IBM PS/1 Rig

[SCTony]

I found a PS/1 (with monitor) for sale today - $5. It's a 386SX @ 16Mhz. It took me a few minutes to locate the CPU- no heatsink and a little on the small side. I haven't powered it up yet as I am not yet very familiar with it. It is interesting to see, even if it happens to not work. I happened to also find a PC World magazine from AUG 1990 NIB (new in bag, unopened) which has this very computer on the cover. An interesting trip to days gone by.

[TWX]

The PS/1 was out after the PS/2, and the name was coined to show it as a lesser system like one would buy for home use.  Not necessarily bad, but as you can see, definitely limited and proprietary.

A junior high teacher of mine had and old IBM PCJr with the modem expander side on it.  I almost convinced him to give it to me, but he had misgivings at the last minute.

My first PC was a Packard Bell PB500, which was an XT with 4.77MHz 8088, 640K Ram, 30MB RLL hard disk drive, and a 5.25" double density floppy diskette drive.  The video option was an 8 bit ISA ATI CGA card, and later I added a Compudyne 2400 baud ISA modem.  I could put it into "turbo" and get something like 9.59MHz out of it, but I was unsure of what that meant for reliability, so I didn't always run in Turbo mode.  The 84 key keyboard had a 5 pin DIN connector, and once I had some software capable of using it I added a mouse, though it was a really crappy mouse.  Serial of course.

It started out with MS-DOS 3.3, and I upgraded to MS-DOS 5.0, which had online help.  I also added a 3.5" floppy drive to it, but it took me awhile to figure out why I couldn't address 1.44MB floppy diskettes (the 8088 and this chipset couldn't see more than 1MB RAW, which meant taping over a hole and formatting disks for 720K).  With the video card in question I could either do four color CGA with two possible color palettes or I could do 80x25 or 80x43 text with sixteen colors, eight standard colors and eight "high intensity" variants on the originals.  I learned how to program ANSI animation sequences on it with "TheDraw" back in my BBS days.  I was a regular on probably ten BBSes when I was thirteen years old.

Porn looks really crappy in four colors...

[D-EJ915]

Same chip as in my PS/2 56, OS/2 is pretty slick on it but kinda on the slow side lol.

[D-EJ915]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxuBgVkWvPQ

lol

[SCTony]

TWX- your comments were spot-on with the PC World magazine review-
 
     "An unambitious combination of basic AT hardware with built-in modem   and simple software tools, the PS/1 is meant to lure families into buying their first PC."

Thanks for the link Kishy.  

- I powered it up and all seems to work well (haven't tested the 1.44 floppy). Do you know if this originally came with the M2 keyboard? I have a dead M2 and want to try the capacitor replacement.

Colorful Intel logo from PC World ad--

[SCTony]

Brings back memories of my very first computer - a Compaq Portable II 80286. Seems mine was a Compaq II Model 3 with a 10 Meg hard drive and a 5.25" floppy. It was given to me early in the 90's. I never did find much use for it and eventually threw it away.

http://oldcomputers.net/compaqii.html

[D-EJ915]

nice, portables were badass.  I had a panasonic 8088 one with 360k floppies I traded for a 333mhz imac lol.  The thermal printer still works amazingly enough hahaha, shows you how crappy new junk is.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=498

[TWX]

Brings back memories of my very first computer - a Compaq Portable II 80286. Seems mine was a Compaq II Model 3 with a 10 Meg hard drive and a 5.25" floppy. It was given to me early in the 90's. I never did find much use for it and eventually threw it away.

http://oldcomputers.net/compaqii.html

I had one of these:

http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html

Wasn't my first computer, but I was given it, free, when we as a family had a 486.  I had kept the 2400 baud modem out of the old Packard Bell, as well as the software.

When I was grounded from the 486, at night I'd get it out of the closet and dial up to the library system dial-in shell and peruse Usenet in sixteen different shades of green.  I had an MS-DOS 5 boot floppy and a Q-modem floppy.  My modem init string was ATM0L0S11=49 to make it dial quick and quietly.  My parents didn't know that there was a telephone jack in the room because it was one of those old four-individual-pin telephone jacks like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:4prongplug.JPG

Wow, those were the days...

[Shawn Stanford]

My first PC was a Tandy something or other. I don't recall the model. More of a PCjr clone than a PC clone.

[fjk61011]

I have a PS/1 TYPE 2121-C42. 386SX, 2 megs, 3.5" floppy, 40 MB hardrive. DOS 4.0, Win 3.0.

I upgraded with a CYRIX 486SX chip, added 4 megs of memory, DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11.

I also added the adapter to give 3 ISA slots. There was also a 5.25" floopy unit which I'm looking for, it went under the PS/1 unit.

I'll check the keyboard

[ch_123]

It's probably one of these

[EPA]

Hello guys! I am from Freiburg, Germany.

I have actually two PS/1 computer: 2121 and 2011.

But none of them has the IBM Promenade service installed, which normally appeared/appeares on fully preloaded US machines over the nice 4quad screen under INFORMATION.

Can anybody help me?

Background: IBM Promenade service was for all PS/1 users between 1990 and 1994. The following services was AOL for DOS and later AOL for Windows.

This special Promenade program came on one floppy disk and/or preloaded on harddisk and have had that nice Geoworks GUI!

We here at www.geos-infobase.de are searching for a picture of Promenade or better: a real working program!

Sure: the service is closed since 1994, but it is very interesting to see the look and feel of Promenade. Promenade starts in June 1990 and Geoworks Ensemble 1.0 was in beta state at that time. The release of Ensemble was in November 1990 on COMDEX Fall.

Thanks for all your answers!
Manfred

[EPA]

This I wrote in the geos-talk Newsgroup at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/geos-talk/ today (and changed a little bit for here):


I have searched so long for any unknown GEOS stuff, software and hardware. After
many years and uncount nights some "white spots" in the GEOS history now are
bright and clear, filled up with colors and many informations.

Not only I have searched so long for Brother or Canon systems with embedded GEOS
like Brother LW-750ic and Brother DP-300cj or Canon StarWriter Pro 5000 and Pro
7000 - but I truly found them also after intensive searches over our good old
Internet!

I also have found good GEOS friends, who helped me out here and there with
informations or with other things: Brian Dougherty, Frank S. Fischer, Ray
Kopczynski and some other real good guys!

From a GWRep I got a nice CD with AOL stuff and some GeoWorks versions, also
GEOWORKS Ensemble 1.0 US (!) or I have got the nice and forgotten Global PC
update 1.3... I have collected here and there, but the best and absolutely rare
GEOS things I must search and found at my own.

Three versions were unfindable all the years:

- A real Geoworks BETA (from summer 1990)
- The OS/2 SchoolView version
- IBM's Promenade Online service (GEOS with CUA gui!)

But the waiting is over, 'cause I have found an US eBayer in Florida, who wanted
to sell a so called IBM PS/1 model 2123 WITH Promenade!


========================================
IBM PS/1 model 2123 with Promenade !?
========================================

 





BIG pictures:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/1yui1TgQTobvcNBYstcOUxyJJ.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/SXqnXKc9myGqXqGIYXTbqoGJo.jpg



I wanted to buy that nice machine, but hurdles wanted me to stop: He only let
bid for US citzens! For me as a German no chance, 'cause the bidding has also
started. So I must "change" my eBay entries and could bid and I really won that
auction!

The story behind: The owner have put that nice PC and the CRT monitor back in
their two boxes back in 1993 and so nobody have worked with them since 17
YEARS!!!

For $117 it was mine and the USPS fee about $136 and the import vat of 32 Euro
are much, but not too much for a REAL GEOS DIGGER!

And so I waited for the machine and catched it up at Freiburg customs.
At home the fearfully questions: Will it start? Will it boot? Will it really
have Promenade "on board"?

I have found also AOL 1.0 for DOS and thought: How will Promenade looks like, IF
IT IS REALLY ON HD?


=========================================
Here some pictures of AOL 1.0 for DOS:
=========================================






BIG pictures:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/mOLc3knPWNWpUQkpw2CqKVU4s.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/bW69vTIOn4wigoVTOzMzKogra.jpg


===============================
Pictures of AOL 1.6 for DOS:
===============================






BIG pictures:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/S59IR9LVb9AA.gif

http://www.broimg.de/pics/RvDzC4howppI.gif


I changed first the AC voltage on the back from 115V to German 230V, connected
IBM mouse, IBM keyboard and AC cable and switched on that machine, fingers
crossed!

WOW: It started really after 17 years! But what was that? Failure 161 and 163?
No further booting? As an old IBM and ThinkPad user I knew: Failure 161 = RAM,
163 = wrong time and date...

I found a STARTER DISK in the big box and booted again. After some needed
entries and rebooting the system started without any problems!
IBM DOS 5.0, the nice IBM picture over hwcheck.exe, the windows
3.1...but...where is the folder called C:\PROMENAD...?

The last trace I found was in that picture:

==============================================
IF NOT EXIST C:\PROMENAD\GEOS.EXE GOTO DONE
==============================================




BIG picture:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/nA8N4m15scbIzbEUzdiO0H7b1.jpg


No Promenad folder, no entries! And so no Promenade?

But wait a minute: That nice US eBayer has put also 11 backup disks with ZIP
files on it in the box which are also saved in the folder C:\RECOVERY on
harddisk and so I thought:

Last stop to final win or lost?

With the input of: PKUNZIP -T *.ZIP I could saw the entries within that ZIP
files which flew over the screen and in ZIP disk #8 THERE WAS PROMENADE, indeed!

So I made another input: PKUNZIP -D *.ZIP and all of that IBM preloaded stuff
was now unpacked at the end (in a seperate own folder)!

What would I see If I have started Promenade?


Dear Ladies and Gentleman! Please, take a seat! We will now show you a moment
you will never forget: After 17 years of sleep you all will now see a live
picture of a forgotten GEOS version: PROMENADE 2.0:


========================
IBM Promenade Service
========================





Isn't this cool?

I have more of that:

     


BIG pictures:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/YLRJziVUdO2iFSwqlzK2yIdkZ.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/luoLHFGzOjdavNvKNGs7EWU0i.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/HWmechWzEHND9E20o0P8M4uau.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/Wxf5WBJJSM4WNZii0BPNWZ9Oi.jpg


It looks like AOL for DOS, you will cry out! But wait a minute! Will you see the
GUI? AOL has MOTIF and Promenade CUA!!

But IBM closed the doors to the Promenade service soon in 1994!
So no real dialling is possible...


So I tried another thing: I installed the 11 disks on a virtual PS/1 in Virtual
PC 2007:

=======================
A PS/1 as vitual PC?
=======================




BIG picture:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/80FaJwlIQhTGxsbvEZ4c5uTxp.jpg


And i tried also more: I installed there on that virtual harddisk our Geoworks
Ensemble v1.0 (!) and copied the needed files for Promenade in the folder
SYSTEM\QFORMS:

======================
Promenade in WORLD!
======================




BIG picture:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/Jqa9GGQpTRvn53qbw3znGohZf.jpg


Yes, that's really possible! Normally AOL for DOS and Promenade are STANDALONE
versions, but it is possible to start them also as normal GEOS programs!

And if you have copied all needed files for AOL and Promenade in the QFORMS
folder, you can start BOTH TOGETHER:


===================================
AOL and Promenade, both started!
===================================




BIG picture:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/Mp6Ut91F2l3xMC05BH8B3CFVH.jpg


Now travel back in the year 1993 and buy a PS/1 model 2123 with internal 2400
modem and also an external modem, start AOL and Promenade and work with BOTH at
the same time! WHAT A FEELING!

But the PS/1 2123 have much more Promenade stuff:

=================
PS/1 Tutorial:
=================




BIG picture:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/ppgaT3d0CVLRFc0qxsRcDhNuQ.jpg


In that special tutorial welcome screen you can choose point 2: Software
Descriptions and you will see some nice Promenade informations:

     


BIG pictures:

http://www.broimg.de/pics/vaDVkwo5eMhwoKwbZs3aUodC5.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/FeVJ43Gquzm6PZ3IgbSKm3zpk.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/WnDT7yVbeY8vqnC2fxBHBJSGY.jpg

http://www.broimg.de/pics/jRKpf0rsvotIeMFCIjI1t9KkD.jpg




So, guys, I hope you have had fun to read my nice story and if you have any
questions ask me, EPA, the REAL GEOS DIGGER!


BTW: I came in contact with DOUGLAS WHATLEY, the "father" of Promenade and he
will search for his Promenade copies and some other GEOWORKS stuff for us all!

==============================================
DOUG WHATLEY, the real father of Promenade!
==============================================




"fas.org/gamesummit/Bios.html - [Cached Version]
Published on: 8/8/2009 Last Visited: 8/8/2009
Douglas Whatley CEO, BreakAway Games

Doug Whatley is an interactive entertainment industry veteran with nearly 20
years of successful game development and management experience, Doug is a
lifelong gamer. This avocation allowed him to transform a "hobbyists pursuit"
into a thriving business venture. He got his start with board games back in the
1970s and later designed and produced the original America Online PC client
software in the 1980s. He also developed the Promenade online service for IBM
and worked on AppleLink for the Macintosh and Apple II during that time."


"IBM Promenade Online

As a member of http://www.geos-infobase.de I am searching for all GEOS versions. AOL
for DOS I have found. But we also are searching for IBM Promenade. Douglas, can
you give us some information about your developer time or do you have Promenade
in real on any diskette or on harddisk? I know, 1990 has long gone, but maybe
Promenade was your "child" and it was a Geoworks Beta with GEOS GUI and so
important for us!

Thanks for any possible help and greetings from Freiburg, Germany!

Manfred"


"Manfred, Greetings to Freiburg, Germany from Baltimore, USA!

You are naming names that I haven't heard for many years. But, you are
correct, Promenade was a bit of a 'child' for me. I am pretty sure that I have
several sets of the original diskettes and I may have some other things from
Geoworks back then. I will have to dig them out of old boxes in my basement, but
I do have some of that stuff.

Give me a couple of days to find what I have and I will send you a note.

Doug W"


So you will see, GEOS is coming back to life, if we all do some work for it!

Greetings also to Frank S. Fischer and John Howard from Breadbox!
I wish you both really the long awaited BREAKTHROUGH with GEOS 5 in 32bit!!!

For today your
EPA (Manfred)

[Rajagra]

Glad to see your persistence paid off!