[GreenKeys] available

[Randy and Sherry Guttery]

On 8/21/2011 9:17 AM, Chris Elmquist wrote:
>
> Well, not exactly.  I have built an emulation of 5.25" hard-sector
> floppies used in the Heathkit H8 and H89 computers (which were 10-hole,
> hard-sectored floppies) that uses a 3.5", 720K drive and media.   This
> scheme will work for other old systems that used 10-hole, hard-sectored
> media such as the NorthStar Horizon as well.   So, if you have 720K 3.5"
> media, that is of use to some of us.
There are other uses too - such as the original Ensoniq 
Mirage (I have both a Keyboard and a rack module).
> We have also developed a hand-held punch which can turn 5.25"
> soft-sectored floppies into 10- and 16-hole hard-sectored floppies for
> many different legacy systems.  This has made 5.25" media less rare for
> our purposes since you can still buy 5.25" soft-sector media new and
> then we just punch them to get whatever hard-sector supply we need.
I have three sealed boxes of 5.25 that I need to get 
punched...   Haven't tried bringing up any of my NorthStars 
in years (I have four frames and enough boards to populate 
them a couple times over).   I'm not sure why I hang onto 
them - other than a Horizon was my first computer (I'd be 
embarrassed to -- admit how much that kit (and expansions) 
cost) - and I worked for the first NorthStar dealer in the 
south -- which is how I wound up with so many. As we (later 
as Common Cents Computers) replaced those old machines - we 
wound up with a pile of them - as spare parts for those 
still in use.  The last one wasn't retired until (IIRC) 
something like 1993 or 1994. Obviously - most were up-graded 
to Horizon 8-16s running TurboDOS.

I've often thought about writing a console routine for TurboDOS so I could use my model 28 as a terminal with a NorthStar Horizon...   Seems like that'd be a hoot - let the kids see how "Oregon Trail" was originally played..!


best regards...


-- 
randy guttery

A Tender Tale - a page dedicated to those Ships and Crews
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