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Recently, I found the time to ‘clean up’ (it's still dirty. It's always dirty!), maintain and test the Cambridge Z88.
This is Sir Clive Sinclair's first computer after Sinclair Research was bought by Amstrad. He didn't have the right to use his name in the company name, hence ‘Cambridge’. But it's a Sinclair through and through, down to the horrible power supply and ‘novel’ keyboard. This one isn't the worst keyboard I've used, but it does have a knack for collecting all the dust in a five-mile radius. It also has the classic Sinclair cock-up: the expansion connector caused more trouble than it was worth, so in newer versions of the computer (mine included) the opening is blocked. The edge connector is still there on the board, of course.
But it was an interesting design with very interesting software and some unusual features. It has 32K of built-in RAM but takes up to 3MB of various types of memory cartridges (static RAM, flash RAM, and EPROM cards—there was no built-in storage). It also has the only implementation of BBC Basic for the Z80 I'm aware of.
I actually used this little notebook as recently as 2003 or 2004 when I switched to a Palm device.
Recently, I found the time to ‘clean up’ (it's still dirty. It's always dirty!), maintain and test the Cambridge Z88.
This is Sir Clive Sinclair's first computer after Sinclair Research was bought by Amstrad. He didn't have the right to use his name in the company name, hence ‘Cambridge’. But it's a Sinclair through and through, down to the horrible power supply and ‘novel’ keyboard. This one isn't the worst keyboard I've used, but it does have a knack for collecting all the dust in a five-mile radius. It also has the classic Sinclair cock-up: the expansion connector caused more trouble than it was worth, so in newer versions of the computer (mine included) the opening is blocked. The edge connector is still there on the board, of course.
But it was an interesting design with very interesting software and some unusual features. It has 32K of built-in RAM but takes up to 3MB of various types of memory cartridges (static RAM, flash RAM, and EPROM cards—there was no built-in storage). It also has the only implementation of BBC Basic for the Z80 I'm aware of.
I actually used this little notebook as recently as 2003 or 2004 when I switched to a Palm device.
Mostra "VINTAGE COMPUTERS" Museo Itinerante Apulia Retrocomputing.
L'annunciata collaborazione con l'Istituto Tecnico Tecnologico "Modesto Panetti" di Bari dà vita ad un primo esperimento consistente nella esposizione di retrocomputers e retroconsoles il giorno 19 gennaio 2014.
My newly purchased Atari Portfolio, one of the first pocket computers made. Bidded SEK 205 on a Swedish auction site. No accessories unfortunately. Another Atari item for the collection though. :)
Hand-held camera, no flash, ISO400.
The interior of the game diskette package. The disk is not a 3.5" disk nor an Amstrad-type disk. It may be of the miniature disk format used by some old samplers, synthesisers and word processors.
On the left, an Apple I - the first computer produced by Apple. On the right, an Altair 8800, the first 'personal computer'.