Odd peripherals you had for your computer bitd

[bluejay]

What kind of peculiar peripheral did you have for your 8 or 16 bit computer back in the day? What did you use it for and how often? How well did it work if it did at all?

[zzip]

how peculiar does it have to be?  

 

I had an Atari SX212 modem,  which may not seem odd.   But it had both SIO and RS232 ports, which meant I could plug it into both my 8-bit and ST simultaneously.    I soon figured out that a character echoed from one computer could be read from the other.   And I used this to create a crude file transfer program to copy files from one to the other.    I didn't have an 850 or any other way to copy files between the two.

[bluejay]

1 hour ago, zzip said:

how peculiar does it have to be?  

 

I had an Atari SX212 modem,  which may not seem odd.   But it had both SIO and RS232 ports, which meant I could plug it into both my 8-bit and ST simultaneously.    I soon figured out that a character echoed from one computer could be read from the other.   And I used this to create a crude file transfer program to copy files from one to the other.    I didn't have an 850 or any other way to copy files between the two.

A peculiar peripheral would be a 3rd party item that doesn't have an OEM counterpart, or it was otherwise a commercial failure. For example, the Indus GT wouldn't be peculiar as Commodore and Atari made their own floppy drives. However the Video Byte digitizer would be considered peculiar since Commodore didn't make their own digitizer. However, a Commodore Sound Expander would be considered peculiar because it was a total flop and nearly no one had one. If you aren't sure it doesn't hurt to share anyways.

But common peripherals used for odd purposes, like your sx212 modem, seems interesting as well.

It's not exactly transferring through the modem, is it? It's just an echo between to devices that's connected on one side. I don't know how exactly a modem works, but it was definitely not supposed to be used the way you used it.

[zzip]

12 minutes ago, bluejay said:

It's not exactly transferring through the modem, is it? It's just an echo between to devices that's connected on one side. I don't know how exactly a modem works, but it was definitely not supposed to be used the way you used it.

exactly, it's just echoing characters in the command mode as I recall.

 

Come to think of it, I did own one weird peripheral for ST.   I picked it up cheap from a Store closing.    It had coaxial connection just like early ethernet cards used, so I assumed it must be an ethernet device for the ST.    But I could never find software for it.   

 

Years later somebody finally identified what it was.   I forget what exactly, but it wasn't standard ethernet after all.

[bluejay]

Just now, zzip said:

exactly, it's just echoing characters in the command mode as I recall.

 

Come to think of it, I did own one weird peripheral for ST.   I picked it up cheap from a Store closing.    It had coaxial connection just like early ethernet cards used, so I assumed it must be an ethernet device for the ST.    But I could never find software for it.   

 

Years later somebody finally identified what it was.   I forget what exactly, but it wasn't standard ethernet after all.

So you didn't use it for anything, ever? What did it look like?

[zzip]

5 minutes ago, bluejay said:

So you didn't use it for anything, ever? What did it look like?

It was a beige box maybe 4"x4"x3" (give or take on any dimension),  I think it connected to the ST-cartridge port on one side and the other had the coax connector.   I don't remember the brand name as I haven't seen it in years.  Probably got rid of it after realizing it wasn't what I hoped.

[bluejay]

4 minutes ago, zzip said:

It was a beige box maybe 4"x4"x3" (give or take on any dimension),  I think it connected to the ST-cartridge port on one side and the other had the coax connector.   I don't remember the brand name as I haven't seen it in years.  Probably got rid of it after realizing it wasn't what I hoped.

Took a few minutes to search around google, but nothing. Shame that you got rid of it, you could have listed it on ebay for $700. "SUPER RARE ATARI ST HOLY GRAIL CARTRIDGE PERIPHERAL RARE"

[zzip]

16 minutes ago, bluejay said:

Took a few minutes to search around google, but nothing. Shame that you got rid of it, you could have listed it on ebay for $700. "SUPER RARE ATARI ST HOLY GRAIL CARTRIDGE PERIPHERAL RARE"

Haha!   Well there's a chance it still lurks in my basement somewhere, since I don't actually remember getting rid of it.     Unless I sold it to the guy who told me it was junk for like $5  :)