Is there a point at which 8086 PCs like the original IBM Personal Computer will become collectible?

[aceplace57]

fun to read. They have a good selection of early personal computers.
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/default.asp

The personal computer used in War Games is still around.
It was a IMSAI 8080 which old timers know is a clone of an Altair 8800.
With some effort you could still find a IMSAI 8080 cheap.

the one actually used in the movie is/was? for sale.

It is currently appraised at over $25,000, potentially making it the most expensive “personal computer” ever! It is widely considered one of the top five “Movie Computers” of all time, and the only one which was a real commercial product!

http://www.imsai.net/Movies/WarGames.htm

How was this young lad going to load software into his computer? I called Mike Fink to discuss this and he admitted that the issue never even came up. I suggested an IMSAI FDC-2 (the dual Calcomp 142 8" floppies in an enclosure similar to the 8080), and he readily accepted the offer. The loading of one of those 8" disks (about 1 meg of storage in double density format) is one of the few equipment close-ups that made the final cut of the film.

[jayjay]

@Panurge

Waiting? Hell, I’ve got one that I still use. With enough (…) 1541 disk drives to last me a lifetime. Yay!

Which is pretty much how long it felt like the damn thing took to load or save a program…

[Shoeless]

@Rhythmdvl

Okay, hands up, who else has a Commodore 64 up in the attic just waiting for the price to peak?

How about an Osborne in the basement?

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@beowulff

I once sold the BOX that a Mac 128K came in to a guy in Japan for $100, so that proves that everything is collectible to someone.

Actually, the boxes that things came in are often very collectible. For example, Tonka trucks are greatly enhanced in value if the original box is included and in good condition. Probably because the boxes are so often beat up and eventually discarded, while the truck is kept and played with by generations of kids.

This is true of a lot of toys, dolls, etc. Watching Antiques Roadshow you will often see where having the original box increases the value.

[elmwood]

@ftg

So that makes two references to people buying old keyboards. Umm, why?

Mechanical keyboards – individual keyswitches with tactile feedback, or buckling spring like the legendary IBM Model M – were far more common back then. A few things to remember:

• A $100 or $150 keyboard may seem expensive, but it was a bargain relative to the $2000 to $5000 price of a typical PC back in the 1980s and 1990s.

• PCs just started to appear in offices. Many users were secretaries who were used to the stiff, tactile feel of a typewriter keyboard, particularly the IBM Selectric typewriters they used for the previous 20 to 30 years. Home and enthusiast computers of the era had cheaper keyboards. Remember the keybounce of the TRS-80, the infamous chicklet and membrane boards, keyboards that felt grainy, and the mushy Atari ST keyboard? Some hobbyist computers had decent mechanical keyboards, but nowhere near the quality seen on PCs and clones meant for office use.

• Compared to the present, computer technology was evolving more slowly, OS updates were less frequent, and speed and memory increases were less dramatic. Office PCs were expected to be in service for a decade or more, and thus they were built to last; cases as thick as the sheet metal of a 1952 Buick, indestructible keyboards, heavy dot-matrix and laser printers that were practically drop-forged, and mil-spec mice. The sight of a ten year old beige PC with a CRT monitor at a typical office today might seem like an anachronism, but go back to the office of 1995, and it wouldn’t have been unusual to see secretaries loading WordPerfect 5.1 from floppies onto their 10 or 12 year old IBM XTs and ATs.

[Richard_Pearse]

@elmwood

• Compared to the present, computer technology was evolving more slowly, OS updates were less frequent, and speed and memory increases were less dramatic. Office PCs were expected to be in service for a decade or more, and thus they were built to last; cases as thick as the sheet metal of a 1952 Buick, indestructible keyboards, heavy dot-matrix and laser printers that were practically drop-forged, and mil-spec mice.

A mil-spec mouse, is that like one of these?

[Superfluous_Parentheses]

@elmwood

Mechanical keyboards – individual keyswitches with tactile feedback, or buckling spring like the legendary IBM Model M – were far more common back then. A few things to remember:

• A $100 or $150 keyboard may seem expensive, but it was a bargain relative to the $2000 to $5000 price of a typical PC back in the 1980s and 1990s.

In fact, the Model M was about $250 in '80s dollars when it was first released. And that was significantly cheaper than IBM’s previous professional keyboards (like the displaywriter and earlier terminal boards, or even the Model F PC keyboard).

They really are great keyboards - one of the best - and they last a lifetime.