How did you get started?

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Wed Apr 9 11:24:10 1997

On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Paul E Coad wrote:

> This raises the question of how people got into this hobby. Was it
> a single event or something which happened over time (with or without
> you being aware of it?)

When I was young, I got my first computer, which was the Aquarius I
mentioned before. I sold this along with my Atari 2600 with about 50
games to fund the purchase of my first Apple ][+. I wish I was
enlightened back then because I would have found some other way to make
the money. After a while I wanted to get an Apple ][e, but I couldn't get
myself to sell my ][+. I'd had too much fun with it. So in spite of the
bitching from my parents, I bought a ][e and kept my ][+. Which was
really cool because now I had two apples and I could have two different
things going on each one. It was really handy when I was hacking up code
or cracking copy protection and such. Then my high school computer
science teacher wanted to sell me his souped-up //e, which I bought, so
now I had three apples. He also threw in a Soroc dumb terminal, which I
think was what piqued my interested of old stuff. There was this big old
teletype terminal in our classroom that I asked if I could have but he had
no authority to give it to me (it was never used for anything) so he gave
me the terminal instead. Then through some maneuvering I can't remember,
I ended up trading with friends and acquired a commodore 64 and a
TI-99/4a. These weren't particularly old back then (this was around
1987). I also got a Timex-Sinclair ZX-81 from my brother that he had
traded from his friend who built it. Then in around 1989 I acquired some
California Computer Systems S-100 CP/M machines. Huge, 30-lbs a piece
units. There was a dual 8-inch disk drive unit, then the processor unit.
My mom thought I was crazy to be hauling this shit home. She'd always be
telling me to sell some of it. But I brought it into my bedroom and set
it up and programmed a small adventure game on it. I got this system from
a classmate in a community college course I was taking. He gave several
away that he rescued from a school he taught at. Later on a couple of the
people who got a system decided they didn't want theirs anymore and so
they gave them to me. Then one day I was at a swap meet looking for
carthridges for a 2600 I had picked up. I found the mother lode. There
was this crusty guy selling all sorts of old early- to mid-80s systems
like commodores, ataris, colecovisions, etc. I went spastic. After I
recovered I went to the guy and offered $5 for each unit he had, and HE
GLADLY ACCEPTED! He'd been wanting to get rid of this "junk" forever. So
I ended up with about five Vic20s, an Atari 400, an Atari 800, a Commodore
CBM (CP/M), a Colecovision, numerous Atari 2600 consoles (of different
types), a Timex Sinclair ZX-81, a TRS-80 Color Computer 2, a TRS-80
mini-color computer, some other TRS-80 junk, and miscellaneous joystick
controllers and game carts that he threw in. All told I paid him $120 for
a trunk load of ol computers and stuff. I was stoked. And the best part
is, 95 percent of the stuff worked, even though some of it had been
sitting in the rain and sun for years. The day I got them it was raining,
and some stuff was wet when I brought it home. But I opened the wet ones
up and dried them off and they worked! The only thing that was totally
dead was one of the colecovisions. The Commodore CBM and the Color
Computer 2 had blown fuses, which are easily replaced (although I have yet
to do so). Since then I acquired an Apple Lisa from an old boss, and
Apple III from a friend and maybe one or two others that I am forgetting
now. I haven't gotten anything new in quite a while but since joining
this discussion group I've gotten the bug bad. I'm going to start hitting
the flea markets in my area again.

> Before long I had a fairly eclectic collection. I also collect computer
> books (the older the better) and Infocom games.

Me too. I keep old manuals and the like no matter how mundane.

Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Wed Apr 09 1997 - 11:24:10 BST