A New Addition to the Collection - DEC VT-180 Robin

Knowing of my interest in both Digital Equipment Corporation and CP/M Machines a friend recently offered to sell me his DEC VT-180 Computer, also known as the Robin.  I jumped at this chance and I consider myself very fortunate to be the next owner / caretaker of this survivor from 1982.

My system came with some but not all of the software that has been archived.  I was able to write out floppy disks from the images on BitSavers which are listed here. and I have converted these to the more universal IMD format (Dave Dunfield's Image Disk) and uploaded them to Archive.org.  Also, I used the KERMIT80 software which was included on one of the disks to send data over a serial link to create disks for ZORK 1, 2 & 3, as well as send three floppy disks full of Basic games.  I've uploaded disk images (In IMD format) for this "new" contribution to Archive.org if there are others that can use this.

As we all know, gaming is the "Killer App" for Retro Computers, so I've also tried finding a couple of other CP/M Games like Ladder and a text-based PacMan clone.  The only archives of these that I've found, do not appear to contain versions that will run on the DEC, although I do see one YouTube video showing these games, so I do think they are out there.  Please leave a comment below or reach out via email (address in my Profile) if you have disks you'd be willing to swap, send, or image?

The Robin has been a super interesting machine to learn about.  As many of the earlier personal computers, it has single sided double-density floppy drives, and to make up for that it supports up to four drives at a time.  The machine is hosted inside of a VT-100 terminal.  It has two serial ports, one "general purpose" that could be used for a Modem or terminal emulation, and a second to connect to a printer.  The system is not expandable beyond the ports on the back as there are no open card slots.  This machine is built like a tank, and each of the drive enclosures is also solid sheet steel and amazingly strong.

Perhaps in the future I will blog about a hands on comparison and contrast between the DEC Robin and the IBM PC, but for now I'm just going to bask in the warm glow of the VT-180 experience.  Perhaps it's finally time for me to play through Zork, that's something I never did finish back in the day?