Tag: cpm

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Ancient Web: Gaby.de Kept CP/M and ZNODE51 Alive on the Web

Gaby.de looks like what happens when a working computer-history desk is left connected to the public web for a very long time.

Visit Gaby.de

The site centers on CP/M, the operating system closely associated with Digital Research and Gary Kildall, but it spreads outward into Z80 systems, old software, manuals, hardware and BBS history.

The CP/M Center includes downloads for multiple CP/M versions, tools for DOS, CP/M-86 material, FAQs, online manuals, links to original CP/M binaries and sources, the Digital Research Documentation Project, and information about moving CP/M data onto newer PCs.

Then there is ZNODE51.

A BBS survived as a web archive

ZNODE51 was a German Z-System and CP/M BBS. Historical CP/M FAQ material lists it as node 51 in Munich, and the machine behind it was an Altos 580.

Gaby.de’s own virtual museum records that Altos system as a circa-1983 multiuser computer with two Z80A processors, 64 to 192 KB of RAM, a 40 MB hard drive and support for CP/M 2.2, MP/M-80 and OASIS. It had been used as Z-Node 51 until 1992.

The archive now exposes roughly 150 MB of CP/M downloads and related tools.

That is not enormous by modern storage standards. It is enormous in historical context.

The site also keeps a virtual computer museum after the physical private collection was dissolved. There are meeting photos, Z-Fest material, Windows 3.1x resources, Z80 links and old Computer Journal articles.

For retrocomputing researchers, Gaby.de is useful because it preserves relationships between machines, software, user groups and BBS culture instead of reducing everything to isolated downloads.

For webmasters, the lesson is simpler: a small information architecture can outlive the hardware it describes.

This site was found in CacheRat’s broader Ancient Web research corpus.

Explore the 1,967 Ancient Web Domains research list

The computers moved into history. The BBS shut down. The private collection was dispersed.

The pages stayed up.

Browse Gaby.de’s CP/M Center

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Ancient Web: Retrotechnology and the Art of Keeping Old Computers Useful

Herb Johnson has a useful definition of “retrotechnology”: repair, restoration, and reuse of old technology, especially the digital computers of the 1970s and 1980s.

Visit Retrotechnology

That definition immediately separates the site from a gallery of old beige boxes.

Johnson is interested in keeping the knowledge around the hardware alive: how systems worked, how they are repaired, what documentation survives, who built them, and what older methods can still teach people working with newer machines.

The site says its most substantial computing collection and core interest is S-100 personal-computing equipment from the 1970s and 1980s. There is also extensive material on Digital Research and Gary Kildall, whose work on CP/M sits underneath a large chunk of personal-computer history.

Preservation with a soldering iron

In 2009, Johnson began a series specifically about restoring, repairing, and preserving vintage computers. The pages document his work, other people’s work, and collaborative projects.

That practical emphasis matters.

It is one thing to record that a machine existed. It is another to preserve enough technical context for somebody to diagnose one when a forty-year-old board stops behaving.

The site also openly mixes preservation with commerce. Johnson sells hardware, parts, and services to keep the operation going. There is no need to pretend that historical work exists in a magical world without storage costs, parts costs, shipping, or time.

The homepage was revised in May 2026. That is another good sign of a genuinely living old-Web resource: the presentation may belong to an earlier Internet, but somebody is still maintaining the information.

For a webmaster, Retrotechnology is a useful reminder that depth beats polish when a site owns a narrow subject. A person searching for an S-100 board, CP/M history, an old Macintosh part, or restoration notes does not need a cinematic landing page. They need the person who kept the weird manual.

CacheRat’s Ancient Web research list contains 1,967 domains with this kind of material: specialist knowledge, hobby work, personal collections, and parts of Internet history that rarely fit neatly into modern platforms.

Explore the 1,967 Ancient Web Domains research list

Retrotechnology is not merely about old computers. It is about retaining enough knowledge that “old” does not automatically become “dead.”

Explore Herb Johnson’s Retrotechnology site