Restoring classic kits we built way-back-when

From: Iggy Drougge <optimus_at_canit.se>
Date: Fri Oct 5 07:12:59 2001

Ethan Dicks skrev:

>We've had the ongoing debate of "build a ZX-81 kit or leave it in the box",
>but one aspect of classic kit building I have a question for the group
>about is, what about stuff that we built ourselves 10+ years ago that
>still works, but might need some touch-up. Specifically, I have several
>things (a TVT-6, a Cosmac Elf, a homemade arcade button panel for playing
>Space Invaders on a PET, a 2-char LED display for the PET, etc.) that
>I made when I was a teenager. They still work, so it's not a question of
>repair. It's an aesthetic thing - my soldering skills were much poorer
>when I was 13. I'm debating re-soldering these items (and risking breaking
>them) or leaving them the way they are a) because if it works, don't
>screw with it, and b) it's a snapshot of my own context in the greater
>historical framework.

Depends on whether you need it or not. As long as people live in an ancient
building, I'd never blame them for modifying it in any way to suit their
needs. Tools are IMO tools and should be treated as such as long as they
remain tools. If you regard it as but an artefact, let it remain as it is.

I have a similar dilemma with my Amiga 1200. I've never opened it up once, the
only time the lock's been of was when I got a hard drive, and then it was
installed by a service technician with a new guarantee seal put in.
Now, the 80 MB HD has been feeling awfully cramped for the last five years or
so, and I've got bigger drives laying around, waiting to be installed
somewhere, but I still feel bad about breaking the seal. Since I don't use the
1200 much, it'll probably remain in its 1994 state, but since there are nice
PCI upgrade boards, it could serve a purpose yet again, though I think I'd
rather get another machine for such purposes. A full slaughter of my old
workhorse seems a bit cruel, even if it's all a continuous development.

But if people actually use a piece of hardware, they have my blessing to do
just about anything with it.

--
En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
Die Zeit kommt aus der Zukunft, die nicht existiert, in die
Gegenwart, die keine Dauer hat, und geht in die Vergangenheit,
die aufgeh?rt hat, zu bestehen.
--- Augustinus (R?m. Kirchenlehrer, 354-430 n. Chr.)
Received on Fri Oct 05 2001 - 07:12:59 BST

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