Larry's Museum of Dead Technology
by ZDNet Author | December 6, 2011 1:00pm PST | Image 1 of 16
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Larry Marcus, a partner at Walden Venture Capital, curates a small but dense tech museum in his office. On a recent visit, he gave me a tour.
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The Betamax unit under the recorder is the "Tuner" box (not timer), there was no tuner in the recorder unit.
1979 Mac Portable??? Someone hand me a time machine.
Also, cool picture of the CBM Pet with the calculator keyboard.
Also, cool picture of the CBM Pet with the calculator keyboard.
@tonymus : He probably forgot to check the wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Portable
"Released on September 20, 1989..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Portable
"Released on September 20, 1989..."
@cosuna... Or it was just a simple finger-slip typo, maybe because the 7 is right next to the 8.... juuust maybe... stop ripping the guy and use logic.
Actually the cue cat (looks sort of like a mouse but shaped like a cat) can still be used. With a patch installed, it makes a nice barcode scanner. I have a bag of those since they gave them away for free.
Did not see the CoCo, Commodore Color Computer. I have one of those, too.
Did not see the CoCo, Commodore Color Computer. I have one of those, too.
@rgg3 : the Tandy (Radio Shack) TRS-80 Color Computer (called affectionately the CoCo) was not made by Commodore. Your confusing that with the Commodore 64 or VIC-20...
Fire up that Apple II with some Beagle Bros software, have some fun, and then study the BASIC source code. What could be better? I miss my Apple II+. Should never have sold it...
Looks like my basement! Along with obsolute audio equipment, I have a Timex-Sinclair computer and printer that I just can't get rid of. And an Apple IIc with tons of software.
@RxTech5 Looks like my basement as well! My family calls it "(My) Computer Graveyard." I'm not as old as Larry, but I've got some crap there that's as old as I am, which I played on as a kid, and still works when I occasionally plug them in.
@Laurie McCabe
Wow, a DEC Rainbow ... I haven't even had a passing thought about those in a lot of years.. Kenny stepped onto the playing field waayyy too late in the game to ever make that one a success.
Wow, a DEC Rainbow ... I haven't even had a passing thought about those in a lot of years.. Kenny stepped onto the playing field waayyy too late in the game to ever make that one a success.
@Cloud Guy : Beg to differ - when DEC was developing the Rainbow, DECmate, and Professionals, the IBM machine had really not been wholly accepted by industry as a "standard". In fact, Rainbow ran CPM and had a 5 Meg hard drive (which was advanced, for the time...). DOS was not even out in '84 when DEC released their bevy of products. It came along shortly thereafter.
(FWIW, I was lead engineer for the 12 inch monochrome monitors that were used on all 3 machines... so I speak from direct experience.)
It wasn't a matter of timing, but of lacking market savvy, IMHO. The DEC machines didn't share the reconfiguration / customization ability that the IBM machine did, and I believe that is what killed the DEC brands.
(FWIW, I was lead engineer for the 12 inch monochrome monitors that were used on all 3 machines... so I speak from direct experience.)
It wasn't a matter of timing, but of lacking market savvy, IMHO. The DEC machines didn't share the reconfiguration / customization ability that the IBM machine did, and I believe that is what killed the DEC brands.
@Willnot : A few inaccuracies there. The DEC Rainbow 100 was released in May of 1982. DOS did, in fact, exist at that time, with DOS 1.1 shipping with IBM PC's that same month. Compaq's landmark 100% clone showed up a few months later, and others soon followed, so the wheels were already in motion. Further evidence that DOS was already taking hold was that Digital added DOS compatibility (kinda-sorta) to the DEC Rainbow 100 late in the design process, right down to its unique inclusion of both Zilog Z-80 and Intel 8088 processors.
That said, it wasn't Digital's timing or tardiness on this that killed it. It was the aforementioned kinda-sorta-but-not-quite DOS compatibility, half-hearted marketing and sales, high price, and the boneheaded decision to use a proprietary disk format without including a formatting utility with its versions of CP/M or DOS until years later, in an effort to make customers have to buy pre-formatted disks from Digital (or format disks in an IBM PC as single-sided, single-density, which resulted in less than half the capacity of full-fledged Digital disks, but could at least be read and written to on both IBM PC's and Rainbow 100's).
And I also speak with direct experience: I still own one. Still works, too. For all of those flaws, the thing was build like a tank.
That said, it wasn't Digital's timing or tardiness on this that killed it. It was the aforementioned kinda-sorta-but-not-quite DOS compatibility, half-hearted marketing and sales, high price, and the boneheaded decision to use a proprietary disk format without including a formatting utility with its versions of CP/M or DOS until years later, in an effort to make customers have to buy pre-formatted disks from Digital (or format disks in an IBM PC as single-sided, single-density, which resulted in less than half the capacity of full-fledged Digital disks, but could at least be read and written to on both IBM PC's and Rainbow 100's).
And I also speak with direct experience: I still own one. Still works, too. For all of those flaws, the thing was build like a tank.
Forgot the Zip Drive - quite revolutionary for portable storage until the unfortunate "click of death" surfaced. Also no tape backup drives? They were dominant for quite awhile, until hard drives got cheap.
Check your dates guys - this would mean the Mac Portable was released 5 years before the first Macintosh! The Mac Portable was in fact released ten years after your caption thinks it was - 1989. So I'm guessing that was a typo.
What a great "Blast from the Past", many thanks to all concerned...sadly I recognised/have used most of the non games stuff......does it make me look old?
I built a Nascom 2 in 1989, many were flabbergasted that a computer could even fit in a house, let alone on a table top!!
I wonder what it was all worth converted into today's money, quite a lot I would think....
Regards
andy
I built a Nascom 2 in 1989, many were flabbergasted that a computer could even fit in a house, let alone on a table top!!
I wonder what it was all worth converted into today's money, quite a lot I would think....
Regards
andy
...was not the first US-market Betamax. It was the first portable Betamax (ignoring Betamovie). I still have mine, which I used for live digital audio recording. (Sony made a processor, the PCM-F1. I have the Nakamichi version of it, the DMP-100.)
@GrizzledGeezer ...and would set your eyes ablaze after 15 minutes of play. SMaybe the most bloodshot my eyes ever got until I started going to college parties years later! LOL
This is great stuff!!! Thanks for the memories.
What about the Apple Newton (1992), or the Radio Shack TRS-100 (1983)?
What about the Apple Newton (1992), or the Radio Shack TRS-100 (1983)?
Nice collection, but it's just one out of many! There are thousands of active collectors in the worldwide vintage computing hobby. - Evan Koblentz, producer, Vintage Computer Festival East
Nice collection, but it's just one out of many! There are thousands of active collectors in the worldwide vintage computing hobby. - Evan Koblentz, producer, Vintage Computer Festival East, and president, NJ Computer Museum (midatlanticretro.org)
The video games section reminded me of my house... kudos to Larry for having a Neo Geo Pocket Color... I loved mine to death, or at least I did for the 2 years I had it. Sold it to get my first car. Probably worth it, despite the games I had (and they were all complete, mint condition) would be extremely tough to wrangle up again.
FWIW that's not an original Walkman. The original was all grey, slightly larger and only played cassettes... no record function and only one headphone jack. The Walkman in the photo is the second gen.
No TRS-80 equipment? Obviously a prejudiced Apple fanboy....
@Mr_Wizard : Also no TI99-4 either!!! (I had one of those - at least it was affordable for folks on tighter budgets.)
How did everyone miss the KISS eight-track!! Gene Simmons gets another royalty check! 
Ah, I have fond memories of my Commodore PET. But no Kaypro (or any other CPM machine)? Now THAT was a workhorse.
Yes, there are a number of missing pieces, but it is a really awesome start. I sort of wished for the TRS-80 and the Osbourne 1. When I lived in Japan and owned an Apple IIc (owned, but wasn't using anymore, it was just gathering dust), I met a guy who has every model of computer Apple ever sold except the Apple IIc. I sold him mine to complete his collection and get me enough money to buy an NEC 9800 (very popular computer in Japan). He even had an Apple I and vowed to buy the newer Macs brand new. He had the Mac Portable and in an odd twist he also had a Newton (so did I).
I could provide pics of my COSMAC VIP and my original IBM PC Portable (Lugable - modified with a 3.5" hard disk). I'm the second owner.
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