Date   : Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:42:39 +0100
From   : zeem.uk@... (Alex Taylor)
Subject: Acorn Winchester formatting...

On 20/08/07, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...> wrote:

> Blimey - I didn't think there were any other Alphatronics left! You're not
> lucky enough to have the disk interface, are you? Supposedly there was a
> CP/M
> release for them, but I've never come across it.

Unfortunately I didn't have it. I picked the machine up many years ago
from my local auction of junk, probably got it for free. The metal bar
bit was missing from under the space bar, and it seemed to have a
habit of locking up if you pressed too many keys at once (i.e. missing
a key while typing). There was a blob of something like hardened glue
or varnish on the casing. Because it was just the machine, the only
thing I did with it was poke around with the Microsoft BASIC a little
bit, then put it into the big "collection" pile.

At the time, I wondered about the disk drive interface. Bring on the
Internet many years later, and I looked it up. Annoying design really,
because the drives are like hens' teeth.

It lived in the loft of my parents' house for many years, until I
eBayed off all my "odd" machines. That was when the filter cap
exploded, being switched on after many years in storage. It was filthy
too, but responded to a good clean. I didn't get much for it, but I
think it went to a collector.

> My uni had scads of them in use as terminals back in the day; the BBC micros
> were far nicer to use! (and the NCD Xterms even better ;)

Mine was the only one I've ever seen. Interesting to hear of somewhere
that used them.

-- 
Alex Taylor