Collecting Philosophy, was @##****

<Hmmm... No flmes intended (and I hope we can agree to differ on this), Same here. Of the 25+ machines in my room all are operable at a moments notice some requiring being pluged in or a terminal plugged in. <but I really can't see the point in collecting non-working computers _and <keeping them that way_. Sure I get a lot of non-working machines, but the <first thing I do is attempt to find a technical manual or scheamatic and <repair them. Working machines are a lot more interesting. The case Same here. Though I do have some that while now are working and stored SBCs are less interesting to others. But a non-working system when aquired is always tested, fixed if possible then I decide if I care to have it in a location for easy use and access. If not I tend to pull it out and periodically run it to insure it stays operable. <I collect for many reasons, amongst them : < <1) The fun and mental challenge of restoring/repairing them. Fault <finding can be interesting, you know Same here, good mental exercise and what I learn can help others. <2) Finding out what the machines I grew up dreaming of were really like. <And the machines that came before them. I could never afford them when <new, now I can play with them Big time! Some were way out of my reach back when. <3) Doing things that you can't do on a modern machine. Many classics, <even minicomputers nd workstations are simple enough to understand <completely. It's fun to rewrite microcode. It's fun to trace data through <an ALU into the registers using a logic probe and 'scope. It's fun to <debug a floppy controller at gate level. And it's fun to boot a machine <from paper tape after toggling in the bootstrap from the panel I'll add that some of my older machines are working hardware in that they support a project or run software that I've not duplicated on the PC for performance or usability. <4) Tracing the history of certain features. To take a trivial example, <IOBYTE at location 3 on CP/M can be traced back to the Intellec MCS8i. It <was at location 3 on that machine (with the same format of 4 2-bit <fields) as locations 0-2 were reserved for the reset jump instruction, so <this was the first free RAM location. Or interfaces like SCSI when it was SASI. Or 8" floppies. Allison