click

this

ScuzzBlog: Diaries October 2023

Entry 20th October 2023: Post 1: Collecting Computers - The way I was.


Collecting Computers - The way I was.

It is interesting to note when reflecting on my activities over
the years that there have been three major eras of activity when
it comes to the periods I collected most kit.

1983: This is where is all begins with the ZX81
1993: My most active period with the Amiga begins
2003: The retro juggernaut that is the collection sets off.

The 1983 to 1992 was a period of traversing the path from simple
home computer to a more work oriented PC style computer. During
this time I only really collected that which I needed to sustain
my current needs. I was hardly frivolous.

The 1993 to 2002 era was a giant step forward in collected worth
as I added quite a few number of computers, mostly Amiga plus a
vast catalogue of peripherals, add-ons and supported material.
I had moved to a three room operation by 2002 and was already
'towerising' my Amiga to benefit from all the goodies associated
with the PC , like CD, ZIP drive and larger fixed drives. The
PC was a permanent fixture and I was now on my second tower and
using Windows 98.

The 2003 to 2008 era represents the largest expansion of my lot
and really blew the lid off any remnants of a normal house here.
Every corner was now filled with every variant of home computer
known to mankind. The hobby and interest that was, was now
totally dominating my life, as it still does. It really is all 
I do.

2008 to 2014 was a reflective period as I slowed the collecting
down to a trickle and focussed more on getting my life sorted for
what was to be my most grandest of ambitions. To give up work.
This was no mean task as I was director of an architects practice
and active on a number of large projects. Just as I did in my
work I drew up a plan and set things in motion.

2014 was my last year in work as I chose to retire early and at
first treat it more as a sabbatical. This escalated dramatically
in 2017 when I gave up pretty much every other interest in favour
of dedicating all my waking hours to the computers, to record all
of the collection from the ground up.

2021 marked my more formal retirement and now I am officially
free from the burdens of society and have escaped the clutches
of work. I no longer feel guilty about spending all my time at
home.

And so what I have I been doing today.... No prizes for guessing
I have been on the computer all day. I just never get bored of
my computers and I seriously never ever like ever want to go to
bed. I currently stay up till five in the morning and manage all
of five hours sleep before I jack myself back into the system. I
really am a sad old git. Really doesn't bother me. Always do what
makes you happy and seriously begin a plan at your earliest to
give up work. Your time should be filled with to the brim with
fun activities. Otherwise you are doing fun very wrong.

Back to that reflective of the blog ' The way I was '.

On February 25th 2007 I posted my latest gallery update following
photographing all that had arrived over the past few months to the
collection. I am still amazed at how I acquired all these things
and more importantly stored them in this house. 

WEB UPDATE: February 2007


Entry 0733: Blog: 2


Latest Gallery Updates I finally got the galleries updated for another session. This one has been particularly long and hard, and the kit a little more varied than normal. I managed to tick off three more machines that I have been struggling to get, the Alice, Enterprise and the Atari 800. The only outstanding computer from my original hit list not in the collection now is the Acorn Atom. I will get one, but it'll be a while me thinks. I am going to concentrate more now on Amiga related kit. The range of computers this time around focused very much on the birth of handhelds and laptops. The small portfolio ranges brought out by Atari, Amstrad and Acorn are quite interesting, though quite unusable in today's terms. The early laptop styles, particularly the luggables, show just how the hardware needed to change to make this format work. Very interesting that the IBM and the like had plasma screens. I do like these as design ideas. I wasn`t so pleased when the Compaq blew up... Funny now. Anyway, there we have it. Another update complete and already three more computer waiting here for next time. Time to go ' Amiga ' again me thinks. I have been rewarded this weekend with a working Amiga, and I should celebrate that fact. [ The A4000T working ] Enjoy browsing... After all that's what this is really all about.
RECENTLY ADDED TO THE COLLECTION:

Acorn A3010 boxed
Acorn A3010 with modem
Acorn Pocket Book
Amstrad Alt386-SX Laptop
Amstrad NC200 Notebook
Amstrad Pen Pad PDA 600
Atari 600XL
2nd Atari 600XL
Atari 800
Atari Portfolio HPC-004
Commodore C386SX-LT Laptop
Compaq Portable III Luggable
2nd Compaq Portable III Luggable
Enterprise 64 boxed
IBM PS/1 with monitor, mouse and keyboard
IBM Luggable PS/2 P70
Matra and Hachett - Alice
Sanyo MBC550 plus hardbound binders and keyboard
Sega Mega CD II
Sega Mega Drive

AMIGA CARDS:
A2386SX Bridgeboard
OpalVision Graphics Card
Amiga 1050 Expansion for the A1000 boxed
Amiga PCMCIA Network card and kit.
PicassoIV Vers.1.2
2 x A4000 Daughterboards
Cyberstorm MKII
Phase 5 SCSI Module
Catweasel Z-11 MK 2
Oktagon 2008
A3640 Processor Card

AMIGA:
GT-916 Genitizer
Amiga Audio Digitiser
Amiga 601 RAM Expansion Guide
Kyrandia - Fables and Friends - Westwood
Psyngnosis Games Rare Boxed -
Anarchy - Psygnosis
Atomino - Psygnosis
Armour Geddon - Psygnosis
Cruise for a Corpse - Delphine
RoboCop 3 - The Hit Squad
Super Tetris - Spectrum HoloByte
Immortal - Electronic Arts
Amiga Forever - Cloanto CD Version 5.0
A4000 keyboard
A4000 Internal Floppy Drive
2 x A4000 PSUs
Amiga Workbench 1.3
Amiga Format Cover CDs 21,22,24
IDE Fix 1993
IDE Fix - 1993 1996 Elborate Bytes
SCSI Tools Version 2.2 - Phase 5
Village Tronic - Install PicassoIV

AMIGA MAGAZINES:
47 CU Amiga
9 Amiga Shopper
3 Amiga Power
35 Amiga Computing
62 Amiga Format
3 Your Computer
25 Amiga Active
2 Zero
6 The One
9 Amiga World
27 AUI
2 ST Amiga
1 ST Format

ACORN:
RisC OS User Guide
RisC Application Software 1 and 2
An Introduction to the RisC OS

AMSTRAD
Amstrad Machine Language - Joe Pritchard
Amstrad CPC 6128 Manual - User Instructions
CPM Plus
Amstrad Notebook Computer NC200 Manual

ATARI:
Mega Computer Manual
Atari TrakBall
Two button mouse

COMMODORE:
C128 Controller
An Introduction to your new Pet - 2001 Series
PractiCalc64 5.25" disk plus manual
C64 Games System Software Manual
Inventory 64 5.25" disk plus manual
Anagram Software for the C64
C64 Step by Step Programming - Phil Cornes
ScreenShot Graphics Pack
GEOS 128 v2 & BASIC 8 EPROM
GEOmakeBoot 5.25" disk plus manual - Creative Micro Designs

Commodore Games:
Rally Driver - Alternative
Turbo OutRun - Sega
Quattro Adventure - Codemasters
Arnie - Zeppelin
Yogi Bear - HiTec
River Rescu - Alternative
Super Hang On - Hit Squad
Ninja Scooter Simulator - Silverbird
SummerCamp - Kixx
Golden Egg Cup - Mastertronic
BMX 2 - Codemasters
Moontorc - Atlantis
SWAG - Micromania
Quattro Coin Ops - Codemasters
ProPowerBoat - Codemasters
Trio - Sparklers
Paperboy - Encore
StreetWarriors - Silverbird
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge - GBH
Commodore Action Pack 2
Sanxion - Hewson
Atlantis Gamepacks 1 and 2

SEGA:
Megadrive Games:
SONIC 2 - Sega
Rocket Knight Adventures - Konami
Claifornia Games - Sega
Sonic the Hedgehog - Sega
Road Rash - Electronic Arts
Global Gladiators - Virgin
FIFA 97 - Electronic Arts
Batman Returns - Sega
Super Hang-On - Sega
Mega CD Games: Road Avenger - Sega
Jaguar XJ220 - Core
Terminator - Virgin
Genesis Games:
QuackShot - Sega
Alien 3 - Arena International
PGA Tour Golf - Electronic Arts

SINCLAIR
Programming your ZX Spectrum - Tim Hartnell
Spectrum +3 Manual
Spectrum +2 Manual
Sinclair ZXSpectrum BASIC Programming
ZXSpectrum+ User Guide
ZX81 Learning Lab
Programming Arcade Games on the Spectrum - Adrian Jones
River Raid - Activision
Tasword Two - Tasman Software
Make a Chip - Incognito
Data Genie - ACL AudioGenic
Finance Manager - OCP
Address Manager - OCP
Griffin Software Wordspell
Spectrum Machine Code Made Easy - Paul Holmes
Advanced Spectrum Machine Language - Melbourne House
Spectrum Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner
Spectrum Graphics and Sound - Steve Money

TANDY:
GT16 - Graphics Tablet

MAGAZINES GENERAL:

Retro Gamer Load 31
Retro Gamer Load 32
Retro Gamer Load 33
Retro Gamer Load 34
Imagine FX - Dec 2006
Imagine FX - Christmas 2006
Imagine FX - Feb 2007
3D World - Feb 2007
3D World - March 2007
Games TM The Legend of Nintendo
Micromart - 9 copies

COMIX:
Witchblade 98
Elektra 18,19,20,21,24,25

WINDOWS:
Adobe Type Manager
IBM DOS 3.2 User Guide and Quick Ref Guide

MODERN STUFF:
Guildwars - Nightfall - NC Soft
World of WarCraft - Blizzard
Belkin G+ Wireless Card
TP Link Wireless Card
Disgo 2GB memory stick
BTHomeHub

Gallery Updates

C386SX-LT NC200 amstrad laptop Pocket Book

Commodore C386SX-LT - Amstrad NC200 - Amstrad Laptop - Acorn PocketBook

Atari800 Portfolio Enterprise Alice

Atari 800 - Atari Portfolio - Enterprise 64 - Alice

MBC-550 PS/2 compaq OpalVision

Sanyo MBC-550 - IBM PS/2 Luggable - Compaq III - OpalVision

Collecting Computers - The way I was.

Enterprise Sixty Four

I did eventually acquire two of these boxed.


scuzz site

If you can only see this CONTENT window
then click the image above for the full site

Last updated 20th October 2023

Chandraise Kingdom

Keep the Faith
scuzzscink 2023