So I'm one of those retrocomputer weirdos, coming to you on an Micro8088 machine I soldered together (XT Turbo class machine), and when my new (to me) printer came up on ebay for $50, I couldn't quite say no. So now I'm the owner of a technological orphan: a Smith Corona D-200. It seems to work, when tested with a USB/Parallel adapter, but when connected to the parallel port on this XT, the XT won't boot. Still working on that. I have a suspicion that they did something dumb with one of the previously (in 1984) unused lines on the parallel port that causes the newer, bidirectional types to interrupt to death. Still digging into that.

My big problem is ribbons. I have *one*, the one that came with it, and I've managed to get some ink to flow with the traditional application of WD40 to the ribbon, just like we did with the Commodore 1525s back in the day. There's practically nothing on this printer on the web. Near as I can tell, SC got out of the printer business a year later, and went under 5 years after that.

So...if anyone know "Oh, those take a <much more common> ribbon, I would be very grateful to know about it. Ditto if there's a well known "Oh yeah, just cut the <pin on the centronics connector> or something like that.

I have to say computers are a lot more fun when you're not trying to fix the one and only machine you have so you can get classwork done by Monday. :P

-JRS

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