How did you get started?

Well, I'd collected the odd machine before I seriously started, but it was a single event that made me realise that something had to be done. It happened like this. I was building my own Z-80 based microcomputer back in 1986, and needed a keyboard. Now, back then, you couldn't pick up a PC-clone keyboard for a few pounds in any PC shop, so when I saw an advert in the back of a magazine ('Electronics and Wireless World', I think) for a factory sale where encoded keyboards were being sold for \pounds 4.00, I became interested. Even better, said sale was in Cambridge, where I was living at the time. I went along (and, indeed, bought a keyboard). I noticed a Philips P850 minicomputer being sold as scrap metal for \pounds 25.00. Now, I knew nothing about the machine, but it looked _beautiful_, with a toggle-switch front panel, etc. There were even some I/O boards and manuals with it. So I bought it, and somehow got it home. I spend the afternoon looking at it (2K words core memory, a CPU built from TTL on 5 boards, a pair of large linear PSUs, etc) and reading the manuals. I toggled in a trivial program to add 2 numbers. It ran. I was hooked. This is what computing should be like. I talked to some friends about this machine, and realised a few things : 1) The P850 seemed to be rare - nobody had ever heard of it. 2) Something had to be done - and soon - since otherwise machines would be lost for ever. 3) Somebody had to do it. Museums (at that time) were preserving things like the Pilot ACE, but weren't bothering with minis and micros 4) That somebody was going to be me. I proposed collecting as much computer hardware (machines, peripherals, manuals, boards, whatever) as I could - stuff that would otherwise have been lost. I'd restore it, get it working, learn from it, etc. 5) A few other people thought likewise. We got together, and have never looked back. Since then I've rescued a large number of other machines (micros, minis, handhelds, etc), but I'll never forget the day when I got my P850. Ditto. I have micros, I use micros, and heck, I even restore micros, but given the choice I'll pick a multi-chip CPU any day. Hand-stepping microcode is great fun... BTW, I have nothing made by DG, so if anyone knows of one being given away in the UK (or sold for a reasonable amount), please get in touch. -- -tony ard12(a)eng.cam.ac.uk The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill