To address the confusion, Cody is my middle name and what I typically go by. Other things are William (my first name) just out of necessity :D. It is nice to see everything arrived somewhat safely. The monitor did not have a crack at the top when I shipped it so that must have been a shipment issue. I apologize for that. Shipping CRTs is difficult. The capture card is 720 so hopefully it might still be useful. I am looking forward to the new life you will give the explorer. The hard disk never worked while I had it and the interface is not quite IDE from what I remember. I am interested in how you will address that in the future. Perhaps it is just a different pinout that could be modded? Who knows. Thanks again for the great content!
Ah ok!! Sorry about that! LOLOL! Yeah there will certainly be a few more videos with this machine coming up eventually, including a fun comparison to the Amstrad PPC640 which is a "similar" machine.
The design language looks VERY MUCH like late 80's early 90's Apple-esque. To me it most looks like a pairing of the Macintosh Portable (aka the lovable lugable) and a LaserWriter II NT.
You made me remember a thing my father told me. Way before polystyrene foam and chips to put on packages were widely used (although bubble wrap was common) they used a very simple biodegradable product: popcorn: yes popcorn made with hot air without oil. sometimes inside plastic bags Sometimes just dropped inside the box until it filled all empty spaces. Until this day I ask myself why we didn't keep doing that.
I used to have one of these when I was a kid. I wrote so many school reports and stories on the horrible word processing app on it. so many memories. I played hours and hours of battle chess on it.. good times. I know when the mouse died it was impossible to replace. ended up using the keyboard to move the mouse cursor around. I think you had to hold the alt key and then use the arrow keys to move it around It's been years so that might not be the right key combination. lol
Ah! I figured there was a key combo to move the pointer (slowly) around the screen. Hehe ... You know if this is all I had, I would still be happy compared to having no computer!
The hard drive in the HeadStart Explorer is a MiniScribe IDE-XT (XTA) drive. There is now a prototype XTA2SD board which will let you replace an IDE-XT drive with an SD card
Colour Genie is a computer from 1982 made by EACA. It wasn't very popular but sold some units in Germany. I have one. It has the worst composite video output ever. You can grab RGB directly from the board in some way (I didn't bother). The setting you mention in your RGB2HDMI thingy adds support for this mod.
A friend had one when we were kids, I hadn't thought of that computer in nearly 30 years until I saw CRD's video recently. It had a lot of interesting features, though it was outclassed entirely by my Tandy 2500rsx
This computer design was originally made by Thomson in France, intended as a PC XT compatible with an optional flat panel display. The original name for it was Thomson CPC2 but it ended up being sold to a Korean manufacturer. There's one prototype at Association MO5, wish I could link pictures in youtube comments 😅
Very Cool! Vendex was a Long Island based technology marketing firm.. They started their HeadStart line in the mid 1980s. The first ones they sold were a conventional type PC compatible marketed through department stores like Dillards. Their all in ones came out in 1989 with the push for the fall Christmas season. The marketing ploy was the "Ease of an Apple, Compatible with IBM". IBM compatible out of the box but could have an Apple card installed. Vendex was sold in the spring of 1989 to Philips. In the US it was even marketed by Philips as a Magnavox HeadStart Explorer with a companion Magnavox monitor. Again the aim was the entry, home market. HeadStarts were really pushed at Montgomery Wards and other department stores. The prices started at about $500 and could be customized up to the mid-2K range. There were available accessories to include a stand to set the monitor over the main computer. The idea was you could use it on standard size student desk and fold the keyboard up when not in use. Very much designed for a dorm room.
Vendex is a Dutch multinational and is famous in The Netherlands for their V&D (Vroom en Dreesmann, V en D) department stores that went bankrupt a couple of years ago.
@@anotheruser9876 Oh the corporate merger days of the 1980''s. The U.S. firm, Vendex Pacific was previously a part of the Netherlands' Vendex International. They then became Vendex Technologies under Philips. I'm sure Vendex Pacific was some holding of Vendex International but they (Vendex Pacific) were based at 40 Cutter Mill Road, Great Nick, on Long Island, New York. Their stuff was made in Korea. They sold their Headstart computers with a classic east coast flair. "Easy of Use", starting pro wrestling star King Kong Bundy showing their ease of use in TV ads. It was a marketing campaign by their then V.P. Harry Fox. When N.V. Philips bought the U.S. Vendex Technologies in 1989 Harry Fox stayed on a the division's president. ua-cam.com/video/9OJnYzYQHgg/v-deo.html
"Percussive maintenance" ehehehe. My first job was with Brazilian TRS-80 Model I clones. One was called Dismac D-8000. I found one that was failing the turn-on memory test. I called my friend (that had got me the job), and he held the CPU 30cm (about a foot) over the table and dropped it (the case was made of metal, not plastic as the TRS-80). I was completely stunned. He said: "Try again" and the memory test worked. Thanks, Adrian to bring me back fond memories.
Yup. I have one if there’s any need to figure out the pinout. One thing about that card - it’s very reliable, if .... IF .... you send it strictly-conforming, standard signals. Forget 240p, it’s not happening. And when it says 60Hz, it means 60Hz. Out of spec devices need not apply. For that reason, it has been .... less useful than I would have liked.
@@nickwallette6201 my issue is I bought my card for a HTPC project. It turns out the card doesn’t like HDCP protected content either, outright rejects input from my satellite and IPTV box. I also had the cable, but I’ve misplaced it. Mine eventually developed a fault where it was only outputting one channel of audio tho, even if the input was HDMI.
Early computers were interesting. Most people didn't have computer skills we take for granted today. Manufacturers were trying real hard make their product usable by simplifying and using familiar concepts to simplify the learning curve. That's what motivated this non-standard design.
The CRT is VGA only, no super-VGA stuff. While the VGA has three modes (350-line mode, 400-line mode and 480-line mode), all of these modes used exactly the same horizontal 31.5kHz timing. That explains why you don't have the issue of the picture moving around horizontally when you switch modes, so you don't need user-accessible horizontal image controls.
The Colour Genie is a 1982 Z80-based micro that was a successor to the Video Genie. But the interesting part is that the Video Genie was a TRS-80 Model 1 clone so the Colour Genie is basically a colour TRS-80 Model 1 derivative, making it totally different from Tandy's own Coco, Colour TRS-80, which was a 6809 machine with a totally different architecture. So now I really want you to get hold of a Colour Genie!
I still have bunch of these bus mouses, and now I know where they came from, cool! Fun fact: The bus mouse works the same as Atari ST and Amiga mouse, you can rewire the connector to DB9 and use it on your Atari ST or Amiga.
The Vendex Headstart rung a bell in my head. That were also the computers sold by a Dutch department store (the V&D), and Vendex also meant Vroom en Dreesman EXploitatie. The V&D department stores do not exist anymore.
For the battery holder, why not just use a short piece of dowel with a screw on each end, then run wires from the screws to the new battery holder, so it is fully reversible.
I think, the "data disk" is their wording for "your personal data disk". Can't remember where I saw that, but I recall it being a regular empty disk with a special marker file/folder on it.
Can't wait to see more on this! This era of computers was totally weird, before they standardised on the more "modern" desktop and laptop form factors.
Adrian, you can run multiple ISA cards off one slot, you just need a riser or expander card. What I mean is, electrically, the cards are all just in parallel, every signal connected to the same pins in each socket. You could even perhaps make an expander card. Our chums at sponsored-by PCB factory would do it for you! You could even have a finger-connector then use ribbon cable rather than PCB, to make it more flexible. Digging about inside you might find the space. ISA was a pretty slow bus, noise probably won't be a problem. Then you wouldn't have to choose! And god knows there must be room inside that gigantic case, what the hell else could even be in there? Especially if you take the hard drive out.
I think I saw screen shots of this system in one of magazines for sure. I remember the GUI screen so now I find out which system it was.... it's Headstart. wow
In Britain and some of the commonwealth in the late 80's and into the 90's we had computers with a ROM OS that actually was rather popular in the education market with the ARM based Acorn A series machines (originally badged Archimedes). Naturally they were excellent for the education market as there was no way of damaging the OS and it meant that not having a hard drive was not a big issue. Bootup took seconds and they were very reliable. They even ended up being used for controlling BBC TV playout. Available in either "keyboard computer" or desktop variants, including the unique Risc PC, with stackable sections. Also interesting was that some or all of the "keyboard computer" models had just one PCB inside, with even the PSU on the main PCB and also gave birth to the first SOC.
So I had one of these back when they came out in the late 80's/early 90's - well still do have, albeit it is now in pieces. There was a stand that came with it that fit over the computer and held the monitor - hence all the "wasted space". Also the card slot next to the ISA slot was intended for a memory expansion module that never materialized - I spent hours pouring through Computer Shopper hoping that I'd find one when I was younger. I have a few pictures if I can figure out how to get them to you of the stand.
I would definitely add a sound card over the XT-IDE in that machine. TexElec sells an 8-bit sound card IIRC. If the hard drive is of the MFM variety, there is a small emulator board available for that standard called DREM. It is a bit expensive, but I don't know of any UA-camr that has reviewed it yet.
I bought this as an extra for $20 when I bought a 386 with a dead power supply from my local BBS operator. It also had the shelf that went over it to hold a monitor. Neat little computer, I liked that it had an OS built into the ROM, but the lack of expansion made it hard to do much with it.
I have a bunch of those 14" VGA monitors, and they all worked 20 years ago lol. Dark being darker, while bright being brighter, is something i have seen happen to some CRTs. IIRC its related to the "fly back" aging or something. It was very common in the Hyundais.
Dark being darker is caused by the brightness knob being too low (and as the CRT ages it is necessary to increase it to compensate). Bright being brighter is because the contrast control is set high.
I can't find anything on the exact graphics chip in this machine, but considering this above-standard hi-res mode, I pretty much assume that this could be an ATI or Paradise CGA clone like the Commodore PC10/PC20 (-II ATI, -III Paradise) or Amstrad PC1512 (Paradise) used. This additionally supports Plantronics Colorplus modes, which provide 320x200 16 color and Hi-Res 4-Color that CGA did not have. Unfortunately, not compatible to Tandy or EGA graphics, there was a driver for GEM, Planet X3 was the first and long time only game to support this and now, there is also a driver for Sierra Gen.1 SCI games. I found a page that states the pinout of the mouse, showing an X1/X2 and Y1/Y2, which points to quadrature pulses like used for the Amiga or Atari mouse. So it could be that this thing can be driven using an adapter cable with an Amiga mouse or my project USB RetroARDUInput (introduction video to come soon, and I would be glad to send one of these to you for an upcoming mail call, just dropped you a message)
I wonder if that's how a bus mouse works? I actually never looked into it. I'll need to open this up to try to fix the hard drive, so I can look more likely at the video chip at that time. I'm not sure anyone has torn one of these down yet. :-)
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 I have googled Busmouse and it could well be one, except for the pinout that I found for the Explorer is totally different than for a Busmouse on the same connector. But the concept is the same as for Amiga and Atari, 2 Bit Gray Code (Quadrature code). They actually pass on the signals from the encoder wheel directly, which define speed and direction. The encoder wheels have two light barriers side by side which are either open or covered in the sequence 00-01-11-10 in one direction or 00-10-11-01 in the other direction. Buttons are direct pins with pull to ground on press. So it could likely be that, with a proper adapter cable, Busmouse, Explorer mouse, Atari and Amiga mouse (also different pinouts) and projects like the MouSTer or my RetroARDUInput are interchangable.
I had one of these growing up and found that the mouse was a standard Microsoft InPort bus mouse. If you have one of those it should work without any modifications.
I couldn't see exactly how you attempted to highlight text, but on many of those kind of computers you need to click on the text where you want to start highlighting text, and while holding down the mouse button, drag the pointer to the end of the section of text you want to highlight.
6:48 The connector on the capture card is likely for additional inputs, maybe a plug with a bunch of RCA female jacks coming out. I have a BT848-based version which has this (although I can't find the cable). Mine supports 4 additional inputs (composite or S-Video IIRC). I'd like to see this working; maybe Linux will recognize it?
In the mid-90s, as a kid of 12 ages, I believed QBasic was the "Mother" of all other programs, including Windows because it was the only program the computer had installed on which can be used to make other programs. So I gave it a try and learned Basic by trial and error. A half year later, I tried to figure out how Windows is made (I still believed QBasic is the only existing programming language) and started.... The result was an DOS-GUI like this, with its own unique ugly user experience: Its default theme was about farts and poop turds coming out of rosy cheeks xD. I made a few basic features and utilities for it (customizable themes, screensavers, fonts, drawing tool, calendar, calculator, word processor, a few simple games, file browser etc.). I remember I was chewing on the word processor which was the final enemy. The final result fit on a single 3,5" disk. You had one disk with the "OS" and another one for your data. Hard drives support was missing because my computer didn't have one. Instead the computer had two floppy drives. My grandpa actually used that GUI on his old 286 DOS computer. It ran OK until the computer became broken. Unfortunately, the software itself is lost, because my dad never allowed me to program, because in his eyes I was a hacker, and destroyed my disks including the backup ones after he drunk too much. Only some of the themes and fonts survived. :(
Reminds me of the "Apricot Portable" I once owned. Not PC compatible, terrible LCD, a 6801 8 bit CPU for voice recognition (it recognized the vowels in a word only) and infrared keyboard. Bought it at huge discount new (10% of list perhaps) and quickly got rid of it again.
Blackmagic has a lot of 'professional' compatible broadcast components. Lots of scrappy software companies use their SDI In/out decklink cards these days
Such a strange sounding seek on that harddrive. I hope you can fix the stepper. I look forward to more on this computer and the monitor that shipped with it. Also, Samsung was known to glue pots...I think you had one years ago that also had glued pots but were able to free them.
In a database a formatted phone number is not a number. It's text. But you can store it as a number and display it formatted later. But I have no idea how this would do that.
i have a blackmagic intensity pro and it works very well, i think you will like it once you figure out it's quirks... you may need to use an older version of blackmagic media express to get it working properly... they update like gpu drivers and get wonky if you go too far ahead with them... the cable connector is for a component/composite/S Video breakout cable with input AND output... i use that cable to digitize betamax tapes and laserdiscs that i own.
I remember that video from CRD; as much as I enjoy his channel, he didn't live through the era of those devices he judges so harshly, hopefully your take on it will be a little more upbeat ;) I'm sure it will be, because as kids, we were grateful for any computer that came our way, especially those of us that were as poor as church mice.
I appreciate CRD’s youthful view on a lot of this - but you’re right, he doesn’t remember how there was a time when ANY computer was amazing and did it’s job as good as you allowed it to. People will still un-ironically using Apple IIs and 8088s in a non-retro setting when the Pentium was released. Technology moved so dang fast in those days - unless you were rich, it was simply impossible to keep up.
be careful with older hard drives, not all of them park the head automatically on power off. In that case, the head may crash of you just turn off the power while the computer is running. The normal procedure for that type of drives is to use a utility that sends the appropiate shutdown command to the drive. I do not know dough, if your drive needs that. It will be interesting to "explore" the explorer some more. ---> see what i did there? 😁
Adrian !! Question, how much room have you got to live in, eg like a normal house and how much is just storage of all the amazing stuff you got,get and will get ? ps great vid as always !!
everything is self contained in the basement -- upstairs is a normal house. Well other than my office where I have shelves which have a good number of these nice machines on display. The clutter is all self contained to where I work though :-) I don't want my hobby to eat me out of house and home
a custom riser card could give you a second 8bit isa slot. Will be tight for space You wouldn't want any tall components electrolytic caps on the cards to fit 2 cards in there
I can't wait to see you try and fix the hard drive. Will be cool to see whats on there. I always love spinning up old drives and seeing what's on them Its like a time capsule. super fun.
I think Cathode Ray Dude's computer didn't have a hard drive fitted to it, and I think he said the hard drive was not easy to find. Maybe there's just a loose connection between your hard drive and the computer, as well as the drive being old and probably very tired.
Does seem like it should have a screen of somesort built in, yet it hasn't, very odd design, though its' overall shape does remind me of commodore breadbins, just much bigger... :P
20:19 - I don't have much to add to this, other than this GUI reminds me of the Amiga 500 Workbech 1.3 :) Question: How do you deal with all the projects that's lying around? I have a couple of computers to fix and parts to test, not nearly as many as you have but it's giving me existential dread :D
It probably ripped off Amiga OS! This thing came out pretty late, all things considered. As for projects, I just try to stay organized and then pick one and work on it. I'll be able to make videos forever at this point!
You become a slave to all the projects you have, get overwhelmed,start to dread it,then pick one to work on and realize you are beholden to itl for the rest of your life 🤣
Wait... How was this "a-head" of its time? An XT released in 1989? In an enclosure that made the 2 year old Amiga 500 (at the time) look like a pocket computer? Hahaha
If I were making an educational computer back then, it'd be some Z80 with 64K RAM and some off-the-shelf video chip. I certainly wouldn't clone the IBM PC, the most expensive, and most useless, educational computer around. Maybe Apple ][ would be an idea, since there was already stuff out for that, but Apple would likely sue you, not worth the bother trying to reverse-engineer their ROM. So I'd prob go for a simple Z80 and just include a bit of token educational stuff. If I were making an "educational" computer... to "help me with my homework", but really the kid's just gonna play games on it all day, I'd maybe do an MSX. They were available to license and had loads of software, nice chipset, you could surely knock up a few token adding-up games. Last thing I'd do is IBM PC though. All that cost, for useless ugly graphics and a chunky slow CPU, crappy ports of games, just... what's the point? Before you disagree, remember you're stuck in CGA-era PCs and the prices they sold for. Long before the era of the cheap clone with trimmed to the bone prices.
![Adrian's Digital Basement ][](http://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AIdro_k7CrQRe71qN6c0Ua7A1P_I8KkxjqLa70u0zYeCvdvnKw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
To address the confusion, Cody is my middle name and what I typically go by. Other things are William (my first name) just out of necessity :D. It is nice to see everything arrived somewhat safely. The monitor did not have a crack at the top when I shipped it so that must have been a shipment issue. I apologize for that. Shipping CRTs is difficult.
The capture card is 720 so hopefully it might still be useful.
I am looking forward to the new life you will give the explorer. The hard disk never worked while I had it and the interface is not quite IDE from what I remember. I am interested in how you will address that in the future. Perhaps it is just a different pinout that could be modded? Who knows.
Thanks again for the great content!
Ah ok!! Sorry about that! LOLOL! Yeah there will certainly be a few more videos with this machine coming up eventually, including a fun comparison to the Amstrad PPC640 which is a "similar" machine.
The design language looks VERY MUCH like late 80's early 90's Apple-esque. To me it most looks like a pairing of the Macintosh Portable (aka the lovable lugable) and a LaserWriter II NT.
You made me remember a thing my father told me. Way before polystyrene foam and chips to put on packages were widely used (although bubble wrap was common) they used a very simple biodegradable product: popcorn: yes popcorn made with hot air without oil. sometimes inside plastic bags Sometimes just dropped inside the box until it filled all empty spaces.
Until this day I ask myself why we didn't keep doing that.
@@agranero6 It's a great idea but we tried that in Florida and had a HORRIBLE problem with insects getting into the popcorn and popcorn party.
William Cody! you be Buffalo Bill then, cool name mate 👍 Never seen a Headstart Explorer before looks very cool for the time.
I used to have one of these when I was a kid. I wrote so many school reports and stories on the horrible word processing app on it. so many memories. I played hours and hours of battle chess on it.. good times. I know when the mouse died it was impossible to replace. ended up using the keyboard to move the mouse cursor around. I think you had to hold the alt key and then use the arrow keys to move it around It's been years so that might not be the right key combination. lol
Ah! I figured there was a key combo to move the pointer (slowly) around the screen. Hehe ... You know if this is all I had, I would still be happy compared to having no computer!
The hard drive in the HeadStart Explorer is a MiniScribe IDE-XT (XTA) drive. There is now a prototype XTA2SD board which will let you replace an IDE-XT drive with an SD card
Aren't Miniscribe those ones that were substituted by bricks for that to pass the audit?
@@agranero6 Yes!
Colour Genie is a computer from 1982 made by EACA. It wasn't very popular but sold some units in Germany. I have one. It has the worst composite video output ever. You can grab RGB directly from the board in some way (I didn't bother). The setting you mention in your RGB2HDMI thingy adds support for this mod.
Cathode Ray Dude did do a video about this Headstart PC, quite a detailed review from memory.
A friend had one when we were kids, I hadn't thought of that computer in nearly 30 years until I saw CRD's video recently. It had a lot of interesting features, though it was outclassed entirely by my Tandy 2500rsx
This computer design was originally made by Thomson in France, intended as a PC XT compatible with an optional flat panel display. The original name for it was Thomson CPC2 but it ended up being sold to a Korean manufacturer.
There's one prototype at Association MO5, wish I could link pictures in youtube comments 😅
Very Cool! Vendex was a Long Island based technology marketing firm.. They started their HeadStart line in the mid 1980s. The first ones they sold were a conventional type PC compatible marketed through department stores like Dillards. Their all in ones came out in 1989 with the push for the fall Christmas season. The marketing ploy was the "Ease of an Apple, Compatible with IBM". IBM compatible out of the box but could have an Apple card installed.
Vendex was sold in the spring of 1989 to Philips. In the US it was even marketed by Philips as a Magnavox HeadStart Explorer with a companion Magnavox monitor. Again the aim was the entry, home market. HeadStarts were really pushed at Montgomery Wards and other department stores. The prices started at about $500 and could be customized up to the mid-2K range. There were available accessories to include a stand to set the monitor over the main computer. The idea was you could use it on standard size student desk and fold the keyboard up when not in use. Very much designed for a dorm room.
Vendex is a Dutch multinational and is famous in The Netherlands for their V&D (Vroom en Dreesmann, V en D) department stores that went bankrupt a couple of years ago.
@@anotheruser9876 Oh the corporate merger days of the 1980''s. The U.S. firm, Vendex Pacific was previously a part of the Netherlands' Vendex International. They then became Vendex Technologies under Philips. I'm sure Vendex Pacific was some holding of Vendex International but they (Vendex Pacific) were based at 40 Cutter Mill Road, Great Nick, on Long Island, New York. Their stuff was made in Korea. They sold their Headstart computers with a classic east coast flair. "Easy of Use", starting pro wrestling star King Kong Bundy showing their ease of use in TV ads. It was a marketing campaign by their then V.P. Harry Fox. When N.V. Philips bought the U.S. Vendex Technologies in 1989 Harry Fox stayed on a the division's president.
ua-cam.com/video/9OJnYzYQHgg/v-deo.html
"Percussive maintenance" ehehehe. My first job was with Brazilian TRS-80 Model I clones. One was called Dismac D-8000. I found one that was failing the turn-on memory test. I called my friend (that had got me the job), and he held the CPU 30cm (about a foot) over the table and dropped it (the case was made of metal, not plastic as the TRS-80). I was completely stunned. He said: "Try again" and the memory test worked.
Thanks, Adrian to bring me back fond memories.
The header on the blackmagic card is for a breakout cable that splits to component, composite, s-video and audio in.
Yup. I have one if there’s any need to figure out the pinout.
One thing about that card - it’s very reliable, if .... IF .... you send it strictly-conforming, standard signals. Forget 240p, it’s not happening. And when it says 60Hz, it means 60Hz. Out of spec devices need not apply.
For that reason, it has been .... less useful than I would have liked.
@@nickwallette6201 my issue is I bought my card for a HTPC project. It turns out the card doesn’t like HDCP protected content either, outright rejects input from my satellite and IPTV box.
I also had the cable, but I’ve misplaced it.
Mine eventually developed a fault where it was only outputting one channel of audio tho, even if the input was HDMI.
There is a machine of roughly the same shape (and era) with a flip-up mono LCD screen. It's called the Amstrad PPC512 (and its brother, the PPC640).
The PPC 640 was a magnificent system, your right, the Headstart looks like a poor cousin to it.
Before you folded the keyboard out I thought it was going to be a badge clone of the Amstrad PPC640 - externally it looks really similar
I have a PPC640 too -- so I'll need to do a head to head!
Early computers were interesting. Most people didn't have computer skills we take for granted today. Manufacturers were trying real hard make their product usable by simplifying and using familiar concepts to simplify the learning curve. That's what motivated this non-standard design.
The CRT is VGA only, no super-VGA stuff. While the VGA has three modes (350-line mode, 400-line mode and 480-line mode), all of these modes used exactly the same horizontal 31.5kHz timing. That explains why you don't have the issue of the picture moving around horizontally when you switch modes, so you don't need user-accessible horizontal image controls.
The Colour Genie is a 1982 Z80-based micro that was a successor to the Video Genie. But the interesting part is that the Video Genie was a TRS-80 Model 1 clone so the Colour Genie is basically a colour TRS-80 Model 1 derivative, making it totally different from Tandy's own Coco, Colour TRS-80, which was a 6809 machine with a totally different architecture. So now I really want you to get hold of a Colour Genie!
I still have bunch of these bus mouses, and now I know where they came from, cool!
Fun fact: The bus mouse works the same as Atari ST and Amiga mouse, you can rewire the connector to DB9 and use it on your Atari ST or Amiga.
I love discovering a new machine I've never heard of. Fantastic!
The Vendex Headstart rung a bell in my head. That were also the computers sold by a Dutch department store (the V&D), and Vendex also meant Vroom en Dreesman EXploitatie. The V&D department stores do not exist anymore.
For the battery holder, why not just use a short piece of dowel with a screw on each end, then run wires from the screws to the new battery holder, so it is fully reversible.
I think, the "data disk" is their wording for "your personal data disk". Can't remember where I saw that, but I recall it being a regular empty disk with a special marker file/folder on it.
Can't wait to see more on this! This era of computers was totally weird, before they standardised on the more "modern" desktop and laptop form factors.
Loved Gravis' video about this machine so I'm excited you have one too!
Looking forward to the teardown and repair.
I used to have a PC that I'd need to do the "one inch drop" quite often to get the HD to work. Worked that way for quite a long time, haha
Adrian, you can run multiple ISA cards off one slot, you just need a riser or expander card. What I mean is, electrically, the cards are all just in parallel, every signal connected to the same pins in each socket. You could even perhaps make an expander card. Our chums at sponsored-by PCB factory would do it for you! You could even have a finger-connector then use ribbon cable rather than PCB, to make it more flexible.
Digging about inside you might find the space. ISA was a pretty slow bus, noise probably won't be a problem.
Then you wouldn't have to choose! And god knows there must be room inside that gigantic case, what the hell else could even be in there? Especially if you take the hard drive out.
I think I saw screen shots of this system in one of magazines for sure. I remember the GUI screen so now I find out which system it was.... it's Headstart. wow
Neat! I used to own two of these. Came with amber colored monitors.
They eventually got donated to a computer museum so they should still be around.
In Britain and some of the commonwealth in the late 80's and into the 90's we had computers with a ROM OS that actually was rather popular in the education market with the ARM based Acorn A series machines (originally badged Archimedes). Naturally they were excellent for the education market as there was no way of damaging the OS and it meant that not having a hard drive was not a big issue. Bootup took seconds and they were very reliable.
They even ended up being used for controlling BBC TV playout.
Available in either "keyboard computer" or desktop variants, including the unique Risc PC, with stackable sections.
Also interesting was that some or all of the "keyboard computer" models had just one PCB inside, with even the PSU on the main PCB and also gave birth to the first SOC.
So I had one of these back when they came out in the late 80's/early 90's - well still do have, albeit it is now in pieces. There was a stand that came with it that fit over the computer and held the monitor - hence all the "wasted space". Also the card slot next to the ISA slot was intended for a memory expansion module that never materialized - I spent hours pouring through Computer Shopper hoping that I'd find one when I was younger. I have a few pictures if I can figure out how to get them to you of the stand.
Looks like a good contender for a parallel port DAC - Covox, DSS, home brew etc
I acquired two of these about a year ago (along with a matching monitor and stand) but haven't had time to play with them yet.
I would definitely add a sound card over the XT-IDE in that machine. TexElec sells an 8-bit sound card IIRC.
If the hard drive is of the MFM variety, there is a small emulator board available for that standard called DREM. It is a bit expensive, but I don't know of any UA-camr that has reviewed it yet.
IIRC Adrian has mentioned an MFM emulator that he wished to use with an AT&T UNIX workstation.
I bought this as an extra for $20 when I bought a 386 with a dead power supply from my local BBS operator. It also had the shelf that went over it to hold a monitor. Neat little computer, I liked that it had an OS built into the ROM, but the lack of expansion made it hard to do much with it.
I have a bunch of those 14" VGA monitors, and they all worked 20 years ago lol. Dark being darker, while bright being brighter, is something i have seen happen to some CRTs. IIRC its related to the "fly back" aging or something. It was very common in the Hyundais.
Dark being darker is caused by the brightness knob being too low (and as the CRT ages it is necessary to increase it to compensate). Bright being brighter is because the contrast control is set high.
Those floppy port mounts can also be used in a HDD cady.
Very much looking forward to see the innards of this, and to see if you can revive the HDD
I can't find anything on the exact graphics chip in this machine, but considering this above-standard hi-res mode, I pretty much assume that this could be an ATI or Paradise CGA clone like the Commodore PC10/PC20 (-II ATI, -III Paradise) or Amstrad PC1512 (Paradise) used. This additionally supports Plantronics Colorplus modes, which provide 320x200 16 color and Hi-Res 4-Color that CGA did not have. Unfortunately, not compatible to Tandy or EGA graphics, there was a driver for GEM, Planet X3 was the first and long time only game to support this and now, there is also a driver for Sierra Gen.1 SCI games.
I found a page that states the pinout of the mouse, showing an X1/X2 and Y1/Y2, which points to quadrature pulses like used for the Amiga or Atari mouse. So it could be that this thing can be driven using an adapter cable with an Amiga mouse or my project USB RetroARDUInput (introduction video to come soon, and I would be glad to send one of these to you for an upcoming mail call, just dropped you a message)
I wonder if that's how a bus mouse works? I actually never looked into it. I'll need to open this up to try to fix the hard drive, so I can look more likely at the video chip at that time. I'm not sure anyone has torn one of these down yet. :-)
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 I have googled Busmouse and it could well be one, except for the pinout that I found for the Explorer is totally different than for a Busmouse on the same connector. But the concept is the same as for Amiga and Atari, 2 Bit Gray Code (Quadrature code). They actually pass on the signals from the encoder wheel directly, which define speed and direction. The encoder wheels have two light barriers side by side which are either open or covered in the sequence 00-01-11-10 in one direction or 00-10-11-01 in the other direction. Buttons are direct pins with pull to ground on press. So it could likely be that, with a proper adapter cable, Busmouse, Explorer mouse, Atari and Amiga mouse (also different pinouts) and projects like the MouSTer or my RetroARDUInput are interchangable.
I remember that harddrive making A LOT of noise.
so looking forward to seeing the inside of this thing!!
It looks like they modeled the design based on an electric typewriter. Almost like they wanted to make it more relatable to new users.
That's a cute looking machine. Looking forwards to seeing more of it.
I had one of these growing up and found that the mouse was a standard Microsoft InPort bus mouse. If you have one of those it should work without any modifications.
I think you need to build a Tech Tangents style test bench!
haha, love that "Monty Python" mouse pointer 😅
I couldn't see exactly how you attempted to highlight text, but on many of those kind of computers you need to click on the text where you want to start highlighting text, and while holding down the mouse button, drag the pointer to the end of the section of text you want to highlight.
Re the monitor. Sometimes you had to open the monitor up to access extra trim pots.
That card slot looks perfect for a CM153 and external LMSI CDROM drive :)
6:48 The connector on the capture card is likely for additional inputs, maybe a plug with a bunch of RCA female jacks coming out. I have a BT848-based version which has this (although I can't find the cable). Mine supports 4 additional inputs (composite or S-Video IIRC).
I'd like to see this working; maybe Linux will recognize it?
I’m glad to see you wear socks in the house like a normal civilized human being
In the mid-90s, as a kid of 12 ages, I believed QBasic was the "Mother" of all other programs, including Windows because it was the only program the computer had installed on which can be used to make other programs.
So I gave it a try and learned Basic by trial and error. A half year later, I tried to figure out how Windows is made (I still believed QBasic is the only existing programming language) and started....
The result was an DOS-GUI like this, with its own unique ugly user experience: Its default theme was about farts and poop turds coming out of rosy cheeks xD.
I made a few basic features and utilities for it (customizable themes, screensavers, fonts, drawing tool, calendar, calculator, word processor, a few simple games, file browser etc.). I remember I was chewing on the word processor which was the final enemy. The final result fit on a single 3,5" disk. You had one disk with the "OS" and another one for your data. Hard drives support was missing because my computer didn't have one. Instead the computer had two floppy drives.
My grandpa actually used that GUI on his old 286 DOS computer. It ran OK until the computer became broken.
Unfortunately, the software itself is lost, because my dad never allowed me to program, because in his eyes I was a hacker, and destroyed my disks including the backup ones after he drunk too much. Only some of the themes and fonts survived. :(
I wonder if one of the two-slot adapters for the Tandy 1000ex/hx would work in this?
BMD also make a tiny Thunderbolt Mini Recorder that uses SDI cables.
Thanks Adrian another great episode.
Reminds me of the "Apricot Portable" I once owned. Not PC compatible, terrible LCD, a 6801 8 bit CPU for voice recognition (it recognized the vowels in a word only) and infrared keyboard. Bought it at huge discount new (10% of list perhaps) and quickly got rid of it again.
Blackmagic has a lot of 'professional' compatible broadcast components. Lots of scrappy software companies use their SDI In/out decklink cards these days
Interesting, I thought 3.31 was basically only ever used on the Compaq III.
It looks cool. I would like to see it fixed and possibly upgraded/enhanced.
Such a strange sounding seek on that harddrive. I hope you can fix the stepper. I look forward to more on this computer and the monitor that shipped with it. Also, Samsung was known to glue pots...I think you had one years ago that also had glued pots but were able to free them.
The Headstart Explorer logo is very reminiscent of the Intel Inside logo.
Probably was "inspired" by Intel ... or could it be vice versa?
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 🤔🤔
someone had a bad idea hehe
When did Blackmagic acquire da Vinci Systems?
Turbo enabled usually slows down a computer (to 8088 speeds). Did you try turning it off?
Stiction! That's why the hard drive is complaining.
Love that keyboard though.
Argh!!! The suspense is killing me!!! Take this thing apart already!!!
Thanks Adrian. Can you show the Start a Program feature in your next video please?
In a database a formatted phone number is not a number. It's text. But you can store it as a number and display it formatted later. But I have no idea how this would do that.
that was my very own first computer !!! :) :) :)
Adrian didn't get get an ISA disk controller/sound card combination card in a previous mail call? Oh yeah and Coleco Adam would be a cool video ;-)
Im late to the next video about it. Thanks for the contend, take care f
Nifty find never heard of that brand.
i have a blackmagic intensity pro and it works very well, i think you will like it once you figure out it's quirks... you may need to use an older version of blackmagic media express to get it working properly... they update like gpu drivers and get wonky if you go too far ahead with them... the cable connector is for a component/composite/S Video breakout cable with input AND output... i use that cable to digitize betamax tapes and laserdiscs that i own.
I wonder if the built in dos/gui would work on another system or emulator...
That blue on the Headstart's graphics doesn't look like a color available in CGA graphics.
Hah! I just commented on your most recent vid on channel 1 about percussive maintenance lol.
23:28 Something tells me that the Select Text button may be useful here. ;-)
I remember that video from CRD; as much as I enjoy his channel, he didn't live through the era of those devices he judges so harshly, hopefully your take on it will be a little more upbeat ;) I'm sure it will be, because as kids, we were grateful for any computer that came our way, especially those of us that were as poor as church mice.
I appreciate CRD’s youthful view on a lot of this - but you’re right, he doesn’t remember how there was a time when ANY computer was amazing and did it’s job as good as you allowed it to. People will still un-ironically using Apple IIs and 8088s in a non-retro setting when the Pentium was released. Technology moved so dang fast in those days - unless you were rich, it was simply impossible to keep up.
be careful with older hard drives, not all of them park the head automatically on power off. In that case, the head may crash of you just turn off the power while the computer is running. The normal procedure for that type of drives is to use a utility that sends the appropiate shutdown command to the drive. I do not know dough, if your drive needs that. It will be interesting to "explore" the explorer some more. ---> see what i did there? 😁
Adrian !! Question, how much room have you got to live in, eg like a normal house and how much is just storage of all the amazing stuff you got,get and will get ? ps great vid as always !!
everything is self contained in the basement -- upstairs is a normal house. Well other than my office where I have shelves which have a good number of these nice machines on display. The clutter is all self contained to where I work though :-) I don't want my hobby to eat me out of house and home
a custom riser card could give you a second 8bit isa slot. Will be tight for space You wouldn't want any tall components electrolytic caps on the cards to fit 2 cards in there
I can't wait to see you try and fix the hard drive. Will be cool to see whats on there. I always love spinning up old drives and seeing what's on them Its like a time capsule. super fun.
Some sort of XT-IDE and ad-lib combo card would be great in that slot.
21:31 - You failed to type "EXIT" !
Looks like an Amstrad PPC512/640 without the screen
I think Cathode Ray Dude's computer didn't have a hard drive fitted to it, and I think he said the hard drive was not easy to find. Maybe there's just a loose connection between your hard drive and the computer, as well as the drive being old and probably very tired.
Does seem like it should have a screen of somesort built in, yet it hasn't, very odd design, though its' overall shape does remind me of commodore breadbins, just much bigger... :P
20:19 - I don't have much to add to this, other than this GUI reminds me of the Amiga 500 Workbech 1.3 :)
Question: How do you deal with all the projects that's lying around? I have a couple of computers to fix and parts to test, not nearly as many as you have but it's giving me existential dread :D
It probably ripped off Amiga OS! This thing came out pretty late, all things considered. As for projects, I just try to stay organized and then pick one and work on it. I'll be able to make videos forever at this point!
You become a slave to all the projects you have, get overwhelmed,start to dread it,then pick one to work on and realize you are beholden to itl for the rest of your life 🤣
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 That's not a bad thing at all. You forever being able to make videos, I mean.
Don't be fooled. AmigaOS was leagues better than this garbage, even in the WB1.3 days. They may have indeed ripped it off though.
NO, Adrian - it's $p$g with a SPACE after!
Wait... How was this "a-head" of its time? An XT released in 1989? In an enclosure that made the 2 year old Amiga 500 (at the time) look like a pocket computer? Hahaha
Yeah the answer is definitely a big "NO"
just paint it black or gray and use a label maker =]
“Future Video” as in next week? Or next year? Lol
Sounds like a Miniscribe HDD
Of the early non-brick models.
Grant Petty is blushing somewhere in Melbourne and he doesn't know why.
2:29 that's what she said
Cool!
2:28 - I know🤣
Free the knobs!!!
Please dump the ROMs if you are going to disassemble it.
Notification Squad! :)
Get that hard drive copied!
Nope, I think it's SCSI
If I were making an educational computer back then, it'd be some Z80 with 64K RAM and some off-the-shelf video chip. I certainly wouldn't clone the IBM PC, the most expensive, and most useless, educational computer around. Maybe Apple ][ would be an idea, since there was already stuff out for that, but Apple would likely sue you, not worth the bother trying to reverse-engineer their ROM. So I'd prob go for a simple Z80 and just include a bit of token educational stuff.
If I were making an "educational" computer... to "help me with my homework", but really the kid's just gonna play games on it all day, I'd maybe do an MSX. They were available to license and had loads of software, nice chipset, you could surely knock up a few token adding-up games.
Last thing I'd do is IBM PC though. All that cost, for useless ugly graphics and a chunky slow CPU, crappy ports of games, just... what's the point? Before you disagree, remember you're stuck in CGA-era PCs and the prices they sold for. Long before the era of the cheap clone with trimmed to the bone prices.