Old School Clear Case - my first custom case

somecallmeTim

[H]F Junkie
Joined
May 28, 2001
Messages
9,565
I stumbled across these pix cleaning up my HD - they are of my "first custom case mod" circa 1980. Heck, this is really my first computer too...Yes, this computer is older that 80% of the forum members - I posted these a while back and I got asked to post them again. The board was called the "ELF" and came in kit form. The CPU is a Motorola 8 bit, and the "current" config has 2.5 KB of RAM, cassette interface, video out, modded teletype keyboard for input, and a home brew power supply.

Here it is in all it's glory:
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Mainboard, hex imput and LED displays - the CPU is the largest chip (yes, it's overclocked by 10 Khz - modded the timing circuit)
DSC00244.JPG


Shot of the powersupply, RAM expansion board (with 2 KB !) and the video and other I/O to include the expansion bus (right rear)
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modded teletype keyboard (diode array)
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back I/O panel -
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Here's what we (Dad and I) upgraded to... and Altair (cookie if you even heard of them) with dual 8" floppies !!! (that we modded from some other system and built the interface for)

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Older than I am but hey, I still deserve a cookie.

By the way, we've probably met (albeit a while back and probably briefly) at a TCLP. Haven't made it up to a SpokLAN yet but it's been my intention to for a good while now.
 
Wow, great pics! That still looks cool.. even if it is older than I am. Especially since I can't imagine modding would be "all the rage" back in the 80's, heh.
 
nice mod :D brings back memories of when i was 10 and we got our first computer....... i found an old 486 IBM in my basement.... im gonna mod the case when i get a chance. i turned it on today and it still worked
 
JEEVES/whohasmyname? said:
I must say, brings back memories.....the questoin is do these still work?

JEEVES

Both the ELF and Altair still work, still have my Atari 2600 too...
We've come a long way in terms of hardware over the years that's for sure. It still blows me away that my Hard Drives have more memory (cache) that a lot of the sytems that I've owned over the years. <sigh>

Peace,
Tim
 
But will it run Quake 3 :D

nah, nice job... that's gotta be some of the original case modding work ever done... you sir are a pioneer! :D
 
HRslammR said:
slap a 6800/x800and you'll get at least 10,000 3dmark03 score!!!! :p ;)
lol if he slapped either of them in there it would overheat and have a meltdown :p
 
somecallmeTim said:
Here's what we (Dad and I) upgraded to... and Altair (cookie if you even heard of them) with dual 8" floppies !!! (that we modded from some other system and built the interface for)

duh!? wargames!!! :D
 
build several million of them and win the folding competition after you manage to network them :D
 
That looks cool, I have never seen an ELF, but that puts the computer that Bill gates and his partner built to shame.
 
I was about to say 'Oclock that mficker but it seems you already have!

reminds me of my first computer- an Apple IIc. had the combo CPU/Keyboard with the built in floppy. Had a green 6 inch CRT that hooked to it via composite video. Good times.
 
Tim,
Your machine has it all, minus computing power! now I want to go to the dump and grab me some old 286 glory machines for decorations!
Thanks for the awesome pics, that thing is great! And I'm still older than that thing, by about 12 years :D
 
Ahh yes, the Trash 80 days were cool! :)
That old Altair is in the computer museum I believe. That was back in the day for sure. Anyone remember Heath Kits? Now that was fun. They send you all the parts and you put it all together, heh. :) Ok I will leave this thread, I am too old. :p
 
Qwestman said:
Ahh yes, the Trash 80 days were cool! :)
That old Altair is in the computer museum I believe. That was back in the day for sure. Anyone remember Heath Kits? Now that was fun. They send you all the parts and you put it all together, heh. :) Ok I will leave this thread, I am too old. :p

the ELF was the same way :) Our printer was a Heathkit - "that" was fun to build.

BTW - PM me, we can meet for a beer sometime since we live in the same "small" town.

Peace
Tim
 
Haha, coolness! I'm suprised you didn't mod in an 8-track cassette player. I didn't start messing around with computers until C64 and the Apple //e. Although we did have an Apple //+ to begin with. I remember how excited I got when we finally got an Apple //GS. I got extra excited when I discovered my parents were springing an extra $300 for the upgrade to 2 MB of RAM. (even though my mom was certain we would never need it all) I spent countless hours playing Epic Sub Battle, Thexder and Tass Times in Tonetown. Of course I still went to my friends house to play Dark Castle on his dad's Mac.
 
Nice job!

Always wanted the Elf, but didn't have the cash. I ended up going in on a Sinclair ZX81 kit with a friend ($99 for a bag of chips and a pcb). Nothing like the anxiety of turning on the power for the first time, wondering if it was going to work (but it did ;-). Actually turned out to be very instructional, I ended up creating quite a few projects based on the Z80.

Great fun, I remember our first BASIC game was Wumpus. Something about them old school text based games that left everything to your imagination (like Adventure and Zork), in some ways it still beats even the leetest graphics of today for me.
 
If you're thinking about cutting that up,... well, I personally wouldnt fuck up something that nice.
 
Don't badmouth the TRS !! it's godly !! ( my 1st comp too )

Actually, it is a TRS-80 II color

but still :D

also : thumbs up for the extreme case mod ( especially for the time :) )
 
man, i wish motherboards and shit would come in kits nowadays. it's too fucking simple now

that's so :cool:
 
Wow, nostalgia. Now that's what computer circuit boards are supposed to look like! They're just too dull nowadays.
 
Awesome old school goodness. Makes me wish my TI 99/4a still worked :( . I had the speech synthesizer and tape drive with it, too.
 
Qwestman said:
Ahh yes, the Trash 80 days were cool! :)
That old Altair is in the computer museum I believe. That was back in the day for sure. Anyone remember Heath Kits? Now that was fun. They send you all the parts and you put it all together, heh. :) Ok I will leave this thread, I am too old. :p

I had a Heath H8 for a while I got used..... didn't have a operating system with it to run floppies, so I sold it and got a CP/M machine w/64K (yes- K) memory and a 8" harddrive that sounded like a jet engine when it spun up.

Gave it away about 10 years ago. I miss that thing..... :(
 
I think the worst part of all this is that not only is his machine older than 80% of the members, but it's less dusty than 80% of the computers owned by the members.
 
That's just blowing my mine..
You have me beat.. I didn't start with tech till '83 my first was a Trash 80
I'm jealous now ;)
 
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