Imsai, Altos, Cipher 9 Track, 2 8" shugart Floppy drives

[paulmhenry]

For sale as a bundle.

1 Imsai original microcomputer with a North Star Z-80 processor board and a micromation doubler floppy disk controller. Included are 2 Shugart floppy disks, all were working when retired. Only thing missing is a Hazeltine 1500.

Also available is the Original Altos 4 user MPM multi user 10-megabyte computer. This was one of first multi user microcomputers running the original Digital Research’s 4 user version of CPM, MPM. Included is a Cipher 9 track tape drive which was interfaced and all functional when retired. Was configured for a Hazeltine 1500 when last turned on.

 

[daver2]

Probably way out of my price range...

But where are you located?

Dave

 

[paulmhenry]

Items are located at the East End of Long Island.

Found the following from a similiar post I made last year:

I’m at the east end of Long Island, North Fork, NY, USA. If a deal is struck, it will most definitely be FOB.

As far as pricing goes, I was looking for guidance. I’ve been holding on to these babies for too long to just give them away. I really would like to sell them all as a group. These are more then relics to me, they were my passion and livelihood as I come of age. I cut my teeth on the IMSAI, really means the most to me and would be the last to go, If I can’t sell them all.
Many years and Carers ago I was an assembly language programmer, learned everything on the IMSAI and earned a living selling and programming Altos’s until the PC’s came around. You guys would all execute me if I could remember all the things I threw away over the years. For the old timers on the East Coast, I worked at Computer Microsystems, In Manhasset, NY at the very beginning of the micro-computer era. We had a club that met at NY Tech, I believe it was called LICA or something like that. Anyone remember it? The second IMSAi I ever saw had an ITT teletype machine hooked up to it without a monitor or disk drive, just a paper tape writer/reader. The first IMSAI was at the University of Hawaii, it was shared by at least 100 students. They also had a Custom mainframe that took up a whole room, with wire wrapped boards and I believe it was called bubble memory, or something like that. Someone had written an 8080/CPM emulator that was also available to the assembly language students when they couldn’t get there hands on the IMSAI. This was right before the Apple and the big deal was that the university was about to get their first PDP-11.

 

[daver2]

So the wrong side of the pond for me!

Options:

Since it was "your machine" would you not want to get it going first? You must have all of the background information - and this forum will help out. You may decide (after getting them up and running again) that you want to keep at least some of the machines for a new hobby...

A demonstrable working machine would command a larger price (if it included documentation) and you decided to sell.

Another option would be to donate some (or all) to a museum.

If you really want to sell you have two options:

ePay - you would certainly have a "bidding frenzy" over your machines if you were to sell them. Who the machines go to - and what they will do with them - is now out of your control.

Advertise them here (and other knowledgeable websites) for offers and see what you get. This should mean that your valued machines have a better chance of going to someone who will value them rather than no control at all (as on ePay).

I suspect you will get more money via ePay - but you will need to figure in ePay sellr fees and the hassle of shipping, etc.

If selling to (say) a VCFED member - you may get local pickup and money in hand.

I suspect the 9 track tape is a "novelty". The money is on the machines themselves and disk drives.

Dave

 

[paulmhenry]

Thanks Dave,

All good ideas and suggestions, appreciated.

Truth be told, I’m not exactly anxious and I’m definitely done with them, too many other things/priorities in my life to step back in time like that. I do appreciate all those who have dwelled into these relics, just not for me. I worked on many in my day, too many.

By the way, I don’t have any 9 Track tapes anymore. The Cipher Drive that I do have was a real luxury on a microcomputer in it’s day. It was self loading, which was really cool. The altos has a board installed in it that talked to the Cipher drive. I used it for backup and I processed lots of data for corporations, supplied to me on 9 Track.

As a matter of fact, it was the original Micro-ECOM system that I developed and certified with the United States Post Office. That’s Electronic Computer Originated Mail, a service from the post office that was shut down by lobbying efforts by Western Union and ITT, they didn’t like competition.

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/ecom.pdf

For what it’s worth, this is the actual machine that sent the very first ECOM messages from a microcomputer. I was the beta site. I had a contract with TWA and received 9-track tapes containing mailing lists and would process the mailings and send them to the 25 SPOs according to zip codes via a 2400 baud half duplex modem (forgot exactly what it was called). In fact, I was in negotiations to market the turn key system that I/We developed to Lifeboat Associates, when the Post Office pulled the plug. Anyone remember them?

lots of history in that gear.



It’s amazing to think about that 10 MB drive being useful. It was a real prize, first one on the block. I sold many of them and other brands as well. In those days, when you delivered a CPM or MPM machine, you needed to manually patch the control codes into the operating system in order to move the curser on each individual terminal’s screen. Quite rudimentary, but it made Word Star work like a charm. Everyone’s terminal was different with different control codes. We did it with DDT (Dynamic Debugging Tool). It’s all coming back to me.

I would need 5 of them just to hold one image off my Cannon. Crazy.



Cheers

Paul

 

[Gary C]

Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. Always liked the self loading tape drives. We had one that an operator had to use when data was spooled off of our plant Honeywells and uploaded to the Vax system (and we kept on doing it for years after it wasn't needed anymore) and the noises they made when loading are now sadly long lost.

But as an enthusiast, I would always want machines to be kept together and not split up and sold as separate components which seems to be the trend on Ebay.

A museum would be the ideal place with the file of history, personal stories etc to go along with them so its not lost, but the prices means the smaller ones can't afford the prices they are now commanding and the bigger ones have probably already got such items.

Ah well, money always gets in the way.


Dave, do you want to go halves

 

[daver2]

If you want a self loading 1/2" mag tape unit I have two I am trying to get rid of... I had three until I persuaded Harry to take one plus a QBUS controller plus the cables with him on his last trip. He didn't need too much persuading though ! Cheers Harry...

I can't justify halves to the wife... No (more) space I am afraid...

Dave

 

[Gary C]

I can't justify halves to the wife... No (more) space I am afraid...

Dave

Thats all right, I would look after it

 

[Ttpilot]

For sale as a bundle.

1 Imsai original microcomputer with a North Star Z-80 processor board and a micromation doubler floppy disk controller. Included are 2 Shugart floppy disks, all were working when retired. Only thing missing is a Hazeltine 1500.

Also available is the Original Altos 4 user MPM multi user 10-megabyte computer. This was one of first multi user microcomputers running the original Digital Research’s 4 user version of CPM, MPM. Included is a Cipher 9 track tape drive which was interfaced and all functional when retired. Was configured for a Hazeltine 1500 when last turned on.

Are these still available? How much are you asking?