Floppy Days 152 - The HP97 Programmable Calculator - Part 3 - With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz
Show notes
HP-97/67 Programmable Calculator, Part 3 With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays
Sponsors:
Videos of this and other episodes at the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6DQ3cyp8h373H0lXSJ8yqQ
Hello, and welcome to episode 152 of the Floppy Days Podcast for June, 2025. My name is Randy Kindig and I'm the host for this lovefest for vintage computers and programmable calculators from the late 70's thru the 80's. If you love old computers, you've found the right place!
This month, I'm completing the ongoing series of episodes about the HP 97/67 programmable calculators. This is the third and final in the series that provides us with a terrific co-host who is able to provide a lot of color about these machines: that being HP calculator historian Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz ("Vwahdek Meer-Yeng SHAY of itch"). No one knows more about HP calculators than Wlodek and all of us are honored to get his insight into these HP calculator gems.
New Acquisitions
HP History Book by Wlodek - "A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers" - https://amzn.to/4hl1Yq1 (affiliate link)
PalmPilot Personal - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PalmPilot
Upcoming Shows
KansasFest - July 18-20 - Virtual only - https://www.kansasfest.org/
INIT HELLO Apple II Conference - July 26-27 - System Source Computer Museum in Hunt Valley, MD - https://init-hello.org/
VCF West - August 1-2 - Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/2025/03/05/vcf-west-2025-save-the-date/
Fujiama - August 11-17 - Lengenfeld, Germany - http://atarixle.ddns.net/fuji/2025/
VCF Midwest - September 13-14, 2025 - Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL - http://vcfmw.org/
Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/
Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/
Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home
Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub
Feedback (videos)
"A 67 or 97 is a good deal" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z8UiZz2Bm0
"Coca cola" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FN5eCvkoPM
Season's greetings - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libGuLCyikY
Some examples of words you could show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jXGb-CR1Tg
HP Poem expressing sadness the early HP's had been discontinued - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMuMz623ub4
Books
manuals - Can purchase document set on USB stick - https://www.hpmuseum.org/cd/cddesc.htm
Better Programming on the HP-67 & 97 by Richard Nelson, Kolb, Kennedy - http://www.hp41.org/LibView.cfm?Command=Image&ItemID=94&FileID=2325
Wlodek's book - A Guide to HP Handheld Calculators and Computers - https://amzn.to/4hl1Yq1 (affiliate link)
RCL40: Recollection, Reinvention and HP Calculators - RCL40: Recollection, Reinvention and HP Calculators
Software
Software available from collection at Museum of HP Calculators - https://www.hpmuseum.org/cd/cddesc.htm
Emulators
HP Calculator Simulators - https://www.cuveesoft.ch/
RPN-67/97 Pro - Apple App Store - (iOS) itms://itunes.apple.com/app/rpn-97-pro/id816249055
HP-97 Emulator by Michael O'Shea (Windows):
HP-97 Emulator by Michael O'Shea (Android, iOS) - https://www.limpidfox.com
Buying One Today
Getting one repaired:
waterhosko (Mark Hoskins) - https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=324196333178&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211&_ssn=waterhosko
Mainely Calculators (Adam Jones) - https://www.ebay.com/str/mainelycalculator?_trksid=p4429486.m145687.l149267
Modern Upgrades
Replacement CPU Boards for HP-67 and HP-97 - https://www.Teenix.org
Community
Facebook
HP Calculator Fan Club - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hpcalculatorclub
Real Engineers Use HP Handheld Calculators - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hpcalc
Forums
The Museum of HP Calculators - https://hpmuseum.org/forum/index.php
Reddit
HPCalc - https://www.reddit.com/r/hpcalc/
Current Web Sites and Videos
Article in Byte Magazine, Vol. 3 No. 6 - https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1978-06/page/n113/mode/1up
Article in HP Journal on the HP-67/97 - http://hparchive.com/Journals/HPJ-1976-11.pdf
HHC 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee, showing off RPN-97 Pro - https://www.cuveesoft.ch/rpn67/img/RPN-97HHC.mp4
HP - https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/personalsystems/0041/index.html
Eric Rechlin's hpcalc.org - http://www.hpcalc.org
Craig Finseth's HPDATABase - http://www.finseth.com/hpdata/
The Hewlett Packard Calculator Page by Rick Furr - http://www.vcalc.net/hp.htm
The Calculators of HP poster - https://www.vcalc.net/poster.htm#hp
series of articles by Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz. They were published in DATAFILE - https://www.vcalc.net/hp-jhi.htm
Old HP and TI Calculators by Gene Wright - http://www.rskey.org/gene/hpgene/
HP Calculator Internals - http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/hpcalc/
HP-97 at rskey.org - https://www.rskey.org/hp97
References
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP-67/97#67
Museum of HP Calculators (David Hicks) - https://www.hpmuseum.org/hp6797.htm