jhd Posted October 4, 2010 Share Posted October 4, 2010 Back when I was in high school (mid-1980s), we used Cocos in the computer lab. At the time, Tandy sold a crude network controller -- I think it was called the Network II. This device allowed files to be transferred between an individual machine and the host using the cassette ports; there were no peer-to-peer connections. The host computer, in our set-up, had the common printer and, later, disk drives. There was a rotary switch on the network controller to select the number of the machine to/from which the file would be sent or received. I don't recall their being a way to "broadcast" a file to all of the networked the computers at once; it was just one-at-a-time. Given how much more widely they were used in schools, I assume that similar networking was possible with the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and various other 8-bit systems of that era. Is anybody familiar with networking other 8-bit machines? Did anything use a similar "cassette"-based system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 There was a device to allow multiple Atari 8-bit computers to share peripherals, but it for sure wasn't a network. "Micronet" by Supra corp. Spoken of here: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n10/productreviews.html (scroll about 1/3 way down) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 There was a device to allow multiple Atari 8-bit computers to share peripherals, but it for sure wasn't a network. "Micronet" by Supra corp. Spoken of here: http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n10/productreviews.html (scroll about 1/3 way down) I can remember using BBC Micros briefly in a classroom, they were networked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Friedel Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 When I was in school, the c-64s there had a crude star network that worked off of the serial port (DIN for the disk drive). We had access to a 10MB hard drive where we stored our stuff. You could print to it too if I remember correctly. Looking on google for it, I saw that they now build (or did build in 2002) ethernet adapters for the c-64. Check out the link: http://www.dunkels.com/adam/tfe/ Interesting to say the least. I have personally got an atari 8-bit on the internet, but it was cheating as I used a terminal emulator over a serial link I had between my 8-bit and the PC using the S: connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Our schools had Apple ]['s and TRS-80 Model III's networked. The big deal at the time was that they all shared one printer. Not sure if there was a HD configuration at all or what else the networking involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Friedel Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Our schools had Apple ]['s and TRS-80 Model III's networked. The big deal at the time was that they all shared one printer. Not sure if there was a HD configuration at all or what else the networking involved. The model IIIs used a serial star configuration also. I worked on one when I was kid that was connected that way. I do think you could save to a hard drive, but it was extremely small. I want to say it was a central model III with a 10MB MFM setup and a controller, but honestly it was so long ago I don't remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Laird Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 My school had a massive network of BBC Micros Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMR Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 My school had about fifty RM Link 480Z machines networked to an RM Nimbus with a 70Mb Winchester hard drive that acted as a file and print server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Our school (when I lived in the UK) had twenty BBC Micros networked to a Winchester disk - but we didn't care about that, all we wanted to do was a) Play the brand new Archimedes b) Play Grannies Garden one more time on the BBC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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