FastMHz.com - PCjr

[HoneycombAgent]

I used this to run the "Primary Editor" program in grade school. There were some phonics games that used voice and polyphony as well.

[HoneycombAgent]

Why is the backside of the PCjr damaged? It looks someone took a crowbar and pried the top cover off.

[FastMHz]

@HoneycombAgent It was hacked back in the 80s to let a floppy cable feed through to an external second floppy drive :-)

[TheYoshiPC]

The question is will it run windows 7

[FastMHz]

@TheYoshiPC No, but it boots faster!

[159tony]

back when computers needed more than half of a brain to be used

[BricktownBubba]

I remember using these in computer business class back in 1986.

[4gasem]

Man I miss that startup sound...

[4gasem]

Man... I miss that sound...

[denzel387]

nice man pc

dam tha is lod kool



[09fod]

yes but can it run crysis ?

[JesusManson323]

640K ??

Who the hell would ever need that much memory?

[ceracecar]

I want that joystick... That's kick-ass retro... haha I kid not...

[SirPubert]

damn if this guy had 640k the year i can barely glue a model rocket

[BellRingerGuy]

Glad I had a Commodore 64.....

[seethootss]

looks like an inside of a vcr

[RetroGamerVX]

I love how ibm used to call the manual 'guide to operations', you can tell they were used to building mainframes, it sounds so wonderful to say that, yes, I'm that geeky :o)

[glennbuskirk]

I used to do memory expansions to the memory sidecars for these. It was lucrative for awhile. I also created a hardware hack around 1985 that made the video system compatible with the Tandy 1000, so that games made to run in the 16-color mode of the 1000 would run the same on a PCjr. It involved piggybacking a 7486 quad XOR chip onto a motherboard chip, and installing about 6 wires, and doing a trace cut. I called it the JR1000 mod, but I can't find any trace of it on the web anymore.

[CapPicard]

I had a Racore expansion kit on my PCjr... and with that PC/jr switch that didn't do squat except for changing the startup resolution.

I did write my high school term paper on the Jr version of WordStar (hated those control commands, but it worked).

[OBSysteme]

great, now I want one. lol !

[speedzone99]

Thanks for the video it brings back memorys of when i had one.

[conman33311]

awsome 5 stars check out my tandy 3800 HD laptop

[Mindman111]

*more questions* where did you get the internal 640k expansion from?

[FastMHz]

@Mindman111 It's a special 'hack' board with both an NEC v20 on it and a memory expansion. This all sits right into the original CPU socket below the floppy drive.

[VintageReviewsJr]

Did you purchase that somewhere...?

I've seen one site that sells PCjr products, but they only offer memory upgrades for sidecars.

[FastMHz]

@VintageReviewsJr Nope, my dad bought and upgraded this thing back in the 80s.

[jmetal88]

@FastMHz Do you have any info on how to but together such a board? I like the idea of adding 512k without using a sidecar. If not, I'd at least like to see pictures of the board sometime, it sounds very interesting.

[FastMHz]

@jmetal88 High-res pictures of the internals, including the hack board, are now on fastmhz.com under "information" and "Vintage Computer Collection"

[jmetal88]

@FastMHz  Do you have any info on how to put together such a board? I like the idea of adding 512k without using a sidecar. If not, I'd at least like to see pictures of the board sometime, it sounds very interesting.

[Mindman111]

I HAVE to get one. It frickin' annoys me that they weren't released around here at all. And the shipping for an American is just... wow.

One of you guys don't happen to live in California and plan to take a vacation and Germany, and can bring it with him? :P

[gamewizard]

@Mindman111

Do you have any idea what an airline would charge to let you bring one of these on board? It would also have to travel in the cargo hold, and we all know how careful baggage handlers are.

[Mindman111]

Does this have IBM PC expansion slots? Y'know, like the ones you plug in the CGA expansion.

I would really like to import one of those, but shipping from the US is just... unbelievable.

[FastMHz]

The expansions are slightly different than PC ones. There are hacks to get an 8bit ISA card to work with the Jr.

[OBSysteme]

@FastMHz Man that's a real computer,,,, listen to that floppy drive....

[Dant2142]

@Mindman111 Not only that, but the PCjr had it's own 16-color video mode that was better quality than CGA and is compatible with Tandy graphics, so any game that supports the Tandy graphics (and sound) will work perfectly (like anything from Sierra)

[Dant2142]

@Mindman111 Not only that, but the PCjr had it's own 16-color video mode that was better quality than CGA and is compatible with Tandy graphics, so any game that supports the Tandy graphics (and sound) will work perfectly (like anything from Sierra)

[purpleravenstar]

Didn't this piece of shit didn't have POST on it? (don't flame me)

:)

[Dreambro1]

its faster cause it doesnt have the pretty interface that windows have,, the nice icons,,,the nice wall papers, or backgrounds, and ect ect...anrd all the other crap we dont need

[mikebhasi]

yes

[Scioneer]

Nice. I'm still in the process of restoring mine. A little info. While the PCjr wasn't much of a sucess, alot of its technology went into the Tandy 1000 series including its graphics and sound modes. Soundwise its slightly above the Original Game Boy.

[Keijz74]

I had a Commodore PC 10. This one kinda reminds me ot the old girl.

[32stupid]

HeY FASTMHZ ! As I recall, my pcjr had a switch in the back that switched between PC and JR. I never knew what it actually did and I didn't see it on your machine. But it my have been located on the #2 5 1/4 floppy add-on that my machine had. if anyone knows i'd like to know

[CapPicard]

Ah, I had one of those expansion packs too. From Racore/Rapport. That toggle switch only went from 40 columns to 80 columns. Didn't help very much, but it seemed that Electric Desk was more stable with the PC setting. I also had WordStar (which I used for my term paper).

I tried booting DOS 4, but it kept locking up. So, I kept with DOS 3.3 or DRDOS 5.0 :)

[phreakindee]

Always wanted a PC Jr... still have yet to grab one

[Intellivision78]

The Computers where a lot nicer back in the days.. Nowdays, they do not have any personality at all.. Hehe.

[blinkingblythe]

I remember the typing program. I was in first grade in 1983 and our school had a computer lab full of PC-Jrs. I remember being mesmerized by the colors of the screen as the man fell down in the program.

[zaphraud]

It sounds to me like IBM invented the annoying ringtone!

[vorkev1]

This is actuley worth money. Its ibms atempt to be a video game system.

[poopskinTheLiar]

gotta love that "Bzzzzt-k-k-k-k" noise those 5-1/2 drives make. Retrocomputing ftw.

[KartSeven1]

@poopskinTheLiar “5 1/2” or “5 1/4” ;)

[CompuPro1773]

Although I grew up on Apple, I find IBM PCs to be very nice computers---even working with DOS. I personally LOVE the DOS games that I've recently got after buying a PC.

[kingcrimson234]

awesome. i don't have a PCjr unfortunately, but i have a tandy 1000hx. actually i have an assload of vintage machines. four 8088's. (one of them i use as a dedicated IRC server) i also have an apple ][e, an osborne 1, and all kinds of fun other stuff.

great video!

[rayban5016]

I love it. My parents bought me the IBM PCjr in 1983. I used the heck out of it until I got an IBM clone in 1988. I even had will the worm. It seems like you could make your own levels with that game. This brought back so memories.

[DT170x]

I used to have that computer.

[Borin81]

what the hell has happened to the computer at 1:27? melted plastics?

[miguelhenriquezg]

OMG, great video, my dad bought me a PCjr in 1983 and i so me and my brother could learn computers for the future! this was in El Salvador 83, so i dont remember any other family that had a computer at home, it was so cool and came with the joystick and i had a game named Jumpman, my dad is dead now but i have to thank him for his forward thinking, I LOVE U DAD wherever you are and thanks for everything.

[starkist1480]

I can't believe it this machine has a built in game, not like apple iic it's only a basic interpriter

[Kista79]

never seen a 640k that was internal like that, most were a sidecar expansion that goes along where the parallel port attaches. I modified my parallel to be bi-directional and running an external ide drive that is 1.2gig in size, I boot off the 5.25 that loads the drivers, oh and I'm running nec v20 cpu.

[CANVECVIDEO]

I don't think it was wireless, it worked pretty much like the remote control. :-)))

[slaterking1000]

WIRELESS in 1983?????????

[RauzaInnovator]

For IBM all things is really :P

[Cerberus413]

Notice it said "Made in USA" also....

[Valhalla1]

thanks for the video.. I hrew up with a PCjr, and later bought one at an electronics market which had a huge 40 megabyte hard drive added, as well as a 3.5" low density floppy, with a soldered-on flip switch to select floppy drives. anyway the sound of your PCjr booting DOS off the floppy brought up a lot of memories

[delfmeek]

very cool... Cool to see that your PCjr still works after all of these years.

[XmegaPresident]

I remember that worms game!!! I had it on a Tandy 1000! I have a vintage 1984 IBM PC XT /w a super 256KB EGA full length card in it! 640KB RAM /w 144MB MFM HDD. Memories!!! WOW!!! Hold on to that machine!

[nahu090yt]

the cartridge has really high speed transfers! i see it on the zx cartridge set, when loading a program.

i remember my father using a pc-jr.. but it had two 5 1/4 units... may it?

nice your peanut..green dragon XD

greetings

[chspooky]

Wow, this takes me back like a time machine. In retrospect, IBM screwed up a lot of things about the PCjr, but I still love it. First computer I ever had.

Oh yeah and I'm totally jealous of your 640KB. I remember being heart-broken back in 1987, not being able to run King's Quest 3 on the PCjr since I was stuck at 128KB. I had to put up with my dad's PC XT with the horrible, horrible, horrible CGA video card.

[sjokoland1]

AWESOME PC

[Firebrand319]

That was great! I'm a child of 78 and PCjr was my first PC too :)

[dashwarts]

GREAT VID! I wish 80's tech would never leave us...

Don't forget turbo switches. Most AT based PC's had one. If turned off, the CPU would go to an 8MHZ 8080 compatibility mode

[anderj101]

Now we're playing with power!