Hi geeks,
Just found the site and thought I'd sign up. I have just found some of my old kit while up at Mum's. I found my old Acorn Atom, which is what I learned my hacking skills on (failing my O-levels and not doing homework while writing compilers and interrupt driven task switchers in the early 80s).
I haven't tried booting the Atom yet (not been powered up for 20 years). I also have a BBC master that doesn't boot, an Apple ][ with double disk drives and monitor, and a late '70s HP 85 computer with inbuilt screen and printer and a load of ROMS, like PASCAL and BASIC.
I think I also have a copy of 'Splitting the Atom', the advanced atom manual kicking around. I have seen it in the last couple of years. It had hex dumps of the ROMS and details of all the OS calls. Would anybody be interested in this if I scanned it in? Is that legal?
For newer stuff, I have an Apple Colour Classic (Rare, and ex Apple UK) and an HP C180. I used to have loads of Sun Sparcs and a few DEC Alphas but they went in the skip a few years ago. (I also have tons on Solaris 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8 manuals which I'm burning for fuel at the moment - if anyone wants them shout quick before they turn into hot water and ash)
I found the site while searching for an Atom colour card. I found a thread about someone building some. I might be interested if the Atom boots. I could only dream of a colour card when I was 14.
Also, does anyone know about the copyright and availability of Atom ROMS? There were various available. Watford Electronics made one I think, and I'd love Atom FORTH and LISP. Are they out of copyright, and can anyone on the forum burn them? I'd also like a 6522.
There's also someone on ebay selling flash disks for Atoms. Anyone tried them? Is it someone on here selling them?
Anyway, yes, Atoms. Everyone needs as hobby....