ibm pcjr Archives

Home » ibm pcjr

Where to buy vintage computers

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing June 28, 2017April 19, 20261541, 1980s, commodore, dell, electric trains, estate sales, garage sale, garage sales, IBM, ibm pcjr, intel, Kansas City, Missouri, recycling, survivors, Tandy, Texas Instruments, TI, Value Village, vintage computer, vintage trains

Collecting vintage computers can be fun. I also personally think it’s great that people are interested in preserving that history. Where to buy vintage computers hasn’t changed much over the years. It just may take a bit more work than it used to.

Some people think old computers are priceless. Others think they’re worthless. I don’t recommend wasting your time with people who think a Dell Pentium III laptop is worth $300. Think of the times you found a jewel for five bucks and keep moving.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net

Radio Shack computers

Dave Farquhar Retail, Retro Computing May 25, 2017February 5, 20251980s, 1990s, 6502, apple, apple ii, atari, Bill Gates, commodore, commodore 64, compaq, IBM, ibm pcjr, intel, Japan, Missouri, motorola, radio shack, Tandy, tandy 1000

Radio Shack released one of the first home computers, the TRS-80 Model I, in 1977. Between 1977 and 1979, it sold 100,000 units. Radio Shack sold them just as quickly as Tandy could make them. You can count Radio Shack and its parent company Tandy among computer companies that failed, but they enjoyed a good run. For a time, Radio Shack computers, later marketed as Tandy computers, were very popular.

Radio Shack and Tandy computers included the TRS-80 Model I from the inaugural class of 1977, the pioneering Model 100 portable, and the Tandy 1000 series, which helped bring PC clones into homes.

There were several reasons why Radio Shack computers were hard to compete with in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing January 29, 2014September 26, 20221980s, apple, apple ii, christmas, commodore, commodore 64, IBM, ibm pcjr, lenovo, macintosh, mainframe, Personal Computer, radio shack, Tandy, tandy 1000, XT

On January 29, 1984, two computers hit the market. One was Apple’s Macintosh. It needs no introduction. The other was the IBM PCjr. It was a little less successful. We’ll talk about what this has to do with the Tandy 1000 in a minute.

The PCjr is one of the biggest flops in computing history. Few people know much more about it than that. It ended up being an important computer, but it certainly didn’t meet IBM’s expectations. Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Commodore 128, top-12 dud? By what measure?

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing August 17, 2011September 15, 20251980s, amiga, apple, apple ii, Apple Macintosh, atari, atari 2600, atari st, commodore, commodore 128, commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, IBM, ibm pcjr, macintosh, motorola, NES, nintendo, nintendo nes, pc magazine, video game

PC Magazine presented a list of 12 computer duds, and while I agree with most of them, my old friend the Commodore 128 makes an appearance. Commodore released several duds over the years, but calling the 128 one of them doesn’t seem fair.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Dinosaur hunting

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 22, 2010November 15, 20181980s, 1990s, apple, colecovision, commodore, commodore 64, extra money, IBM, ibm pcjr, Packard Bell, Personal Computer, proprietary unix, radio shack, sgi, Tandy, tandy 1000, Texas Instruments, TI, unix, XT

Today I slipped over to Laclede Computer Trading Company for the first time in many years. I was in search of an ISA parallel card. They’re not easy to find these days, mostly because they aren’t particularly useful to most people these days, but I figured if anyone would have one, it would be them.

No dice. But man, what memories.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

The rise and fall of Shack, and how to fix it

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing May 11, 2010January 31, 20221980s, 1990s, acer, amd, amiga, apple, apple ii, atx power supply, commodore, commodore 64, compaq, computer cases, dell, DIY, IBM, ibm pcjr, intel, kmart, knockoffs, Micro Center, Missouri, Packard Bell, radio shack, resistors, Tandy, tandy 1000, XT

Wired has a nostalgic piece on the not-quite-late, not-quite-great Radio Shack. I think it’s a good article, but it glosses over part of the reason for the store’s decline.

It blames computers.But blaming computers ignores Tandy’s long and successful run in that industry. Most Apple fanatics and other revisionist historians conveniently overlook this, but when Apple launched the Apple II in 1977, Tandy and Commodore were right there with competing offerings. I don’t know about Apple, but Tandy and Commodore were selling their machines faster than they could make them.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

How IBM and DOS came to dominate the industry

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing February 19, 2003May 30, 20251980s, 1990s, amiga, apple, Apple Computer, apple ii, atari, atari st, commodore, commodore 128, commodore 64, Consumer Reports, Crestwood Plaza, IBM, ibm pcjr, intel, macintosh, Personal Computer, radio shack, Tandy, tandy 1000, vector, XT

Revisionist historians talk about how MS-DOS standardized computer operating systems and changed the industry. That’s very true. But what they’re ignoring is that there were standards before 1981, and the standards established in 1981 took a number of years to take hold.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Old computer magazines

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing November 12, 2002November 11, 2024amiga, apple, Apple Lisa, atari, atari st, IBM, ibm pcjr

I guess I need a “retro” category here. Anyway, I found this on Slashdot this morning: The Computer Magazine Archive. Don’t let the URL fool you–it’s not just Atari stuff.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net