Brilliant! Thank you for posting this! I'd love to see an introductory demo of Plot10 to make a simple xy plot with a least square fit with legends axes and titles. It would a be a window into that students faced in the the mid- to late 70s. Few know basic these days.
PLOT10 was a graphics format supported by mainframe and minicomputers in the 1970's. Tektronix called the graphics language for the 4050 computers PLOT50 - although it meant using Tek 4050 BASIC which included drawing commands that worked on the computer display AND could be directly used over GPIB or RS-232 serial interfaces to Tektronix plotters. Check out one of my first videos - plotting Snoopy Red Baron on my Tektronix 4662 Color Plotter - connected to my 4054 computer!
They are getting much harder to find. I purchased my 4052 in 2000 at a medical university auction. I purchased my 4054 on EBAY in 2000. Some of the more recent finds have been from "barn" storage. There is a 4051 on EBAY that has been on there for years at a high price - but the auction indicates they will take offers. They have removed the ROM Backpack from the 4051 and posted it in a separate auction. You would need both the computer and the backpack.
I will have to write one first. Tragically - one of the Option30 tapes I recovered was labeled Option30 Games and I was able to recover the first file - the games menu - which listed a Star Wars game. The tragedy is I could not recover all the files on that over 40 year old tape - the oxide began to shed off the tape and stick to the metal pins inside the tape cartridge. I love Star Wars, so I have put writing a Star Wars game on my TODO list!
so we're NOT that better than old generations ! they can build 3-D models and do complicated engineering and analysis life now only easier but still we are not the whole new era or civilization we are arrogant ignorance
There is something atemporal about these - I might be biased but this still look very modern in my view. Sorry to display ignorance but is this run in basic or it needs to be converted in some tektronix proprietary language?
Yes, the entire Tektronix 4050 series of vector graphics computers had BASIC in ROM (32KB ROM BASIC and 32KB RAM in the 4051 and 64KB ROM BASIC with 64KB of RAM in the 4052 and 4054). Tek 4050 BASIC was introduced in 1975 with the 4051 computer - first 'personal' microcomputer I ever used in my first job after university in the late 1970's. I learned BASIC on the 4051 and was quite disappointed at Microsoft BASIC and the primitive PC 320x200 CGA graphics when I architected the first laptop PC at Texas Instruments - the TI Professional Portable Computer introduced in 1983. There are a couple of folks that have been able to port my 4050 BASIC programs and data files to Commodore 64 and other early personal computers. I post all the Tektronix 4050 BASIC programs I have recovered from tapes and all the programs I have written on my github repository: github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4051-4052-4054-Program-Files
![“อ.เบียร์ คนตื่นธรรม” มาตามคำเรียกร้อง แหกศาสตร์ฮวงจุ้ย เตือนสติอย่างมงาย | แฉ 7 พ.ย. 67 [1/3]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5fc4S3xBNfc/mqdefault.jpg)
Love this, Monty! You are a lucky man to have these wonderful machines!
New subscriber here. Enjoying your channel!
It's insane how quick this is. Nice video, please keep them coming!
Brilliant! Thank you for posting this! I'd love to see an introductory demo of Plot10 to make a simple xy plot with a least square fit with legends axes and titles. It would a be a window into that students faced in the the mid- to late 70s. Few know basic these days.
PLOT10 was a graphics format supported by mainframe and minicomputers in the 1970's. Tektronix called the graphics language for the 4050 computers PLOT50 - although it meant using Tek 4050 BASIC which included drawing commands that worked on the computer display AND could be directly used over GPIB or RS-232 serial interfaces to Tektronix plotters. Check out one of my first videos - plotting Snoopy Red Baron on my Tektronix 4662 Color Plotter - connected to my 4054 computer!
@@TEK-Vectors Thank you so much for your explanation. I am delighted I found your excellent channel!
looking great! Must have been nice to be able to experiment or work with one of these back in the day.
Great video, Monty!
I would LOVE to know where/how I can purchase a 4054A or at least a 4050/4051. This is dream material from my childhood growing up in the 70s and 80s!
They are getting much harder to find. I purchased my 4052 in 2000 at a medical university auction. I purchased my 4054 on EBAY in 2000. Some of the more recent finds have been from "barn" storage. There is a 4051 on EBAY that has been on there for years at a high price - but the auction indicates they will take offers. They have removed the ROM Backpack from the 4051 and posted it in a separate auction. You would need both the computer and the backpack.
Hello. Are you planning to try running a Star Wars game?
I will have to write one first. Tragically - one of the Option30 tapes I recovered was labeled Option30 Games and I was able to recover the first file - the games menu - which listed a Star Wars game. The tragedy is I could not recover all the files on that over 40 year old tape - the oxide began to shed off the tape and stick to the metal pins inside the tape cartridge. I love Star Wars, so I have put writing a Star Wars game on my TODO list!
@@TEK-Vectors Thanks for the answer. Good luck to you!
so we're NOT that better than old generations !
they can build 3-D models and do complicated engineering and analysis
life now only easier but still we are not the whole new era or civilization
we are arrogant ignorance
There is something atemporal about these - I might be biased but this still look very modern in my view. Sorry to display ignorance but is this run in basic or it needs to be converted in some tektronix proprietary language?
Yes, the entire Tektronix 4050 series of vector graphics computers had BASIC in ROM (32KB ROM BASIC and 32KB RAM in the 4051 and 64KB ROM BASIC with 64KB of RAM in the 4052 and 4054). Tek 4050 BASIC was introduced in 1975 with the 4051 computer - first 'personal' microcomputer I ever used in my first job after university in the late 1970's. I learned BASIC on the 4051 and was quite disappointed at Microsoft BASIC and the primitive PC 320x200 CGA graphics when I architected the first laptop PC at Texas Instruments - the TI Professional Portable Computer introduced in 1983. There are a couple of folks that have been able to port my 4050 BASIC programs and data files to Commodore 64 and other early personal computers. I post all the Tektronix 4050 BASIC programs I have recovered from tapes and all the programs I have written on my github repository: github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4051-4052-4054-Program-Files
@@TEK-Vectors Thanks for the detailed explanation!