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Why? they are not _that_ large (a calssic PERQ is one of the larger ones, it's about the size of a 2-draaer deskside cabinet). They are also not _that_ hard to keep going... Runniong the rela hardware, at least for me, is the fun part of this hobby :-) There was certainly an Australian version of the CpCp3. It genrerated 50Hz PAL-encoded video and ran off 240V mains. It is very differnt to the NTSC version, so don;'t think you'll conver the latter into the full PAL version, but as I mentioned, you can covnert it for 240V mains and use an NTSC-capable monitor with it. The software exists, , but I haev no idea where you'd find it now. [...] No, that is a perpetual 'discussion'; here. It only becomes useful when (as I did), you explain _why_ you consider a particualr machine to desrve that title. Even the defintiion of 'computer' is ont always clear (and I do not mean things like 'The person who operates a calculating machine' which was, IIRC the original definition). While soem things are clearly computers and others equally clearly not, there are plenty of borderlien cases... [...] Oh don't get me started..... My experience is that the older the machien the _easier_ it is to get spare parts for it. It is very diffiuclt to get replacement ICs for modern PCs (and soldering BGA pacakages is not something I wish to attempt). Getting parts for 5 yewra old PCs is next to impsosble. Go back a bit to the 1980s home computers, and most parts are still easily aviaalble. The exception is the ULAs tht many such machines used, of course. Go back to the PERQs, PDP11s, HP9800s, etc and jsut about all the chips were standard TTL parts and while they are no longer made ,the yare easy to find still. And they are simple enough that in most cases you can concot a modern relpacement. Go back even further and we are talking discrete transistors, which are easy to get. Yes, there are parts -- mostly transformers and mechancial parts -- which can be hard to fidn for such older mahcines. But often they can be repaired (transofrmers and motors can be rewound) or made in a good home workshop I would _much_ rather have ot maintain a EPRQ, a PDP11 or an HP9830, than the the PC that runs emulators of such machines. Yes, but working hardware may not stay working. You will have to fix things sooner or later. AS I said, there are plenty of people here to help you, with knowledge of just about every computer ecver made. But unless we're at _your_ bench, we can't do it all... -tony