Santo Nucifora

Santo Nucifora

@vintagecomputer.ca

Vintage computer collector and maintainer of https://vintagecomputer.ca I was previously known as "MrGoodBits" on Twitter. I'll be posting various pics of mostly historical computers from my vintage computer collection.

1.5K followers112 following685 posts

Was searching for an IC in my pile and noticed this. There's a little Intel "i" (circled in red) within the pin 1 side marking of this chip with gold legs. "1802-0775" is an HP house marking for Intel's first 1103 dynamic RAM chip. Never seen this little "i" before. #retrocomputing #Intel

Back when portable computers were being transformed into purpose-built device, this is an Epson HX-40 (PX-4) with a spectrum analyzer "backpack" added on making it an Ivie PC-40. It holds multiple boards and a large battery. I am sure there were a lot of device like this. #retrocomputing

I got my DEC Rainbow 100 running and after a restoration on the unique RX50 dual disk drive. Happy to see my VR201 monitor was fine. I made some floppies and booted up MS-DOS 2.05 and CP/M-86. Here it is booting up MS-DOS. An interesting computer for it's time. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Finally landed a CMD FD-2000 3.5" floppy drive for my Commodore 64. It was a "grail" item for me for a long time but was out of reach in terms what these fetch on the market vs what I would be willing to pay. Love the original Creative Micro Design products. #Commodore #CMD #retrocomputing

Finally got an Amstrad PPC640 computer. It's a neat portable computer but the screen is not great. That, however, was to be expected. Interesting form factor and while it has a battery compartment ("C" cell), it's not practical as it doesn't last long . It's more of a "luggable". #retrocomputing

Had my IBM 7690 Nursing Workstations out today. Being a PS/2 (Model 30ish), both needed floppy drive recapping. Normally mounted on the wall with the cables connected from the bottom, I propped one up to run. These have a touch screen LCD screen. #vintagecomputer #retrocomputing #IBMPS2

Had an HP 9830A calculator/computer for 10 years and it never worked. Found another and got it yesterday. It also didn't work but with board swapping, it had one bad board. After board swapping, the original had 4 bad boards. Further repairs in my future. #vintagecomputer #retrocomputing

Very excited about my latest acquisition. A Gravis Ultrasound ACE (Audio Card Enhancer) that I don't think has ever been used. Now I need to create a 486 era PC with some interesting audio/video cards in it :) #vintagecomputer #retrocomputing

Just got my MITS Altair 680. It's a little smaller than I thought. Next to the 8800, it looks tiny. Glad it works. Had to fix my LSI ADM-3A though. The contrast knob is very touchy. I'll need to replace that. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

BEWARE Vintage Computer buyers from outside US. Your stuff will be e-wasted! I bought an Epson PF-10 floppy drive from the US (I am in Canada) and as it travelled thru eBay Intl Shipping, it was "Liquidated" and I got a refund. Apparently a new US policy is the reason. kotaku.com/trumps-new-e...

BEWARE Vintage Computer buyers from outside US. Your stuff will be e-wasted! I bought an Epson PF-10 floppy drive from the US (I am in Canada) and as it travelled thru eBay Intl Shipping, it was "Liquidated" and I got a refund. Apparently a new US policy is the reason. kotaku.com/trumps-new-e...

Recent acquisition. First ever CD-ROM drive was the Philips CM100. It had a proprietary LMSI interface. The Philips CM110 shown here is the SCSI counterpart. I believe this may be the first SCSI CD-ROM drive. Don't know is if they came out at the same time or if SCSI was later? #retrocomputing

I've had this NEC Trek PC-6001A computer for years but never took it out of the shipping box. I remember it having chicklet keys and the tape player but it turns out, it had the PC-6021A thermal printer. No cable though :( It's Centronics 14 pin to 36 pin. Will never find that. #retrocomputing

Finally tracked down a Commodore VIC-1605 VicModem phone adapter used here in Canada. This came in the Viccessories package that included the 1600 VicModem and the original Commodore phone. Still on the hunt for one in a box but that is unlikely to find anymore. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Working on my Exidy Sorcerer's this week. I think they multiplied because I swear I only had two. So far 1 out of 4 is working properly. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

The Exidy Sorcerer II has a power supply with flaky rectifier diodes. One power supply needed two and another one needed a different set of two. The Exidy Sorcerer I needed an NE555 timer and some clean up of the motherboard and all is well now. Worked out easier than I thought.

With a small collection of "luggable" computers, I just acquired a Panasonic Sr Partner with dual 360K floppy drives running MS-DOS 2.11. I think this might be the heaviest luggable I own and I do have an IBM Portable Personal computer (Model 5155) too.

Needed to make a ribbon cable for connecting a floppy drive to a Lobos Max-80 I was testing. It's a bit strange. If it does not boot up, you get a beep but absolutely no video output. This is supposed to be a TRS-80 clone. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer.

I've been making my own ribbon cables for a while now and once I found this "ribbon cable tester" online, I LOVE it! No more multimeter continuity testing on each pin to troubleshoot. I had the edge connector ends already so I can test floppy ribbon cables. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Don't forget if you're interested. Today at 1PM Eastern.

vcfederation.bsky.social@vcfederation.bsky.social

Lee Felsenstein livestream Sun. June 14 at 1PM (Eastern): youtube.com/live/Js6R3OI... Before the laptop, before Apple took off, there was the Legendary moderator of the Homebrew Computer Club and designer of the Osborne 1. Don't miss our exclusive livestream with a true PC pioneer this Sunday!

Santo Nucifora reposted

Lee Felsenstein livestream Sun. June 14 at 1PM (Eastern): youtube.com/live/Js6R3OI... Before the laptop, before Apple took off, there was the Legendary moderator of the Homebrew Computer Club and designer of the Osborne 1. Don't miss our exclusive livestream with a true PC pioneer this Sunday!

youtube.comLee Felsenstein – A Look at Personal Computer History and its Future - VCF East 2026YouTube video by Vintage Computer Federation

Another project I have is a Spectavision Compumate add-on for the Atari 2600. I believe it may be a PAL model and I need to convert it to NTSC. From my research, the internal piggyback ROMs might have to be changed. Right now video rolls. Might be the last time this ever worked. #retrocomputer

It's hard to take a picture of the screen but... It Works! I would have put an exclamation mark in the one line program but I couldn't find one. Let's say the BASIC on the Spectravideo CompuMate for the Atari 2600 is not full featured but decent. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer #Atari2600

Dug out my two Kaypro 2000s last night. Plugged them in. The earlier vertically "narrow" screen model works fine even with long time dead batteries. The later "wide" screen model Kaypro 2000 does not work :( <sarcasm>I needed another project</sarcasm>. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Recently acquired an Olivetti M10 and PicDisc unit that turns the M10 into a CP/M computer. Had to replace the 12VDC lead acid battery and a bad diode. If anyone has any software or docs on the PicDisc system, please let me know. Still trying to figure this out. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Working with my MCM/70 and MCM/900 today. The '900 is two generations newer than the '70. Both run APL but have different displays. My dual 8" disk drive for the '900 needs work (blows fuses). After a week of messing around it's away until next time I take a shot. #retrocomputer #vintagecomputer

It's not the most exciting find but I'm an Apple Lisa fan so these brochures (two of the Lisa 1) I acquired are pretty cool to me. #AppleLisa #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

A recent acquisition of mine is a Digital Equipment DECTalk DTC07B speech synthesis card. Works really well. This is the "shorter" newer surface mount version of the original DTC07 card and works much like the very original DECTalk DTC01 in PC ISA card format. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

Finally got my DEC VT180 Robin working fully. Power supply issues and a badly needed refurbishment on the RX180AB dual floppy drive was done. This booted up in P/M 2.2 and is running the Select Word Processing System. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

One project is to further explore one of the top tier computers in my collection, the Canadian MCM/70. An Intel 8008 based personal computer with built-in APL from 1974. Here I am initializing special NOS data cassettes I found and bought new lead-acid batteries. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Waiting for parts for another project, I decided to give my DEC Digital VT180 Robin a look for the first time after acquiring it years ago. This is a CP/M personal computer based on the VT100 as a base. Looks like the CRT is messed up. Not an unexpected project :( #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

I am sort of happy to have found the issue! Unfortunately, it's the power supply so now I need to troubleshoot that. I swapped in a power supply from my VT100 to test and it worked fine.

Well, turns out one of these 590uF 200v blue caps is completely open in the DEC VT100 model H7831 power supply. I've ordered a set of two to replace both. It was a last resort check as I have never seen these large caps go bad. Let's hope it's only that. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Finally found an F1 floppy drive for my Royal TA Alphatronics PC! Whoo hoo! Need to get RGB colour TO vga video going. After struggling with RGBHV output, I found @leadedsolder.com's NEC PC-8801mkII RGB to VGA project. It has the same 8 pin DIN pinout! Gonna give it a shot. #retrocomputing

Someone recently posted on another site about their CPT 4200 and had some questions. The CPT 4200 was an early form of "word processing" system from CPT Corporation. It used a highly modified IBM Selectric typewriter as a printer and keyboard and cassettes for reading/writing text/documents.

Today, I've powered up the CPT 4200 from the early 1970s and am now trying to sort out a jammed up Selectric typewriter (I'm not a typewriter guy). I can then see if any of the tapes I got with it will print out documents. #vintagecomputing #retrocomputing

Did some restoration work on this Teletype Model 43 ASR and rarer companion paper tape punch/reader. I still have one issue with the punch in that it punches one bit always but the chips internally are rare enough that it's good enough for now. Next time. #retrocomputing #vintagecomputer

Had to take a picture of "the boys" while they were out for #Marchintosh On the left is the Macintosh Quadra 950 running System 7.5.5 and on the right is the Macintosh Workgroup Server 95 running A/UX 3.1 #vintagecomputer #retrocomputing

I know, kinda "geeky" but I'm excited about finding this Teletype Model 43. I previously acquired the matching M43 paper tape punch/reader. This model, has the "Aux" port for the M43. Got the GNT 3601 paper punch in the deal. Like used together. Needs cleaning. #vintagecomputer #retrocomputer

Trying to set up my hard diskless Macintosh Work Group Server 95 for #Marchintosh After a day of futzing with a Blue SCSI v1 and v2, upgrading firmware, all combos of termination etc with no luck, I plugged in a ZuluSCSI RP2040 and worked first try. Glad it works but disappointed at the same time.

I am happy to say both the BlueSCSI V1 and V2 were an issue with construction! After checking the solder joints under a microscope, I had to fix a few joints. While I didn't put these together, I probably should have checked that earlier on. Super happy I can use a BlueSCSI V1 and match the Q950.

As I go through some Macintoshes for #Marchintosh, these Sony Mac floppy drive gears are going to be the death of me. Ordered a 12 pack off of eBay. Let's hope I can get these back together again because the clips that hold on the back plate are super brittle. #vintagecomputer #retrocomputer.