"Mark Metzler wrote:
I was in WalMart last night, and I swung by the Electronics area. I was curious as to how much a replacement drive would cost me for my PC at home, which has a 17gb drive in it. They had a 80gig drive sitting on the shelf next to the surge suppressors for $70. Never mind that it comes with the software to copy everything to the new drive. So I stood there trying to do the math on what it would cost to equate that volume of storage with ST506 drives at $1995.00 a pop. My head started hurting, so I rounded the ST506 to $2000.
It would take 16,000 ST506’s to reach the memory of the drive in WalMart (again sitting on the shelf, not behind a locked cabinet).
At $2000.00 a pop, it would cost me $32,000,000.00.
Now that would have been a nice sale, but would have been stolen by Jim Scharffe or Mike Daniel.
Here is another perspective. If stacked on top of one another, they would be as tall as a 667 story building.
If from sea level, they would stack high enough to top the tallest building in Downtown Denver.
If sold with a cabinet and power supply, Josef Rabinowitz would be retired. "
"Ohmigod! I'm reminded of when I worked for Heath Kline at Priority One Electronics in Chatsworth...and before that for Galaxy Computers in Woodland Hills when the Commodore 64 was introduced! We thought it huge compared to the Timex Sinclair...."
"We both have been into computers since 1970's & currently own 6 OSBORNE's in working condition. Although we use DOS now, we miss cpm & how actually FAST it was compared to Windows. We miss dBase. Append as well instead of Access now. We still have data on 5 1/4" discs we need to put into the dos machines we use now.
Sorry to hear you are leaving the business - we certainly hope you find a buyer who will keep the collection intact!
Best to you & your wonderful efforts!"
DONATE YOUR OLD
SYSTEM WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR VINTAGE COMPUTER SYSTEMS
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO
THE FREEMAN PC MUSEUM
Magnavox Magnavox Odyssey 300 (sys 4) Manufactured In 1976
Introduced in 1976 the Magnavox Odyssey 300 model 7500 and shipped for only one year. Uses the General Instruments AY-3-8500 LSI gamechip and displays in black and white or color. Has onboard sound and connects to the TV antenna. The GI AY-3-8500 chip changed the landscape of video pong as they designed the first "pong system on a chip". The game chip started a rush by over 500 new competitors seeking to cash in on what became a short-lived and crowded market. GI immediately placed the AY-3-8500 on allocation and the number of vendors contracted to get the chip dwindled to single digits. The pong chip design had 7 games, both 1 and 2 player, with pro and amateur skill levels for the ball angle and speed plus numbers of players. It featured built in digital on screen scoring. The on screen digital scoring obsoleted the Odyssey 100 and 200. Magnavox decided not to support all the games and features in the pong chip. The 300 only supported three games: Tennis, Hockey and Racquetball.
