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magoon

I remember upgrading the RAM from a paltry 128KB (i think). See all of those empty sockets?

Notably missing, and fair warning:

- Floppy controller

- Floppy drive! 5 1/4”

- Hard drive controller (RLL)

- CGA or Monochrome Display Adapter

- Serial port adapter if you want to modem (25-pin 16450 UART)

- PC-DOS

Good luck. These are harder than you think, have no sound but a “beep”, and can’t even keep the time between reboots.

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upgrading the RAM from a paltry 128KB (i think).

Paltry? The original started with 16kB, and maxed out at 64 kB (after a ROM revision at 256kB)

have no sound but a “beep”

If you were willing to use most of the CPU for it, you could get (for the time) more than that beep out of it.

You could also make sound by toggling the relay that switched on/off the cassette motor :-)

Very good points! You’re right on all of them. I remember one game shop had a “RealSound” technology that sounded impressive for a PC speaker. Maybe “Mean Streets” was the name.

Mean Streets did in fact have digital audio samples that played out of the PC speaker, and it was a selling point highlighted on the box with a big red sticker: “Real Sound”.

Even if you can find a CGA or MDA, good luck finding a surviving monitor to display it.

Honestly, you're probably better off finding an intact PC on ebay or Craigslist or such.

And for doing anything practical, much better off with a Raspberry Pi variant.

Does it seem to you that literally anyone buying such a thing is concerned about practicality?

CGA is probably surprisingly easy. Composite out can plug into almost any TV made in the last 15 years, and many monitors. I could see using my Dell 2007FP for something like this; I've already tried it with a C128.

> Even if you can find a CGA or MDA, good luck finding a surviving monitor to display it.

A quick Google Shopping search finds plenty, as well as converter devices from those signals to VGA.

My parents still have a presumably functional CGA monitor in the basement because we’ve never thrown away any electronic we’ve owned. I am sure there are people like that out there.

Used, new old stock, and LCDs that support CGA/MDA/EGA are readily available. Converters from CGA/MDA to VGA are also readily available.

Most CGA cards had composite out, as CGA timings were based on TV standard.

with regard to displays, gbs-8200 will help here.

Gonbes GBS-8200/8220 CGA/EGA/YUV to VGA Arcade HD-Converter PCB allows all types of RGB, EGA, VGA or YUV component signals to be up-converter and display on a 31KHz PC VGA monitor, TFT monitor, LCD display, or HD-TV with VGA connection. No need to set dip switches in order to figure out the specific input frequency as all inputs are detected automatically! A great alternative to purchasing a expensive, heavy CGA monitor.

[0]: https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=GBS-8200

The original IBM PC couldn't keep time between reboots either.

And a keyboard with a 5-pin DIN plug (not PS/2 or USB). Bonus points if the function keys go down the side and not across the top.

Does it include a cassette interface?

It does, but I don't believe it would be of much use, it was never really used on the original machines.

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