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What are the top 10 rarest vintage computer bits you own?

Back when I worked at Pfizer (sometime between 98 and 2001. A co-worker bought a honda Insight, First gen hybrid. It was a pretty interesting car. We went over all the details. That thing got him in the 70s' MPG on certain occasions. I remember he bent the hood by closing it early on (it was all alluminum) they had to give him another new painted hood as it was a known issue.

Yeah, those things were... interesting. The original version with a manual transmission barely counted as a hybrid; the integrated power assist/generator thing was basically a permanently coupled starter motor powerful enough to move the car from a stop and start the engine simultaneously; I don't think it actually did regenerative braking until the CVT version? And they really did go absolutely ape with making them as light as possible; they were well into Geo Metro territory in curb weight and almost half a ton lighter than a first gen Prius. I guess until *pretty recently* they actually held the record for the car with the highest ever combined EPA mileage? They, possibly more so than any other car I can remember, came across like a true "concept car" that escaped into the wild vs. being watered down for mass consumption, and you've got to respect that.

I haven't seen one in the wild *forever*. I mean, I guess that shouldn't be too surprising, they're 20 years old now, but I do wonder how well they held up long term. Their unibody was made out of aluminum instead of steel, which at the time they crowed about improved rigidity and whatnot, but any fender bender hard enough to put a bend in it would probably be fatal? (Aluminum is a lot less forgiving about being bent back into shape after being deformed than steel is.)
 
It spends plenty of time wide open, and driven this way it does make the appearance of being sportier than it really is with the lame 54 horsepower and 3 speed slushbox.

My experience with Japanese cars has lead me to believe that "wide open" is pretty much how a lot of them are intended to be driven. My first Japanese car was an old Toyota Celica, and I drove that thing for months thinking it was a complete gutless wonder because my driving experience up to that point had been largely on heavyweight American iron that you never floored unless you really meant it. Eventually it dawned on me that the way to drive that thing was if you wanted to accelerate with any alacrity you treated the pedal as an "on-off" switch, stomped it to "on" when you wanted to go, and the redline on the tach was there for a reason: you shift when you hit it, and until you run out of gears it's up to you to keep it close until you hit cruising speed. Treated like that the car was actually a fair amount of fun, and it seemed to thrive on it.

That VW was completely different. I have no idea how those crafty Bavarian engineers crammed so much torque into 1.8 liters, but it had it. It was easy to accidentally burn rubber taking off if you didn't treat it with respect. Fastest I ever went in it was in the ballpark of a hundred with the top down, and I don't think it was quite done.

(Although probably getting close, it was geared such that redline in fifth might have been around 110-ish? That’s a thing I’ll give that old Celica… I don’t want to incriminate myself by saying exactly how fast my young and very stupid self got that up to. Suffice it to say it took a long time to wind up but given that time it could go far faster than it was really qualified to do on street tires.)
 
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I hate to be a killjoy but can you carry on this conversation in an off-topic thread? I enjoy reading what rare computers people have and it would be great to keep this thread on topic.

On topic, I should probably update my top 10 list...
 
I agree that it should be moved to off topic, but I don't think 14 messages is what I would call some great disturbance of the content.
Not to mention, that car is awfully rare, more than some of the equipment in this thread anyways...

That said, I believe the discussion was over about 2 hours before your post anyways.
 
I hate to be a killjoy but can you carry on this conversation in an off-topic thread? I enjoy reading what rare computers people have and it would be great to keep this thread on topic.

On topic, I should probably update my top 10 list...
Well you just killed Joy ;)
 
please. don't defend your off topic, accept the gentle rebuke and move on. be a courteous netizen.
 
The discussion stopped over 7 hours before you chose to add this. Bringing it back up at this point is just more likely to start it again than it is to help an already solved problem - Which is what I hoped the first guy would get too.

Don't worry though, I've unwatched the thread. You're unlikely to get any further comments from me at all.
 
So back on topic... my latest updated list of rarest items that people might recognize.

- Olivetti Programma 101
- Viatron System 21
- HP 9100A
- IBM 5100 BASIC + APL
- MCM/70
- Apple Lisa 1
- Tandy Agvision (Coco related)
- Commodore 900
- Commodore 65
- BeBox Dual603e-133
 
That's it, that's all I got. I should probably sell it as it will likely not bring more $$ than now, but it seems like to do so, would be a lot of trouble.

KIM1 IMG_2668A.jpg
 
That's a very nice MOS unit. Is that a Rev A? Couldn't decipher that letter exactly.

I know of a working KIM out there with a 1975 ROR-bug 6502. That's a rare bird worth keeping in good nick. Many of those CPUs got replaced.
 
That's a very nice MOS unit. Is that a Rev A? Couldn't decipher that letter exactly.

I know of a working KIM out there with a 1975 ROR-bug 6502. That's a rare bird worth keeping in good nick. Many of those CPUs got replaced.

Thanks, it is a REV B
REV B IMG_2668.jpg

I bought it sometime ~1981 or so. I used it and I liked it. I last powered it up a year or so and it worked just fine - even entered in a couple of programs.

I have never tested it for the ROR "Brain Fart" I would suspect that it does not have that, based on what little I know about it, but I should probably check the next time I power it up.

Thanks for bringing it up though - motivated me to go watch this VCF Vid

 
Ok, may as well add my list.... :)

- NewBear 77/68
- Intel SIM8 + MCB8-10
- Mark-8
- GRiD Compass 1101
- Altair 8800 (Rev.0)
- Altair 8800b
- MOS KIM-1
- IMSAI 8080
- NASCOM-1
- Acorn ATOM
 
I guess since I started this I'll readjust my list, from rarest to least rarest:

1) Microkit 8/16
2) Mark 8 Unbuilt Kit Boards
3) Mark 8 Mini Computer
4) Tektronix 6800 Board Bucket
5) Martin Research MIKE 3
6) Electronic Systems TV Typewriter
7) Original TV Typewriter
8) Ibycus
9) RCA Microtutor
10) DREAM 6802
 
Nothing compared to most of this stuff but I've got a working PowerBook 100 which there probably aren't too many of anymore. They can be problematic. Nothing else I have really counts as super rare though, even the 100 is borderline as they are common as can be dead.
 
Speaking of rare.. one machine I've yet to see someone have is an RGS-008a. Seems like they sold a bunch of those kits back in the day but not one has ever popped up in ebay or elsewhere. Only one I've seen is what chm has.
 
Wow! Never thought I'd meet an Alto owner, that's pretty cool.

In recent times, I added another rare piece to my hard disk collection: a drive manufactured by Josephine County Technology, the JCT 100.

Ha, small world! :) Glad you were able to get it going again. It really looks like a drive made out of parts from American Science and Surplus!

-J
 
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