The ZX81 is (was) not one of my favourite "machines", I'm afraid! The Spectrum was more, shall we say, tolerable.
You're talking about the one at Bristol? There's another one about to finish (on eBay) where a guy is asking about sending it out to Italy! Still, it takes all sorts, I suppose.
And what about the ZX80 (there are a couple listed at the moment ... that's despite being described as "very rare"). For some weird reason those usually go for daft money. But they were **** then, and they're **** now!
If you fancy a punt you might be better off having a go at the Oric (finishes on Thursday).
I have a ZX81 here (plus a smattering of tapes for the Speccy) that I shall be literally giving away when one of my eBay customers calls to pick up my (well, his now) Einsteins!
Meanwhile, the others haven't sold yet ... why not place a bid?
You may be interested in this short lived venture by mattel, the Aquarius never really took off. For some strange reason, (when I was 13), I was saving up for this machine - but was discontinued before I could waste my money on it.
Are you going to tell us what you went for instead, then, John?
The Mattel Aquarius was a very pretty little machine, though, wasn't it?
Pity about the spec! A case of rushing to get it to market, I expect. And there was a lot going on back then! Apparently, production folded after only three months. It had a Z80A processor, and there had been ambitious plans to expand it using add-ons al la the Electron from that same era (the Golden Age).
It was quite a clever ploy was it not? They hooked you with a cheap(ish) base unit, then reeled you in with the multitude of add-ons, expansion units, books, zillions of tapes (then discs) ... and all the rest!*
The Aquarius had some "interesting" features. Like a plastic overlay that you had to place on the keyboard if you needed the programming commands (what if you lost it?). But it did offer Microsoft BASIC. And we're taking about 1983, remember.
The trouble was that once the BASIC was loaded there was only 1.7 KB left for your program! Not good. But RAM expansions up to 32 K were available (er, better make that planned).
But don't laugh, the thing was priced at only £ 50. And if you had one today, it would certainly "go well" as a Collectors' Item on eBay.
But what about this ... the so-called System Command Console (which was planned, but may never have been shipped) allowed the Aquarius to control up to 255 electric devices! Another example (and there are many others littering the corridors of computer history) of "what might have been"!
* And it still goes on today. Like my BBC Micro's with built-in hard-drives, external Winchester drives, Compact Flash "drives", sideways RAM boards and all the rest. Some of that stuff wasn't even conceived back in 1983. Talk about an "after market" ... my Goodness!
Nice information Geoff, like you say, the concept was good and they were sold via Grattan (yes the catalogue people) I was going to buy it and pay back in installments.
Believe it or not after that, one day my dad came home from work one day and presented me with a Sinclar QL . This was a bolt out of the blue, seeing as he saw computers as a waste of time. I do not even know how he came across it. However in my bedroom I would tinker on this machine. Am I right in thinking this must of been one of the first pc's to utilise the Motarola 68008 processor?
Like Linus Torvalds, I learnt to program a fair bit on the QL, however I did not go on to develop Linux.
Yes, I believe that the QL was the only one that used the 68008. But that was a stripped down version of the 68000, of course, which was used in such well known machines as the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, the Apple Lisa and then the Mac.
You might not be aware, however, that the QL (and with it, of course, the 68008) formed the guts of BT's "Tonto" PABX system. Not many people know that (but, there again, why would they want to)!
But everyone must know that QL stood for "Quantum Leap"! Otherwise it would have been called the ZX83 (and I'm guessing that the Spectrum would have been the ZX82).
About Linus. I reckon that its something about Finland. After all, what else would there be to do during those long dark nights, except crank out genius code? That, and the excellence of their university. See here for a further example (OK, it's Norway ... but never mind, it's still an interesting story)!
Got a ZX80 and a Spectrum in a box somewhere I think. Computers aren't my scene though, now a nice Classic Comms Receiver that's another story, Eddystone, Racal, Collins, Hammerlund etc.
Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill. Bullsh*t and brilliance only come with age and experience.
Hello again, Mate ... you forgot to mention the tractor!
Originally Posted By: Geoff Hannis
Believe it or not, this was the most successful British computer ever made (in terms of numbers sold, that is).
... it also tends to see the greatest activity on eBay (oh, the Magic of the Marketplace)!
To be honest, computers are only (or have become) my scene because "they" won't let me refurb medical equipment!
But, as you know, I enjoy lifting the lid on all manner of kit ... but old computers, especially. They're like boxes of chocolates, you never know what you're going to find!
"Classic Comms Receivers" may be all very well, Dicky, but as a rule you can't program them, can you? Surely that's the beauty of computers; there's both the hardware and the software to play with. Not forgetting, of course, the firmware (which is especially the case with the BBC Micro).
Myself, I've got rid of all my Commodore stuff, plus the Dragons, Einsteins and Electrons ... but still have plenty of BBC Micro's, Masters and related items to play with (and some to trade).
At the moment I'm interested in ROM/RAM boards, any or all ROMs, and "interesting" peripherals for the BBC Micro and Master. Those, plus 3.5" disk drives (for the same good old machines).
