Got a beautiful present today; one of the Olivetti M10’s, I used to work on on the road, from 1982 through the end of 1985, when my first Tandy 200 arrived. I’ts possible this is the very machine I took with me when I went to Australia in november 1985. The Australian Open was still at Glenferrie Road, Kooyong, and we were working there in a tent. Leo, our technical editor, is cleaning up a lot of old rubbish and he gave this one to me.
Guess what: I put four A4 batteries in it, and it’s still working! Now, where is the manual? I remember I used to write funny things in basic, between long and sometimes boring tennis-matches. Of course not when, in his second match, Michiel Schapers beat the youngest Wimbledon winner ever, Boris Becker, who had a bye in the first round. Very convenient for me, as I was the only Dutch journalist present Down Under. and I had to write a lot of extra articles for Dutch newspapers and magazines, an do the television interviews with Schapers in front of an Aussie crew.
I also used the Olivetti as an alarm clock for years. A few lines in basic, power down, and when the time was there it woke itself up and started playing the Star Spangled Banner.
Would it be possible to hook this thing to one of my contemporary machines? There are four connectors at the back: rs-232C, printer, tape and BCR. First thing to do: fire up the web, and look for a manual. I’ll be back on this.