website/content/museum/ohio-scientific-challenger-1p.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
OHIO Scientific Challenger 1P	Computers	Home Computer	U.S.A.	1979	6502	name image company company_name specs tabs photos links docs comments related oc_id source Challenger 1P /media/museum/photos/ohioscient_challenger1p_system_1.jpg /companies/ohio-scientific OHIO Scientific label value NAME Challenger 1P label value MANUFACTURER OHIO Scientific label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1979 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Microsoft BASIC label value KEYBOARD Full stroke 53 keys label value CPU 6502 label value SPEED 1 MHz. label value CO-PROCESSOR None label value RAM 4 KB (static) expandable to 8 KB on board label value VRAM 1 KB label value ROM 8 KB label value TEXT MODES 24 chars. x 24 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES Only built-in graphic characters label value COLORS Monochrome label value SOUND No sound label value SIZE / WEIGHT Unknown label value I/O PORTS Tape recorder (input/output jacks for 300 baud Kansas City Standard tape storage), Composite video label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in 5V power supply unit label value PERIPHERALS 24 KB memory board, floppy discs label value PRICE About $350 photos links docs title subtitle text image BACK SIDE /media/museum/photos/ohioscient_challenger1p_back_1.jpg title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com title url cover text SUPERBOARD II / CHALLENGER 1P - USERS MANUAL null /media/museum/docs/couvs/challenger_user-manual.jpg **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 url cover text THE 8K BASIC-IN-ROM - REFERENCE MANUAL null /media/museum/docs/couvs/doc_ohio-scientific_osi-basic.jpg **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 url cover text CHALLENGER 1P - TECHNICAL REPORT null /media/museum/docs/couvs/challenger-1p_technical-report.jpg **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 url cover text THE CHALLENGER CHARACTER GRAPHICS REFERENCE MANUAL null /media/museum/docs/couvs/challenger_characters-graphics-reference-manual.jpg **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 author date text Mike (Lovettsville, VA) Sunday 3rd April 2016 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 date text harmon (Kent, Ohio USA) Wednesday 8th July 2015 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 date text Dave Smith (USA) Thursday 18th December 2014 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 date text Chris Sunday 22nd April 2012 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 date text Peter R Jensen (Sydney Australia) Saturday 28th May 2005 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. /museum/ohio-scientific-challenger-4p /museum/ohio-scientific-challenger-ii /museum/ohio-scientific-challenger-iii /museum/ohio-scientific-superboard-ii 813 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230206200042/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=813 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).