Hi,
HELL! I thought I had the only Nascom 1 left! Now someone emulates it! 😉
I just have to ask why? You have to admit that, probably apart from NAS-PEN no-one ever really used the things. Apart from general “messing” that is…).
Mick
The reply got me thinking – you are reading the results!
I think it only fair to thank the following as, without them, this site would never have appeared or, at least, would be far smaller and much more boring! This list isn’t
complete (my emails have become very mangled with time and several
different email clients and ISPs) but, if you have contributed and your name isn’t listed then please don’t take it personally! The names are in no particular order, just the order that they came “out of the bag”!
Many of the following have sent me software, hardware, information or emails of encouragement.
| John Marshall | for starting the whole thing… |
| A.R. (“Tony”) Rundle | who, for his sins, was Technical Director of Nascom. 🙂 |
| Kerr Borland | for being an able mouthpiece for Nascom! |
| Dave Hunt | for being, probably, the Nascom’s greatest supporter and providing me with a lot of background information. |
| Richard Beal | for being the Monitor wiz! |
| Paul Greenhalgh | for being the Nascom/Gemini hardware man! |
| Mike Hessey | for being a nice guy " coming up with some very interesting info. |
| Brian Fairchild | for being 1/2 Costgold Research and doing some nifty video hardware |
| Alan Chaney | for being the other 1/2 of Costgold Research and doing some nifty video software! |
| Adrian Hodgson | for contributing my very first Nascom 2! |
| John Linford | for contributing a *lot* of hardware! |
| Mike Addlesee | for contributing a *lot* of hardware! |
| Bernie Tipping | for building lots of Nascom 2s at Henry’s Radio |
| Tony Duell | for preserving the Henry’s Radio Gemini network server. (I’m still envious, Tony!) |
| David Searle | for the infamous “Kenilworth” case. |
| Gerald Tompsett | for several invaluable pictures used on this site |
| Mike Foster | for sending me some interesting emails " sending me some nice source code |
| Paul Stuijt | for the pic of the GM 836 card |
| Dave Parkinson | for REVAS, the Nascomers friend! |
| “Keith” | for sending me a CDR full of Liverpool Software Gazette stuff. |
| Trevor Brownen | for Crystal Electronics’ XTAL BASIC for the Nascom. Probably the best 8-bit BASIC ever written! |
| Doctor Dark (Chris Blackmore) | for some of the comedy element 🙂 |
| Jesper Hansen | because I nicked the Nascom logo off his web page the other day and he won’t know about it until he reads this… 🙂 |
| Dr Chris (C.D.) Shelton | who got the Nascom video circuit published in Wireless World (and did a couple of notable designs for the Nascom 1 and RAM “A” boards!). |
| Nick Broome, Howard Birkett, Terry Relph-Knight, Dave Wadham and Dave Lewis |
Some of the in-house designers of the NASCOM-2 (and, in some cases, involved with the Gemini system). |
| Peter Smith | who has provided several nice pictures and various manuals etc. for me to scan for this site. |
Also to all who have sent me emails. They are a great encouragement to me to
keep this site going. I really appreciate comments about the site and stories of your Nascom/Gemini experiences. I always make an effort to respond!
And finally to you, gentle reader, because without you this site is nothing
at all…
nascom.info 
Just found this site.
I couldn’t find a date to indicate how long it has been around though but if the context is to believed it appears quite recent (2011)
Congratulations on gathering so much info.
Thanks for bringing back memories of a wonderful time when I lusted after NASCOM kit but didn’t have enough spare cash. I spent it all on magazines which were full of articles on the technical details of such cutting edge technology.
Excellent site. I was a big fan of the Nascom 1’s having owned three at one point. The Ikon Hobbit drives put the Nascom on the leading edge of storage at the time. If you need any pics of a rack mounted Nascom 1 with Hobbit drives just let me know.
Enjoyed finding this site – recalled some early days looking in the window (at Amersham) at stuff I usually couldn’t afford….
Just been clearing out the garage and I found a box of stuff I didn’t even know I had (or where I got it from even) – a Gemini 811 plus 2 x 256k memory boards. There was also an old Nascom 16K board there too. I built a Nascom 2 whilst living in Milan (about 1978/9?) and later added two 5″ disks (that were purchased as “faulty” from Pertec UK) running CP/M . I also still have that weird TI graphics card with sound chip – but I don’t think I ever got it going.
Unfortunately, I decided to dump the Nascon a couple of years ago (one of those purges that are supposed to be good for you) but I kind of regret it now. Still play with 32bit micros etc today but I could actually understand what was happening at byte level with the old Z80 and that was more fun somehow…
Will see if I can get the G811 fired up I think and chatting to a PC via the serial link. I’ve no docs on the G811 unfortunately – any pointers/links to them?
Regards,
IanT
Are you still after docs on the G811?
Yes please! Anything you have would be very useful, I’m sure.
OK, I’ve found your email address, I’ll send the scans I have as pdfs.
Hi. Thanks for a very interesting site. Tiny correction: in the “history” section, the 4118 SRAM was 1kx8 not 2kx8.
Thanks for letting me know, Neal – fixed it. 🙂
Hi . just found your site . I have an old Nascom2 with an Animation Graphics card fitted . I’m in the process of getting the Nascom back to working . I have managed to find copies of all the manuals except the AGC . Any chance of a scan copy of them .
Excellent website, without information like this restorers like me would struggle. I have two Nascoms (1 and 2) both working. My Nascom 1 is housed in a Dragon 32 case utilising its power supply which is just enough to power an unexpanded Nascom.
The Nascom 2 main board which is fully populated but required some track repair around a worn LSW1 switch I acquired many years ago lay dormant in the attic until I managed to secure a NASCOM 2 keyboard a couple of years ago. I have since restored the pcb (at great expense, those though hole repair kits are not cheap) connected the keyboard and powered up, it booted!
I plan to make a Kenilworth style case but want to include some expansion.
My plan is to replicate the FDC card (the GM809 possibly) which uses the FD1797 controller. I have a Lucas Logic disk drive unit which has three drives in it (can have 4) I do not know any details about it, may be you can shed some light!
If you want some pictures of my gear please let me know.
Trevor
Hi Trevor 🙂
There is some info on the G809 on this site, including the schematic. I would suggest that you try to find the major ICs first if you intend to copy it though, they may take a bit of finding! I know the capacity is a lot less, but another possibility is to copy the G805 (Henelec) controller. That uses the 1771 and ordinary logic chips. Additionally it plugs into the PIO so you wouldn’t necessarily have to use a Nasbus (for which the connectors are rarer than rocking horse poo!).
Thanks for the info. I’m just scoping what may be required at the moment, but reading some of the documentation there is a mixed bag of hardware and software (where do i begin!). I have a source for the WD chips and FD1797. The connectors are an issue(as extinct as a Dodo), though I plan to use a combination of two connectors (double sided) to make width of 78/80 on a backplane of 3-4 slots.
Is there a schematic for the Henelec controller? and are there ROM images?
I thought it was on here… I’ll check & sort it out if it isn’t. If you have the 1797 chips then use them! You’ll get better results. You could then run Polydos, which keeps your hardware the same, or CP/M, which is rather more complicated. I suggest that you join this group, which is a great source of knowledge: https://groups.io/g/Nascom-Computers