Acquisitions

While the purpose of all this is not to collect retro systems, I have managed to collect a few. I now have a Vic20 which was my very first personal computer along with a 1541 Floppy Drive. I can remember thinking how ironic it was that in reality the disk drive was bigger and heavier than the computer. I can remember spending hours typing in games from the Commodore Magazines and then inevitably having to go fix something I fat fingered. And then saving it to disk.

Nostalgia I think is a huge part of all this, I think I realized that when I was watching the latest episode of Retro Recipes on YouTube. Perhaps my connection is as deep as Perry’s, however, there is something wonderful about the past and something always daunting about the future. That latter part makes for warm and fuzzy times in the good memory bank tank as I call it. I think its especially true as I have had to make my own success in life, it wasn’t handed to me by any means and it has come with lots of wounds from many mistakes.

As it would turn out, I didn’t realize I bout a little more rare variant of the VIC 20 that has PET style keys. I literally just figured this out trying to go and get you a VIC Video link by The 8-Bit Guy. This will be added to my project list to open up again and have some fun with it.

The show must go on so lets talk about the other goodies. I finally found a C128on eBay that I felt was worth the chance and it was actually a really nice add as I was able to get another 1571 Floppy Drive and a 1084 Monitor and all is in fabulous shape! I have to laughed sometimes as I don’t know where to fit these new computers in sometimes. A plan is coming together and perhaps some hard decision making.

I will also be getting back to this beauty sometime up the road! I should note I also picked up another Ultimate II + Cartridge for the 128 even though not all of the cartridge is supported in 128 Mode.

Next up is a case for the Minimig ITX I received and a new PiStorm 4.0. This has presented a few challenges. When I purchased the case I didn’t find the instructions. The case actually requires you to do some resistor swaps on some very very tiny resistors. Next issue I found was I needed to do some work on the PiStorm config. So I will be working on that over the holidays and see if I can get the case migration wrapped up.

Next up is the Color sign you see on the article link from the main page. Eventually it will all come together to make a cool retro space for having fun!

I also finally succumbed to the adds that were being pumped to me and broke down and purchased the new Atari 2600 + system. I also splurged and picked up some cartridges I was fond of when I was still a kid. More on when I write up an article about the experience.

One of the things I have been working on is cleaning up Retro Files, ROMs, etc and it was time to get some large storage drives to begin processing it all. Below you will see a 5 Bay USB 3.2 HardDrive Bay, currently configured with 3 22TB drives. This will be a huge help for me as I cleanup years and years of files. Who knows what I will find!

Last on the list for this post is a new Joy Stick Controller. This was highly rated so I though I would give it a shot. I still have to really test this out and will let you know in a future post.

Well, that’s a wrap for this post, lots going on, more in the queue than has been cleared from the Queue. I have to laugh an d I do need to control my RAS (Retro Acquisition Syndrome)

Till Next time!

E