Just discovered this group; Northstar Horizon owner

[Ttpilot]

Hello from the US! I ran across this group the other day and signed up. Way back in 1978 I built a Northstar Horizon computer from a kit, which I used up until 1986. After that it sat in the garage for 34 years gathering cobwebs and bug parts. I brought it out the other day, cleaned it up, hooked up a replacement floppy drive, and the little bugger fired up. A new toy to play with!

Here's what's in it:

Compupro CPU-Z processor board
Compupro RAM 17 64k dynamic RAM board (?)
Morrow DJ-DMA floppy controller (1982 rev 1)

As you can see, there are no Northstar boards remaining. I switched to a Morrow Designs floppy controller so I could use DSDD disks. It ran CP/M

A few photos (including a very young me)

 

[alan8086]

Hi - Welcome to the Forum!

Is that an Intertec terminal you are sat at? It looks a lot like my Intertec Superbrain QD - minus the twin floppy drives. I'm aware Intertec started out making terminals before they developed their own Z80 based microcomputer.

 

[Ttpilot]

Hi - Welcome to the Forum!

Is that an Intertec terminal you are sat at? It looks a lot like my Intertec Superbrain QD - minus the twin floppy drives. I'm aware Intertec started out making terminals before they developed their own Z80 based microcomputer.

I believe that’s what it was. It was a good price for the time compared to the ADMs and Soroqs. It gave up the ghost in the 80s. I connected this time using a 2001 G4 titanium PowerBook running Zterm and a usb to rs232 cable

I loaned my two Matsushita floppy drives to someone and never saw them again. Later I scrounged a Teac drive and cable from a PC, but it’s been too fussy. I finally picked up another Matsushita/Panasonic drive.

Now I’m trying to figure out how to run CP/M with a single drive lol

 

[Ttpilot]

Hi - Welcome to the Forum!

Is that an Intertec terminal you are sat at? It looks a lot like my Intertec Superbrain QD - minus the twin floppy drives. I'm aware Intertec started out making terminals before they developed their own Z80 based microcomputer.

Yes, it was an Intertec terminal. IIRC it was more reasonably priced than the ADMs and Sorocs that were popular at the time

 

[Ttpilot]

Upon further reflection, I realize it's probably inaccurate to keep calling it a Northstar Horizon. The motherboard is still Northstar, but maybe it should be called a Morrow Designs computer because of the floppy controller. My CP/M BIOS reflects that: Morrow/North Star BIOS 1.5