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Recent thrift store finds!


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I've found:

 

Osborne 1 $15

Panasonic Sr. Partner $15

Zenith Data Systems Z-181-92 $3.93

TI-99/4A $5

Commodore Amiga 2000HD $14

 

The Osborne 1 works great, but the keyboard has a shorted switch somewhere. I haven't had the time to take it apart and fix it yet. There are no system disks, so I'm going to have to create some soon! I don't have a 5 1/4" disk drive on my desktop so I got my eyes peeled for a computer with one while thrifting now :) The Osborne is in very good shape and the monitor looks perfect. It runs a Z80 processor.

 

The Panasonic's copper keyboard contacts were invisibly oxidized, so I cleaned it up with some rubbing alcohol and it works great. There were two 5 1/4" disks that came with the machine: one that boots into COMPAQ DOS 1.1 and the other that contains some WordPerfect documents. The DOS disk includes GWBASIC, but for some reason, it won't break the program unless it's waiting for in INPUT function ... It's in great shape though! The printer works too! This baby is an 8086!

 

The Zenith works perfectly. I formatted some 1.44MB 3.5" disks to double-density and got it to boot FreeDOS with some 80C88 compatibility tinkering, and have had some fun with QBASIC on it. Ironically, i bought a Compaq power supply that had the correct voltage and sufficient amperage to run it for $3.99 ...

 

The TI-99/4A is in amazing shape! There is a very small dent above the keyboard, but it's not noticeable unless it's pointed out. I got it with the RF modulator, the original power supply (that buzzes like a freak), the power filter (what the heck does it do?), and the cassette tape cable. I've been messing around with TI-BASIC but it is stupid slow. I've recorded a few of my programs into my laptop through my sound card, and playing them back into the TI-99 works great too. I researched how the joysticks on the TI-99/4A and 2600 differ in pinout and soldered up a two-joystick adapter with some RadioShack parts and CAT-5 cable. It turned out really great and I've been able to program some BASIC that utilizes them :)

 

My Amiga works great too! I am stuck using the B/W composite video output for now, but I soldered together a VGA adapter that interfaces with the DB-23 RGB video output. It doesn't work with any of the monitors I have because the scan rate is so low, but I'm going to take it to the the trift stores around here and see if I can find one that'll work! It would be nice to have color ... I also got an external AE 3.5" disk drive with it too, but it was sold separately from the computer (thrift store employees barely know anything about this stuff). Anyway, it has a built-in hard drive! It boots and runs great off of it too. There are a few games and apps on it, but without a good color output, it's kinda worthless for now. I also don't have the keyboard, so I'm keyboardless. I think I'm going to solder up an AT-to-Amiga adapter.

 

I'll get some pictures up when I find some time ... college is making me think about finals week pretty intently. What do you guys think of my finds? :D

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Great deal on the Amiga! Did you run when leaving?

:lol:

 

today i found some stuff...

 

Jakks Atari tv game 2 euro

Jakks Namco tv game 2 euro

Atari 128 in 1 cartridge 10 euro (too much :( )

Sinclair joystick 1 euro

Tomytronic Pro-Tennis tabletop boxed 10 euro

no name mini pong console 1.90 euro

 

EDIT: Oops... sorry sean. i thought this was the huge thrift store topic...

BTW i really like your new Osborne :)

 

EDIT No2! You are not Sean... you have the same avatar :lol: :D

Edited by Ethaniel
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Great deal on the Amiga! Did you run when leaving?

:lol:

 

today i found some stuff...

 

Jakks Atari tv game 2 euro

Jakks Namco tv game 2 euro

Atari 128 in 1 cartridge 10 euro (too much :( )

Sinclair joystick 1 euro

Tomytronic Pro-Tennis tabletop boxed 10 euro

no name mini pong console 1.90 euro

 

EDIT: Oops... sorry sean. i thought this was the huge thrift store topic...

BTW i really like your new Osborne :)

 

EDIT No2! You are not Sean... you have the same avatar :lol: :D

 

wooooow, nice!

 

About the Amiga, I got a few "why are you buying that?" comments from some of the people I went with, but no need to hurry, I had a shopping cart and it was a value village :)

 

I think I'm going to mess with a retr0bright formula and get rid of the yellowing!

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Great deal on the Amiga! Did you run when leaving?

:lol:

 

today i found some stuff...

 

Jakks Atari tv game 2 euro

Jakks Namco tv game 2 euro

Atari 128 in 1 cartridge 10 euro (too much :( )

Sinclair joystick 1 euro

Tomytronic Pro-Tennis tabletop boxed 10 euro

no name mini pong console 1.90 euro

 

Those people aren't followers of the Retro Computer.

Anyways, nice find. I would have thrown the stuff in the cart and ran.

EDIT: Oops... sorry sean. i thought this was the huge thrift store topic...

BTW i really like your new Osborne :)

 

EDIT No2! You are not Sean... you have the same avatar :lol: :D

 

wooooow, nice!

 

About the Amiga, I got a few "why are you buying that?" comments from some of the people I went with, but no need to hurry, I had a shopping cart and it was a value village :)

 

I think I'm going to mess with a retr0bright formula and get rid of the yellowing!

 

Nice find. I would have ran. :cool:

Edited by ThelonelyAlien
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I think I'm going to solder up an AT-to-Amiga adapter.

I wouldn't lug around an Amiga, trying to see if it's compatible with thrift store monitors. There were only a few popular (literally 3 maybe) multi-sync's that go down to 15khz, so that would be a monumental waste of time. Your best bet is finding an Amiga or Commodore monitor OR, if you can scrap up the dough, get yourself an Indivision ECS flicker-fixer/scandoubler and use any modern VGA monitor with it.

 

http://amigakit.leam...products_id=918

Edited by save2600
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I think I'm going to solder up an AT-to-Amiga adapter.

[/quote

I wouldn't lug around an Amiga, trying to see if it's compatible with thrift store monitors. There were only a few popular (literally 3 maybe) multi-sync's that go down to 15khz, so that would be a monumental waste of time. Your best bet is finding an Amiga or Commodore monitor OR, if you can scrap up the dough, get yourself an Indivision ECS flicker-fixer/scandoubler and use any modern VGA monitor with it.

 

http://amigakit.leam...products_id=918

 

The AT-to-Amiga adapter would be for the keyboard. I would use a PIC to translate the keys.

 

But for the monitor ... hrm, I see. I think I might try a couple just because. Some have 20-30 off-branded old monitors lying around. I'll expect my results to be null though ... this is good to know. Flicker filters are so expensive ...

Edited by Synthead
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Great deal on the Amiga! Did you run when leaving?

:lol:

 

today i found some stuff...

 

Jakks Atari tv game 2 euro

Jakks Namco tv game 2 euro

Atari 128 in 1 cartridge 10 euro (too much :( )

Sinclair joystick 1 euro

Tomytronic Pro-Tennis tabletop boxed 10 euro

no name mini pong console 1.90 euro

 

EDIT: Oops... sorry sean. i thought this was the huge thrift store topic...

BTW i really like your new Osborne :)

 

EDIT No2! You are not Sean... you have the same avatar :lol: :D

 

wooooow, nice!

 

About the Amiga, I got a few "why are you buying that?" comments from some of the people I went with, but no need to hurry, I had a shopping cart and it was a value village :)

 

I think I'm going to mess with a retr0bright formula and get rid of the yellowing!

That is a rare item for thrift stores indeed, wait till your friends see what it can do :D

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You guys will not believe what I found yesterday. I found a model 2001-32 n PET. They thought it was an old cash register so they were selling it for 20 bucks. It even has the easter egg in it. I have no place for it in my house and my wife is going bezerk, but it was worth it. :twisted: :) :cool:

Edited by ThelonelyAlien
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You guys will not believe what I found yesterday. I found a model 2001-32 n PET. They thought it was an old cash register so they were selling it for 20 bucks. It even has the easter egg in it. I have no place for it in my house and my wife is going bezerk, but it was worth it. :twisted: :) :cool:

 

gosh... you guys are so lucky!! I wish I'd find such things over here :( (the only thing I'm getting is the berzerk wife! LOL! :D )

I think I'd relocate to the US... ;)

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You guys will not believe what I found yesterday. I found a model 2001-32 n PET. They thought it was an old cash register so they were selling it for 20 bucks. It even has the easter egg in it. I have no place for it in my house and my wife is going bezerk, but it was worth it. :twisted: :) :cool:

 

!!!! Yow! I've been wanting a PET for a long time, and going to thrifts for a very long time. Then you just walk in and there one sits. Some guys have all the luck!

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You guys will not believe what I found yesterday. I found a model 2001-32 n PET. They thought it was an old cash register so they were selling it for 20 bucks. It even has the easter egg in it. I have no place for it in my house and my wife is going bezerk, but it was worth it. :twisted: :) :cool:

 

!!!! Yow! I've been wanting a PET for a long time, and going to thrifts for a very long time. Then you just walk in and there one sits. Some guys have all the luck!

Whats better is that was my first time looking for video games in a thrift store.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A PET?!? Man, I'd love to have one of those too.

 

Went thrifting at a consignment shop today and found these for $2ea:

 

2600 Sky Skipper

2600 Reactor

2600 Frogger

Colecovision Frogger

Colecovision Q*Bert

 

...all PB games! I didn't pick any up as I didn't need them, but how weird is that to see this selection in a bin?

Edited by save2600
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  • 2 weeks later...

I used an NEC Multisync II (not a 2A) with my Amiga 2000HD way back when. Paid a whole lot more than $14 for it too. That's highway robbery, even today. The Multisync II was a great monitor, and I was really sad when mine finally died. I used the crap out of that thing for many, many years. I kind of wish I'd kept it and had it fixed, but didn't have the room for it at the time.

 

Some of the 14" Mitsubishi monitors also would go down to 15Hz. Some Google work might turn up some good candidates for you. I don't remember the specifics anymore.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Found this Interact today. I am not a big classic computer guy, but I am familiar with most of the early 80's stuff. This thing...heh...never heard of it before.

 

dsc02048pa.th.jpg

And it's worth quite a bit on ebay.

 

 

I think the tape deck is dead...so probally not that much. It boots to a screen that says press L to load and the deck won't respond. I can't even eject the tape

now, maybe the deck has power eject and the whole thing is unpowered...blah I dunno.

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Found this Interact today. I am not a big classic computer guy, but I am familiar with most of the early 80's stuff. This thing...heh...never heard of it before.

 

dsc02048pa.th.jpg

And it's worth quite a bit on ebay.

 

 

I think the tape deck is dead...so probally not that much. It boots to a screen that says press L to load and the deck won't respond. I can't even eject the tape

now, maybe the deck has power eject and the whole thing is unpowered...blah I dunno.

 

Someone can fix it. Or has a working tape deck and no main unit. I've never even heard of that thing either!

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it was about 4 years ago my friend gave me his TI-99 with a crap load of carts and books with the voice box, about 2 years ago i found the expansion box for it at goodwill for $5.

 

The sad thing is i have only played with it around 2 times and don't really have the room for it any more, Its been in storage since.

 

My local goodwill sometimes has a few things worth buying. but recently they dont want to take most computers or the hardware.

 

Also picked up a C64 in the box with all its papers for $10 plus a drive also in the box for $5 at my local goodwill once.

 

also picked up a Atari XE , and a few other Atari consoles from the same goodwill. Never got to use the XE (lacked the power supply).

 

but other then that not much else.

Edited by madmax2069
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