I have an original IBM PC; the only upgrade I did to it was to add a VGA card. It can run DOS 2.x and 3.x just fine. It can also run a 16-bit varient of RetroForth/Native. I haven't booted it in a couple of years though.

...the commodore 64 pack also includes 'introduction to basic', a teach yourself program for the whole family...

I was just gonna say, "Beware the probably-dead CMOS battery!" (b/c the one in my 486, mfd. in 1991, just died), but then I guess the original 8088 (model 5150? heh) didn't have one.

If I were you, I'd try booting it up (to try ELKS, perhaps??), just to know that it still works. Stuff usually craps out eventually, and it'd be more disappointing if you thought it still worked, but it really didn't, IMO.

I have a few 286 systems in use. Although it is probably not what you expect it is. It is an embedded system that is still in use and also recently I upgraded the OS using FASM.

I have a 80286-16mHz, 1024kB RAM, 4-Color CGA, 2 x 5.25" floppies.

The only chahges made to this machine's origional OEM configureation was; I added a 20mB hard drive, and upgraged MS-DOS 4.0 to 6.0

I dug this machine out of the shed last year and powered it up. Still runs no problem, data-time still good too!

I am looking for a '286 here myself... wonder how rare those are in the US (Can't find many of them in Australia)

I have a 286 pc (a working one). i dont have any pics thou