
Ask HN: What's a cool old/vintage computer to buy? - arduinomancer
Are there any cool computers from the 80s&#x2F;90s you&#x27;d recommend picking up that aren&#x27;t super expensive or rare?<p>Just want to have some fun messing around with an old system to see what its like and get a better understanding of what computers used to be like. I started on Windows 95 so never had a chance to experience any of these old systems.<p>Thanks!
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malux85
You might have a lot of fun with DOS, if you wanted physical hardware look for
a 486 cpu with 8 or so megs of ram, you can put on DOS6.11 and Windows 3.11
and have a play, this was (close enough)the final step before Windows 95

Also have a look at installing djgpp and you can see what a DOS based text-ui
IDE looked like.

Also install Desqview for what an alternate desktop environment looks like.

One thing you’ll learn is that installation of all of this will require some
tweaking and research, you’ll have to learn about config.sys and playing with
extended memory managers, but that’s part of the fun!

Might be more fun to do this on an emulator though, because otherwise you’ll
have to mess about with floppy disks or maybe early CDROMs and getting hold of
functional ones might be challenging.

That era had tons of great games too! Duke Nukem 1 and 2, Blake Stone, Nyet,
Jill of the Jungle, DOOM, try a few games too

Have fun! Shout out if you get stuck!

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LarryMade2
Commodore VIC-20

\- Has a decent built in BASIC in ROM Only 3.5K or programming RAM (well, a
little more if you know where to POKE... heh) Has a 22 column by 23 row screen
(composite or RF)

\- Uses Atari 2600/8-bit standard joysticks, paddles.

\- Either use cassette tape or Disk or get one of the current compact flash
Drive options to do storage (CF can allow you more easily get things from the
internet connected world to the VIC and visa versa)

\- Very well documented on programming and hardware -
[http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/](http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/)

\- Still an active community for VIC-20 enthusiasts.

\- If not a VIC-20 I'd suggest a Commodore-16, then you have 16K and much
expanded BASIC as well as a built-in machine language monitor
assembler/disassembler. Still can use the Disk Drive CF, but you may need an
adapter to use the more common Commodore tape drives... and adapter for Atari
Style joysticks.

\- Commodore 64 prices are getting a bit high, but if you prefer something
more 80s mainstream the Commodore 64 or 128 are way more popular. But for
uniqueness and fun at budget VIC-20/C16 are it... Maybe Plus/4.

~~~
LarryMade2
Trivia: Linus Torvalds first computer was a VIC-20 :-)

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detaro
I'd start by playing with emulators a bit. It's not the same as having the
actual thing, but is a cheap way of seeing what you might like?

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rmason
I'd suggest a NeXT Cube. Got a friend with one that's not running and finding
parts is extremely difficult however.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTcube](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXTcube)

Another one, a phone I personally owned, is a Palm phone, it was the Kyocera
Palm Phone 6035 from 2001! This was a smartphone before that term existed and
was eight years before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyocera_6035](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyocera_6035)

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ddingus
For just messing around, I suggest a C64. That one has games, demos, and is a
lot of fun to program.

An Apple 2 is also good, but for different reasons. Gaming can be fun, but the
real benefit to that machine is that it is completely documented, with
schematics, and almost entirely software driven. It's a lot like an early PC,
with slots, etc...

Both machines have lots of cool devices that make them easier to work with
today.

Once you have a machine, you can program it, make some hardware for it,
interface it to various things, write programs, and do so in a small scale
environment.

Marvel at what people actually got done!

Have fun.

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chung-leong
Amiga is a system I would like to get my hands on. I still remember being
trolled by Amiga aficionados at my local BBS. While I was trying to get my CGI
screen to display more colors there were these rebels talking about the
miracle of HAM.

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steve_taylor
Totally biased recommendation: Commodore 64.

~~~
Colt45RPM
I totally second that!

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phendrenad2
Cheapest _complete_ option is probably an even older PC, which you can install
DOS on.

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EdwardMSmith
As far as home computers - Amiga (any one, really)

For crazy fun, deskside SGI Onyx RE2.

