In addition to wanting a PDP-11 since I left school, I've wanted a PDP-8
since before I was in school. However until recently I was unable to
come up with one. I had tried to get an 8/m on e-bay but was continually
out-bid (gee does this sound familiar?). Out of the blue someone e-mailed
me indicating that they had multiple PDP-8s with lots of other PDP-8 related
stuff and wanted to know if I was interested in any of it (is the sky blue?).
It turns out that the company he works for had been using PDP-8s in production
until a few months before he contacted me. They were going to scrap
them until he convinced them that there was collector value in these machines.
He was responsible for the maintanence of them so was very familiar
with them and could assure me that they were working. After a few e-mails
and a phone call I got a list of the PDP-8s they were getting rid of and that
anything I didn't take would go on e-bay.
We finally agreed on a price (alot). The big sticking factor was
being able to pick up the equipment. That was worked out and I made
an 8.5 hour drive (each way) to pick up the 8. When I got there, they
were ready and powered everything up so that I knew it all worked. So
I knew that if it didn't work when I got home it was either the trip or something
I did.
Here's the short list of what I picked up:
