What a treat! I woke up early this morning recalling trying one of the machines out when I was fifteen, in 1971. I want to see what one looked like again. What a fun walk back in time.
Memories of my first real job in 1973. We called it a T-33, connected to a pair of Univac 494 mainframes. Used it to get stock and requisition status for military supplies. "North Arrow" and "Here Is". No user ID, no password needed.
Everyone talks about using the ASR33 in high school. I learned to use on my job in 1970 as an operator for Bratten Pontiac dealership, on Little Creek Road in Norfolk, Virginia. I put in their accounting and inventory which was sent to Kansas City over night ( as long as there were no electrical problems). In the morning there would be a docket (printout) of our accumulated information waiting for us. I was fascinated with it. My first introduction to computers. This brings back a lot of memories.
I remember these. In my technical college days, I used to have to do FORTRAN programming assignments on a remote mainframe using local terminals similar to this. The prof insisted that we had to attach the paper tape version to our printouts when we submitted the assignments to him for grading. I remember that when he'd return the graded assignments a week or so later, the oil from the paper tape had stained the white paper printout quite significantly. Funny what sticks with you over the years.
An ASR 33 teletype in my high school was my first contact with computers. I still remember how when preparing a tape, every line ended with "control-X, control-Z, linefeed, and 3 rubouts" so the computer at the local college could digest the line and then request the next one.
We had much the same... carriage return, line feed, delete delete. Happy days. Ours at school was on a dial-up, only online 1 hour per week, and didn't often connect. Getting the magical words "HCC COMPUTERNET ON AT ..." were the biggest high we ever got!
Ah.... music to my ears. My first geek toy and introduction to programming. We had one in high school connected to some GE computer in downtown Cleveland. I remember all of my rolls of paper tape. Oh goodness me now thinking about how I should have kept some of them. LOL. What a hoot.
That's interesting. I'm wondering if your experience is connected to those guys that first implemented multi-user timesharing.. (Who were also the first implementers of BASIC). This awesome doc has a GE computer and a ton of ASR-33's.. Well worth a watch. ruclips.net/video/WYPNjSoDrqw/видео.html
Great demo... I have been looking for a model 33 to go with some vintage computer equipment but they are hard to find now. Guess most were tossed 30 years ago...LOL
Oh, man... This brings back memories... (In the video, when he powered it on and it started making it's noise, I got shivers up my spine! LOL!) We had one of these in our school system, and we'd use it to dial into an HP 2000 at a blazing 110 baud (if I remember correctly). This is what I cut my teeth on. Learned BASIC as part of the Computers (?) merit badge for Boy Scouts, and I went on to become an embedded software engineer (and still am)... I'd love to have one of these for just pure nostalgic sake. :-) I still have my programs on paper tape. It's fun to pull them out and show people how we used to "store" our programs on paper tape. Somewhere I still have a paper tape reader that I managed to hook up to a TRS-80 Model 4 back in college (built an interface for it) so I could read the programs into the Model 4. Ah, the days of tinkering... Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
I would love to have one of these to hook up to my Altair 8800 so that I could load programs from paper tape. That would be an epic walk back in time. Loading Basic from tape... WOW!!!
I used one in high school and now that I am an IT Instructor I show a pic of this along with a Univac card reader and Sperry Rand Card punch machine to my students for 'Evolution of Technology.'
Hey Bob, As you like to show the evolution of Technology, you might like some of the items that I have in my collection. I just recently picked up a beautiful Altair 8800a. I have been having a lot of fun with this one, and spending a lot of time learning everything that I can about every card, that I currently have installed. Now, if your students are anything, like I think they are, I think they may be able to relate to my website a lot more, then just seeing some pics of some old main frame type equipment. I decided a long time ago, that even though I enjoy the vintage computers, the most, there are not too many people who share that interest. However, almost everyone can remember the first video game system they ever played on. So, I decided to collect vintage game systems as well. You can see some of the items that I have in my collection in a video at the bottom of my website at www.theageofgaming.com Keep in mind the video is a little out of date, as I loaned out my IBM 5150 to the Jacksonville Museum. ANyway I hope you enjoy the video, you can find my contact info at the bottom of my website as well. I would love to hear back from you, to share ideas. Working Altair 8800a in action drive.google.com/open?id=1ofeSDTcy3xGmW1Es017LnJ_r18Vw2Srq Thank you
What a fantastic video. Thanks for the demonstration. Another great video you could do is to take the covers off and post closeups of the inner-workings in action. I very much wold like a 33 asr, but I got to tell you, teletypes are few and far between.
Wish I could find one of these, I'm chatting with some hobbyists in Europe who figured out how to hook these things up to the internet and they send messages and do chats with them. The basic premise is that the adapter, called the i-Telex, converts Baudot code into ASCII and does all the sending and receiving over the internet and then converts the ASCII back into Baudot so two machines can "talk" to each other just like in the old days. Apparently, telex/teleprinter machines are rare as hen's teeth here in the USA, for I can't even find the later electronic ones....
Magazines from the early (8-bit) microcomputing days of the mid-late 1970's had a few ASCII-Baudot converters as teletypes were a relatively cheap form of interfacing compared to the rare and expensive "glass teletype" or the tedious toggle switches (I keyed in loads of code and data using toggles). Hex keypads were only on more expensive SBC's.
Sorry I'm just a highschool kid doing research on Bill Gates and I have this question that's been stuck in my head. How does this work? Do you connect it with a screen or sth to get an image?? Sorry if I sound really stupid but I'd be really happy if someone explained this to me Thanks
Think of the typewriter part as a CMD prompt on a modern computer. You could interact with a connected computer by typing in known commands. As the previous responder said. "type in PRINT 2 x 2 and the computer replies with 4". The terminal unit also had an offline mode where you could type in a long program at your slow hunt & peck typing speed, but not waste computer's time waiting for your keystrokes and leaving the computer free to service other peoples terminal sessions. In the offline mode, as you typed a copy of your keystrokes was saved to the paper tape punch unit. When you had all of your program on the paper tape, you'd put the terminal back ONLINE with the computer and move the paper tape over to the reader unit where, it would quickly load your program from tape as if you were an expert fast error free typist. It was all about efficient use of the computer's time. These machines also found use for communications over long distances where the cost per minute of the phone / data line was quite high. Using a pre-prepared paper tape version of your message saved on line use time charges too. Hope that helps.
Thanx for the videos . Brings back a few memories from the 1960s when I worked in a Teletype Exchange.
What a treat! I woke up early this morning recalling trying one of the machines out when I was fifteen, in 1971. I want to see what one looked like again. What a fun walk back in time.
Memories of my first real job in 1973. We called it a T-33, connected to a pair of Univac 494 mainframes. Used it to get stock and requisition status for military supplies. "North Arrow" and "Here Is". No user ID, no password needed.
Everyone talks about using the ASR33 in high school. I learned to use on my job in 1970 as an operator for Bratten Pontiac dealership, on Little Creek Road in Norfolk, Virginia. I put in their accounting and inventory which was sent to Kansas City over night ( as long as there were no electrical problems). In the morning there would be a docket (printout) of our accumulated information waiting for us. I was fascinated with it. My first introduction to computers. This brings back a lot of memories.
I remember these. In my technical college days, I used to have to do FORTRAN programming assignments on a remote mainframe using local terminals similar to this. The prof insisted that we had to attach the paper tape version to our printouts when we submitted the assignments to him for grading. I remember that when he'd return the graded assignments a week or so later, the oil from the paper tape had stained the white paper printout quite significantly. Funny what sticks with you over the years.
An ASR 33 teletype in my high school was my first contact with computers. I still remember how when preparing a tape, every line ended with "control-X, control-Z, linefeed, and 3 rubouts" so the computer at the local college could digest the line and then request the next one.
We had much the same... carriage return, line feed, delete delete. Happy days.
Ours at school was on a dial-up, only online 1 hour per week, and didn't often connect. Getting the magical words "HCC COMPUTERNET ON AT ..." were the biggest high we ever got!
Ah.... music to my ears. My first geek toy and introduction to programming. We had one in high school connected to some GE computer in downtown Cleveland. I remember all of my rolls of paper tape. Oh goodness me now thinking about how I should have kept some of them. LOL. What a hoot.
That's interesting. I'm wondering if your experience is connected to those guys that first implemented multi-user timesharing.. (Who were also the first implementers of BASIC). This awesome doc has a GE computer and a ton of ASR-33's.. Well worth a watch.
ruclips.net/video/WYPNjSoDrqw/видео.html
Great demo... I have been looking for a model 33 to go with some vintage computer equipment but they are hard to find now. Guess most were tossed 30 years ago...LOL
Thanks for sharing this little piece of computer and telecommunications history.
Oh, man... This brings back memories... (In the video, when he powered it on and it started making it's noise, I got shivers up my spine! LOL!) We had one of these in our school system, and we'd use it to dial into an HP 2000 at a blazing 110 baud (if I remember correctly). This is what I cut my teeth on. Learned BASIC as part of the Computers (?) merit badge for Boy Scouts, and I went on to become an embedded software engineer (and still am)... I'd love to have one of these for just pure nostalgic sake. :-)
I still have my programs on paper tape. It's fun to pull them out and show people how we used to "store" our programs on paper tape. Somewhere I still have a paper tape reader that I managed to hook up to a TRS-80 Model 4 back in college (built an interface for it) so I could read the programs into the Model 4. Ah, the days of tinkering...
Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
I would love to have one of these to hook up to my Altair 8800 so that I could load programs from paper tape. That would be an epic walk back in time. Loading Basic from tape... WOW!!!
An epic 15 minutes, I don't even want to think about loading something like extended basic lol, take 40 minutes!
I used one in high school and now that I am an IT Instructor I show a pic of this along with a Univac card reader and Sperry Rand Card punch machine to my students for 'Evolution of Technology.'
Hey Bob,
As you like to show the evolution of Technology, you might like some of the items that I have in my collection.
I just recently picked up a beautiful Altair 8800a. I have been having a lot of fun with this one, and spending a lot of time
learning everything that I can about every card, that I currently have installed.
Now, if your students are anything, like I think they are, I think they may be able to relate to my website a lot more, then just
seeing some pics of some old main frame type equipment.
I decided a long time ago, that even though I enjoy the vintage computers, the most, there are not too many people who share that interest. However, almost everyone can remember the first video game system they ever played on.
So, I decided to collect vintage game systems as well.
You can see some of the items that I have in my collection in a video at the bottom of my website at www.theageofgaming.com
Keep in mind the video is a little out of date, as I loaned out my IBM 5150 to the Jacksonville Museum.
ANyway I hope you enjoy the video, you can find my contact info at the bottom of my website as well.
I would love to hear back from you, to share ideas.
Working Altair 8800a in action
drive.google.com/open?id=1ofeSDTcy3xGmW1Es017LnJ_r18Vw2Srq
Thank you
What a fantastic video. Thanks for the demonstration. Another great video you could do is to take the covers off and post closeups of the inner-workings in action. I very much wold like a 33 asr, but I got to tell you, teletypes are few and far between.
Amazing!
Wish I could find one of these, I'm chatting with some hobbyists in Europe who figured out how to hook these things up to the internet and they send messages and do chats with them. The basic premise is that the adapter, called the i-Telex, converts Baudot code into ASCII and does all the sending and receiving over the internet and then converts the ASCII back into Baudot so two machines can "talk" to each other just like in the old days.
Apparently, telex/teleprinter machines are rare as hen's teeth here in the USA, for I can't even find the later electronic ones....
Um, an ASR-33 should be ASCII. Check the punch-tape. It should be 8 bits wide.
Depends on the model. The ASR-33 predates ASCII. It would be ITA2 unless upgraded.
Well... turns out we’re both wrong. It used a 7 bit uppercase only ASCII code known as ITA5.
Magazines from the early (8-bit) microcomputing days of the mid-late 1970's had a few ASCII-Baudot converters as teletypes were a relatively cheap form of interfacing compared to the rare and expensive "glass teletype" or the tedious toggle switches (I keyed in loads of code and data using toggles). Hex keypads were only on more expensive SBC's.
Sorry I'm just a highschool kid doing research on Bill Gates and I have this question that's been stuck in my head.
How does this work? Do you connect it with a screen or sth to get an image??
Sorry if I sound really stupid but I'd be really happy if someone explained this to me
Thanks
Think of the typewriter part as a CMD prompt on a modern computer. You could interact with a connected computer by typing in known commands. As the previous responder said. "type in PRINT 2 x 2 and the computer replies with 4". The terminal unit also had an offline mode where you could type in a long program at your slow hunt & peck typing speed, but not waste computer's time waiting for your keystrokes and leaving the computer free to service other peoples terminal sessions. In the offline mode, as you typed a copy of your keystrokes was saved to the paper tape punch unit. When you had all of your program on the paper tape, you'd put the terminal back ONLINE with the computer and move the paper tape over to the reader unit where, it would quickly load your program from tape as if you were an expert fast error free typist. It was all about efficient use of the computer's time. These machines also found use for communications over long distances where the cost per minute of the phone / data line was quite high. Using a pre-prepared paper tape version of your message saved on line use time charges too. Hope that helps.
nerdgasm