SYS64738

This computer needs a reboot:

I pulled that off the top of a stack of my vintage stuff. I kind of remember the "Z" being broken, but not really certain. This is only one of my C= 64s. This is the style I had when I was a kid. I got one when I was in about 4th or 5th grade. I really enjoyed it, even though I didn't have any magnetic media, so I could only program until I turned it off.

I cleaned this one up a bit. First, with a can-o-air, then with a wipe-down. Here's the after shot:

I don't know if it works. I haven't tried it in a long time. If I do, I'll be sure and post details here.

Here's a couple more pictures of the Commodore 64:

The Commodore Key makes me nostalgic. I also included a closeup of the logo on the top left of the unit.

I think most of my hours with it though, might have been using the cartridge port on the left of this picture. It's games were comparable to (not compatible with) the Atari 2600 and used the same joysticks and paddles. I played a lot of "LeMans" (YouTube Video of LeMans) (The guy in the video was loading from floppy. I had a Cart for it.)

Will post more later. 

Finally some pictures!

I'll start with the good one.
Here's my Commodore 128d:

I still don't even know if it will start. Once I get around to testing it, I'll post some more pictures and detail what I've done with it.

The rest is really a mess.

This is a pile of stuff next to my desk:

You can see a lot of NES cartridges, a zip drive box and just under that white box you can just barely see the corner of my coleco pong game. That deserves it's own picture. I'll dig that out another day and post all about it.

Finally for this post, my apples:

Somewhere in that dark recess are my apple IIc and apple IIe computers. There's a tractor drive printer sitting there too. This is in my garage. I need a successful yard sale to open up some room in there so I can get to my stuff!

I can't believe I didn't post this before!

A few months ago my father-in-law's neighbor GAVE me an Apple IIe, an AppleIIc with dual floppies and a monochrome monitor, a C= 128D and a BUNCH of software and books. (Plus some other cool stuff.) I'll see if I can remember to take some pictures and post them up here.

I haven't tested the Commodore, but I tested one of the Apples, but I don't remember which one. I think it was the C, because I think I remember trying it's floppy drive. The computer started. The monitor accpeted the video feed but I had never used an Apple much, so I didn't know where to go from there. Whatever I did, it tried to read the disk, but I don't remember how far it got. I know I couldn't get it to actually do anything with the disk. Maybe I'll try again soon and actually take notes.

TRS 80

I never owned a trash 80, but we used them in BASIC class when I was in the 9th grade. (Monroe JH, Tampa.) I remember that we were supposed to do graphics using whatever topic we were learning at the time. When we were working on subroutines, GOSUB, I made the program draw out the stylized "TS" for Twisted Sister. I got an A on that. It was all SET and UNSET.

My friend and co-worker said he did a report on Ronald Reagan in about 9th grade. He had access to a TRS80 and actually drew a picture of Reagan using SET and UNSET. How low tech cool is that?!

Five months gone already?

I can't believe I have gone five months without updating this blog. I really want to put up a few pics of my vintage stuff, but I never find the time. Perhaps in 10 months?

We'll see.

My Firsts

Well, I guess my very first was a Coleco. It had paddles and a handgun. We used to shoot the dot in a glass door instead of the TV screen just because it was funny. I think we all knew we were seeing the beginning of something that was destined to grow. That system is long gone, but I did buy a vintage Coleco Pong that takes a 9v battery or an adapter and sends out an rf signal on channel 3 or 4 to the TV. Picked it up at a thrift store for less then $5.00.

Then, of course, was the Atari 2600. It belonged to my sister because she got it for her birthday. We had a lot of fun with that. I probably have 1 or 2 of these somewhere in my house/garage/attic.

My first real computer was a Commador 64. I spent countless hours with my c64. I didn't have any tape or disk drive, so i could only program what I could do in a night. Plus, it had a cartridge slot and played games at about the same sophistication as the atari 2600. I have 2 of these now. I'll detail them in a later post.

My first PC was a Proteva AMD K6-2 (Win 98) I bought from HSN where I worked. I guess a K6-2 is getting close to Vintage status.