18 Aug
2006
18 Aug
'06
10:47 a.m.
Scott Quinn wrote:
The DN discussion left me thinking about how classic computer collecting was presented
to the outside world.
One of the things that stood out rapidly was that I would not recommend an Apollo as a
first foray into the classic
world (I know that in this circumstance it isn't a first foray, just thinking in
general).
So, I started thinking about what would be a good starter system. So far, I've come
up with
...
Depends on the collector to be honest and what they like in a system. I'd have
quite liked an SGI of some flavour for the graphics ability (and indeed got my
Tek XD88 fairly early on which was comparable in graphics performance to a
typical SGI of the time).
But equally I'd be at home with a CP/M crate of some description for the fun
of mixing and matching bits and pieces to build a more interesting system.
That's something that until recent times has been harder in the world of SGI
and Sun because the parts still went for Real Money.
Then of course there's the interesting expandable 8-bitters; I got into old
Acorn systems for that reason, but I suppose for the USians it's equivalent to
collecting Apple ][ systems and related hardware.
I suppose the upshot of all that is that I suspect most collectors want a
machine that they can expand, even if they're not necessarily a hardware hacker.