--- title: OHIO Scientific Challenger 1P categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1979' cpus: - '6502' params: name: Challenger 1P company: /companies/ohio-scientific company_name: OHIO Scientific specs: - label: NAME value: Challenger 1P - label: MANUFACTURER value: OHIO Scientific - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1979' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Microsoft BASIC - label: KEYBOARD value: Full stroke 53 keys - label: CPU value: '6502' - label: SPEED value: 1 MHz. - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: None - label: RAM value: 4 KB (static) expandable to 8 KB on board - label: VRAM value: 1 KB - label: ROM value: 8 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 24 chars. x 24 lines - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: Only built-in graphic characters - label: COLORS value: Monochrome - label: SOUND value: No sound - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: Unknown - label: I/O PORTS value: Tape recorder (input/output jacks for 300 baud Kansas City Standard tape storage), Composite video - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in 5V power supply unit - label: PERIPHERALS value: 24 KB memory board, floppy discs - label: PRICE value: About $350 tabs: - photos - links - docs photos: - title: BACK SIDE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null links: - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: '' docs: - title: SUPERBOARD II / CHALLENGER 1P - USERS MANUAL url: null cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/challenger_user-manual.jpg text: |- **SUPERBOARD II / CHALLENGER 1P - USERS MANUAL**\ written by Ohio Scientific  compiled/archived by David Wilson\  type of document : PDF\  size : 2,7 MB\  source : www.old-computers.com - title: THE 8K BASIC-IN-ROM - REFERENCE MANUAL url: null cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/doc_ohio-scientific_osi-basic.jpg text: |- **THE 8K BASIC-IN-ROM - REFERENCE MANUAL**\ written by Ohio Scientific  compiled/archived by David Wilson\  type of document : PDF\  size : 576 KB\  source : www.old-computers.com - title: CHALLENGER 1P - TECHNICAL REPORT url: null cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/challenger-1p_technical-report.jpg text: |- **CHALLENGER 1P - TECHNICAL REPORT**\ written by Ohio Scientific  compiled/archived by David Wilson\  type of document : PDF\  size : 1,4 MB\  source : www.old-computers.com - title: THE CHALLENGER CHARACTER GRAPHICS REFERENCE MANUAL url: null cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/challenger_characters-graphics-reference-manual.jpg text: |- **THE CHALLENGER CHARACTER GRAPHICS REFERENCE MANUAL**\ written by Ohio Scientific  compiled/archived by David Wilson\  type of document : PDF\  size : 1,3 MB\  source : www.old-computers.com comments: - author: Mike (Lovettsville, VA) date: Sunday 3rd April 2016 text: I have a OSI C1P II with the 610 and floppy. I also have all of the manuals and software for it. I am going to be selling and wanted to see if there was any interest in it before I put it on Ebay. - author: harmon (Kent, Ohio USA) date: Wednesday 8th July 2015 text: |- I bought a superboard in 1979, my first computer. I learned software and hardware from it.\ I upgraded to 32K and a floppy.\ I designed and built an interface to a 3 voice sound chip and a TI "sprite" color graphics chip.\ I showed my color c1p to the OSI club in Cleveland, a group of business users, and they wondered why anyone would need colors! - author: Dave Smith (USA) date: Thursday 18th December 2014 text: HI, I was a technician back then and worked for OSI. I repaired many of these units. I am interested in purchasing some of the older units C1P, C2P, etc. - author: Chris date: Sunday 22nd April 2012 text: |- My school (TSS, QLD) had a stack of these. Some had 1K, others had 4K, and we had one giant 8P machine with 2x 8" floppies. I acquired them all when they were decommissioned. I''ve still got them. - author: Peter R Jensen (Sydney Australia) date: Saturday 28th May 2005 text: |- I purchased a Superboard in 1979 and over the succeeding 4 years enhanced the machine until it ran two Fujitsu 8 inch drives each having a 1.2 megabyte capacity. The controller was built for me by Nigel Bisset who was a member of the Sydney user group for Ohio Scientific machines. In addition to this change, the Melbourne users produced a memory expansion board and video upgrade which I also used. An aluminium case was bent up and all the hardware went inside and an black text on green background sat on the case. It did not look so very different to the setup that I am now using for Internet communications except that of course it is colour and XVGA. The end result was a machine that was able to do wordprocessing using the Ohio Scientific programme and I started writing my first book that has still not been published. Later books were more successful. However, I found the wordprocessor was pretty flakey and I lost a number of important files. This persuaded me to switch to an Osborne 01 Greycase on which I could run Wordstar which was a quantum leap. About this time, Nigel Bisset went to a Macintosh and at this stage our computer paths diverged. He went on to use Apple products whereas I went progressively via CPM to MSDOS and ultimately Windows XP. What a change in 25 yea rs - absolutely incredible. related: - /museum/ohio-scientific-challenger-4p - /museum/ohio-scientific-challenger-ii - /museum/ohio-scientific-challenger-iii - /museum/ohio-scientific-superboard-ii oc_id: 813 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230206200042/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=813 date: '2023-02-06' --- Ohio Scientific, based in Ohio, USA, were the makers of the Superboard II. The Challenger 1P and Challenger **IIP-MF** were essentially cased versions of this single board system with integrated keyboard, a single 5Volt power supply and the first 6502 version of Microsoft BASIC interpreter. An optional floppy disk controller and a extra 24K of ram for this unit was available using a 610 expansion board. The **C1P-MF** was an upgraded version of the C1P having 20 KB of RAM and one 90 KB floppy disc drive. Memory could be upgraded up to 32 KB. The Superboard and its derivatives had good user support and many programs were available. --- Some additional information from **Mark Alsing**:\ It had basic keyclick sound capability that could be added by popultaing components (resitors and caps) on the main board.An RS-232 interface could also be added this way and there was a cut-out on the back to mount a DB-25 connector for it. Video output was composite and required an RF modulator to display output on a regular TV. I had a MicroVerter box that put the output on ch. 13 or 14. **Ken Jordan**, a game developer who got his start on the OSI-C1P, reports :\ The text mode was really 32 x 32, but because of TV overscan only 24 x 24 was used.\ As was common, I soldered Atari joysticks to the numeric keys to allow gaming (there was a standard for this mod).