Computing Like It's 1980

 

In preparation for a house project that needed doing, I had to make some space in our storage/laundry/utility room to make some room for the work to be done. In doing so, it brought up this project from long ago. Above is the first computer I ever saw or used and I even learned how to do Basic programming on it, creating at least one program that my family used for awhile. Mostly I played various games on it when allowed by my parents. 

At some point, it was gifted to me by my family and I thought it might be nice to set it up and be nostalgic of old times by playing some of the old games or seeing if I could remember my Basic programming skills. I put it in the storage room and there it has sat for I don't know how many years, in the corner gathering dust. Moving it out to create some working space reminded me that I likely will never accomplish the nostalgic fix but I could probably clean it up and sell it to someone who might. Empty space has also become more valuable to me! 

I checked online and the prices are fairly eye popping though I know living where I do, also highly unrealistic. But it motivated me to clean off all the dust, hook up the cables and see if it still boots. It did. I sorted around and found a 40 year old floppy disk and stuck it end the drive and it whirred and clicked away before flashing some sort of error code on the screen. Not sure what it means but from online forums I subsequently searched, the drives probably need a good cleaning and/or the disk most likely no longer works anymore.

I'm not interested in doing a good cleaning or buying new floppy disks (if there is such a thing) so I priced it accordingly and will see if it sells online. If not, perhaps now that it is set up right next to my desk in the office, I might be motivated to see if I can get it working again. Maybe.