Well, I have finally gotten to posting about my dads old Kaypro which he got in 1983... It is an awesome computer, it replaced his super old crappy Timex Sinclair z.80 which he bought for $80 (he bought this in 1991 or 92 so he could test out what having a computer would be like and if it was worth it), the new Kaypro 10 which he bought for $2995 was a great replacement. When he bought the Kaypro he had to borrow a loan of $3,500 for this computer because computers (all good computers) were very expensive at that time. He got a Okidata Dot Printer with the other $500 he had borrowed. He got this computer for his business and so that he could learn how to program in some programing languages. It served him well for many years. I had heard about it from his stories he tells us, so I finally decided to have him get it out for me to play with. We did and after getting it out, we turned it on. At first we thought it was broken because the screen was blank for a long time, but then he remembered you could choose the screen brightness with a dial on the back. It was turned all the way down. Once we had that working we were able to turn it on and the menu he had programmed for it came up. I was very happy, other then accounting, word processioning, a few different programming languages, and a few other programs, it had two games on it. Ladder, (the original with a copy right by Yahoo Corp. which at that time was in a suite in New York or some other big city. (they weren't a big company at that time...) The other game it has was Cryptic Clue, By my Dad, it was one of his first programs and is a very challenging game. It is like Grand Master Mind, except lots harder. I have played this game more then ladder because it is such a challenging and fun game... A few other things of note, the computer has 10 MB of memory, and I am not sure how big the hard drive is, but it very small, I don't know right know but maybe I will find out from Dad later. It's screen is very crisp and in good condition too, the letters it displays are a bright green with no lines through them, my Dad has taken good care of this computer which has helped it through the years. Here are a few pictures I took of it:
The first picture is just a side view of the computer with it's stand up and the keyboard hooked up, the second picture is the same thing except it is a front view.
These are pictures of the keyboard, I couldn't get a good shot at the keyboard with th letters and numbers still legible so I took two.
This is just a back view with it all still hooked up.
This is a top bottom view, and on the second picture the stand that holds up the bottom when it is set up is down.
Thats all I guess hope you enjoy reading and looking at the pictures...
Ben
1 comment:
I remember playing laddr until dawn when I was 12 or so way back in 1986-87ish on my Dad's Kaypro II. There was a level that you could never beat because they didn't give you enough time. I would spend an hour or more to get to that level and then I would burn all the lives I had saved and earned, and ALMOST get to the end of the level. So frustrating! We also played an all text D and D type ghame called Adventure. We even tried to hand draw a map using compass coords! We also played a couple of games I cannot recall the names of; one was a horse racing game and the other was another text based game involving a mine and the desert where you had to find stuff etc. Would be fun to try out your Dad's game. Loved the Kaypro- our's finally died (disc drives wouldn't load very well- and then the screen quit working) and Dad sold it at a garage sale for $35 back in 1992 or so.
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