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INSERT DISKETTE AND STRIKE ANY KEY - Dave's Ramblings [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
Daveosaurus

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INSERT DISKETTE AND STRIKE ANY KEY [Aug. 17th, 2008|12:41 pm]
Daveosaurus
[Tags|, ]
[Current Location |Invercargill]
[mood |geekygeeky]

Finally managed to get some photos somewhere useable of The Family's latest acquisition.

An original SORD M23 from some time around 1982.

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The Beast itself. It's so old that it isn't even in a normal looking configuration for a computer... the guts of the machine was under and behind the keyboard, and a short wide ribbon cable linked it to the disk drives. The screen was green monochrome. As with the M68, its standard sound was a pathetic sounding "bleep", but, unlike the M68, it was possible to program it to "play" other "notes" in BASIC using the command "CALL#14" (or something like that). I vaguely recall programming the machine with a routine that convinced the top two rows of the keyboard to work as if they were a piano keyboard. Not sure whatever happened to that disk... it's probably long lost.

Photobucket

And, lo and behold, it actually runs! Well, sort of. About as well as the surviving M68 does, anyway.
linkReply

Comments:
[User Picture]From: foenix
2008-08-17 01:04 am (UTC)
The way you said "The Family" my brain immediately added "of Blood" to the end of it...
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[User Picture]From: southerndave
2008-08-17 02:13 am (UTC)
Well, unless my mother knows something I don't, we are related by blood, yes... ]:-)
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From: cajetan65
2008-08-17 09:51 am (UTC)

You bounder, you cheat!

You've OBVIOUSLY had a clean-up, or engaged in some creative Photoshoppery to present that first pic... lol
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[User Picture]From: southerndave
2008-08-17 09:57 am (UTC)

Re: You bounder, you cheat!

Neither of the above: it's not at my place. I'm just the user of obsolete computers. It's the young `un that's the collector of them...
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From: (Anonymous)
2008-08-30 09:57 am (UTC)

More SORDs

I've seen those photos somewhere before....

Must be about time to claim royalties :)

The monitor is being serviced and I'm waiting on new belts for one of the floppies. Otherwise it works pretty well after 15+ years of disuse.

I have got another one well, the same model but with colour screen.

- southerndave's brother, the one with more hair and less girth :)
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[User Picture]From: southerndave
2008-08-30 10:10 am (UTC)

Re: More SORDs

You must be bloody desperate for something to do if you've really got nothing better to do than read my blog! Anyway if you didn't want me showing them to my friends you shouldn't have emailed them to me at work in the first place.

Big Byte up in Dunedin knew their way around SORD keyboards - I got both of mine fixed up there about five years ago - I think the company ended up going belly up though (too much time spent actually being good to their customers and not enough time spent ripping them off is my guess). Got one of the M68 monitors fixed about 10 years or so ago by someone in Dee Street north of McDonald's (can't remember who but still vaguely remember where) when its yoke went west.

Dad told me last night he had a replacement rubber band belt for the disk drive.

(I'm also fairly bloody sure I've still got more hair than you. It's just the placement that varies).
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