Holborn 6500

[Roland Huisman]

Hello all,

I've recorded a film for the Holborn 6500 a few years ago and I thought it s*cked... So I have never put it online... But since this is probably the only working Holborn 6500 in the world I thought it is fun to put it on youtube anyway... So that was what I did tonight...

For those who don't know the Holborn 6500, it was the successor of the Holborn 6100 computer. The Holborn computers were designed by Dutch engineers and I have visited several of them a few years back. That gave me oppertunity to get a lot of (background) information, software, source code, documentation etc...

Holborn 6500
Z80 cpu
192KB of system memory (the maximum)
Capable of running CP/M and MP/M (for MP/M the second terminal can be connected to the serial port. So it is a two user system)
Two 1.2MB floppy drives (formatted as 77 track 8 inch disks)
External hard disk with a Xebec 1410 controller inside (two 5MB partitions)

Regards, Roland

 

[seaken]

Thank you for that video. I had seen that machine before but never saw it in action before. It is a very attractive machine.

My NorthStar Advantage was of similar vintage and I learned the CP/M system. I wish I had known there were games like Ladder for CP/M. That would have been fun. We did play text adventure games on the Advantage though. I remember playing the demo disk on the Advantage and being amazed at the possibilities. But we mostly had business software like AccPac Accounting and WordStar. I did learn how to use and upgrade CP/M and used communication software like Zmodem and called into bulletin boards here in the NE US.

For years I read books on all the different computers that were vying for the market that eventually went to IBM. The Holborn was one of the ones that caught my eye due to it's design.

Seaken

 

[Roland Huisman]

Thanks! Yes it is a nice machine, and there is a second one known still in existence. But for what I know is that this second machine is not working at the moment. It would be nice if there were a few more, but I don't know about any other 6500 machines... Keep in mind that the Holborn 6500 was a prototype and was never officially sold... Fortunately the motherboard is the same as of the 6100. That is the reason why the 5.25" disks have 77 tracks and not 80. Because they are formatted as the 8 inch disks from the 6100... Because of this compatebility there is a lot of software available for this machine.

CP/M games can be really fun, but for games like ladder or snake you need a terminal with cursor control. Something which is not possible on early terminals for example. For the earlier generations text adventure games were your only option I think...

Regards, Roland