Friday Quiz #4

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

What is it? And who made it? (I've photoshopped all nomenclature off of the front panel, so as not to give it away.)



-Phil

xanadu

I don't know, and I can't help but guess power supply, possibly for your laser?

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Nope.

MikeDYur

Poly 88 micro

Publison

I was going to say Poly also.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Yup. I didn't think anyone would get it so quickly! How did you know? Did you own one?

The Poly 88 by Polymorphic Systems was my first computer. It used a TV monitor for its screen and a cassette tape drive for storage. I bought it to start a mail-order software company, and selected it based upon a rather nice feature set. It used a variant of HP BASIC, which I preferred over the MS variety. But it was a poor choice for starting a business, since the customer base just wasn't there. So I ended up buying a TRS-80 and selling software for it instead.

-Phil

MikeDYur

Nice.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphic_Systems

EDIT: Forget the link, I just couldn't get it to work.

MikeDYur

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »

Yup. I didn't think anyone would get it so quickly! How did you know? Did you own one?

Always admired it's simplistic design. Cutting edge for it's day, when everyone else was using front panel communication. From what I remember the price was reasonable, compared to other systems using the 8088.

EDIT: Or what processor was that? Answer: 8080A.



Do you still power those cap's up?

Publison

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »

Yup. I didn't think anyone would get it so quickly! How did you know? Did you own one?


-Phil

I owned a Altair 8800. Sold it on ebay for $3500. Me and my dad paid $495 for the kit. Best two years of father and son bonding!

I currently have a CCS mainframe:

http://www.s100computers.com/Hardware Folder/CCS/History/History.htm

Going to go up on ebay. Replaced all the power caps.

Heater.

Publison,

I owned a Altair 8800. Sold it on ebay for $3500. Me and my dad paid $495 for the kit. Best two years of father and son bonding!

What?! You sold off a piece of family history so cheaply?

Buck Rogers

I agree.

Oh so that's why the robots of erco are gathered around your place.

And if you want to revisit the past, the VCF East is coming up, going to be held 3/31 and 4/1 and 4/2 at InfoAge.

MikeDYur

Phil, Take a look at this so called museum example. I didn't bother to read what the idea was, looks like a security brainstorm. Plus the piece mounted on top, may be for circulating air. The cabinet is ruined, looks like it spent it's life in a machine shop.

It is nice to see one, in as original condition as yours.


http://www.oldcomputermuseum.com/polymorphic_88.html