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digitalxfacter

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  1. Well I wrote a shorter more readable one... It's ok you don't have to read another one!
  2. Ok, just for the sake of whoever decides to buy the zenith microcomputer(if anyone) and for the fun of it I am going to provide a more in-depth backstory on where/how I found it. I already wrote one but I took it down because it was WAY long and written while feeling goofy at 5:00 a.m. from lack of sleep and wanting to pretend like I was a novelist. Here is the MUCH shorter explanation of events. This Zenith Microcomputer Learning System was found here: 44.145486, -85.310504 Put those numbers into Google Maps and it should land your marker onto a little square surrounded by some trees located somewhere in the northern half of Michigan by a small city that goes by the name of Cadillac. That little square happens to be a house that has sat abandoned for the last 20 years. The house is in rough shape. Like dungeonesque rough. And how I ended up there is an interesting but long story. In short, the house and surrounding property was, and probably still is, owned by an old woman who at one time lived in that house for most of her life ever since she was little. She had a husband who served in the air national gaurd (a division of the Air Force) and they both lived in that house together at one time. Her husband just so happened to be good buddies with my grandpa who was an aircraft mechanic in the air national gaurd for many years. Long story short, my grandpa's 2nd (or was it 3rd...?) wife died in the beginning of 2015 and he was contacted by the wife of his old buddy probably for condolence reasons. Her husband had died too, only many years earlier (I'm pretty sure around the time the house was abandoned). Annnd so, around 2 months later we come to find out that my grandpa and this woman want to get married. The wedding is scheduled to happen June 2015 up near Cadillac Michigan, in a little church on hilltop just down the road from this woman's inherited property. So when June comes around, and the day of the wedding, me and my oldest brother drive up to Cadillac from Toledo, OH (Toledo is right on the border of the souteastern corner of MI). My mom and my dad had already gone up ahead of us the day before. We get there and enjoy the wedding. We were invited to go and visit with the bride and groom back at her place. I had already been told about the old house so I kind wanted to look at it and maybe even go in it to look around but just by myself or with my brother. We pull into her place which is kind of tucked back behind a patch of forest a short distance from the road. All we see so far is a little nice looking mobile home and a decent sized garage. When we get out and talk a little my grandpa and his newly wed wife lead us down a wide grassy trail to see the house because I think he knew I wanted to look at it. At the end I see a structure begin to take shape very ominous and creepy looking. Creepy is a word I use alot when describing this place. It had no driveway or anything, only the path which turned into a large swath of moss leading up to the front porch. It was overshadowed by tall decidous trees which didn't help. It was two stories tall and about the width and depth of a two car garage. On the outside for siding was these old shingles that you sometimes see on really old houses that are supposed to look like brick walls. These were starting to fall off here and there. From the front we couldn't see any holes in the place but we found some later on as I will explain. Looking past the front porch one could see the front door which had a large square window covered with yellowed-cloth curtains on the inside of the house so as to block my view and look creepy. It looked really dark inside. Even the porch looked dark inside! I wasn't sure if we were going to go in or not. My grandpa's wife explained that the house was over a century old. She also said that if we wanted to go in and look around anything we found we could keep. My grandpa kicked the large rock aside that was blocking the porch door (apparently to keep the raccoons out) and we went inside, me, my brother and my grandpa. (As if this day needed to get any weirder. After all didn't I just witness some kind of new record for old-age marriage? But I still ablidged to go in lol) After some effort we kicked in the front door and were greeted by a moldy smell that almost felt as if it were penetrating my lungs. It was heavy man. A few dirty cobwebs hung from the ceiling in long strands. Some got on my grandpa's bald head. The house was dim like the twilight. We were in the kitchen but on the rightmost side of the house. To the left was cupboards that ran along the wall until they stopped and the opening to a living room. A backdoor illuminated the kitchen a little and I saw a couple of bikes which we later took out of the house (they were an old 60's Schwinn and Magna 10 spd) but decided not to keep since they were so corroded with mold spots. The whole kitchen was dotted with dilapidated house debris (broken up bits of drywall, random stuff and dirt) and also had an over turned oven in it. Directly in front of us was a staircase that went up and took a 90 degree turn left at about ceiling level. The stairs has debris on it too. I was told they were possibly dangerous so I went up first. I'm the lightest. I went up, got to the landing and notice a big hole in the roof about 2 feet across. Looking down a short hall I saw a room that took up most of the upstairs that was well lit from the sky because it too had an even bigger hole. Directly up the 4/5 stairs and to the left was a dark room that seemed smaller than the other and you needed a flashlight to see in. Passing through the short hall I noticed among the dust, debris and animal droppings ther was an ancient looking hand-operated singer sewing machine that was kind of built like a small table. We didn't take this either though do to weight concerns and corosion. We did take an old Sears slide image projector that was next to it though. The big room was a little bit piled up with debris that had fallen down due to the bigger roof collapse. The hole was about 5 or 6 feet across. Fiberglass insulation was scattered about and also lots of grimey drywall chunks. In the room was a somewhat ornate wooden chair, an old wardrobe and a dresser that all matched and were made of some dark wood. They seemed perfect among the scenery. Also there was some suit cases, a box full of books and other random stuff like this. Also we saw two computer monitors, one was a fairly newish looking ibm monochrome and the other was a more classic looking machintosh computer monitor with the rainbow apple on it. Me and my brother got excited. We looked everywhere for an original Apple I or II or anything but found no computer V_V. No cigar. My grandpa was attempting to pry open the dresser drawers to get whatever valuables may or may not be inside. We learned later that he had been in there a couple days back trying to do the same thing. In the open wardrobe we say my grandpa's buddie's old military uniform. I asked my grandpa if he was going to take it but he said no. Beneath it in the wardrobe I noticed something metallic looking. It was a peice of antique looking silverware. This led to me finding more until I accidently uncovered a pile of slimey maggots underneath what I thought was just a fur coat (horrible). Apparently it died protecting it's precious loot (a fork)... (which is now mine... don't look at me like that!!) lol anyways, we kept searching that room until my brother pulled out his iphone which had a flashlight ap. We used that to go into the dark room which was nice and awful looking just due to how it looked like it was abandoned in a hurry without anything taken out of it and much left in a mess except for furniture. When abandoned houses look like that it is just erie for whatever reason. We looked around but found nothing much. There was a dresser in the room (apparently with none of the clothes in it, just in a messy coroded pile next to it) and we couldn't get any of the drawers open. Moisture had swollen them all shut, just like everthing in that house. At this point started to get weary of that penetrating mold smell so we decided to give up for the day and come back with some gear the next day. We stayed in a motel that night next to one of the large lakes in Cadillac. The next morning we got gear at a walmart (minicrowbars, gloves and masks) and came back, just me and my brother to give it another try. This time for some reason the mold smelled so much worse. Maybe because we expected it? Anyways we went upstairs to try opening those treasure chest, I mean drawers. First we tried the dresser in the bigger room. I cracked and broke the wood and almost pulled the whole thing over but eventually I got the first drawer open and found nothing. Second one, nothing. Third, nothing. Finally I got to the bottom one, the forth, and opening that only revealed what apparently was the bedroom of a mouse because it was stuff full of mouse furniture a.k.a balls of couch stuff, string, grass, random chewed up peices of fabric etc. What a let down. But the second dresser would not let me down! We went into the darker room and started prying away. The first two drawers had random stuff I didnt care about like cans of stuff, random things house things and the like. But the third one from the top had a weathered looking white box. Curiously I pulled the box up out and noticed a black cord hanging out. I didn't expect much but when I dumped out what was within out came a cassette tape and then very odd looking appliance. Upon looking at it and noticing all the computer related things I read the label and realized that I had found a Heath Zenith Microcomputer Learning System Model 3400! Ya! This must be worth millions! *I had no idea that these things ever existed until that day* but I was hopeful that we had finally found something worth looking for in that dungeon of a house.. Later that day we explore the kitchen and living room to find some legit looking signed baseball cards, other sports cards and even some Marvel super hero cars still in their pack, but opened, from 1993. We took all our loot and got out of there. Here's what we made away with *ques Final Fantasy battle complete music* : -A sears projector -12 peices of 1847 Rogers Bros silver plated silverware -Marvel cards 1993 -3 or 4 signed basball cards of some famous or somewhat famous players also with certificates of authenticity (can't remember details, they are at my brothers house) -A binder of Nascar cards - 1 Heath Zenith Microcomputer Learning System Model 3400!! and a tape that goes with it We never really learned why the house was abandoned or in such a rush for that matter. All I know is that they are going to tear it down soon whenever someone buys the property, because its up for sale. Aparently someone in the house had a thing for the computers of the early days. But anyways, the place was really creepy and was probably even dangerous because of that mold. We didn't explore everything so who knows what we left behind but it was good enough. I can only hope that we didn't leave behind an Apple II or some kind of cool looking ancient sword! And that is the story of how I found the Heath Zenith Microcomputer Learning System. In other news I knocked it's price down to half off ($25.00) So go ahead and bid on it if you'd like. I doubt it will have people clamouring now that they know of it's origins but I was in the mood to tell a story.
  3. You read the whole thing? lol wow ^_^ thanks. And I could have grabbed it but at the time me and my brother thought we weren't going to have enough room in the trunk of his little toyota to fit everything (we thought we were going to take the bikes). I also think he looked up the monitor later at the hotel and thought it wasn't worth enough for him to want to bring it all the way back to Toledo. I guess we'll never know if it ever powers on again. My grandpa's wife (I literally don't remember her name lol) told me that they were going to get the house torn down at some point when someone decides to buy the whole property (she had it up for sale and apparently had made plans with my grandpa to "travel the world")
  4. I'm sorry I wrote that really late at night while I was pretty tired so I'm sure it came out sounding pretty wonky. There is apparently alot i left unexplained in my novel. :/ 1. I was never really told why the house was abandoned. I asked them but I can't remember getting a straight answer. I think they said something along the lines of the house being really old so it started to have problems. Some other things they told me about the house was that the lady who got married to my grandfather actually grew up in that house. She also lived in it with her husband for a long time. I'm not really sure when she left it or even when her husband died. If they told me that apparently I was not paying enough attention. They did say the house was built in the late 1800's. I'm guessing that her hudband died and that she and whoever else just left it. I didn't really want to ask too much about it since we were talking about it immediately after the wedding. 2. Well I guess I already kind of answered this question. It really did look like they just left almost everything there. Maybe when she (and whoever else) left it they were upset and didn't want to deal with the items that held memories. I don't think she was living on the property very much for the last 20 years. Apparently she liked to visit Florida alot or something like that. She also had a garage that had a lot of decorations that her former husband put up that looked a little untouched. 3. I didn't grab the monitor. It wasnt in terrible shape but I figured it wasn't worth grabbing since we could only bring so much with us. Also the reason why we went into the house in the first place was because when my grandpa was showing us he just asked us if we wanted to go in. I didn't plan on exploring it but I also didn't decline because I love exploring things. My dad had already told me about it because he had seen it the day before since he went up there a day earlier than my brother and myself. My story makes me sound crazy and I left alot unanswered so I might as well just re-write a shorter and simpler explanation that doesn't sound so incoherent lol. I was really just trying to entertain myself by writing that.
  5. You really think so? And thanks for that tip, I updated my initial post.
  6. Ok so as promised, here is the full story of how I found this thing. It all start's with my grandpa getting married. I know how this sounds. It's a story so weird that I have to tell it at full length. TEH STORY OF TEH ZENITH MICROCOMPUTER LEARNING SYTEM MODEL 3400A THAT IS ON MY EBAY So I have this grandpa who I barely know.. ............ [Needs to be rewritten because my editors think I was too silly and tired at 2 in the morning to make a coherent and readable story ] ......And that is, in tedious detail, the odd story behind my Heath Zenith Microcomputer Learn System. It took me like 4 hours to write this what was I thinking?! *sigh*... at least my desire to write a story is satisfied now. NO fiction was involved though. For real! :0
  7. I will post up the story behind why I was in the house in the first place and more of what it was like later tonight after a few errands. (It was a memerable experience lemme tell ya!) Thanks for your interest btw!
  8. Thanks! I've noticed those robotic tones on ebay myself and sometimes I'm guilty of the same thing. Other times I actually try lol honestly the more that I think about it sometimes I just get going and write stuff just to keep myself entertained and they end up coming out as an odd mix of sarcasm and honesty. It's kinda strange.
  9. BAHAHAha! Actually I do have a funny story as to why i was in the house but it is just too odd to explain without sounding...just plain strange! XD but i was allowed to be there and take whatever I wanted. I got some silveware and that computer system
  10. eBay Auction -- Item Number: 281903522386 I hope I posted that link correctly! I am selling an old Heath Zenith Microcomputer Learning System *gasps for air* Model 3400A. It's quite the long name. Thought I would drop by to show you guys! Last time I posted about my TRS-80 Model 1 and people seemed to like that. This isn't as retro, but still pretty retro! This one is in pretty excellent condition despite it's backstory (see ebay) Thanks guys! Same name on Ebay as on AtariAge [digitalXfacter]
  11. selling a few of my old video game's that i no longer need, among these games are turok 2, donkey kong 64, rayman 2, Nascar 99, Mario Party 2, Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2, Quake 2, Megaman 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Banjo-Tooie, Space Invaders, Rocket, and Madden 99 Harvest Moon 64, Harvest Moon Back to Nature, Harvest Moon Gbc, Harvest Moon save the homeland, Harvest Moon A wonderful life and Harvest Moon anouther wonderful life The Misadventures Of Tron Bonne and Megaman Legends 2 demo disc check this link for the listings: http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fdigitalxfacter%2Fm.html%3F_nkw%3D%26_armrs%3D1%26_from%3D%26_ipg%3D25%26_trksid%3Dp3686
  12. only a couple hours left to bid, still no bids on some bundles
  13. selling a few game bundles on ebay. right now i have resident evil, call of duty, pokemon, naruto and zelda. will be putting more up once these auctions are over. http://rover.ebay.co...5&_trksid=p3686 If you're interested please feel free to check it out and bid! -Xfacter
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