Machines I'm looking for... - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

28 Jan 2001

...

 On the other hand, I see nothing wrong with spending money  on a machine
  if you will then enjoy
programming/using/repairing it. I  don't regard
  that as not 'sporting'. 
 It's like the difference between the quaterback of the team
 saying he won the superblow because he was on the field and
 the owner saying he won the game because he paid the players
 to do it. 

 Perhaps somebody could expain the aims of this hobby of ours. Is it to :

 Obtain as many machines as possible without caring what they are Probably not.

...
  Obtain as many of particular types of
'interesting' (to you) machines Almost certainly.

...
  Getting (again) the machine that you 'used as a
kid' and enjoying those
 ancinet games again (say) Still got the machine I learned to program on (a Sinclair
ZX Spectrum +2A).
Still works, too :-)

...
  Getting machines that you dreamed of owning many years
ago and could
 never aford back then Don't think that applies to me.

...
  Getting machines that have particular hardware (or
software) features
 that you find interesting, whether or not you've ever heard of the
 machine before Hmm... Depends on whether I've got enough place to store the
thing.

...
  Preserving a piece of computer history Yes.

...
  Programming a machine that is really simple enough to
fully understand Definetly.

...
  Repairing a machine that's built from parts you
can get and understand When it breaks :-)

...
  Learning about the operation of a computer by
understanding a processor
 at gate level Yup.

...
  I guess for me it's many of the above and more
besides. Same here.

...
  OK, I know most of us (myself included) can't
afford to spend as much
 money as we'd like on this hobby, and we'd love it if the machines were
 free... However, it wouldn't bother me to spend say \pounds 100.00 on a
 machine of particular interest to me, knowing that I would get at least
 that much enjoyment/education from programming it, repairing it, learning
 about it, etc. And I don't thing that's against the aims of the hobby. I
wouldn't mind spending about ?50 on a machine if it was in decent (read:
working) condition. I've successfully restored a reel to reel tape deck and
I'm going to get myself a few MOS KIM-1s (one to keep going, the rest become
parts donors if need be) and keep at least one running. I'm going to test
and reform/replace the capacitors if necessary, and make sure the CPU/clock
circuits/LED display/keyboard still work. And if the keyboard fails I'll get
myself a Protolab membrane keypad kit and build a new one!

--
Phil.
http://www.philpem.f9.co.uk/
philpem(a)bigfoot.com
PGP Key Fingerprint:
  1FA6 6C7F A2FD BB15 84BF
  4993 2B27 0628 E54E 33B1