Past computers I have had, and emulators for them:
Sinclair ZX-81 (Timex Sinclair 1000)
Click here for basic information, and here to obtain an emulator.The main thing this computer would do is crash. I had a 16K RAM pack, and if bumped it at all, the computer would crash. I did try some programing, and a very small amount of POKE-ing and PEEK-ing.
CP/M S-100 - (searching for photo) with 8" disk drives, in a transparent plexiglass case. Built by my bother for me. Cost over $2000 when originally purchased. Used a Heathkit H19 terminal, and an Epson MX-80 printer.
Click here for basic info, and here for more info here for emulation.
My CP/M S-100 computer was a very expensive business computer in it's day. I had some fun with CP/M, in that I was able to rewrite portions of the operating system in assembly language. One fun project was to see how high I could press the disk format parameters (sectors per track & etc). I managed to push it quite high, although the data would only stay readable on the disk for a few seconds - then it would degrade.
Sadly I destroyed most of my 8" disks, although I probably could have read them onto a PC hard drive, if I had kept them, as the interface for 8" drives is almost identical to 5&1/4 ones.
