Turbo-Torch

Buy from Russia and you'll end up with something like this...

If you're going with oddballs at opposite ends of the spectrum, why not also consider the 16 and plus/4?

With the play and record buttons, I'm thinking it may have started off life as one of their datacassette systems and got upgraded to the floppy years later. It would be interesting to see if those buttons and switches are still attached to anything inside the case. If anything, it's an ominous looking external drive case with built in power supply and fan. If I came across something like that, I'd put the Shugart in a safe place and install a common full height Tandon (which looks identical) and place it next to the other external drive on my Model III.

A quick search shows they were a somewhat big company from 1971 to 1985. They definitely have some history in the business area of computing. Here's a magazine ad...

It's a Shugart SA-400 drive and most likely predates anything TRS-80, PET or Apple by a year. Stores about 80K formatted. Depending on what the model # ends in, it may require hard-sector floppies. Don't know what it goes to, but it would be a damn shame to send that to an e-waste facility. At least offer it up on vcfed.org where it'll go to a good home.

Wouldn't that get boring after a few minutes? Seems like a slot machine where no skill is needed and the only thrill involved is the chance of winning money...but when it's already your money inside, it's sort of a fancy $700 piggy bank. 🐖 I've tried them at casinos, but if I was at a friend's party and won money out of one, I'd feel guilty keeping it. lol

I don't know much about Tektronix, but I think some use a Dallas RAM like my Agilents. Many are at the end of their useful life and when they fail, your settings and calibration will be lost after each power down. The one in my 400mhz unit failed about 5 years ago and was a mild pain to replace because it was soldered in. I ordered "new" Dallas RAMs from China and installed a socket so next time around it'll be a 5 minute job. No issues in 5 years so it must have been legit. I also have a near identical 200mhz 4 channel unit which is still on the original Dallas, but I have a spare ready to go. This biggest issue you may have with a 20+ year old scope is the power supply. They can be ungodly complex and crammed tight with dozens of capacitors from that dark era. Do a bit of research on any model you consider purchasing. As far as calibration... My Agilent scopes can self calibrate and I would think Tektronix can do the same. You just attach a BNC cable to a port in the rear and then follow the instructions on the screen as to what channel to attach it to while it does its thing. It's not a certified calibration, but will be fine for a hobbyist.

"The goal of $50,000 is to allow us to quit our day jobs and work full time on Acronia to wrap it up and get physical copies into people’s hands in the coming year." Is there really that much of a demand for a new DOS game that requires a 386 PC from decades ago? Sure it's cool, but raise $50K and quit your day jobs over it? lol

Not for profit, but for another reason. Back when alt.atari and rec.games.video.collecting were active, many of us despised "someotherguy." He was the guy who made multiple daily rounds to all the thrift stores and Goodwills beating others to all the good stuff. Many theorized he was a jobless loser living with parents or on the gubment tugboat, therefore had all the time in the world. Another possibility was the ruthless flea market vendor who always wanted $50 for a common 50¢ game. Just for fun, some collectors would put bait into circulation. Take commons (Combat, ET and PacMan), remove the labels, hot glue in nuts, bolts or pennies to add weight and then make a mysterious label on a typewriter (not a dot matrix printer!). Then simply drop them off for donation at all your local haunts. Not sure what to think about the OP's games. Night Driver has runs in the paint with a production end label. Genesis game has yellow overspray inside by the edge connector and very obvious tape lines where the square was painted red.

Games released 16 years apart by different companies with the same poorly applied yellow paint = bored kid with a can of Krylon.

Tell me about it. People complain about how electronics have become disposable these days, but TVs from the 60s and 70s (especially 70s solid state) were absolute garbage. If one managed to make it 5 years, it probably had 2 or 3 expensive repairs up to that point. Something changed by the mid 80s and many of those sets are still going strong today. This photo is 10 years earlier (maybe 1972) in the exact same spot. I think there were 2 other new TVs between that time. Of course it's broke and I'm helping my dad fix it. 📺

This is my Laser Blast score, probably from '81. That was our nice TV in the downstairs rec room. Soon after, it took a dump and my Atari got blamed for it. And I never did get my Laser Blast patch! lol Can't make out the score but I like that I can see my games up to that point. Combat, Night Driver, Flag Capture, Bowling, Space Invaders, Space War, Missile Command, Dodge 'Em and Laser Blast.

$600 to replace a Beetle headlight? Do you ever take initiative to help yourself and not hemorrhage money? Brand new entire right headlight assembly for $128 bucks at Rockauto. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=12466425&cc=1389034&pt= Takes all of 30 seconds to remove without tools!

Gotcha...I didn't think the tape being faster sounded right. I found a data rate calculator and chose kbps (kilobits per second??) in the dropdown instead of kbytes/s.

My Model III is rated up to 250 KB/S as per the Tech Ref Manual. Model I would probably be similar. Have no idea on the Model II series, those are 8" drives. I know the 1541 was slow, but are you sure .4 is correct? POINT 4? 🤣 My Model III can save and load cassette data at 1500 baud, maybe I'm wrong on my math here, but wouldn't that be 1.5 KB/S? The Model I cassette speed was 500 baud, which would still be faster. If you really need to know on the Model I, I think I have the reference manual for that too.

Model I never had an official hi-res board. There are detailed plans with a parts list on a how to build your own; then you had to create your own software. I also recall seeing ads for an aftermarket kit, but you were probably on your own when it came to software. Model III/4 had the official board from Radio Shack which did 640X240. There was also a company called Grafyx Solution and its board produced 512x192 on the Model III and 640x240 on the Model 4. Grafyx software is actually compatible with the Radio Shack board. There's quite a bit of hi-res software out there, but for some reason the Model 4 got most of the hi-res games. I have the original Radio Shack board in my Model III and seeing 640x240 graphics on a computer built in 1981 is pretty kickass. You can find a ton of hi-res software here: http://ianmav.customer.netspace.net.au/hires/hires.htm I believe Ian will be at Tandy Assembly this weekend in Ohio.

There's no way to tension those belts. I have many full height Tandon and Texas Peripheral drives and I've never had a belt problem. They're not rubber and are next to indestructible. Speed is easy to adjust provided you have access to a real fluorescent desk lamp (not easy to find these days). You need something with the little tin can "starter", modern lamps with electronic starters or curly CFLs won't work. A neon lamp works good too. I have a red neon Game Room sign that I use to set the speed on my drives. There are two patterns on the platter, one for 50hz and the other 60hz. If you're in the US, the 60hz pattern should look like it's standing still while spinning with the light shining on it. If the marks are slowing moving, you need to adjust the speed pot until they appear to stop. There's also software that claims to show speed, but I've not found anything as accurate as using the timing marks on the platter. There's a stepper motor setscrew that is notorious for loosening up. You can see it through a frame cutout from the bottom, sometimes there's a clear plastic cover over the cutout. If the setscrew is tight, leave it be. If it's loose, tighten it and try the drive. If you still have issues, loosen it again and slightly rotate the shaft a bit and tighten. You may need to do this more than once in different directions. Alignment gets complicated. You'll need an oscilloscope, alignment software and a lot of patience. If you blindly try to tweak things, you'll go down a rabbit hole of no return.

Got it! I just had to put a colon before the port #. Very nice and impressive system, I look forward to exploring it more. 👍 Even though I'm a PC guy since the 80s, it's cool to be back on another Atari based BBS...we had dozens of BBSs in my area, but for some reason only one that used an Atari (not counting the 8 bit systems that kids ran after their parents went to bed). I need to see if I can find the name of it, it was huge and one of the last in operation well into the 90s.

I keep getting No Answer when trying to log in. Using WiFi modem on my Tandy 1000EX. At first I tried the address in post 1 ending with 520, then I noticed 1040 in your sig. Still no answer. Checked out your website and it shows the BBS is online. Address on website just shows darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org and that doesn't work either. I have no problems signing in to other BBSs. Am I missing something?

The tubing is ½" diameter. From the top of the bottom tube to the bottom of the upper tube is about 4". From the desk surface to the upper tube is 4½". So if you raised the computer and multipak to clear that bottom leg/tube, you'd have about 4" clearance. The Radio Shack stand used flat bar stock, so probably a ¼". I doubt RS ever had the multipak in mind for their stand either. I was thinking maybe you could flatten the ½" tubing in a vice, but then you'd have a weak spot and a color CRT would probably collapse it. If you want to keep the computer partially under the stand, that 4 leg unit will be awkward. Most of the keyboard will be trapped under it when the multipak is in place. I can slide the EX towards me for comfortable typing and slide it back under the stand when done.

Check out the Allsop stands on Amazon. I bought the large one for my 1000 EX and it's similar in size to what Radio Shack used to sell. It was important to have the open sides for power switch, joystick ports and disk drive access. There's also a Jr. model which the smaller CoCo may fit under, but I think any color monitor would be too big on top of it. Large is currently $27 bucks.

Zayre's in Merrillville Indiana was my families #1 department store to shop at. First game I bought for my 2600 was Night Driver from Zayre (followed by many more). Their Sunday sales flyer prices always seemed to beat out places like Kmart and Venture. I remember their going out of business sale...I had my own car by then and went there everyday with friends buying stuff for pennies on the dollar. It was a free for all madhouse and in the final days the orange clearance price tags were littering the aisles, pick one up and slap it on whatever you wanted and there were no questions asked during checkout. Ames moved in and was nothing like Zayre. All they did was occupy the original buildings. Oh, Zayre also had a small food court with pinball machines and some of the very first B&W arcade games. Also a little 25 cent movie booth that would play Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Mom could just leave her kids up front with a couple dollars and go shopping. The 1978 video posted by ave1 just blew my mind at 23 seconds in. Those dishes! My mom bought them at Zayre's in the 70s and I've been eating off them ever since. Used to annoy her no end during the big family holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter...everyone is eating off the Fine China and I'd sneak a plastic Zayre dish out of the cabinet. Plastic? Ok, not really sure what they're made out of (hopefully not lead). When they discolor, I can scrub them with cleanser and they come out like new and no damage to the print. However, they will get extremely hot, bubble up and explode in a microwave.

Awesome find. Have you tried it out on a 2600?

Are you just wanting to start a discussion about it, or are you offering it up for sale and not mentioning a price?

The Amiga Powerstick has always been a favorite of mine. Doesn't get much smaller, comfortable and precise.