Overview

Purpose

Preserve an interactive example of home computer systems from the 1970’s to the 2000’s for education, inspiration, and entertainment.

Thoughts

We would like to have as many systems restored and working as we have practical space to keep them stored and even setup for daily use. Machines that are repaired can be used for demonstrations, education, video games, creative works, etc. Having systems running complete with only their original era-accurate equipment is becoming more difficult as these platforms age. With the numerous systems we have adjacent to each other, there are still opportunities to demonstrate vintage home computer operation. Systems that have modernized work-around components installed at least get to add the value of functioning with their original physical appearance and hardware architecture. Keeping the original display technology (like CRTs), peripherals, and the chassis intact help portray what computer usage was like in the decades of the 80s and 90s.

Not every machine is fully functional yet. And there are different levels of effort required to restore each machine. Systems which have no hardware issues will only need software loaded and a how-to procedure for use at denhac. Software is almost always available on the internet archive or hobbyist collector websites. We are also fortunate to already have a decent collection of the original software disks for many of these systems. There are also various adapter devices available for purchase today that can transfer software to the media that a vintage machine can read (floppy disk adapters). Going away from original parts, there are after-market bus adapters that completely replace having a floppy or hard drive. For example, an SD card, which is adapted by a device to operate on the vintage machine’s original bus architecture. But some of our systems need more than software, peripherals, device cards, and bus adapters. We also have hard-to-get machines that require some circuit board rework. Twenty years ago, these failures would have usually junked these machines, but today that’s usually the expected state they will be in. These computer systems found today is often because a past collector had it repaired already. At denhac we have a space with ample electronics tools to give the opportunity to these computers with failed electronics components. So it is reasonable right now to store some of these machines until we get to working on the electronics.

Colorado Computing History

Colorado has a history for computer data storage development. StorageTek was founded in Louisville in 1969 by IBM engineers. People, products, and companies that took part in tape and hard disk technologies still reside here. Exabyte and Spectra Logic in Boulder, ExcelStor, Conner, Maxtor in Longmont, as well as Seagate offices. Sun had offices in Broomfield, which where also VMWare has offices, Hewlett Packard has offices in Fort Collins, and Seymour Cray himself lived here in the Colorado Springs area. The technical workforce needed for storage was established in Colorado and denhac being in close proximity, in Denver, CO, will have the benefit of networking with collectors and surplus storages to locally acquire pieces that are both part of computer history and Colorado history.

Therefore denhac being a non-profit org in Colorado, can help facilitate with the local resources of what may come of left over historical storage technologies. These devices can be repaired here, stored, and demonstrated as part of hacker, techie, and Colorado history.

The documentation for commodity computer parts was aggregated in the 1990’s by a for-profit company in Boulder called Micro House International. They catered towards IT users and repair shops by reformatting manuals into quick data sheets that were sold in print and on CD. YouTube channel ‘The Serial Port’ has a video covering this company and how their data legacy continues today in an open source effort known as The Retro Web. This type of documentation allows for 1980’s and 1990’s computer PC clone parts to still be configured and usable in vintage machine builds today.

Hardware Architecture Platforms Available

• TI TMS9900 in the TI-99/4A
• Zilog Z80 in the Osbourne 1
• MOS 6502 in the Apple II Plus
• MOS 6510 in the Commodore 64
• MOS 8501 in the Commodore Plus/4
• Motorola 68010 in the Amiga A1000
• Motorola 65816 in the Apple IIGS
• Motorola 68020 in the Macintosh LC
• Motorola 68030 in the Macintosh IIcx & LC II
• Motorola 68030 in the Macintosh SE/30 & Classic II
• PowerPC 750 “G3” in the iMac Ruby Edition
• PowerPC 7455 in the Mac Pro G4
• Intel 486DX in the PC Clone
• Intel Pentium III in the Dell XPS T500

Computer Systems

In no particular order, this a list of the vintage computer hardware we have physically available at the space. As a denhac project, we are working on a more comprehensive and interactive inventory scheme. Not all systems are working and some of these things need repairs, media, or extra parts to fully demo.

Systems

Apple IIgs
AT&T PC 6300 Plus
IBM XT 286
Kaypro II
PC Clone – Tower “AOpen” badge
PC Clone – Tower no badge
SGI Indigo 2 Extreme
TI 99/4A
Toshiba Libretto TBD
Vectrex
Wyse WY-50
Acer Netbook
TRS 80 Model 100
Sharp PC-7000
Compaq portable III Model 20
NEC Powermate Portable SX
Epson Equity LT-286e
Apple Macintosh Performa 6214CD
Apple MacBook TBD
Apple PowerBook 1400
Apple Macintosh LC
Apple Macintosh LC II
Sun Ultra 1
Apple PowerMac G4 Mirror
Apple Macintosh SE
Apple Macintosh SE/30
Apple Macintosh SE/30
Polo System 1
Pentium Clone Full Tower
Dell Server TBD quad pentium pro
Osborne 1
Apple Machintosh Classic
Apple II+ / ][+ / 2 plus
Macintosh Performa 550
Commodore Intl Amiga 1000
Dell XPS T500
Apple iMac G3 Ruby
Apple Mac SE/30
CBM Commodore 64
WYSE Terminal WY-55

Wanted

General things we don’t have that would fit the theme of this museum:

• IBM PS/1 systems
• IBM PS/2 systems
• A Gateway/Compaq/eMachines branded PC from 486 to Pentium 2
• OEM CRTs (Dell, Compaq, Gateway, Sony)
• Apple Macintosh Plus
• Apple Macintosh Quadra (even a broken one)
• Apple Power Mac tower or desktop
• Apple Lisa (even a broken one)
• Reach out if you have something we haven’t thought of and would like to discuss donating it.