Commodore Free 15/Commodore_Free_Issue_15_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.iv bill

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 11KB | 393 lines

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Interview with Bill Degnan
vintage computer.net

Q- Please introduce yourself?

My lovely wife Kelcey & I have 2 kids,
Lloyd (4) & Alice (1.5). I am very
fortunate to have a happy healthy
family. I own my own ISP/programming
business

 http://degnanco.net)

When I am not spending time with my
family I can be found tinkering in the
basement with old computers, practicing
the guitar, or doing something outside.
I teach computer history at the Univ of
Delaware to computer engineering
seniors. I run a website at:

 http://www.vintagecomputer.net

that documents my classic computer
exploits. I am also an active
participant of the Mid Atlantic (U.S.)
Retro Computing Hobbyists (MARCH)
Their web site is

 http://www.midatlanticretro.org

This is where the Vintage Computer
Festival East has been held for the
past 2 years. I am a VP of the club.

Q- Where do you live?

Landenberg, Pennsylvania USA. It's
about half-way between Baltimore &
Philadelphia.

Q- Why do you think it is important to
preserve old machines like Commodores?

It's not just computers alone to need
to be preserved - it's the software,
the monitor, drives, cables, power
supplies, docs, manuals, & the box...
the whole picture. Otherwise the
computer is just a thing to be
displayed on a table like a stuffed
Dodo. If one's goal is to preserve the
entire systems it quickly becomes clear
that magnetic media is the weak point
of any antique computer system. In 20
yrs it'll be too late to start backing
up tapes & disks, It's a way to cont-
ribute to future historians

Q-Why Commodores specifically?

It was the late 90's & I already knew
what I wanted to know about Amiga,
Apple & IBM systems, & I thought I'd
start exploring other platforms.  At
the time it was still relatively easy
to find a working C64 or C128 system
with software so I started with that.
Over time I learned that there were
also all of these weird other CBM
models & evolutionary dead ends.  All
told it makes for a very interesting
story.  What other manufacturer, except
for possibly the Tandy, had so many
models & variations in the 70's & 80's?

Q- What are you favourite features of
the B machines?

The B's have the same SID chip as the
C64, with a separate audio port. The
256K B models give a person a lot of
room to work with. I believe that the B
series keyboards are nicer than any
other C= system.

Q- Can you explain to our readers about
the B machines?

The B series is comprised of 3 groups

 1. The P500 (P128)
 2. Low profile systems (B128-80 in the
     US, the 600 (610, 620) series in
     Europe)
 3. Hi profile systems (CBM 128-80 &
     CBM 256-80 in the US, the 700
     (710, 720) series in Europe

Note that the B128-80 was originally
sold as the B500 in the US.  There was
never a B256-80 low profile computer
sold in the US, but there are less
than 5 known prototypes.  Here is more
info on B Series prototypes:

 http://vintagecomputer.net/
  cbm_b_prototypes.cfm

There is a great web site dedicated to
the B series that does a great job of
detailing the historical details of the
B Series line, & I would only be re-
hashing Mr Shockley's great work.

  http://home.comcast.net/{$de}shockley
   15790/onlinestorage/b128.html

Here is my take on the B Series story:
The B series was developed by C= for
the home & business market in 1981-2,
about the same time as the IBM PC.
Originally these systems were to be
fitted with both the 8-bit MOS 6509
plus optional 16-bit Intel 8088 or
8-bit Z-80 processors, but only models
with 6509's made it to the market.
Early user guides do describe models
with both the Z-80 & 8088, but none
were sold in the US.  There may have
been a very few "BX" models sold in
Europe with 8088 daughter boards.
There were probably some after-market
boards as well.  I do not believe any
systems with Z-80 daughter boards were
ever made.  A few prototype 8088 boards
exist, including one in my possession.

Microsoft offered MS DOS to C= as well
as IBM.  In fact, I have a copy of a
early MS DOS 1.25 diskette from C= labs
which was to be used for experimenting
in-house with the models fitted with
the 8088 boards.  Alas, MS DOS did not
find it's way to the B series.  I don't
know if C= failed to see the value in
having MS DOS, preferred CP/M, or
simply gave MS DOS/8088 integration a
low priority.  Most likely the problem
was production cost.  I also have a few
iterations of the original develop-
mental copies of CP/M - 80 for B series
systems with the 8088 boards.  So, for
you trivia buffs, the first CP/M disks
made for the C= was not for the C-128.
Yes I have archived these disks!

The total number of machines produced &
sold did not exceed 20,000 worldwide, a
greater proportion were sold in Europe.

The introduction of the IBM PC in 1982
& the subsequent launch of the C-64
squeezed the B series into oblivion.
Although C= abandoned the B series, a
dedicated group of B series enthusiasts
called the Chicago B128 Users Group
(CBUG) was formed by Norman Deletzke &
Protecto, the company hired by C= to
liquidate the remaining B series
computers.  In fact C= officially gave
the B128 PM trademark & memory map &
full usage rights to Normal Deletzke &
CBUG.  This group of dedicated B series
enthusiasts engineered s/w & h/w for
the B series into the early 90's.
After Deletzke's death in 1990, the
leadership mantle was passed to Bruce
Faierson.  Bruce & the remaining
CBUG'ers published a news letter called
the Northwest Computer News "Dedicated
to Orphaned Computers".  Unfortunately
Bruce died earlier this year. One last
thing - the B series computers used the
IEEE interface which was faster than
the C64/128 serial interface by a large
margin.  Disk drives & printers must
have an IEEE port to be compatible with
the B's. See my tricks & tips page for
more details on using a B series
computer with a 8050, SFD-1001, or
other IEEE drive: (ED = attached at the
end of the interview)

 http://vintagecomputer.net/
  browse_thread.cfm?id=1

NOTE:  The only real successful thing
to come out of the B series line was
the SFD-1001 disk drive. This drive was
very popular with C64-based BBS's. A
C64 needs an adapter to use the IEEE
interface of the SFD-1001 or any IEEE
drive.

Q- What is the rarest item in your
collection?

C= The prototypes: P500, BX700
   (American prototype that became the
   CBM 128-80), B520 (a B256-80
   prototype)

Q- What C= items would you love to own,
if money was no object?

Commodore VIC 20 docking station.

Q- How regularly do you use your C=s?

I have one attached to my computer
network. Here's how I did it:

 http://vintagecomputer.net/
  browse_thread.cfm?id=85

I'd say I mess around with some vintage
system daily, & of those the C= systems
are high on the list.  My go-to system
is a C128 with Jiffy DOS. My C= system
set up consists of C128, 1802 monitor,
1571, 1581, 1541, 8050 drives.

Q- Are you a reader of Commodore Free

I have been since the summer.

Q- Tell our readers about the history
of C= poster how many were printed,
what it is & how long did this project
take to research

These are all my systems.  Originally I
wanted to make a sort of periodic table
of the C=s or something like that, but
I settled on the current design for
style reasons.  I wanted to have every
system turned on while photographed.
That mean complete darkness in the room
& a whole lot of experimenting to get a
good picture where you can see the
little system lights.  The drives were
especially difficult because you had to
time the flash to match the initial-
ization lights when the drive powers
on.

Because I was paying the photographer
by the hour, I had to have it all
choreographed, with one system after
another staged & ready to go after
another.  There were a total of 138
different computer systems set up,
photographed & torn down in a 19 hour
period.

Q- I have a link of the Commodore Free
website Directly to the poster purchase
page, but can you tell our reader how
to purchase this piece of history?

Here is a link: I ship them myself,
just click on the link & place your
order through Paypal.  Posters are
shipped in a hard tube within 48 hours.
The paper & print quality is "profes-
sional grade"

Q- Can you tell our reader about "best
in show" you won at VCF East for my B
Series exhibit

  http://vintagecomputer.net/vcf3/
   commodore_B_Series_a.JPG

(this is not a picture of me by the
 way, I don't know who that is) Here is
 a picture of me:

  http://vintagecomputer.net/
   pictures/bd_cbm_pet2001.jpg

The exhibit told the story of the B
series computer, as I have described
above.  I demonstrated MS DOS & CP/M on
a system with an 8088 processor
installed, I had a lot of IEEE drives
including the D9090 hard drive, there
was a CBM 8300 IEEE printer, & I
programmed a demo of the SID chip. I
also had a little keyboard program that
allowed one to play music in a B128.

Q- You also wrote some repair & doc-
umentation about the B series where can
our reader find this info?

see above

Q- Do you have any other hobbies or
interests

I am a musician, my claim to fame is my
band the Space Vipers, which had some
success a while back.  spacevipers.com
if you're interested. I built & play
the Theremin.  I am also pretty good at
the bass & guitar. Until recently I was
playing in some band, doing some show
someplace between New York City &
Washington, DC weekly.  I gave a lot of
that up to switch to teaching computer
history, & it keeps me closer to home
now that I have kids.

Q- You said you "preserving historical
microcomputers" can you tell our
readers about this is it a full time
job?

No, I teach just the one class.  It's a
3 credit course.  There's a C= unit by
the way, it's vital to include C= if
you're going to be teaching computer
history.

Q- Are many people interested in
"preserving historical microcomputers"

There are 17 students.  12 are Computer
Engineering majors, the rest are
Computer Science.  They like the hands-
on opportunity.  I assign each student
or group their own vintage computer,
including Commodore's.

Q- What is the course & how many people
attend?

see above

Q- Is there some sort of qualification
at the end?

There's a presentation - the students
must demonstrate their assigned classic
computer to the class. They're supposed
to write a program or do some hardware
maintenance & show how they did it.

Q - Why would people attend, What use
is such a course with the advent of
emulation?

There is no substitute for the real
thing.  At first the students were
resistant, but each class I bring in a
system to demo.  To reiterate my
earlier statement, if you can witness
the entire system & actually experience
the use of the system for yourself, you
get so much more out of it.  Also,
those students who started with
emulators, all have switched to the
real thing eventually.  Emulators are
not always compatible.

Q- What machines are you interested in,
apart from C=?

At present I am working on a Cromemco
System Three, an IMSAI 8080, & Synertec
VIM-1.  I also have an Apple III with a
bad power supply that I am working to
restore.  I like to spread it around.
My workshop consists of a C= workbench,
a S-100 system workbench, & a "general"
workbench.  I believe I have 200-300
systems, most of which work. I have a
pretty big house & an understanding
wife!