Acquiring, playing with, and living with classic computers

From: Charles P. Hobbs <transit_at_lerctr.org>
Date: Thu Jun 29 13:20:55 2000

Well, let's see: Right now I have the following

* Dining room table (Computer Lab): A Mac LC II, a Mac LC III,
an Amiga 2000, a Commodore 128D, and a Coco 3. All work

* Studio (bedroom table): An Apple IIe (connected to an AlphaSyntauri
synthesizer), an Amiga 1000 with 2 Mb memory expansion, and a TI99/4A,
with Corcomp disk drive/rs232/32k expansion. All work.

* Electronics lab (bedroom desk): An Atari 800 (works, but dodgy
keyboard), a Commodore 128 (works), and a Coco2 (works). Also a
TRS80 Model 100 (works)

* Storage (closet): An Apple IIe (works, just no really good place
to put it), 2 Dell 486s (both work), a BBC Model B (I think it works,
but may have been damaged in a flood, haven't tested it), a Leading
Edge Model D (works), a no-name 286 (works) and a no-name 8088 PC
(no longer boots from the hard drive). Also some odd bits here and there
(a Matell Aquarius, a Spectravideo 128, and a NEC something-or-other...
don't know if any of those work)

Most of this stuff I got from the local swap meets (TRW in Redondo
Beach and the like). Occasionally I'll get lucky at a thrift shop,
but not often (mostly broken 286's they want too much for)

I've bought stuff on Ebay and usenet, although shipping (especially
CPU's and heavy stuff) is expensive and can be problematic. I tend
to prefer using them for small peripherals and software items.

I don't really spend all that much...maybe up to $20/cpu at a
swap meet, Ebay, etc. A lot of stuff I've even got for free, or
just for shipping costs.

Time to play with all this stuff: Is not in abundance. I have a long
commute and very little home time, which must be divided among
other pursuits (music, ham radio, etc.) So right now, I'm more in
acquisition mode, looking for peripherals and software for these machines.

Currently, I am unmarried and live alone, so no need to worry about
what other people might think. My folks thought I was wierd for
collecting all these old machines....but now they collect old Macs!

 
Received on Thu Jun 29 2000 - 13:20:55 BST