Lucky find for a developer!

[+Andrew Davie]

After a move, and a long time not using my '2600, I decided to setup my actual physical machine again.

 

Of course I had no CRT TV, so I advertised locally - no luck. I really wanted a smallish one. So, looks like I'd have to go eBay route.

 

But then I remembered there was an old TV in the abandoned "peace bus" in the yard of our new home. It used to have someone living in it - not for over a decade, though. So I checked it out, and not only did I find a working small CRT (exactly what I wanted), but it turns out to be dual format - PAL, and NTSC 3.58 and NTSC 4.43 (or close to those figures, taken from memory). And it works with perfect picture and sound. How lucky is that!

 

It's a models DSE G3465 - rebadged, obviously.

 

Here's the bus, sitting in the yard.

 

 

[+D Train]

ok, I'll bite.

 

how did you end up at a place with an abandoned peace bus end up in the yard?

 

or maybe, "what is the story behind the peace bus?"

[+Andrew Davie]

52 minutes ago, D Train said:

ok, I'll bite.

 

how did you end up at a place with an abandoned peace bus end up in the yard?

 

or maybe, "what is the story behind the peace bus?"

 

It's a pre-retirement "sea change" move for me, of sorts. I've never been shy to jump into something and have an adventure. The place is 9 acres with trees everywhere, and now I'm much nearer to the tropics. Warm. Pool. The previous owners (several levels deep) were just the type of people to have peace buses  - hippie types, relaxed, easy going people. Unfortunately the bus is a bit too far gone to rescue, so sits as a "garden feature". Somebody lived in it, so it's decked out with a bed, etc. It's gorgeous inside, though, but just not worth doing up. The yard is incredible, with lots of different areas - a "jungle", an open forest, grassy areas. Plenty of room to hit a golf ball around    -- and room for my passion - fruit trees. I feel very luck to have found this place.  And, yes, it had the bus. Also a tractor, and a ride-on mower, and a rather beat up old tray/truck sort of thing. I couldn't pass it up.

 

Bus can just be seen on the left in the above pic.

There are still two old CRTs in the bus that I haven't checked out yet!



Open (rather dry in this pic) wooded grassland. Mostly eucalypts here, but I'm planting fruit trees galore.



"Swimsuits optional"!

 

Very dry in this pic. It's much greener now. That's "the jungle" in the background. The bus is embedded to the left, behind that.

 

Halfway down the yard, looking towards the house in the middle distance. That huge tree in the back is a rubber tree that basically hugs the house. It is possible 200 years old. Just jaw dropping when you see it in person.

Anyway, that's the story. I moved because I don't want to get old in the same place and regret not taking the chance to do something different. This was an unexpected find, during a simple "let's visit place X" holiday when not really intending to move. I'm still broke and currently unemployed (I had to leave my job, of course, to move interstate), but it's magical and I couldn't resist the opportunity.

I'll take the presence of the rather uncommon dual-format TV just sitting in an old bus on the property as a sign that it was meant to be!

 

 

[DragonGrafx-16]

48 minutes ago, Andrew Davie said:

 

 

 

 

Why does that 4 switch say "Video Game System" on it? Was it a bootleg version?

Edited November 9, 2019 by DragonGrafx-16

[+Andrew Davie]

25 minutes ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

Why does that 4 switch say "Video Game System" on it? Was it a bootleg version?

It's a clone with inbuilt games. Note the switch very top right of the body!

 

[+TwentySixHundred]

What a stunning place you have found, looks peaceful and relaxing ? If the interior of the bus is as nice as you said it could possible accommodate as an granny flat to help you pay the bills (for the right person of course).

[+D Train]

That is a great story; thank you for sharing!

 

I grew up in connecticut on a 1/4 acre in the suburbs, and I live in brooklyn now, so 9 acres is larger than most parks I run across.

 

I was lucky in that the development I grew up in didn't clear out all of the trees when building the houses, so while it was clearly the suburbs, it was not completely devoid of canopy.  I also lived in louisiana for a while and got to be familiar with a number of very large 100+ year old live oaks.  The palms aren't as commonplace as they used to be, but the new orleans climate is subtropical, so if people stop tending to the undergrowth, it takes over.  There were a couple of small banana trees in the neighborhood that I used to pass on the way to the streetcar.  Sharing space with a large, old tree is really a privilege, though.

 

I hope you enjoy it; it sounds great!

[+Andrew Davie]

1 hour ago, D Train said:

I hope you enjoy it; it sounds great!

TY!  We have a banana tree quite near the bus, actually.
And over 60 other different fruit trees in the yard. Including a mango tree about 70 feet high!

 

[adamchevy]

Thanks for sharing! Those pictures are amazing! It looks like a fun place to live. I like that your pool has a table in it, that’s pretty chill. If people have many acres of land where I live in north eastern Utah, they farm on it. The wheel irrigation lines are pretty in the spring and summer time. There’s not very many trees where I live. If you drive north of me about an hour the elevation goes from 5,500 ft to around 13,500 and there are many big pine trees. It’s called the Ashley national forest.