cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Keep in mind I have nearly 70 vintage computers. But these are the ones I bought since 2016. I clearly have an addiction. Lol Amiga 1000 Amiga 500 Commodore 128D ZX Spectrum 16k expanded to 48k VIC-20 Commodore Plus/4 Atari 800 TI 994/a beige In my defense, many of these were sold as "not working" but I've managed to get most of them running. Am I sick or what? Hehehe 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 I got my Plus/4 for $10 CIB, in beautiful condition, almost like new. Of course it has a dead TED chip. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 That's still a good deal. Plus/4's can be bought pretty cheap. So can TI's. I try to buy them incomplete or broken. Many times a good cleaning and resocket will fix them up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RetroElectroDad Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 This year:- TRS-80 Model I original model without the keypad but upgraded to level II BASIC, fully working. Best pickup of the year so far. ZX Spectrum +3 that was 'untested' but turned out just to need a new disc drive belt and is now fully working. Amstrad 8256 CP/M machine, beloved by authors, rescued from recycling for free and I don't yet know whether it works but it is in some state. Dragon 32 fully working. Dragon 32 in a bit of a state but served as a motherboard donor for a broken machine. Atari 1040 STe with colour monitor both fully working. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 That's a great haul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RetroElectroDad Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 You've been very successful this year! I'm trying to ease off a bit but it's a hard habit to break. I'm in a similar situation with the size of collection and have run out of space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 Yeah. It's hard to turn down a TI, for example, that is only $15. Or a VIC-20 that is $18. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iKarith Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 I've bought a TI-99/4A. A guy some of you might recognize from a Facebook group sold me a C64 for peanuts. And somehow I just got a 128 freebie. Then there's the investment in Raspberry Pis--I always have those around because I am developing Raspple II (and looking to branch out to doing cool things for the TI and C64 and possibly C128 now as well.) I don't have any Atari or Tandy, but I'd like to go there someday if I can figure out how to pay for the necessary stuff to load software from memory cards and the aforementioned RPi. Space is a major issue, so even if I'm offered systems for free, I don't really want a bunch of disk drives at this point. I find they're almost not necessary on the Apple, and while they currently are on Commodore, I hope that will change at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 OMG I just realized I forgot some!! I got a free Atari 800 XL, bought a ZX81, TI CC40 and a ZX Speccy clone called the Harlequin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIO2 Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Have not bought any computers for a while but I just bought my fifth dot matrix printer - an oki 320 turbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 Dammit. Add one more. A Tandy 1000 EX. I remember it was about $20 but came with a large dot matrix printer. I asked the guy to keep the printer so the shipping was cut in half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Wow! Do you people have full-size finished basements and spare guest rooms, or is most of this hardware packed away in a storage unit somewhere? There are a few pieces of vintage hardware that I would very much like to acquire, but I have no where to put it. Most of my books are boxed and stacked in closets and the hallway, so there is no just thought of buying something bulky. I am also hoping to move within a year, so I am trying to rid myself of extra weight so that I do not have to pay to move it across the country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 I have a small home office where I keep some in storage boxes. In my basement I have two shelved that hold the bulk. Plus some on the floor. I have a few in a storage building. Most of my computers are the all in one where the keyboard and computer are together. Like Atari, C64, etc. I can get 2-4 of those in a small container. Then I stack them. Some of my computers are just motherboards. Like my five Atari ST boards. One 5 run shelf holds about 20 computers. If stored correctly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iKarith Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 OMG I just realized I forgot some!! I got a free Atari 800 XL, bought a ZX81, TI CC40 and a ZX Speccy clone called the Harlequin. I want a free Atari 800XL. I've never heard of the Harlequin--pics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 That's still a good deal. Plus/4's can be bought pretty cheap. So can TI's. I try to buy them incomplete or broken. Many times a good cleaning and resocket will fix them up. Do you know of any replacement for a bad TED, other than a good TED cannibalized from another Plus/4 or C16? ... TRS-80 Model I original model without the keypad but upgraded to level II BASIC, fully working. Best pickup of the year so far. ... Dragon 32 fully working. Dragon 32 in a bit of a state but served as a motherboard donor for a broken machine. ... I love the Model I. As far as home computers/microcomputers/PCs go it's hard to get much more old-school than that. I recently hand-typed Star Trek III on mine (with remarkably few errors, I might add!) and put it on a tape. Incidentally, I acquired a NIB Tano Dragon a couple of weeks ago for the awesome price of free (also incidentally, my Model I was also free--Rule #1 of classic game/computer collecting: connections!) Wow! Do you people have full-size finished basements and spare guest rooms, or is most of this hardware packed away in a storage unit somewhere? A little of Column A, a little of Column B. My basement *is* a storage unit. My gameroom is sort of overflowing at the moment, though, also. Need more/better/bigger shelves. Most of my stuff spends most of its time packed away. But in my basement I have some big custom quick-and-dirty shelves made of 2x4s and 1" sheets of pressboard, each with three rows, and I used the middle rows to create this bank of vintage computers (I ran some heavy-duty extension cords around the back to supply power). I can have five or six complete systems set up at a time there. Not all running at once, though--that would probably cause a brown-out in my area. Most recently it was: Commodore 64 (now on my workbench; I think the SID went bad), TRS-80 Model I (now in my gameroom), TRS-80 Model II w/ Disk Expansion System (there's also a Line Printer VII underneath on the shelf below), and then on the next shelf it was Apple IIe Platinum, Compaq Portable, and TI99/4a. The area's a mess, though. I'll have to clean it up and take some pictures one of these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 13, 2016 Author Share Posted June 13, 2016 Regarding the Harlequin, it's a motherboard designed in Spain to use the reversed engineered ULA from Chris Smith. Google the board and you will see. Regarding the TED....no, I wished I did. I'm wanting to start an FPGA project inspired by the F18a. I'd like to create a drop in replacement for either the TED or VIC in the VIC-20. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted June 14, 2016 Share Posted June 14, 2016 Where can I even get a c64? I've always wanted one but I don't see them for up for sale very often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iKarith Posted June 14, 2016 Share Posted June 14, 2016 eBait often has them. I just bought one for its keyboard (I'm legally blind, so I would really appreciate the key caps off the C64CR model...) But that means that I'll have two machines and I really only need one. The machine will probably from the description come with a power supply I don't recommend anyone use, but I'll see if it tests out well and let you know if you haven't found one sooner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 eBait often has them. I just bought one for its keyboard (I'm legally blind, so I would really appreciate the key caps off the C64CR model...) But that means that I'll have two machines and I really only need one. The machine will probably from the description come with a power supply I don't recommend anyone use, but I'll see if it tests out well and let you know if you haven't found one sooner. There aren't many on ebay, and the ones that are on ebay, are either broken/untested or come with the original packaging and are usually way more than I'm willing to spend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iKarith Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 What're you looking to spend? I know a guy who repairs the things from eBait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mehguy Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 What're you looking to spend? I know a guy who repairs the things from eBait. I'm really only looking to spend around 50-60 dollars for one. I remember seeing one with a disk drive at a thrift store for that much. Should I have picked it up? It's quite a rare occurrence and I doubt it will happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgabbard Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Well, technically the Pocket C.H.I.P I am posting with was bought in 2015, but i just got it a few days ago. So it counts, right? Other than that I snagged a IBM 5160, a Packard Bell 286, a IBM Aptiva 486SX, and a CoCo Model 2. So i guess its been productive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbmeeks Posted June 17, 2016 Author Share Posted June 17, 2016 I'm wanting to get some of those IBM computers. But they have skyrocketed on eBay once the vultures learned they are collectible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iKarith Posted June 18, 2016 Share Posted June 18, 2016 All right, technically at this point I'm sitting at a C64, a C64C, a Zoomfloppy that came with a C128, a TI-99/4A, and a couple RPIs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnuphis Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 I took the Atari plunge this year. Picked up an 800, 800XL and Lynx. Never owned Atari hardware before so it's going to be a fun ride.They are now living in the 'retro' room with the Amiga and Commodore 8-bits (64c, 128 and SX-64). My TI-99//4a lives in the 'office' alongside my PC,. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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