I absolutely love how LGR went from “I don’t really know what is it” to his today’s shape, preserving his fantastic voice and passion for old computers.
WordStar was an outstanding word processor back in the day. I still miss the way it let you embed commands and codes in the text to format the document exactly the way you want. If you find a program called "XenoCopy", you can read and write CP/M disks on any IBM PC clone with a 5.25" floppy drive.
Hey LGR - with the work I've been doing on the nabu cloud cp/m, youtube did an excellent job recommending this video. It was neat to see your roots 12 years ago. Computer on the bed, justifying why you have all this "old crap" and "where to put it." Fast forward to today, you have a storage container, and it's your full-time job. 91k views on a 12-year-old video - this is excellent O.G. LGR!
LGR Encounters Local Unassuming Guy Local Unassuming Guy, offers Unassuming Boxes LGR Accepts You Win! Unassuming guy Dropped one of the Earliest Portable Computers ever. LGR took it
@tsskiller08 Thank you! I'm a huge CC fan myself, so when I saw all that Digital Research stuff and then Kildall's signature on that paper, I literally jumped out of my seat! Gary's one of my heroes, may he rest in peace.
A few comments. I was one of the absolute top tier salesmen for the Osborne 1 in Southern California. I sold so many I won two in sales contests. I still have a minty mint, blue/grey case example with modem and external battery options. It still works. When I quit the store the sold these units, interestingly, I worked for a big Apple reseller in LA that sold Kaypros. These were HUGE with Holllywood writers, as I could get them into a Kaypro II and a letter quality printer for cheap.
Roflcopter4b God, I remember when you made this comment. That's what initially got me to look back at even earlier LGR videos and got me hooked way back in the day too!
@@mauryginsberg7720 God, I remember when you made that comment on his comment that made you look back at LGR's older videos and made me look back and get hooked... No, I just saw both your comments right now. Thought I was being funny :P
That was fun to watch. My first computer was a Kaypro. I had some of those disks. I got those magazines. I recognize some of them. I so wish I still had it. It was an awesome machine. Towards the end of the era of CPM, before MS-DOS took over, I had a tee shirt that said "CPM LIVES". Thanks for the memories.
@Holammer The guy who owned this stuff certainly did! There are dozens of disks full of financial and business files made on PerfectCalc and Wordstar and such.
@OldSchoolNYCGamer I'll certainly be doing a follow-up! The Kaypro is up and running, at least mostly. I'll need to do some work on that A: drive. The Osborne I've still had no luck with at all, just endless strings of "BOOT ERROR" on startup, not even sure I have the right boot floppy for it.
@Pozorrogo Yup, the guy was super-nice and gave me a great deal since I drove a ways to get the things. And conversely, I can't wait to review these things myself!
@emceelokey Mostly for managing large amounts of text-based information. Really useful for smaller businesses doing inventory, finances, word processing, databases, even basic online access a couple years later.
@maddmaxstar Yes, I was thankfully able to get both of them working. The O1 still has some issues with disks in Drive B: on ocassion, and I haven't been able to get the 8088 addon for the Kaypro to work. But otherwise, they're working just fine for the majority of situations! I still haven't gotten around to reviewing these, I need to remedy that. I did a review of a game on the Kaypro a while back though: Ladder.
You had so much enthusiasm. I love this video, it reminds of me when I find a 3€ old tower pc with a turbo button. I don't think you've ever shown so much happiness in the later videos. This is the essay of the video: "I have no idea if it works, how to use it, I don't know anything because it looks broken but I'm so happy I cannot wait to try it"
I know it's been a year since you made this video, but I STILL hope you are having a blast with that mega haul. I just got an Osborne with a box of stuff and a green Zenith monochrome monitor from freecycle-- it was all given to me! It's no Kaypro, but still awesome. Great vid!
Seeing videos like this always makes my day. Any vintage computer find is awesome. This though, takes the cake. To have an agreement with Gary Kildall's signature on it is definitely a collector's item. It makes Computer Chronicles fans like me proud. Congrats on the find, it was certainly worth it.
How odd to see this. My first computer was an Amstrad PCW running CP/M Plus and the second was a Kaypro AT. The Kaypro was a fine machine, insanely heavy and looking like it might have been constructed from bits of a WWII tank.
Goodness... or rancid... . lol... I think my CP/M disks are being kicked around the floor of a barn... Those are CD-Trays that went into the first 1x CDROM drives that were slot loading... a standard CD-ROM goes in them. I have dozens of them, I just use them as CD cases now. Lasar Optical media had the lasar media in it which reflected like a rainbow and was non-removable. The Heath/Zenith machine was a computer you built yourself several years before any 8bits ever hit the shelves. I have one that was home built that was just a dumb terminal. Heath made lots of kits for lots of things, ham radio recievers and morse transmitters, metal detectors, all kinds of cool little electronic projects in their own Health project boxes. If you got Heath software, that is probably the super rare stuff of that lot. I'm surprised it actually exists... at all. Maybe later they came out with factory built machines, but by the time VIC's and Atari's and TI/99's hit the shelf, that was all she wrote for HeathKit and ever having to solder your own computer together. Prebuilt computers and the computer revolution destroyed Heathkit. I'd research into that, if Heathkit ever made and sold fully assembled computers. If they didn't, then that Heathkit user group software stuff came from some hardcore ancient guys... I suspect they tried though to sell full machines, as that stuff looks company/factory made/printed.
@drumdreamer92 As far as these machines? Yes, both are running rather nicely. Got all the disks for the Osborne from a fellow collector, and that Kaypro came with more than I'll probably ever use.
This really is completely awesome, you must be over the moon right now. I can't wait to see a review of the Kaypro, this will be a learning experience for me as I know NOTHING about the Kaypro machine, but it sure looks interesting.
When I watch other types of reviews, I now use your show as the standard when judging them. You're genuinely into what you're doing, and extremely informative. I tip my hat to you, sir.
@vwestlife I've been trying to get WordStar to function, seems pretty sweet from what little I see before I get read errors. I'll have to check out XenoCopy, I've been attempting just that with other programs with mixed success. And I think it was you that mentioned something about hard-sectored disks in the previous ulpoad. You were right, there are several boxes of hard sector diskettes in this lot.
@harshbarj Most of the ones I can image are really common, like the versions of CP/M and the Kaypro software suite. The others that I would love to image that aren't so common, like the Heathkit and other unknown programs, I cannot image with my 360K IBM compatible drives. Many of them are in disk formats that simply cannot be read, due to be hard sector disks, among other issues.
Thanks to one of my friends, I got a large haul of Computers, Software, Documentation, etc. from the beginning of the DOS era (with some Apple II stuff thrown in there), including journals like yours and SDKs. Almost none of it has been archived.
My family had a TRS-80 that was portable like these! I think my mom still has it in her closet somewhere. It's so great that you're finding and collecting all this cool old stuff, I wish I had room to! I do still have a Commodore 64 and Amiga 500, but no room to set them up. I'd love to be able to play around with those as well as some Apple and Atari machines from the same era. But alas I'll have to try and stay happy with emulation for the time being.
The "Perfect Manual" was probably made using the "Perfect" software. I know at least in the early days, WordStar used to do that -- they would proudly mention at the beginning of the manual that it was written and printed out using WordStar itself.
@psyjax As of now, I do not. I've been wanting one for quite a while and scour eBay every so often for one. Also for the original Compaq Portable, I love those things.
Recall an article once, in the early 80s, the financing outlook for software was to be approximately three times the cost of hardware. So, overall, those prices are inline with what the 'standard business software cost' would be estimated for accounting purposes. Of course, then came those darn home-computer users... :)
@spleenandpie Heh, I think you missed the point. Yes, it's common to have a classic game ported to other systems, nobody is doubting that. But having an original game for an already rather uncommon 1970's vintage computer such as the Heathkit? That's a rare find.
@asgerms Definitely got into it seriously later, around the end of high school. I grew up using monochrome PCs and Apple IIs and over the years I had older machines since we didn't always have the money to get new stuff. But the late 70's/early 80's more obscure stuff like this? Didn't get into that until the past several years.
These were all-metal units, as you know. The model 2 had the lesser capacity drives as you mentioned, and were a blue and grey case. The 4s, and later the 10s, had that very nice charcoal case which was very professional. The 10 had a hard drive, which worked quite well. We feared getting a bunch in for service for being portable, and it didn't happen. Both computers served the niche market extremely well.
Did you ever get any of this working? I don't see any vids for Kaypro or Osborne on your channel. Helluva deal at $50...really helluva deal even if none of it worked.
+Lazy Game Reviews Do you know if there was a "universal" CP/M boot disk? I have an Eagle 2e and all I know is that it runs CP/M Unfortunately it only came with the system itself and no boot disks. Do you know where I could get one or at least make an image?
Each machine had different hardware, and so they required their own BIOS and BDOS on the disk. And while there was a standard format for the 8" floppy in CP/M, virtually every company's systems used a different 5.25" disk layout. Sector size (128, 256, or even 512 bytes), sectoring type (soft or hard), number of tracks (35 or 40), density (single or double), number of sides (1 or 2)... you have to have the right disk format in order for the system firmware to be able to boot anything. tl;dr: No.
***** Thanks. Since I posted my last comment I found an img for my model of eagle computer and some floppies. Now I just need a disk drive to write it to...
I still have a Kaypro IV in my garage. The only difference between the II and the IV was the latter's double-sided floppies. The Kaypro 10 had a hard disk and was in an entirely different league.
Thanks for your videos! I am also interested in the history of old computers, consoles and pong systems. Hope you get both of the systems to boot up and maybe try out some games/software on them? Computers are such a big part of our history and I am glad that you have time to tell us about these gems. Looking forward to your next video. Greetings from Finland!
About that thing you had that looked like a diskette case for a CD/light media, ever since I found out how 3" floppy diskettes worked I've wondered why they didn't have a similar system for CDs. They did something like that with PSP UMDs but there was still no protective covering over the hole for when it's not in use.
I remember seeing a video or three on these beasts of 'portable computers' this just reminds me of my old DOS machine, just with a teeny little screen shoved in it. Sadly I don't even remember the machine make. Your vids are very awesome though it brings back memories of playing Silpheed, bouncing babies, sokuban, space invaders, tetris etc.
This is great, I just came back from the Huntsville hamfest yesterday, and I pick up a TRS-80 model one with a several sack fulls of tapes and the quick printer 2 and several manuals and several other computer related items, sadly I don't have a video cable for the TRS-80 :(
Can't remember, if it's a K-II or IV I picked-up from a guy in Mass., that was supposedly used to design a radar system for the Royal Navy (or so he claims).. It had been modified with a 10Mhz Z80, and a 256K ram drive (the 256K chips piggy-backed to the 64K's, and the entire case top over the motherboard perforated to batch the side vent holes, for additional cooling.) Only got mine running a few times, then it stopped.. Need to dust it off, and try it again.
I used to have a camcorder that sounds just like yours! Tape sound and all! Way cool you found that stuff on craigslist. I would like to see those computers in action some time.
Wow.... I never seen that much of a score when it comes to this in ages and well worth what you paid for, you got to do a follow up if you get both those beasts up and running!
The Heathkit diskettes and tapes are for Heathkit H8 and/or Heathkit H89. 10 sector (hard sectored diskettes) are for H8 and H89 and won't work in other systems. Very nice collection! Most likely you will find tape with Benton Harbor Basic which was the basic interpreter included with H8 and H89 systems without floppy drive.
Spacewar?!!! That alone is worth the price of the entire haul. I played it in the middle 80's, and never saw it again, until '03. Probably the most satisfying game I've ever played (although Gorilla, Lemmings, and Hydro Thunder are high on my list, too).
It's been 9 years since this video was made (as of July 24th 2019). Time for LGR to make an update video? All of those documents (User Group Publication, Manuals, EULAs, Etc) are something you don't see on the other old hardware reviews.
Super cool finds. These computers were really, really expensive back in the day. Hope you get them to work. I wonder how the world would've looked like if IBM had chosen CP/M instead of MSDOS as their operating system.
WOW Phrekinde, you really hit the archival mother lode on this one. If only you could find a Heathkit machine. The Computer museum in Silicon Valley might have one :D
Hey! Totally get your enthusiasm for these systems, and love geeking out to your videos. Out of curiosity : were you "messin'" with early machines like these back in the days when they were "it", or did you get hooked on "the vibe" of retro-systems much later?
I love haul videos!! AWESOME stuff! Computers with snap-off keyboards are just so cool looking. That little 4 inch monochrome screen. I bet it will make a nice humming noise if it turns on XD And MAN you got a lot of software! Thats so cool, most of this stuff probably hasn't seen the light of day in over 20 years Was this the first time you were looking through these boxes? How much did you pay for all of that stuff, or do we not want to know? lol
I absolutely love how LGR went from “I don’t really know what is it” to his today’s shape, preserving his fantastic voice and passion for old computers.
That's the Grandfather of LGR Thrifts!
WordStar was an outstanding word processor back in the day. I still miss the way it let you embed commands and codes in the text to format the document exactly the way you want. If you find a program called "XenoCopy", you can read and write CP/M disks on any IBM PC clone with a 5.25" floppy drive.
Hey LGR - with the work I've been doing on the nabu cloud cp/m, youtube did an excellent job recommending this video. It was neat to see your roots 12 years ago. Computer on the bed, justifying why you have all this "old crap" and "where to put it." Fast forward to today, you have a storage container, and it's your full-time job. 91k views on a 12-year-old video - this is excellent O.G. LGR!
LGR Encounters Local Unassuming Guy
Local Unassuming Guy, offers Unassuming Boxes
LGR Accepts
You Win!
Unassuming guy Dropped one of the Earliest Portable Computers ever.
LGR took it
@tsskiller08 Thank you! I'm a huge CC fan myself, so when I saw all that Digital Research stuff and then Kildall's signature on that paper, I literally jumped out of my seat! Gary's one of my heroes, may he rest in peace.
@UKRetroGames Hehe, was just messing around with the PIP commands on the Kaypro last night. Very interesting stuff.
A few comments. I was one of the absolute top tier salesmen for the Osborne 1 in Southern California. I sold so many I won two in sales contests. I still have a minty mint, blue/grey case example with modem and external battery options. It still works. When I quit the store the sold these units, interestingly, I worked for a big Apple reseller in LA that sold Kaypros. These were HUGE with Holllywood writers, as I could get them into a Kaypro II and a letter quality printer for cheap.
@Borin81 Awesome, thanks. I'll have to look into it... makes me want to track one down now that I have so much software for the thing.
@tom611 I totally plan on it, I'll be following up on a lot of this stuff in some later videos at some point.
God,l I remember when you released this video. You used to do more system reviews, that's what initially got me hooked way back in the day.
Roflcopter4b
God, I remember when you made this comment. That's what initially got me to look back at even earlier LGR videos and got me hooked way back in the day too!
Me too.
@@mauryginsberg7720 God, I remember when you made that comment on his comment that made you look back at LGR's older videos and made me look back and get hooked... No, I just saw both your comments right now. Thought I was being funny :P
@@KaziQTR God, I remember when you made that comment on that comment on that comment on his comment...
@@SomeDudeInBaltimore God, I remember... Wait, no, I don't. I have a really bad memory.
That was fun to watch. My first computer was a Kaypro. I had some of those disks. I got those magazines. I recognize some of them. I so wish I still had it. It was an awesome machine. Towards the end of the era of CPM, before MS-DOS took over, I had a tee shirt that said "CPM LIVES". Thanks for the memories.
My pleasure; happy to bring on some memories :)
@Holammer The guy who owned this stuff certainly did! There are dozens of disks full of financial and business files made on PerfectCalc and Wordstar and such.
@OldSchoolNYCGamer I'll certainly be doing a follow-up! The Kaypro is up and running, at least mostly. I'll need to do some work on that A: drive. The Osborne I've still had no luck with at all, just endless strings of "BOOT ERROR" on startup, not even sure I have the right boot floppy for it.
@Pozorrogo Yup, the guy was super-nice and gave me a great deal since I drove a ways to get the things.
And conversely, I can't wait to review these things myself!
@emceelokey Mostly for managing large amounts of text-based information. Really useful for smaller businesses doing inventory, finances, word processing, databases, even basic online access a couple years later.
@maddmaxstar Yes, I was thankfully able to get both of them working. The O1 still has some issues with disks in Drive B: on ocassion, and I haven't been able to get the 8088 addon for the Kaypro to work. But otherwise, they're working just fine for the majority of situations!
I still haven't gotten around to reviewing these, I need to remedy that. I did a review of a game on the Kaypro a while back though: Ladder.
You had so much enthusiasm. I love this video, it reminds of me when I find a 3€ old tower pc with a turbo button. I don't think you've ever shown so much happiness in the later videos. This is the essay of the video: "I have no idea if it works, how to use it, I don't know anything because it looks broken but I'm so happy I cannot wait to try it"
I know it's been a year since you made this video, but I STILL hope you are having a blast with that mega haul. I just got an Osborne with a box of stuff and a green Zenith monochrome monitor from freecycle-- it was all given to me! It's no Kaypro, but still awesome. Great vid!
I'm watching all your videos from the beginning, and the subtle whirring of the camera has started to talk to me and is frankly quite comforting.
Watching just 10 years later! And its still such a treasure!
Seeing videos like this always makes my day. Any vintage computer find is awesome. This though, takes the cake. To have an agreement with Gary Kildall's signature on it is definitely a collector's item. It makes Computer Chronicles fans like me proud. Congrats on the find, it was certainly worth it.
@FuyuAkiWorld Someday, yeah. I've planned on it ever since I got them, just haven't gotten around to it.
3:59 OMG That was Everything Weather. That was one of my favorite games as a kid. I would nostalgia sooooo hard if you covered that in the future
How odd to see this. My first computer was an Amstrad PCW running CP/M Plus and the second was a Kaypro AT. The Kaypro was a fine machine, insanely heavy and looking like it might have been constructed from bits of a WWII tank.
Goodness... or rancid... . lol... I think my CP/M disks are being kicked around the floor of a barn...
Those are CD-Trays that went into the first 1x CDROM drives that were slot loading... a standard CD-ROM goes in them. I have dozens of them, I just use them as CD cases now.
Lasar Optical media had the lasar media in it which reflected like a rainbow and was non-removable.
The Heath/Zenith machine was a computer you built yourself several years before any 8bits ever hit the shelves. I have one that was home built that was just a dumb terminal. Heath made lots of kits for lots of things, ham radio recievers and morse transmitters, metal detectors, all kinds of cool little electronic projects in their own Health project boxes.
If you got Heath software, that is probably the super rare stuff of that lot. I'm surprised it actually exists... at all. Maybe later they came out with factory built machines, but by the time VIC's and Atari's and TI/99's hit the shelf, that was all she wrote for HeathKit and ever having to solder your own computer together. Prebuilt computers and the computer revolution destroyed Heathkit.
I'd research into that, if Heathkit ever made and sold fully assembled computers. If they didn't, then that Heathkit user group software stuff came from some hardcore ancient guys... I suspect they tried though to sell full machines, as that stuff looks company/factory made/printed.
@drumdreamer92 As far as these machines? Yes, both are running rather nicely. Got all the disks for the Osborne from a fellow collector, and that Kaypro came with more than I'll probably ever use.
The haul videos are some of my absolute favorites on this channel. How exciting. Look at all those goodies!
@yaponetz A mid-90's JVC S-VHS camcorder.
This really is completely awesome, you must be over the moon right now. I can't wait to see a review of the Kaypro, this will be a learning experience for me as I know NOTHING about the Kaypro machine, but it sure looks interesting.
It'd be awesome to scan the Cornucopia and user group letters to upload them somewhere! So much of that stuff is unfindable now. Very nice haul.
Great. There is so much stuff that most people don't understand or appreciate in computer history. Your videos are priceless. Thanks.
God you hit the mother load on this one o.o amazing things you can find on craigslist.
When I watch other types of reviews, I now use your show as the standard when judging them. You're genuinely into what you're doing, and extremely informative. I tip my hat to you, sir.
@christo930 Yup, it's all working quite nicely! And yeah, it was about 20 bucks in gas but hey, well worth it to me.
@vwestlife I've been trying to get WordStar to function, seems pretty sweet from what little I see before I get read errors.
I'll have to check out XenoCopy, I've been attempting just that with other programs with mixed success.
And I think it was you that mentioned something about hard-sectored disks in the previous ulpoad. You were right, there are several boxes of hard sector diskettes in this lot.
@harshbarj Most of the ones I can image are really common, like the versions of CP/M and the Kaypro software suite. The others that I would love to image that aren't so common, like the Heathkit and other unknown programs, I cannot image with my 360K IBM compatible drives. Many of them are in disk formats that simply cannot be read, due to be hard sector disks, among other issues.
Thanks to one of my friends, I got a large haul of Computers, Software, Documentation, etc. from the beginning of the DOS era (with some Apple II stuff thrown in there), including journals like yours and SDKs. Almost none of it has been archived.
That is really awesome. 🙂. I hope someday you can archive and upload what you find. 🙂
My family had a TRS-80 that was portable like these! I think my mom still has it in her closet somewhere. It's so great that you're finding and collecting all this cool old stuff, I wish I had room to! I do still have a Commodore 64 and Amiga 500, but no room to set them up. I'd love to be able to play around with those as well as some Apple and Atari machines from the same era. But alas I'll have to try and stay happy with emulation for the time being.
The "Perfect Manual" was probably made using the "Perfect" software. I know at least in the early days, WordStar used to do that -- they would proudly mention at the beginning of the manual that it was written and printed out using WordStar itself.
what a haul! so happy to see you have some of these beauties!
@dehBix That would be "Fortran" (IBM Mathematical Formula Translating System)
@psyjax As of now, I do not. I've been wanting one for quite a while and scour eBay every so often for one. Also for the original Compaq Portable, I love those things.
@piplol2468 Oh that is so nice... I hope you get a cable for it, that's an incredibly cool machine and one of my most-lusted-after.
i had a Kaypro 2 myself, this machine was so much ahead of it's time !
Recall an article once, in the early 80s, the financing outlook for software was to be approximately three times the cost of hardware. So, overall, those prices are inline with what the 'standard business software cost' would be estimated for accounting purposes. Of course, then came those darn home-computer users... :)
@spleenandpie Heh, I think you missed the point. Yes, it's common to have a classic game ported to other systems, nobody is doubting that. But having an original game for an already rather uncommon 1970's vintage computer such as the Heathkit? That's a rare find.
@asgerms Definitely got into it seriously later, around the end of high school. I grew up using monochrome PCs and Apple IIs and over the years I had older machines since we didn't always have the money to get new stuff. But the late 70's/early 80's more obscure stuff like this? Didn't get into that until the past several years.
I wish there were 80 inch floppies that held about a gigabyte. That would be awesome.
It would be awesome, but it probably would be too expensive storage media when we have flash drives.
I didn't. But now, I know.
@rejectofsoul24 I use it because it's cheap and I like the effect. It's a pain, but I don't exactly have the money to put towards a nice HD camera.
WOW that is one sweet classic PC haul right there! I think you are in for a lot of fun.
Wow, 8 years later I ran across this awesome video! What greatness, congrats! I hope you still have these!?
Wow lots of historical computing stuff!! Nicely done!!
These were all-metal units, as you know. The model 2 had the lesser capacity drives as you mentioned, and were a blue and grey case. The 4s, and later the 10s, had that very nice charcoal case which was very professional. The 10 had a hard drive, which worked quite well. We feared getting a bunch in for service for being portable, and it didn't happen. Both computers served the niche market extremely well.
Ancestral LGR Blerb! What a haul!
Seeing all the manuals and the thing that they had for perfect makes me nostalgic when thinking back to Sims 3/EA
@Thule000 Never seen roaches, but this lot had ants and spiders. I've also seen evidence of rats before.
Did you ever get any of this working? I don't see any vids for Kaypro or Osborne on your channel. Helluva deal at $50...really helluva deal even if none of it worked.
They both did! Here's one video showing the Kaypro in action LGR - Ladder - Kaypro CP/M Game Review
+Lazy Game Reviews Do you know if there was a "universal" CP/M boot disk? I have an Eagle 2e and all I know is that it runs CP/M Unfortunately it only came with the system itself and no boot disks. Do you know where I could get one or at least make an image?
Each machine had different hardware, and so they required their own BIOS and BDOS on the disk. And while there was a standard format for the 8" floppy in CP/M, virtually every company's systems used a different 5.25" disk layout. Sector size (128, 256, or even 512 bytes), sectoring type (soft or hard), number of tracks (35 or 40), density (single or double), number of sides (1 or 2)... you have to have the right disk format in order for the system firmware to be able to boot anything.
tl;dr: No.
***** Thanks. Since I posted my last comment I found an img for my model of eagle computer and some floppies. Now I just need a disk drive to write it to...
Mugg Mehlmann I got a fully working kaypro 2 for free just last week
@ukeleleboy97 I'd love an Altair! Or really anything S-100 based.
Any follow up?
I still have a Kaypro IV in my garage. The only difference between the II and the IV was the latter's double-sided floppies. The Kaypro 10 had a hard disk and was in an entirely different league.
Thanks for your videos! I am also interested in the history of old computers, consoles and pong systems. Hope you get both of the systems to boot up and maybe try out some games/software on them? Computers are such a big part of our history and I am glad that you have time to tell us about these gems. Looking forward to your next video. Greetings from Finland!
Amazing find Phreak!
I haven't seen these kind of beasts ever since my uncle sold his Kaypro back when I was still living in Los Angeles.
About that thing you had that looked like a diskette case for a CD/light media, ever since I found out how 3" floppy diskettes worked I've wondered why they didn't have a similar system for CDs. They did something like that with PSP UMDs but there was still no protective covering over the hole for when it's not in use.
@shaurz Ahhhhh, I got it. Make about as much sense as anything else, so we'll go with that.
I remember seeing a video or three on these beasts of 'portable computers' this just reminds me of my old DOS machine, just with a teeny little screen shoved in it. Sadly I don't even remember the machine make. Your vids are very awesome though it brings back memories of playing Silpheed, bouncing babies, sokuban, space invaders, tetris etc.
@StickPeopleAndPuff A local ad on Craigslist
This is great, I just came back from the Huntsville hamfest yesterday, and I pick up a TRS-80 model one with a several sack fulls of tapes and the quick printer 2 and several manuals and several other computer related items, sadly I don't have a video cable for the TRS-80 :(
@theinquisitor The first computer game was "Tennis for Two", developed on an analog computer in 1958.
Can't remember, if it's a K-II or IV I picked-up from a guy in Mass., that was supposedly used to design a radar system for the Royal Navy (or so he claims).. It had been modified with a 10Mhz Z80, and a 256K ram drive (the 256K chips piggy-backed to the 64K's, and the entire case top over the motherboard perforated to batch the side vent holes, for additional cooling.) Only got mine running a few times, then it stopped.. Need to dust it off, and try it again.
Where do you even find a replacement full height 5 1/4" floppy drive anymore?
I've only seen a couple half heights here and there
The thing for the optical drive was a caddy for an early cd-rom disk. I remember using those in the early 1990s
A very smooth looking VHS upload
That magazine cover!!! Kay-pros on the go!! That awesome 80s HEADBAND! :D
Awesome stuff man.
I used to have a camcorder that sounds just like yours! Tape sound and all! Way cool you found that stuff on craigslist. I would like to see those computers in action some time.
@alanw3000 This wasn't really a review, just a showing of the stuff. There will be full reviews of these machines at some point, no worries!
Nice haul. Nice to see your happiness. It's always good to be passionate about something. :)
We need an update on your CP/M kaypro goodness LGR
Nice find. I have never heard of any of this until now.
Wow.... I never seen that much of a score when it comes to this in ages and well worth what you paid for, you got to do a follow up if you get both those beasts up and running!
The Heathkit diskettes and tapes are for Heathkit H8 and/or Heathkit H89. 10 sector (hard sectored diskettes) are for H8 and H89 and won't work in other systems. Very nice collection! Most likely you will find tape with Benton Harbor Basic which was the basic interpreter included with H8 and H89 systems without floppy drive.
Sounds like you have had a fun night with all those goodies.
That's a outstanding colection!
That CD tray thingy is for oldschool CD-ROMs. I've seen it a lot in Apple Quadra/Centris/Performa stuff.
Spacewar?!!!
That alone is worth the price of the entire haul.
I played it in the middle 80's, and never saw it again, until '03.
Probably the most satisfying game I've ever played (although Gorilla, Lemmings, and Hydro Thunder are high on my list, too).
It's been 9 years since this video was made (as of July 24th 2019). Time for LGR to make an update video? All of those documents (User Group Publication, Manuals, EULAs, Etc) are something you don't see on the other old hardware reviews.
Super cool finds. These computers were really, really expensive back in the day. Hope you get them to work. I wonder how the world would've looked like if IBM had chosen CP/M instead of MSDOS as their operating system.
WOW Phrekinde, you really hit the archival mother lode on this one. If only you could find a Heathkit machine. The Computer museum in Silicon Valley might have one :D
The cornucopia mags look FASCINATING!! and $50!! I know the vid is over 5 years old but F88K!!!!
Hey! Totally get your enthusiasm for these systems, and love geeking out to your videos. Out of curiosity : were you "messin'" with early machines like these back in the days when they were "it", or did you get hooked on "the vibe" of retro-systems much later?
Yes, just $50! I would have paid a lot more, I couldn't believe my luck.
Great find man, I would travel 2 hours for that too. Hell, I'd travel 2 hours just for the osborne!
god, the osbourne looked like those old radio emitters from WWII
it is soo cool
9:16 Notice how part of the unit is out of short. I bet someone was holding onto that or it was resetting on something.
its crazy to think how expensive these once were. now they are pretty much big heavy worthless rocks. glad to see them getting some love.
now, THIS is an unboxing video worth watching :)
I know next to nothing about these machines, but for some reason this shit is incredibly interesting.
Awesome stuff! You should show some of the games in another video once you get it working
There must be alot of value for all that classic equipment !
I love haul videos!! AWESOME stuff! Computers with snap-off keyboards are just so cool looking. That little 4 inch monochrome screen. I bet it will make a nice humming noise if it turns on XD And MAN you got a lot of software! Thats so cool, most of this stuff probably hasn't seen the light of day in over 20 years
Was this the first time you were looking through these boxes?
How much did you pay for all of that stuff, or do we not want to know? lol