While I’m working on some more in-depth articles for VC&G, I thought I’d show you guys something you might find slightly amusing. The house I live in has a small shelf built into the wall, high up in a vaulted ceiling area. For years I’ve wanted to put some cool computer stuff up there, but my old roommate didn’t like the idea. Then the other day a friend of mine suggested it again, and I seized the opportunity. I lined up most of my compact Macs up on the shelf, so now they’re proudly on display — if you tilt your neck up, anyway (Click on the picture above for a bigger image of the shelf). This also freed up a bit of shelf space which I can now devote to new computer acquisitions.

Pictured on the shelf (from left to right) are a Mac Classic II, a Mac Classic, a Mac SE, a Mac SE/30, a Mac SE FDHD, and four Mac Pluses. Two of the Macs have tape over the disk drive slots because I had them in the attic and didn’t want fiberglass dust to get in there. Not pictured: a Mac Color Classic that wouldn’t quite fit, and a Mac SE, a 128k, and a few more Pluses that are in off-site storage. Luckily, I have lots of room on the shelf to add more.

A Proprietary Mystery

All I knew about this box before I bought it was that it was an airline reservation terminal at some point, and that it cost $2. So I went for it, not only because it looks cool, but also hoping that it might be a standard RS-232 serial terminal. Well, so far, no such luck. This thing is pretty weird. I’m not sure what system it was designed to hook up to, but it appears non-standard. It has four connectors in the back: a DB-9, a DB-25, a DB-15, and a female BNC jack (see picture below), labeled J1 through J4 on the chassis. The DB-25 is used for the keyboard. When I initially power it on, all the red LEDs on the keyboard light up and the main unit emits a steady beep that never stops. I guess it’s not happy that it’s lost its master — whatever mainframe that drove it back in the day (the other very obvious possibility is that it’s broken in some way). I can’t get anything on the built-in green CRT, not even a cursor of some type. I hooked the DB-9 port up to a modem to see if it might come alive with a serial input, but no luck. Same behavior.

Upon cracking it open, I found some curious stuff. The thing that surprised me most at first glace was that there is no logic on the main board inside the base unit at all– only power supply stuff. And of course, all the video circuitry is in the top “monitor” portion of the box. Also, the the DB-9 and the DB-15 connectors are both wire-wrapped (Exactly how old is this thing?!) to the DB-25 connector, and the DB-25 connector has a few pins connected to wires going to both the monitor section and the power supply. Much to my surprise, the DB-9 doesn’t have the usual pins for RS-232 connected to anything (2, 3, and 5, if I recall correctly). In fact, only pins 1 and 6 are wrapped. All the posts on the back of the DB-15 are wrapped and connected to the DB-25. As a result, I would have to guess that this is the main data connector. I also noticed that the BNC jack goes directly to the monitor section; I suspect it’s a direct composite video input, which is not too uncommon on terminals at the time. Maybe I can use it as a green screen monitor, if nothing else…not that I need one.

Then I opened the keyboard. That’s where things get even more interesting. All the logic is in the keyboard unit itself. That explains the wiring on the DB-25 keyboard connector and everything else I saw in the main unit. Looking for an MPU of some kind, the only chip I recognized in there is an Intel 8048, which is apparently a common (and now very cheap) microcontroller used in some IBM PC-compatible keyboards. According to a few sites I found, the 8048 was first produced in 1977, dating this unit to that year or later. Cosmetically, I initially dated this unit to 1978-79 in my head, so that matches up pretty well. At about this point in messing with the Incoterm, I had to give up and put it back together. Why? First of all, it was cluttering up my dining room floor, making it hard to walk around. Second, I didn’t want to forget how to put it back together, and third, I have other things to take apart.

Digging A Little Deeper

Right after writing most of this entry, I remembered that there is a sticker on the base unit that has a United Airlines logo and the word “Apollo” on it. I decided to search Google for “United Airlines” and “Apollo” and I found some neat info — not about the hardware, but the Apollo reservation system itself. There’s some computer airline reservation history over at Wikipedia, a United Airlines history page, and airline fan site that says that the Apollo system was set up some time in 1970-71 for UA internal use and made public (to travel agents) around 1976. Then I ran across a cool article from 1996 talking about how the entrenched airline reservation systems like Apollo were on the verge of becoming obsolete thanks to consumers being able to look up flights by themselves on the Internet. Somebody should write a book about how the Internet completely shook up established institutions like that. Well, they probably already have. But as more and more time passes, such books will become less speculative (Wired: “eCrisp: The way you toast bread is about to change forever.”) and more historical (“Through blogs, the Internet put editorial power back into the hands of the average man.“). I like my toast just how it is.

If anyone can contribute any knowledge as to how this terminal works or anything else about this it, please let me know. Until then, it will remain a nice conversation piece.

The keyboard unit without the case. Notice the ICs on the top of the board. There are also two unused key switches that are normally covered up by the chassis.

A label on the bottom of the unit that lists info on the terminal.

Ah, the entertainment never stops. For an explanation of what a validation message is, check out the first entry in this series.

No, I didn’t make any of these up.

Subject: Hey
Name: Unicorn #205 @1
Date: Wed Feb 07 14:09:56 1996
RE: Validation Feedback

Dear Red Wolf,
Hey, ummm…… I don’t know what to write. I am a little shy as you might see. Ummm….. I am 12 and in the 7th grade. I have long brown hair that turns reddish in the sun. I have bright green eyes and a normal face I guess. Ummmm………… My friend Glen told me about this thing and it nearly took me forever to get on. The line was always busy and I wasn’t about to try again, but FINALLY I got on!! Ummmm…… I am bored. That’s why I decided to try this. I did use DNA but it got deleted or something. So, I am glad this BBs came. K-bye.

–Unicorn

Unicorn, I’m glad the BBS came too.

Here’s another one for the road:

Subject: MY NAME IS BILLY…I AM HERE TO TALK TO THE SYSOP…SOMEONE
Name: Crash Override #278 @1
Tue May 14 16:20:40 1996
RE: Validation Feedback

MY NAME IS BILLY…I AM HERE TO TALK TO THE SYSOP…SOMEONE NAMED BEN RAMBLE SAID YOU MAY BE INTO KARDING….THAT BEING USING OTHERS CREDIT ARDS TO GET STUFF FOR YOURSELF…IF U ARE I NEED TO KNOW….I NEED A LAPTOP BAD AND I NEED IT BEFORE THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR…I WANNA HOOK IT UP TO THE FONE BOOTH AT SCHOOL AND GET THE SCHOOL INTROUBLE FOR HACKING INTOT EH FBI….IF U CAN GET THIS FOR ME PLEASE TELL E…I NEED IT TO COME LOADED….I NEED IT TO THAVE THE FASTEST MODEM YOU CAN FIND…I DONT HAVE ANY MONEY BUT IF I CAN GET THIS I WILL DO ALL THE HACKING YOU TELL ME TO DO AND I WILL DO ABSOLUTELY ANYRTHING FOR U
.

No, I wasn’t into KARDING. An interesting note: the Ben Ramble mentioned in his message was a guy I went to school with at the time. He didn’t know I was actually Red Wolf, for reasons that this entry explains.

Stay tuned for another exciting episode next week — same Vintage Computing time, same Vintage Computing channel!

The Game Genie is without a doubt the coolest peripheral I’ve ever owned for the NES. When I was bored with regular old NES games, I could essentially “reprogram” them with the device and make them more interesting. Tired of being told by game designers that I had to play the games their way, I delighted in manipulating game mechanics. After all, I thought, I bought the game, and I should be able to play it however I want (“Game Genie: empowering the gamer since 1991″). Before long, the codes included in the official Game Genie booklet got boring, so my brother and I made up our own. This resulted in some particularly reality-bending codes, the best of which I have included here. Some of these codes might have been discovered by other fellow Game Genie enthusiasts since then, but I assure you, these are straight from my circa-1994 spiral-bound, home made Game Genie Book.

This second entry on GG codes deals only with the US version of Super Mario Bros. 3 (the first entry is here). Unfortunately, I didn’t have as many SMB3 codes in my book as I thought I did. Still, these are definitely neat. Try them out yourself and have fun. Also, feel free to share your own codes in the comments section.

Code: OOKXGLIE
Tired of getting hit and losing the rare Swimming Purple Raccoon Mario power up? Well tire no more, since this code makes it permanent!

Code: ANKXGLIE
Permanent Mario Shoe, as I like to call it. Exactly like Kuribo’s shoe, but different. You’re black and white, invincible, always small, and hopping around, but your shoe looks like a green Mario split in half. Awesome.

Code: POKXGLIA
Permanent regular Mario. No, not invincible — just small. All the time. It’s tough being a short, stumpy man.

Code: XNKXGLIA
Introducing…Black and White Mario! This is like having permanent Kuribo’s shoe powers, but you always stay small, you don’t hop around, you look like Mario, and you’re intangible and invincible. You can stomp piranha plants too.

Chris Gregory, a VC&G reader, alerted me today that Lik-Sang, once taking pre-orders for the much-hyped Generation NEX console, has now dropped the product from its sales catalog, citing disappointment with an evaluation model they tested and also the rather negative VC&G review I posted on 11/03/2005. This move on Lik-Sang’s part really impresses me, because it shows that they care enough about their reputation to pull a product that doesn’t live up the promises of the manufacturer. Lik-Sang definitely has class. According to Chris Gregory, they have also gone above and beyond the call of duty for him in tracking down problems with hardware they sell, once even going out of their way to obtain an Australian NES to test product compatibility (incidentally, the product in question was Messiah’s wireless NES pads). Pasted below is the email that Lik Sang sent out to all the people who pre-ordered a NEX. Once again, thanks to Chris for the help.

Dear Chris Gregory,

You are receiving this e-mail because you have pre-ordered a Generation NEX.

We have taken the decision to drop this item from the Lik-Sang product catalogue, as our initial disappointment with an evaluation sample has been confirmed by the bad reviews it has received in the press. For some examples, please see the following sites:

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/6
http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/generation-nex-new
-old-school-suckiness-135324.php

However, if you are looking for a famiclone you may be interested in the Pocket Famicom, a portable system that comes with a TV-Out connection. You can read more about it here: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=182&
products_id=6347&

Please note that your order no. xxxxxx will be canceled and refunded within 48 hours. Please note that depending on the payment method used, the refund may take up to a couple of weeks to show up on your account.

If you prefer, you may choose to receive a refund in Store Credit on your Lik-Sang Customer Account. This is the quickest and most convenient available option, as it avoids bank and financial fees that are associated with other money transfers.

Please accept our apologies for this inconvenience.

With best regards,

Your Lik-Sang Team
———————————-
Lik-Sang.com - Alternative Gaming Community

As a side note, it’s kinda funny that the two reviews they cited were actually just one: there’s the one I posted on this blog, and then there’s a link to a news blog that quotes another news blog that quotes my review as its source. Crazy. I bet Messiah really hates my guts now. I hope they don’t hire a hit on me. Of course, they should hate their own guts for releasing such a crappy product.