Epson RX-80 printer for "free" if you're willing to pay shipping

[+wood_jl]

Send PM if interested. Maybe leave msg in thread, too.

 

Good printer; I just need some room, and I have more printers than I can use. I'd take this to Goodwill, but I know they'd just throw it away, so before I do the same, I thought I'd find out if anybody is interested in paying shipping. I don't remember how I got these, but I paid for it (and shipping) somewhere along the way, then I forgot I had it and bought another, etc. What a fool!

 

To save this from the dump, I'll donate the time to pack it well (and go to the Post Office, obviously). After all, if it's damaged or destroyed due to lame packing, you've wasted your money shipping garbage.

 

These are amongst the best old-school printers for retrocomputers, because:

(1) Reliable as the day is long; old-time "Made in Japan" quality and not cheap Chinese junk

(2) As compatible as is possible, as nearly all classic software targeted Epson, and clone printers emulated it

(3) Even in 2013, you can still get ribbons for it everywhere (Epson #8750) and all over Ebay, and we're talking around $5. Try that with other brands. Examples:

Amazon

Staples

Walmart

Officemax

Office Depot

 

Relive the sights and sounds of the 1980s by banging out some old-school Broderbund Print Shoppe!

 

Pretty clean printer, but the top cover is busted. The fool that I bought it from did not tape it down, and put a heavy book (that was for the wrong printer, even!) loose in the box and it and the cover bounced around together and broke the cover. I stuck it back together with clear epoxy, and it seems pretty strong and sits in place to keep things from being too ugly, but it's too bad it broke. You must use tractor-feed paper with this printer.

 

(click pics to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

Here, you can better see the break in the cover in this lighting.

 

Atari 520ST screen dump, by pressing ALT-HELP keys

 

Self-test print by holding down LF button when powering-on; here is a link to a video of it printing the self test

 

I was surprised to find that it will even work with Windows XP; the driver is built in to Windows! However, it is dreadfully slow in this mode, as it uses the unidirectional graphics mode of the printer to plot a bitmap on the page, rather than the bidirectional text mode. This is clearly a printer for classic/retro computer.

 

Still a good way to test the printer, however.

 

For use with an Atari 8-bit computer (400/800/XL/XE) you must set DIP switch 2-3 to "Auto LF with CR," rather than the default "CR only" that works with Atari ST, and just about every other computer. As you may know, you'll need a Parallel Printer Interface for use with 8-bit Atari and 8-bit Commodore computers; they're fairly common.

 

Because people still sell these printers on Ebay, it must have some value to some retro-enthusiast - hence my reluctance to throw it in the garbage - but I don't want to hassle with Ebay fools and would rather see it go to a good home.

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 350629381123

Sold for $40 + ship

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 221027822565

Currently for sale $55 + ship

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 230595267858

Dreamer trying to get $150

Edited January 2, 2013 by wood_jl