How did you get started?

From: Alexios Chouchoulas <alexios_at_vennea.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed Apr 9 18:51:16 1997

> I really started about two years ago.

  Same here, almost. Actually it started three years ago when someone "sold"
me a C64 for the equivalent of 0.30 UKP (an ok price for a C64, I guess),
but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

  Two years ago, the large BBS/sort-of-ISP I worked for bogged down by huge
Atari vs. Amiga vs. Pc vs. Mac flamewars (then again, who isn't?). The more
rational people decided to hold a contest and decide who has the best toy.
So they organised an official demo show with judges from the BBS staff and
users. I was with the owner and high guru of the system a few weeks before
that and we were playing with his TI-99/4A and trying to decide whether his
MC-10 was working or not. So we though `why not bring all our old machines
to the demo show to give the PeeCee/Amiga folks a demo of what computing was
before *they* came along?'.

  Well, in the end, we managed to gather around 15 machines, including a
Kaypro 2 or II, rather rare in Europe, a (dead) Sinclair ZX-80 and other
machines. That's when I (subconsciously, probably) got the idea of
collecting as many old home micros as possible. The nostalgia trip was
immense at the time. :-)

  Oh, I think that's when it occured to me to create information sheets
about the various items at the show -- something listing specs and
capabilities, so that the people who thought Computer == {PeeCee,Amiga}
found out about the ZX-80's 1k chess program, etc. That idea was implemented
as the Machine Room, my old hardware home page.

Alexios

PS: OBTW, if I remember correctly, the winner of the demo show was the
    PeeCee, with `Dope'. I'm not into demos, but that thing impressed me.

PS2: I think I'm posting material againt the list's charter again. This
     mail mentions PCs at least three times. *LART* Ouch! *LART* Yow!


--------------------------- ,o88,o888o,,o888o. -------------------------------
Alexios Chouchoulas '88 ,88' ,88' alexios_at_vennea.demon.co.uk
The Unpronouncable One ,o88oooo88ooooo88oo, axc_at_dcs.ed.ac.uk
Received on Wed Apr 09 1997 - 18:51:16 BST