

WTD: PDP-11 tape drive?
by W2HX 08 Mar '19

08 Mar '19

Hi friends, I am building my first PDP-11. It is a 11/23+ It is a nice set up with 4 RL02's lots of boards, two half-height racks, spares, you name it. I would really like to get a real-to-real 9-track tape drive, the manual loading kind. I see many autoloading types but they just don't have the panache of what I used to use in the 80's and 90's at my places of work. I have been watching on ebay for a while and those few that come up seem expensive. I did locate these (not cheap but cheaper than others). https://www.ebay.com/itm/192745726868 and https://www.ebay.com/itm/264099860161 The first one says "wiltec" but I am guessing that wiltec was just the reseller. It looks very similar (if not identical) to the second one which is listed as a fujitsu M2444AC. For some reason the "wiltec" one is cheaper. It seems to have some nice connectors on the back. The fujitsu is more expensive, has rack mounting hardware (a plus) but no back connectors. It isn't obvious how to connect this to something. Also shipping for some reason, is $100 more. I found a manual to this on bitsavers (thank you to whomever did this). It says it the fujitsu has 3 modes of operation. MODE A: CDC 9218S COMPATIBLE MODE MODE B: CIPHER F880 COMPATIBLE MODE MODE C: PERTEC FSlOOO SERIES COMPATIBLE Can they be made to interface with a PDP-11 Qbus system? Anyone have any opinions on these? I should also ask if anyone has an open-real tape drive they would like to part with (preferably known working) let me know. I am in NY, willing to drive a few hours or pay for shipping. Your thoughts are appreciated. 73 Eugene W2HX

2 8

OT: MAGFest 2019 - This Weekend
by Ethan O'Toole 04 Jan '19

04 Jan '19

While it pales in comparison to the VCF East event MAGFest is coming up this weekend. MAGFest is a 4 day video game music and gaming event in the DC metro area. There is a computer museum room run by friends (and consistent VCF East attendees.) It's mostly plastic micros and early mainstream desktop computers -- so nothing too wild for this audience. They also have some various more rare game consoles in the museum on PVMs. The museum room is around 3000 sqft, and everything is pretty much sit down and play. There is also a 30,000 sqft arcade room (this part of the event is where I'm involved), a 30,000 sqft console gaming room, tabletop and board games, indie game area (10,000sqft+ maybe?) Oh, and stages. A good number of musical acts from nerdcore hip hop to jazz to metal to rock to who knows what. There is also a jam clinic for people who want to bring their musical instrument and I guess improve your improvisational skills, or jam rooms where you can sign up to play with others. And new this year is a demoparty, where people will be working I believe on making new demos. I saw mention of AGA Amiga and C64, and I would assume PC. It's kind of hard to sum up, but some parts run 24x7 (not the museum but the arcade does), and there should be over 15,000 people there. If any VCF'ers are headed there hit me up, I am usually around the arcade but visit the museum and usually catch a concert or two! If there is info for VCF East, I can print some copies out and the museum people would be happy to post them around. Here is a video of the museum in 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r_oKdJ_rCU - Ethan

7 8

Warehouse stuff
by Evan Koblentz 31 Dec '18

31 Dec '18

Is anyone available to work with me in the museum warehouse this Wednesday?

1 0

Museum report
by Tony Bogan 31 Dec '18

31 Dec '18

Quiet day at Infoage today. Sounded like most of the traffic came yesterday. I had a handful of visitors come through with mild interest and a father and son that took the full tour and asked lots of questions. I had the time today to test myself on several machines. In addition to the demo on the UNIVAC, I ran the shorter demo on the HP 1000 (lights moving in one direction) and I also had the Altair running “kill the bit” as well. Once Dave shows me how to demo the PDP I’ll move on to learning some basic stuff on the TRS-80 and PET. I have a simple text welcome program I run on the Apple II sometimes in lieu of the slide show disk we often run and I’ve learned enough about the C64 to run the Sid player or a program or two and I usually run a game or deluxe Paint on the Amiga. With Lisa Guide now set up on the Lisa (thanks Jason!) and the Mac 128 running MacPaint, the NeXT Cube running whatever you like (tons of software on it) plus the AT&T PC booted, the 5150 running its Intro software, the other PC running Windows 3.11 and the Osborne running (I usually load either Microsoft Basic or Hitchhikers Guide) we have the micros pretty well covered. Getting to be that time of year again for me so I’ll be able to docent at the museum more often over the next few months. Tony Sent from my iPhone

1 0

OT: tool chest, table saw FS
by Evan Koblentz 31 Dec '18

31 Dec '18

I'm moving in a few weeks and need to go minimalist. Is anyone interested in a tool chest (red, casters, about waist-height) and/or a table saw? Both of them came from Sears around 10 years ago and do their jobs fine. I no longer need either one, but I do need quick $$$. I * may * be able to deliver these to the museum or anywhere not too far away. Not sure if the toolchest will fit in my car. Possibly if I lay it down. Please reply off-list. Priority goes to whomever can take them soonest. Rather not wait until the Jan. 12-13 workshop.

2 3

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Straight 8
by Chris Fala 31 Dec '18

31 Dec '18

What Tony said. :-) On Dec 28, 2018, at 9:17 AM, Tony Bogan <thebogans(a)mac.com> wrote: > On Dec 28, 2018, at 8:07 AM, David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > In the various report of whats working and whats not I haven't heard > any report on the Staight 8. Has anybody been running it? David, when I’ve been at the museum I have not run it as I am unfamiliar with it. Perhaps if you’re at one of the upcoming workshops you could give me a crash course (pun intended) so I could run a demo for visitors. When Bill Dromgoole was there he both wrote down and walked me through the diagnostic we use to show the machine running. It’s not sexy but for 99% of the people it’s enough blinking lights and whirring to get the “wow it actually works!” Response from them. I also have a video of Bill running the program that I can refer back to. I would never attempt to mess with a machine I am not familiar with, but I should have asked a long time ago for you to show me the basics. I’d love to have yet another machine to demo for visitors. Tony

3 2

Looking for Tandy 2000 board
by Richard Cini 30 Dec '18

30 Dec '18

All – I just finished fixing a T2K that I was given and I’m looking for the mouse/clock board (26-5144) and mouse (26-1197) so that I can get Windows 1 working on it. If anyone has spares or is looking to thin their herd, please let me know. Thanks! Happy New Year to all! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

1 0

Museum report
by Evan Koblentz 30 Dec '18

30 Dec '18

Jeff B. was our docent today. I was at the InfoAge front desk (it was VCF's turn). About 25-30 visitors today with varied levels of interest.

1 0

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Straight 8
by Jeffrey Brace 29 Dec '18

29 Dec '18

Evan knows how to do it and will be including it in his forthcoming docent manual which will also have a video. @David Let us know what to look for as we run it. On Fri, Dec 28, 2018 at 9:17 AM Tony Bogan via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > On Dec 28, 2018, at 8:07 AM, David Gesswein via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > In the various report of whats working and whats not I haven't heard > > any report on the Staight 8. Has anybody been running it? > > David, when I’ve been at the museum I have not run it as I am unfamiliar > with it. Perhaps if you’re at one of the upcoming workshops you could give > me a crash course (pun intended) so I could run a demo for visitors. > > When Bill Dromgoole was there he both wrote down and walked me through the > diagnostic we use to show the machine running. It’s not sexy but for 99% of > the people it’s enough blinking lights and whirring to get the “wow it > actually works!” Response from them. I also have a video of Bill running > the program that I can refer back to. > > I would never attempt to mess with a machine I am not familiar with, but I > should have asked a long time ago for you to show me the basics. I’d love > to have yet another machine to demo for visitors. > > Tony > -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

2 1