PC Archeology: Not just another normal IBM PC XT clone (Handwell PC-401)

Update: Thanks to patron @peterkooiman4867, it was found that Computer Amusement Systems (CASI) sold a turnkey solution for using a video camera to snap a picture of someone and instantly print it out. Imagine a digital photo booth but in 1986. This was certainly what this computer was used for! Too bad we don't have the original software to see this turnkey solutoin in action. The copy in their advertisement reads: A sure winner that combines 3 of today's hottest trends . . . video, computers and instant pictures . . . plus the know-how and guarantees of Texas Instruments, Panasonic and CASI. An all cash business. Customers come to you. No selling. No stress! It's not a franchise. All the money and the profits are 100% yours. Tailor-made for families, individuals or absentee owners. Part-time, full-time or weekends. There's no need to leave your present job. With the CASI System you take someone's picture with a T.V. camera and instantly print it with a computer. It's so push-button simple, a child can run it. But the profits aren't kid stuff. The CASI is portable, sets up in 30 minutes or less, anytime, anywhere. The world is your territory. There are thousands of locations waiting to be filled . . . plus tremendous mail order application. If you're serious about accumulating money in your own fun business . . . ask for the facts. You'll receive proof, pictures, answers, and testimonials. Quite a package. And it's all free. imgur.com/a/My00ZZ1 archive.org/details/americanlegionvo1175amer/page/…

I hope somewhere out there, Thomas Lao is looking at this video and saying, "FINALLY! Someone appreciates my BIOS!" wipes tear from eye

Glad I could help with ROM dumping! The reason F000-FFFF is always dumped even if that area is sometimes mostly empty is because there is no standard for ROM extensions in that space; it's reserved for the system BIOS, BASIC, diags, etc. and there is no 55 AA signature. Since there is no way to determine the size of what is in that region (especially if it mirrors itself every 8k or 16k), ROMDUMPR just dumps the entire 64K region for examination.

The original owner has passed, Im going to ask the original owners daughters if they could find the software. The printer is around, but looked somewhat standard to me, but im no expert. If i come up with stuff, ill email Adrian, but he has TONS of other video content. I am grateful he did this video. I hope some of the parts are usable elseware. This was at a gocart track. One that i used to work at back in high school actually (circa 2004-2008). But i do not remember still frames being available. I shared this link with the owners family, yhey will appreciate it. Thank you Adrian

This was not boring. Interesting mobo, BIOS and case, very intriguing ATT card. A little repair. Also, it has an NEC chip. This video had quite a lot going for it.

You missed the author's name in the BIOS: Thomas Lao

Apparently, Computer Amusement Systems (later CASI/QLT) were in the business selling of "Computer Portrait Systems", setups meant for events, malls etc that would take a picture and print it out. Or as their ads put it, "A sure winner that combines three of today's hottest trends... video, computers and instant pictures." The "C", "M" and "P" markings make sense in that context, for camera, monitor and printer.

I found this on a webpage about digital photography: 1977 - First Computerized Portrait System. Developed by Computer Amusement Systems, Inc. of New York City.

It's highly unsporting of that tantalum capacitor not to explode when it went bad. They're so much easier to find that way.

I remember back in the early 80s an arcade booth that took your photo and printed it on a dot matrix printer with pin-fed paper using ascii characters. If you got closer to it you saw the computer characters. If you backed up you saw your photo.

I remember there used to be guys on the Boardwalk in like a booth with a PC and a video camera and a printer in Wildwood, NJ back in 1988-89. I remember cuz it was pretty darn hi tech for Summer of 88 lol. He'd take your picture and then print it out all digitzed with fat pixels sorta like gameboy's camera & printer later, and it would print out a full page 8.5x11" b&w portrait with overlaid text. My mom got one printed out and she still has it, somewhere. So that's what I was gonna suggest it probably was!

On the ATT board, the big IC with WE on it it likely Western Electric, AT&T's manufacturing arm.

I have used the AT&T ICB and still have some, along with the companion VDA (video display adapter) - The ICB can capture frames at 256x200 resolution with 15 bit RGB color. The 16th bit is used to select overlay, so you can overlay the contents of the frame buffer with live video passing through the composite video connectors. The 9 pin connector allows connection to an analog RGB monitor.

I can remember that some programs would not run if it could not find" IBM Bios" in the ROM at the correct location. so the clones but the" this is not IBM bios" message so that IBM bios was in the correct memory location and hoping they could get away with it. My first PC was a home built PC-XT, it was more fun in them days.

Skynet was a relatively big psu manufacturer up through the early 2000s. I had looked into them a few months ago when trying to find a suitable replacement for a vintage synthesizer. Ensoniq and Akai both used their PSUs in the late 90s

"Skynet electric" Terminator music intensifies

As an electronics beginner, i find it incredibly interesting to learn how to detect common faults and identify faulty components. i think it would be great if you could make a tutorial series for beginners on this subject.I would love to learn more about it.

I love these old attic finds, it's nice to see old gear in relatively good shape, and I very much enjoy Adrian's vids about treasures rescued from landfill! I reckon that C and M would be "Camera" and "Monitor", and "P" is probably "Printer".

There’s some information out there for the AT&T ICB (image capture board), as a companion to Targa/TGA graphics products eventually spun off into Truevision. The board was capable of still image capture at a pretty low (below broadcast NTSC) quality. One source puts it at 256x200 and 15 bit color depth. There’s a PDF brochure and some other sparse bits of info that come up in Internet search results.

With an Amiga 1000 and a real-time video capture addon card called 'Live!', I used to capture client images and print color photos. With a Video-8 camera plus a 4096 color HAM paint software called Photon-Paint, combined with celebrity photos pre-scanned from magazines, I used to real-time compose those live captured clients with a celebrity of their choice and color printed them, them iron-pressed the image on t-shirts with a line of text of their choice. I did this for weddings and similar large party events. Since I did this in 1987 in real-time, it was considered amazing.