Steve's Retro Year in Review for 2025

With 2025 coming to a close it's time to reflect back on another year in Retro Computing.  Alot of great things happened in 2025, some planned and some unexpected.  This is my seventh year being involved in Retro Computing and my interest continues, there seems to always be something new to learn and the forum members of the Vintage Computer Federation and Tinker Different continue to be a source of help and inspiration for new projects.  Also this year I authored my 100th bLog aticle here on Steve's Retro Computer bLog.

In my retrospective article from last year I mentioned that I wanted to downsize the collection.  I added fewer new computers to my collection this year and I said no to quite a few eBay and local listings that were interesting.  I added about 15 machines this year instead of the 20+ machines I'd been adding over the last couple of years and more importantly I sold quite a few of those 20+ machines from previous years as well.  Half of the computers I sold this year are ones I bought to fix up and resell since I really do enjoy the repair process.  It also helps to know ahead of time that I won't be keeping the machines, it makes it easier to sell them when the time comes.

I sell complete systems whenever possible on both Craigslist and FaceBook Market Place (FBMP).  This year I sold about two computers on FBMP for every one on Craigslist, but I will still continue to use both platforms.  I think I get alot more spam from FBMP, but I know I'm getting alot of views on that platform since they show you those statistics now.  I'm still pricing below eBay prices, and I'm seeing machines sell on average after about a 2-3 week wait.

I bought three lots of computers this year, one with seven machines (mostly compact Macs), one with three Macs, and the final lot with eight machines (mostly Apple IIs).  In each of these lots I knew there were only 1 or 2 computers I'd want to keep but having these computers on hand made it easy for me to find an interesting repair project any time.  I plan to keep doing this (assuming that I can continue to find small and medium sized lots of computers in "as is" condition).  If you know anyone that is downsizing or needs help disposing of an old computer collection, please let me know, I'd be glad to buy machines in as-is condition or just even just offer advice about selling.

As I look back at acquisitions this year I made good progress on getting early Apple II hardware.  I got an early Apple II Plus machine and then an original Apple II machine.  I also got to extend my collection of Next computers, adding another NextStation Mono Slab and and an HP PA RISC machine that runs NextStep really well.  I got a new CP/M Machine that I haven't completed repairs on yet and another early MS-DOS compatible Wang PC, so I'm continuing to learn about both of these types of machines.  I added a couple of calculators to the collection, although I do not intend to become a calculator collector, since I'm trying to stay focused in my area of interest for collecting.

I also completed a couple of Unix workstation projects that were a long time coming, first getting a Y2K Era Compaq Alpha Personal Workstation up and running after a long time waiting for parts and then getting a Sun Ultra 10 machine up and running.  The Sun project was a machine I got at VCF Midwest 2024 so that one took a while.  The Apple III Computer parts that I got in the fall of the year were totally unexpected, but alot of fun to repair and learn about.

I don't have much room to display retro computers, so none of the machines I've acquired this year are on display in my office, instead I have an Original IBM PC, a Compaq Portable I, a Macintosh Portable, an Apple Macintosh Perform 550, a Gateway 2000 Slimline 486, a PDP-11 with VT-220 Terminal, and an Apple IIe as shown here...

During 2026 I need to think about focusing my interests even more and continuing to downsize the collection.  I still have more beige box PCs that I don't want in the collection and I will also consider downsizing other categories of machines.

During 2026 I should spend more time with software setup on the machines I already have.  Alternative Operating Systems has long been an interest of mine, and many of these machines support multiple OSes.  Networking is also one of my interests so I'd also like to spend time connecting more of the machines together.

What about you?  Do you have any highlights to share about fixing or using old computers in 2025 or plans for next year that you'd like to share?  Feel free to leave a comment below, or reach out to me via email at the address shown in my Blogger Profile.

Last of the PA RISC Machines, Hewlett Packard PA RISC 9000 System 712/60

 Early this year (2025) I picked up a cool Unix workstation at Free Geek Twin Cities, an HP PA RISC workstation, the 712/60.  It was a project machine; missing RAM, drives and a top cover, but the logic board was there with a good power supply.  Reading online, it is very difficult to find compatible RAM for these machines.  I did try buying 72 Pin ECC SIMMS on eBay, but they were not HP branded and they were not recognized by the machine.  So the computer went into storage and the project went on hold.

In the lead up to VCF Midwest this year I read a post on the Vintage Computer Forums offering to re-home some machines from an estate.   I made a note to follow up with the person who posted and I checked in with them first thing on Saturday Morning.  They had a cool pile of machines...

I am lucky enough to have a several of these machines already, and thanks to Rick I was able to add a complete HP 712/60 machine to my collection.  The hard drives were removed from all of these machines, but during the show I purchased a couple of BlueSCSI hard drive emulators.

Back at home after resting from the long weekend away I got started on the project.  I added the BlueSCSI and it was working, but I was unable to start an installer with the machine.  After some experimentation I found this article which explains that the HP 712/60 needs a special INI file for the BlueSCSI.  Although this helped, I was still experiencing lockups with the HP-UX Installer CD ISO file.  I tried switching to a different installer, it turns out that NextStep 3.3 has a RISC version that is compatible with this hardware.  The NEXT installer generated a Kernel Panic that was a bit more verbose than the HP-UX installer.  The kernel panic made me suspect that there could be an issue with the Logic Board.  After several hours of troubleshooting (and taking a break for the evening and sleeping on the problem) I decided to get the parts system I had and try that.  It booted the installer right away!  So I swapped this newer main logic board into the complete Chassis from VCF, and it works great.

I now have a complete, working HP PA RISC machine running NextStep 3.3 in Color!  The machine looks great...

And even more important it runs great.  It does feel like "where NEXTSTEP belonged all along".

I look forward to getting it setup a bit better, I need to configure users, networking, and install more software.  I also want to go back and try to get the machine dual booting with its original HP-UX operating system, but this is a topic for a future blog article.

Do you have any memories of using these machines back in the day?  These engineering workstation computers had mostly gone out of use before I started my first engineering job in 1996, I never used one at work, so I'd love to hear any stories that people have to share about using this kind of hardware back in the day, please leave a comment below or find my email in my profile.

Another Retro Lot: Recovery, Repair, and Resale

One of my fellow vintage computer collector friends posted a listing on the Free Geek Twin Cities Discord server in the "Swap Meet" channel about a lot of Vintage Computers posted on Facebook Marketplace.  There were eight computers, mostly Apple IIs of various vintages, untested but priced to sell quickly.  I had some free time on that day and so I immediately jumped on the post.  It's always a pleasant surprise when I'm first in line since so many folks are interested in vintage computers.  I went down within a couple of hours and met seller for the pickup, he had been a huge fan of Apple computers back in the day.  He had collected these machines from the University of Minnesota when they got retired from the computer labs.  He is still involved with software too this day and he was glad to hear that these would be moved to other homes.

This is the third lot I've gotten this year, I already blogged about the first lot here.  I only have one repair left from that lot, a pair of Macintosh 512K machines.  That will be a more complicated repair because servicing the 400K drives is difficult, but I know how to do that now so I expect to be able to bring the drives back to working order.  All the other machines from that lot have been fixed up and resold already.

The second lot had three machines in it but only one I wanted to keep, a Macintosh Quadra 650.  I installed a BlueSCSI in that machine and it's back in good running order.  I still have some big box software but the other two machines (a Macintosh Plus and a Power Mac G4 Quicksilver) have sold and much of the boxed software was donated to Free Geek.

When I got this lot home I was faced with a pile of incoming material to process...

The lot included an original Apple II from 1980, four Apple IIe machines, two green screen monitors for those machines, two Apple IIcs with two CRTs, and a NextStation w/ Keyboard and Mouse (but no monitor).  On the first pass through these machines I had the following results:

The original Apple II is booting and running, but the video is rolling.  Since this is a machine that I want to keep I set this machine aside for a future repair.

Of the four Apple IIe one just worked with some basic cleaning and testing and one with a DuoDisk only needed a new cable, which are avaliable online from this vendor.  I've already sold those two Apple IIe machines, but I have two more which power up with garbage characters on the screen so that will be a future repair.  I've repaired multiple Apple IIes in the past so I'm looking forward to that repair.

Of the two Apple IIc machines only one was complete.  Neither showed signs of life.  The incomplete machine is an early revision which matches the Apple IIc I already have so I'll keep it as a parts machine.  The second Apple IIc didn't work right away but I took it all apart and cleaned and inspected it.  While I was re-assembling it I put deoxit on all the connectors and after that it came back to life.  I ordered a 3rd party power supply to make this a complete listing and it sold.  I also had made a bunch of DOS boot disks and Flapple Bird floppy disks so that I could include software with the Apple IIs as I've been selling them, it's really nice to be able to set people up with a functioning system.

Finally, the NextStation.  These can not be tested without Next hardware as the connectors are proprietary.  I am fortunate to have a complete NextStation setup, so I was able to setup and test this machine.  The Keyboard and Mouse were both working, but I had some trouble with the NextStation itself.  I had forgotten that this machine will not boot at all if the clock battery is dead.  When I moved the good battery over to the new NextStation it booted right up!  I ordered another new battery to replace the dead one.  It may come as no surprise that the Quantum SCSI HDD was dead so I installed a BlueSCSI V2 into the machine and got NextStep 3.3 installed and booting on that.  I'll be holding on to this machine at least for now.

It's been fun to meet the people who buy these machines.  We have some interesting conversations and I get to hear about their experiences with machines like this, and their plans for their new acquisitions.  I've had a couple of repeat customers and even made friends with some of the buyers.  So as I complete a few more of these repairs I look forward to helping people expand their collection while I build my own.

Let me know if you have a lot of retro computers to sell, or if you have memories of using these machines, or have been helped by my repair experiences.  You can comment below or reach out via email with the contact information in my profile.

Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2023 Recap

I've just returned from Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2023.  I had a great time during my first year as an exhibitor.  The thing I enjoyed most were seeing so many people enjoying the computers I brought along...

Many types of people enjoyed the computers, from those who have never gotten to work on a NeXT machine because they were too young to those who had used the Apple Power Mac G3 w/ the 21" Studio Display back in the day.  It was so much fun hearing about peoples memories with these computers,  answering questions, or hearing small parts of many many different stories.  It was a really great time.

I was also able to connect with some of my favorite YouTubers, purchasing a boxed game from David Murray (the 8-bit guy), meeting Adrian Black for the first time, and even recording a YouTube Short for RetroTech Chris, in addition to hanging out with Steve from Mac84 and Ron from Ron's Computer Videos who I had met 2 years ago at VCF Midwest for the first time.

Also, I was able to purge several project machines that I'd lost interested in onto the "Free Pile".  Hopefully my failures can become part of a successful repair or refurbishment for another collector.  One of my friends, Matt, had a table right next to the free pile and he gave me a couple of items off the pile that he had recovered.  The crowds were so large that the good stuff came and left the free pile pretty quickly!

One goal I had set for myself was to buy only parts and pieces for projects that I already had pending.  I didn't want to leave VCF with a bunch of new projects and I was able to accomplish that goal!  I found many parts and pieces that I was looking for, mostly on Sunday.  I waited till about 11AM on Sunday to make offers.  With only a few hours left in the show many of the vendors were happy to make deals.  I have 4 or 5 projects now that I can complete with parts that I found at the show, including hard to find parts like: a DEC keyboard w/ a PS/2 port, a SUN CRT, and a New Old Stock Floppy Drive.

In summary I had a wonderful time at VCF Midwest 2023.  There were some growing pains that go along with the number of people at the show but my overall impression was quite positive and I hope to return as an exhibitor next year with a completely different set of computers to show and to share.

Preparing for VCF Midwest 2023 - September 9 and 10

I'm heading back to VCF Midwest this year and I couldn't be more excited about it.  I consider the year of the pandemic (2020) as my first VCF because I eagerly watched all the sessions (the event was online only that year).  The following year (2021) I attended for the first time in person.  I was able to pickup a NeXTstation during that show and meet so many interesting people including regular collectors like myself and a few YouTubers like Clint from LGR and David Murray, The 8-Bit Guy.  I missed last year (2022) but ended up buying several machines before the show from a local friend who has been downsizing his collection.

This year I decided that I'd like to try to exhibit.  I was inspired by a couple of different sources.  The first was a history book that presents computer history as a series of computing stories.  This book made an impression on me this year and left me thinking about the importance of teaching computer history to the next generation.  Last year Bill Degnan gave an interesting talk about how to build a Vintage Computer Museum at VCF Midwest.  I found his idea of building exhibits one at a time and looking for opportunities to display them pretty interesting and so this year I'm taking advantage of the opportunity at VCF Midwest to bring this exhibit...

The title of my exhibit this year is "Engineering Workstations of the 1990's".  This was a time when I was going to school and early in my career.  I really wanted one of these specialized machines, but never had anything other than a PC.

The first computer I'll be displaying is the NeXT NextStation from 1990 I've already mentioned.  It's had a bit of preventative maintenance since its last appearance at VCF in 2021, and it works great.  Come and check out some of the applications I've installed and maybe even surf the web a bit with frogfind.com.

The next computer I'll be showing is the Digital Equipment AlphaServer 300 from 1996.  This machine is running Windows NT 4.0, an OS that I experimented with back in the day (on PC hardware) but never used at work.  As I have learned about the history of Windows NT and its chief architecture David Cutler I've wondered if the DEC Alpha may have been the primary development target for Windows NT.  There isn't very much software for the machine, but you can come and try out what I've been able to install so far at VCF.  Perhaps we'll find some other applications to install during the show.

Finally, the last computer is an Apple Power Macintosh G3 Blue and White from 1999 that I have recently upgraded.  The G3 B&W is a machine that I had at home back in the day and shows an amazing progression during the 90s from the expensive and rare NeXTstation to the much more affordable G3, becoming so affordable that it could be purchased as a home computer.  Come and check out all the different OSes I have installed on this machine, including Rhapsody.

There is an interesting "what if" scenario about a pivotal event in computer history that ties these machines together but I will save that story for the show.  Stop by my table if you are there!  I'll be in the "Big Iron" room, table D33.

NextStation Online!

2023 is turning out to be a year where I close off loose ends with my Retro Computing hobby.  I've been acquiring hardware at a pretty good clip over the last couple of years and I've been thinking about things I could do with the equipment but just seem to never get around to.  And so far this year I am getting around to quite a few things.

Taking inspiration from both Macintosh Librarian and Sean @ Action Retro, I recently came back to my NextStation.  I've talked about acquiring that machine previously on the blog, and I've had it for over 2 years now.  Although I do keep coming back to it this computer has provided a challenge for me.

As we all probably know NextStep OS was the forerunner of our modern MacOS, but it's old enough that although it does have some familiar apps and look and feel, it's also quite different from modern MacOS.  As an additional challenge, I'm not that strong with Unix but the version of Unix that underlies NextStep OS is quite dated and so many of the commands I'd expect from Ubuntu or Raspbian  are simply not there, leaving me with alot of reading and Googling to do in order to use the system.

I decided one way to get a jump on this was to install a Next emulator on my modern PC.  That was a bit of an adventure and I found a shortcut that may be helpful to other people which I will document here.

Ctrl-Alt-Reese has documented the process of getting NextStep installed on actual hardware, but he also called out a link on WinWorld that contains a pre-setup copy of the Previous emulator, a Hard Drive image, and the required ROMS.  This version of the emulator is quite out of date so even if you are running Windows on your modern computer, I'd recommend going to the Previous hompage and getting the latest version (2.6 as of this writing).  Once you have all these components installed together it's fairly easy to configure the modern version of the emulator to point at the ROMs and the existing Hard Drive image from WinWorld.  That being said, getting the emulator running was not that big of a help to me because the biggest hurdle was getting my NextStation connected to Ethernet networking, and that's quite a bit of a different process inside of the Emulator.

So, I was back on my actual black hardware.  Following along with Sean's video above we see that we have to set a Static IP on the NextStation.  I was able to do this using some help from the manual section called "Setting Up the NEXTSTEP Computers" in this linked document.  This doesn't cover the DNS issue that Sean shows, so I also did that step.  Oddly enough, after rebooting, I was not able to ping like Sean was (I suppose it is not on the path, but I don't know what directory it should be in).  But when I went over to another computer I was able to Ping the NextStation so it was up on the network.

The FTP command did work, thankfully, and I was able to connect to my NAS where I store software for my vintage computers and grab some files and pull them over to the NextStation, uncompress them and install them.

I also figured out which folder to load software into (/LocalApps/) so that it can be easily added to the Dock and executed by normal users (not root), so now I have Mathematica, Doom, and OmniWeb installed and configured on my NextStation, and an easy workflow to add more software at any time.

I consider myself fortunate to be the current owner of this hardware and will be able to get a great deal more enjoyment from it now that I know better how to use it.

NeXT Megapixel Display N4000A Repairs

 As you may have seen previously on my blog, I'm fortunate to be the custodian of a NeXTStation setup that I purchased at last year's Vintage Computer Festival - Midwest.

Since blogging about that machine, I've recapped the mainboard, added an External SCSI CD-ROM so I can load software the old fashioned way, and upgraded the Hard Drive to a 2GB Quantum Fireball (Fingers crossed, it's still working!).  One outstanding issue with the machine has been that the audio on the monitor has not worked since I owned the machine.

According to this article, on the nextcomputers.org forum, it was likely that a circuit board in the monitor need to be recapped.  I finally got the time to tear into the monitor and have a look.  What I found surprised me, and so I thought I'd put this out here for the community so you can potentially avoid these pitfalls.

First let me start with the obligatory warning about working inside of CRTs.  I recommend you not do what I've done. If you do decide to go ahead, then watch a video or three about how to properly discharge a CRT before you work on it.  OK now that that's over with...

First, it was pretty easy to tear down the monitor, but I did make a mistake along the way removing the stand from the bottom of the monitor.   You don't need to do that, and if you do release the tension on the monitor stand's hinge, it's difficult to get that back in adjustment, so I'd recommend that you not remove the stand or mess with the hinge.

The back comes off with four Allen screws...

This exposes the old school RF shielding.  I'd recommend putting this back on when you are done (I'm looking at you Adrian Black).  The shielding is held on by four screws on one side and five screws on the other, they are all the same length.   When they are off, the housing comes back just a bit to release from some tabs, then can go straight up off the monitor...

This exposes the entire CRT and both boards.  Now would be the time to discharge the CRT if you were following along, which of course you are not because this is dangerous...

The main circuit board cover the back of the monitor, but the sound board is on the bottom of the enclosure.  It cannot be removed without taking the electronics off the chassis, but this is pretty easy to do.  

On the bottom of the monitor, there are two large screws that hold the electronics portion of the chassis onto the sub-frame that holds the tube and the stand.  Removed these two screws...

Disconnect all the cables from the tube, including the high voltage, the yoke, and the tube socket at the end of the tube.  Once they are disconnected, the rear of the chassis with the electronics on it can be pulled straight back.  It may be easier to pull it back just an inch to get your hand in to remove the socket from the end of the CRT.  Once all the wires are de-routed the electronics are more accessible...

The large circuit board must come off the back first before the connector board with the sound circuit can be removed.  There are two connectors going from the large board on the back to the small board on the bottom, remove those.  There are five screws holding it in.  Remove the screws and set the large board aside.  Note:  I did a careful inspection and some cleaning on this board, but I did not see any of the small electrolytic capacitors on this board, so I didn't do any recapping on this board at this time.

The small circuit board is held in by two screws inside, and two nuts on the outside of the enclosure where the cable attaches, remove those...

The circuit board has a Dozen (12) Electrolytic Capacitors. They are 47uF, 16 V rated caps...

Remove and replace the caps.  In this case the monitor was from 1991 and so it was suffering from capacitor leakage and needed some minor rework on a couple of the traces.  I'm glad I caught this in time.

But, there was one more twist in the story.  When I tested the monitor, the audio was not restored to function.  After measuring resistance on the speaker, it was open circuit.  I was able to source a replacement speaker from Rob at Black Hole, Inc, and the monitor and speaker are now functioning normally.

The final hardware upgrade I'm planning for this machine is to replace the Spinning HDD with a Solid State device, but in the meantime I've got alot of learning to do about how this machine works and what its capabilities are.

My (Current) Favorite Retro Computers

It's been a while since I took a picture of my basement shelf where I store my most frequently used Retro / Vintage Computers.  The ones that are out and get used are my de facto "favorite" retro computers, and there's been a fair amount of change on the wire rack since my last update.  I thought I'd outline which computers are out, and why:

From Top to Bottom, Left to Right, on the file cabinet is the NeXTstation Mono Slab (1990).  This is one of my newer acquisitions from Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2021.  I've still got alot to learn about this machine, and I also have some hardware on order for the machine so I'll be leaving it out for a while.

Next is an original Compaq Portable I (1983).  This was a "project" machine from Free Geek Twin Cities and my first XT class machine.  As one of my first Retro computer "rescues", I really enjoyed the process of getting it working again.  I also really like the design of it and I've used it for disk imaging and a few games that look really cool on the Green Screen. (it has a really long persistence phosphor.)

Next to that in the top right corner is the original non-backlit Macintosh Portable (1989).  Yes, the screen is on, this just shows how you need the lighting just right to see the screen.  I'm fortunate to have one of these that is working as many of them have problems.  Mine has a few dead lines on the screen, but I'll just keep enjoying this while I can. It's probably just a matter of time till the screen dies.  This computer is out on display because I enjoy the fact that it's so different than the laptops of today, a design idea that failed.

On the middle row at the left we have an un-enhanced Apple IIe computer (1983).  I was able to buy this computer monitor and disk drive as a set from a retired school teacher who had bought it new.  It needed quite a bit of repair but since completing those repairs it's been super reliable and super fun.  Total Replay anyone?

To the right of that I have a Power Macintosh 8600 / 200 (1997).  This is a "Bridge Machine" that I have blogged about before.  The main reason this machine is still on the wire rack is utility.  It's easy for me to move files off and on this machine from my modern machine and I have three SD cards setup for Mac OS 7.5.5, 8.6, and 9.1, so it can run the first version that is supported by the hardware all the way up to the last version.  The latest upgrades for this machine include a new Logic board and Processor Card (Still 200 MHz), additional RAM, (288 MB Total), and an ATI Rage 129 video card from 1999.  This machine is running better than it's ever run before.

On the bottom row at the left we have a Macintosh 512K (1984).  Like so many of these machines it started out life as an original Mac 128K but got upgraded fairly early in life.  It has been continuously upgraded to keep it going since then.  It's possible that the only original thing on it is the chassis but I feel very fortunate to have this machine and I enjoy playing some of the classic games and booting Mac OS 1.  It's an absolutely iconic design, and the only system in the display that boots and runs exclusively from floppies.

Last but not least on the wire rack in the bottom right corner is my latest PC Build.  This is a PCI based 486 DX2-80 (1995).  I built this with parts and pieces from a friend and other items I had around.  This is both a Retro Gaming rig with a Sound Blaster in it and a Disk Imaging machine with a 5 1/4" 360 K Floppy drive.  It works great so far, but I just built it, so I'll need to keep it out where I can power it up and keep using it to work out any kinks in the build.

Honorable mention, I also have a Tandy Model 102 (1983) slab top machine that I keep out on display in a different part of my office.  I really appreciate the unique design of this machine.  Another form factor that really didn't last into the modern computer era.  I've recently got a flash based storage solution for this machine, so I'm looking forward to digging in more on this machine, including loading some of the BASIC games onto the machine.

I have more machines but they are all stored in a much less convenient location.  Some of those machines are plugged in and can be run, too, but they get significantly less use than these ones that are out.

My Favorite Find at VCF Midwest 2021

My best find at VCF Midwest this year was a NeXTStation Mono Slab with matching Monitor, Keyboard and mouse.  I understand that out of the three different variations of the NeXT computers, this one is the least desirable, but that also makes it the most affordable, so I'm quite pleased with the purchase.  I've heard the claim that there may have only been about 50,000 NeXT computers made in total, so I feel fortunate to be the NeXT owner of this NeXT.

The previous owner has handed off some media to me, and he's also shipping manuals.  I'm pretty excited about having those original materials.  I've never been hands on with the NeXT before, but I remember reading about the company back in the day when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and Mac OS X was in its infancy, those were exciting times in computer history.

This particular computer was made in 1991 and has the base Motorola 68040 processor at 25 Mhz, maxed out at 128MB RAM, and has an upgraded HDD, a Connor 1 GB SCSI drive.  I'm a bit worried about the longevity of this SCSI drive, I think it's from 1995, but it isn't making bad sounds, and this systems has only a base install on it without much else, so I'm not in a big rush to get a SCSI2SD installed.