On 24th March 2006, the official opening of the guest exhibition took place. Toma� Kac, Bojan Kotur, Robert Kova?, Damjan Lenar?i? and Bojan Pesek presented their vintage computers. The exhibition lasted until 14th of April, in three weeks time, the visitons could see the popular computers of the 1980’s, those that were so widely available and also some that are true rarities.
If you couldn’t come and see the computers in person, you can see them on a virtual exhibition.

Toma� Kac

About collecting: I don’t “collect” old computers in a classic sense. I still use all of my computers with my homemade hardware project and also for playing old games.

Schneider CPC464

Schneider CPC464 was virtually the same as Amstrad CPC464, which was sold in England. For the German market they changed the colours (to a little less contrasting than red and blue) and built in better connectors on the back-side. It was made in 1985.

CPC464 is one of the most successful 8-bit computers in Europe. Only Commodore C64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum sold more. Quality and technical specifications made it a top home computer of that time. It was capable of displaying high-resolution graphics on a standard monitor or even a television screen, it had many colors and a very good processor.

The computer always came with a monitor (color or “green”), as it got power directly from the monitor and had no special power supply, which meant less cables arund the computer nad resulted in a higher price. It also had a built-in cassette drive so there was no need to buy extra peripherals. Most of the games of the time were written for CPC464. C64 and ZX Spectrum had more entertaining software, but the quality was about the same.

CPC464 had more success on the field of serious applications. With it’s high-resolution graphics on practically every display came a quality 80-column display that is required for most applications. Besides that, the heart of the computer – Z80 – was capable of running the CP/M operating system. Of course, a floppy drive had to be purchased for that. CPC464 was followed by CPC664 and CPC6128, which already had a built-in 3″ floppy, the latter also had a 128Kb memory, but offered practicaly the same capabilities.

Commodore 128

The Commodore 128 was launched at the Las-Vegas Consumer Electronic Show 1985. It was presented then as a competitor for the Apple Macintosh and IBM PC. Later it showed, that not everything went as planned. C128 was the successor ot the best-selling computer of all times – Commodore 64. As a true successor it could run all the programs and games and use all the hardware of its older brother. This perfect compatibility with C64 proved to be its biggest problem.

As a machine, the C128 was three computers in one. The aforementioned C64 mode provided a wide variety of games. C128 mode had twice the power (the 8502 processor running at double frequency), high graphics resolution, one of the best BASICs ever written and faster peripherals (especially the floppy drive).

Quite a few applications have been written for this mode, but most were written for the third mode of operation, the CP/M mode. CP/M was a predecessor of MS-DOS and at the time the most popular operating system for non-gaming use. This way C128 was able to run many different applications. For this mode, a Z80 processor running at 2.5Mhz was built in.

Unfortunately, C128 did not live to be popular. Mostly because of its compatibility with C64 which resulted in software developers refusing to write programs for C128 mode. The same was with business applications and CP/M.

Along the C128, Commodore released a desktop version C128D, which looked more like PC’s of the time and Amiga 1000 (which was the archnemesis of C128, being introduces at the same time with much more capabilities).

Bojan Kotur

About collecting:I started collecting vintage computers by coincidence. In 1999 I got my hands on a well-preserved ZX Spectrum 48k. Nostalgia kicked in and I began to frequent the at the flea market. I became a victim of collector’s fever. I started buying everything from Commodores to MSX-es and various consoles. That way, my collection grew to more than 20 more or lest complete systems. In the last year, I had to cut down on the collecting due to lack of room.

Commodore C16

C16 is the third computer from the 264 series (the other two are C116 and Plus/4). Basically, the C16 is the same as Plus/4 only with less memory. The case looks like C64 painted black. It was designed to replace the then obsolete VIC-20 but was not compatible with it or with C64. It was also uncompatible with all of the other Commodores peripherals, using a different casette recorder, floppy drive and joysticks with mini-DIN connectors instead of the usual Atari connectors. Like Plus/4 and C116, the C16 was a total commercial disaster.

Schneider CPC6128

Schneider is nothing but Amstrad for mainland Europe or Germany, Austria and some other countries. It’s a perfected version of CPC664 with better keyboard, more memory and a built-in 3″ floppy drive. The floppies are doublesided and fit 180KB per side, but the drive only has one head and the floppies have to be turned around to use the other side. The only other computer using such disks is ZX Spectrun 3+. It came with a decent monochromatic monitor and could also be connected to a television. As far as hardware is concerned the CPC6128 is compatible with CPC464 and CPC664. It was never as successful as the cheaper 464.

Atari Portfolio

Portfolio is probably the first PC-compatible handheld computer. It’s basically a PX XT built around a NEC V30 processor (a 8086 clone), working at 4,9512MHz. It has a decent LCD display (unfortunately it is not backlit) and a rather inconvenient QWERTY keyboard. It is powered by three 1.5V batteries or an AC adapter. It offered a lot for its time, being an entirely autonomous computer, most popular among businessmen, reporters and others that needed a small portable computer. It can be connected to a PC through the parallel port using built-in software. There’s also an external Atari memory card reader/writer for PC. Another interesting thing about Portfolio is the built-in software.

Fun fact: Portfolio stars in the famous action movie Terminator 2, where John Connor uses it to hack into an ATM machine and withdraw $300.

Robert Kova?

About collecting: I tried to convince myself for a long time, that I am not really collecting computers and that I just need more computers that the average user. Now I am “using” almost 50 and will probably have to admit it is collecting afterall..

PEL Vara�din Galeb

Galeb is a computer that was intended mainly for the Yugoslavian schools. The schematics were made by Miroslav Kocjan, who later designed the Orao computer. It was built around one of the most popular processors of the time, the OS 6502, and had 9KB of RAM (expandable up to 64KB). In its 16KB ROM there were a slightly modified Microsoft BASIC and monitor. The computer did not boot into BASIC as it was then common, but into monitor. The user could switch to BASIC with a combination of keys.

The PEL Vara�din company made the last Galeb before the end of 1984. They made just 250 computers and this one is (to our knowledge) the only one left and working. In its time it was used in one of Slovenian schools.. It was followed by a better and more affordable Orao.

Commodore +4

The most powerful of the 264 family that succeeded the VIC-20 and 64 models. It was targeted at the business user and was not meant to replace or compete with the then still very successful model 64. It came with four built-in office applications (thus +4). The applications were not very good and most operations required a floppy drive.

Engineers did not make the same mistake as with 64 and built-in a powerful BASIC that included commands for sound and graphics. They added a multitude of graphic modes including some with half of the screen used for graphics and the other for text. But they forgot compatibility with older models. +4 did not suport sprites which were a must for most games and the sound wasn’t as good either. This lead to a lack of software and resulted in failure of the whole 264 family.

Texas Instruments TI99/4A

Its predecessor � model TI99/4 was the first home computer to be powered by a 16-bit processor (TMS 9900 at 3MHz). Although made in 1981, before C64 and Sinclair Spectrum and similar to both performance-wise, it was not very popular here. The main culprit for that was the price.

Acorn BBC model B

Technically one of the most perfected 8-bit computers with a very powerful BASIC. It was very popular and widely used in Great Britain in schools even after 1990. It didn’t make it out of GB because of its high price.

The computer had many different interfaces including a network interface eventhough networks were not common on computers for quite some years later. The most interesting interface is the so called Tube, that enabled a second processor to be connected. There was a hardware IBM XT emulator for the Acorn.

Philips VG 8235

A MSX2 compatible with a built-in floppy drive and an adjustable keyboard. In the beginning of the 1980’s most computers were not compatible with each other and their predecessors. The Japanese corporation ASCII developed the MSX standard, that provided compatibility between different computer manufacturers. They even got Microsoft to make MSX DOS, a system similar to MS-DOS. Bill Gates was very confident about the success of the MSX standard.

Damjan Lenar?i?

About Galaksija: Computer as such is not a collectors item, it is more a memory of the time when the owner of a computer knew how every bit of it worked.

Galaksija

Galaksija was developed by Voja Antoni?, who (as he said) designed it on vacation in a hotel room. Credits for its tremendous popularity in former Yugoslafia go to the magazine Galaksija. An article published in 1984 in a special edition named “Ra?unari u va�oj ku?i” (“Computers in your house”, the special edition grew into magazine Ra?unari (“Computers”)) which presented the building of the Galaksija in a simple way.

The article got a huge response from the readers and according to some sources, Galaksija got in over 8000 homes. Another man should be mentioned here – Dejan Ristanovi?, who wrote the articles published in the mentioned and other magazines. He was also the author of Galaksija’s handbook.

The magazine Galaksija provided ways of purchasing the main components that were not available in the shops: the circuit, keyboard and EPROM with software. All other components were standard components available in specialised electronics shops, but not in Yugoslavia, of course.

There was also a commercial version of Galaksija, made by “Zavod za u?ila i nastavna sredstva” in cooperation with “Elektronika in�enjering”. This got Galaksija in all Beograd schools and many others. The Beograd radio even had a special time slot for Galaksija, where among other things, they broadcasted software for it. The computer is about as powerful as Sinclair ZX 81, but it has its advantages: better keyboard, built-in hardware compiler, which turned Galaksija in a developers tool for Z80.

Bojan Pesek

About collecting:Why can’t old computers just go past me to the dump?
Maybe it’s in my genes, as I go through traffic jams in a 30-year old car, but most of the blame goes to keeping track of the fast developing computer technology from ZX81 to modern PCs.

Sinclair ZX81

Sinclair ZX81 succeeded the ZX80, the pioneer of microcoputers. Until then only DIY kits and much more expensive models for education purposes were available. ZX81 was capable of floating point operations and working with files stores on magnetic tape.

ZX81 had an 8K ROM with 30 additional commands for working with printer.
New commands: ASN, ACS, ATN COS, EXP, INKEY$, PI, SGN, SIN SQR, INT, LEN, LN, TAN, VAL, <=, >=, < >, COPY, DIM A$, FAST, FOR … TO … STEP, LLIST, LLIST n, LPRINT, PAUSE, PLOT, PRINT AT, PRINT TAB, SCROLL, SLOW, UNPLOT. Unlike ZX80 it didn’t have TL$, which returned strings without the first character. It had two modes of operation SLOW and FAST. FAST mode was the only mode with ZX80 and it meant refreshing the screen when the calculation/action/function was complete. SLOW mode, in fact very true to its name constantly refreshed the display.

It’s built of four chips: ROM, Z80A CPU, 1K RAM and a custom made Ferranti chip. The manufacturing took place in the Scottish Timex Corporation.

IBM 62PC – the first HARD hard disk

… first saw daylight in 1979 codenamed “Piccolo” (=”little one”).
It is comprised of six (for the first time really) hard plates 8″ in diameter and has a capacity of 64.5MB.

This very specimen was used in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is the reason why the famous HARD plates are not there, they were wiped, demagnetised, compressed and melted – the standard procedure for destruction of data storage media.

It has no motor, it was used in storage systems IBM 3310.

Amstrad PPC 512

With this model, Amstrad attempted to make the cheapest portable computer (just like with PC1512). With the 9″ green monochromatic LCD it is said to be quite uncomfortable for serious work. It could be connected to an external monochromatic or even CGA monitor.

Ten A batteries lasted about an hour. Model PPC640 had more RAM (640 kB), and a built-in modem (v21, v22, v22 bis in v23 protocol). Also, it had a darker case.