{"id":1146,"date":"2015-09-14T13:17:15","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T18:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2015-09-29T09:49:32","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T14:49:32","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-ibm-ps1-imagination-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/1146\/retro-scan-of-the-week-ibm-ps1-imagination-system","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> IBM PS\/1 Imagination System"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/ibm_ps1_imagination_system_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/ibm_ps1_imagination_system_small.jpg\" alt=\"IBM PS\/1 Imagination System Box Scan Photo - 1994\" class=\"retroscan\"\/><\/a><span class=\"freecaption\"><em>IBM and Disney go together like peanut butter and petroleum jelly<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Just before my brother left for college in the fall of 1994, my whole family went shopping for a new PC to send off to school with him.  We made our way to an IBM PC factory outlet near Durham, NC.  Upon walking in to the store, I remember being amazed by rows of 20-foot tall warehouse-style shelves, each one stacked with large boxes for IBM PC systems.  A salesman met us at the door and apparently steered my father toward this: the <a href=\"http:\/\/ps-2.kev009.com\/pcpartnerinfo\/ctstips\/5f0e.htm\" target=\"_blank\">IBM PS\/1 Imagination system<\/a>.  I guess it was a good deal.<\/p>\n<p>The machine itself came equipped with a 25 MHz 486-SX CPU, 4 MB of RAM, a 2400 BPS modem, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Covox_Speech_Thing\" target=\"_blank\">Disney Sound Source<\/a> (a sort of primitive SoundBlaster that plugged into the parallel port).  Unlike earlier PS\/1 models, this one shipped with MS-DOS 6 and Windows 3.1.  It also came with a suite of pre-installed Disney software that my brother promptly deleted.<\/p>\n<p>My dad also bought an unusual IBM-brand external ISA CD-ROM drive that required its own peripheral card.  There wasn&#8217;t enough room in the PS\/1 case for a CD-ROM drive and a 5.25&#8243; floppy.<\/p>\n<p>After college, my brother took this machine to work with him as a programmer, and he used it there until it was long outdated &#8212; probably until 1999 or so.  It now rests safely in my collection, although the hard drive is now shot, and I think the power supply is fried too.  Almost a decade ago, its rubber feet chemically decomposed into the most abysmally black and sticky tar that you can imagine.  I need to restore the machine.<\/p>\n<p>Just recently, I found the rather large shipping box for this computer sitting in my mom&#8217;s attic.  Today, it holds miscellaneous housewares.  This &#8220;scan&#8221; is actually a perspective-corrected photo of the side of that box (here is the <a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/ibm_ps1_imagination_system_original.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">original photo<\/a>).  <\/p>\n<p><center><em>[ From IBM PS\/1 Imagination System Box, ca. 1993]<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong> What computer did you take with you to college?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IBM and Disney go together like peanut butter and petroleum jelly Just before my brother left for college in the fall of 1994, my whole family went shopping for a new PC to send off to school with him. We made our way to an IBM PC factory outlet near Durham, NC. Upon walking in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,27,26,10],"tags":[97,166,184,680,1188,595,691,132,133,1187,60],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-info-and-history","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-computers","tag-97","tag-166","tag-box-art","tag-brother","tag-college","tag-dad","tag-family","tag-ibm","tag-ibm-pc","tag-ibm-ps1","tag-retro-scan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}