[TUHS] Classic / NOP machines becoming available in Berlin (inc. DECs, Commodores, Apples, HPs, SGIs and more)

[Peter Dreisiger <prd@decarchive.org>]

Dear all,

Apologies for this semi-spam message from a long-time appreciator of classic computers and nostalgic obsolete products, but I hope this will be of interest to at least a few people here.

So, yes, by way of context, I've been acquiring what I consider to be characterful and/or historically interesting computers for coming up to, maybe, 15 years now, with the intention of being able to curate multiple, interactive temporary exhibits on the history of computing, but since moving continents (amongst other things), my paths and passions have changed, so I am currently in the process of re-testing (and repairing) my machines, and will be trying to sell them off in the coming weeks and months. Under different circumstances, finding people (or groups) with similar interests and plans would have been an equal-first priority, but given my more recent 'life changes', sale price — and the ability to better pursue my new focuses — is now more of a factor.

(That said, if you are (or know) a developer of an open source machine emulator who could use one of these machines --- particularly one of the more obscure ones --- please do get in touch, as the prospect of people being able to keep older / rarer operating systems and software running once the physical machines are not longer available or working /is/ actually still kinda important to me, and I'd be open to a lower price and/or setting up some remote access with some kind of kludged-together iLO and vaguely 'dual-ported' disk access via, e.g., an SD2SCSI setup.)

But before I list them on eBay (and/or by way of a heads up), I wanted to let people here know, just in case I have something that someone here particularly wants / needs / could use. The current list of systems I will be parting with is accessible at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QqUrO11gnn4fwAPDxqO_phKDt1M0O15G7wJxHoQrL9s but some (hopefully) highlights include (*big breath*):


DEC: MicroPDP-11/53+; MicroVAX 2000; VAXstation 4000 VLC/60/90A/96; VAX 4000 100A, 105; DECstation 5000/240, 260 (MIPS-based); DEC 3000/300X; Personal Workstation 600au; AlphaServer 4100; AlphaServer DS20, DS25 systems; Letterwriter 100; VT 101, 220, 520 terminals
HP: HP rx2800 Integrity2; 9000 715/100 and Visualize C110 PA-RISC systems
SGI: Indy and O2 systems
SUN: ELC, SPARCstation Voyager (the portable one), 5 and 20; Ultra 1; Ultra 5; Netra T1-105; Enterprise T5240
Apple: IIc, IIe Platinums, IIgs; Mac 512ke, Mac Pluses; SE/30 and Quadra 700s (also for running A/UX); iMac G3s and a G4
Commodore: PET 3000 systems, PET 8032-SK; various C64 / C64C and 128D systems; SX-64; Music Maker keyboards (the big one, inc. SFX modules); Amiga 1000


Apologies again, please feel free to contact me with any queries or reasonable offers, or even if you'd just like to be kept in the loop as more machines become available, and all the best.

Thanks in advance,

Peter


P.S. In light of the responses I've received to posts I've made elsewhere, I've included a 'Default Reserve' price in the aforementioned spreadsheet. I've written more about this there, but the gist of it is that, given that very few of the more obscure / awesome machines have gone through eBay recently, it's kinda hard for me to gauge what a fair and reasonable (to me and the future buyers) price is for quite a few of my machines --- I've started to put in rough figures for /some/ of them based upon 'what feels right', but if there's nothing there, please don't ask me what I might want for them as I don't know yet (though do feel free to make me an offer). Thanks again!