Floppy Days 152 - The HP97 Programmable Calculator - Part 3 - With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz

Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast

HP-97/67 Programmable Calculator, Part 3 With Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays

Sponsors:

• 8-Bit Classics

• Arcade Shopper

• FutureVision Research

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 - https://www.limpidfox.com/hp97.htm

• HP-67 - https://www.limpidfox.com/hp67.htm

• 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