What other retro computers are you into?

[Tenacious]

Listed oldest to newest:

Hp-85, about 1979 or 80 (also have HP-86 and 87).  These are very cool all-in-one designs, Hp's first attempt at a desktop computer! They use a very early and cryptic operating system.

Timex-Sinclair, 1981

Atari 1200, 1982?  

IBM 5150, 1982?  Played Trade Wars on this, also have a  PC Jr.

Osborne 1, 1982?  CP/M OS, very professional when it came out.

Apple IIc, 1983 or 84.  Always wanted one when new, never quite took the leap.

The various Amigas, see signiture

IBM Personal System 2 w/486 - Dos and Windows 3.1, early 1990s?  Still used for old Dos stuff.

Some pizza box Macs: LC III, Performa 475, Quadra 605, mid 1990s. I love how compact these are.

A non-descript Intel tower with Xubuntu

Other Macs: biege G3 Tower, G4 Quick Silver, G5 tower

Sony PS3  It plays blue rays, I don't game much.  I thought it would be great with xubuntu, which sadly runs on only one core.  NOT!

Most of the older stuff was rescued long after these machines were in vogue.  I couldn't afford them when new, the first HPs, for example, went for many thousands of dollars.

The G4 serves up movies from the net to TV, the G5 is getting a lot of use since my A3000 got sick (repairs are coming along).  My first Amiga 500 in 1989 was the machine that seemed unlimited in what it could do and the ways it could be expanded.  The community that sprang up around it to increase its usefulness was magical.

Most of the other machines are seldom turned on.  The Amigas still fascinate.

[kedawa]

I like reading about retro computing of all flavours, but the only classic system I own and use is an A500.
I'm pretty intrigued by the Sharp X68K, though.  If it wasn't for the language barrier, I'd have imported one by now.

[spirantho]

My collection is ...  a bit long to list Means there's hardly any room left in the flat, don't think the girlfriend understands the fascination! She has been playing Settlers on my 1200 lately though!

The actual consoles vary from the Atari 2600 to the PS3 via things like a Neo Geo, and the computers start with the VIC-20 and ZX80 up to the AmigaOne which is my main computer (with an Athlon FX-51 PC for games like Civ). In between there's 3 C64s (2 of which without SID chips so I could put them in the AmigaOne), Commodore MAX Machine, Atari 800XL and 800XE, 65XE, an ST (original, no disk drive), a 1024STfm, Faclon 030, Memotech MTX-512, tons of Spectrums, Mattel Aquarius, Tatung Einsten TC-256, Dick Smith V300, Laser 200, Panasonic JR-200U, some MSXs including a Philips MSX2, ZX80, some ZX81s, Jupiter Ace and Ace 4000, TRS80 MC-10, Dragon 64, Archimedes A3010, TI-99/4 and TI-99/4A, Enterprise 64, BBC Electron, B and B+, some Sinclair clones from Brazil or Russia mostly, PetersPlus Sprinter, EACA Colour Genie EG2000, CGL M5, 2 Tomy Tutors, Commodore 16, 116 and Plus 4s, Mac Mini, a couple of old PCs (486 and K6-2), a SPARCstation 2, a maxed-out SPARCstation 10 (dual 180MHz!), some others I've forgotten.....

...and of course 2 A500s, 3 A1500s (with A2286, A2386 upgraded to 486SLC2/50 and GoldenGate 486SLC25 respectively), an A4000 towerised (AmigaOS 4), AmigaOne XE G4, and a Sam 440ep.

That reminds me... I have a Sam Coupe too. Oh yes, and a Triumph Adler Alphatronic PC. And a ... well, you get the idea! Now if only I could afford an AmigaOne X1000...!

[coldfish]

C= all the way as far as retro computers go.  My history goes as follows:

C64 -> A500 -> A1200  ----> PCs and Macs aplenty.

I dont own any working Amiga hardware these days but have emulators on my GP2X and PCs.  Still have my old C64 and LYNX somewhere...

[LoadWB]

TI-99/4

You know, those 99/4 systems do not seem to circulate much, but recently I have seen three show up on eBay in the US as well as a couple on Craigslist.  I always wanted to use the Equation Calculator, but cannot think of any other use for the 99/4 that I cannot get from my 4A.

[C64er]

New guy here!
I have mostly C= computers.
C64, C64C, C128, C128D, A1000, an A2000.

I also have an Atari 400 but that's in the gaming collection. That's a monster in itself. LOL

[desiv]

I was collecting several for a while, but just recently realized there were too many I just didn't have time to use..
And I like to use what I collect...

So I just traded my Coleco Adam for some Amiga stuff...  Sad, but it's going somewhere where it will be used much more..  So it's better for him...

Although, it wasn't really downsizing, because I am now awaiting an Amiga 1000 (with an Insider II for c. 2M RAM) which should be here today or tomorrow..  :-)

As for other computers, I have an Apple IIe and IIc which I use from time to time.
The IIe has the color monitor, which is nice, but there's something I really love about the IIc with it's little green screen.. ;-)

I pull out my Tandy Model 100 from time to time...

My C64 was acting up last time, so I have to work on it eventually.
The Vic-20 gets some play time every once in a while..

The Mac Classic is fun..  I'll probably phase out the other Macs I have (IIsi and an LC I think..) as I don't really use them.

I almost never use the TI 99/4A and the ST 520f.
Just not very familiar with the TI and found out that I really shouldn't have gotten the ST..  One letter "m" can make a huge difference.  The 520fm can hook to a TV (m=modulator).  The 520f needs a monitor, and it's just not worth the hassle for me.

Combine those with the Vectrex and 3DO (and other older consoles) and I just run out of time to use them...

Oh, on the Amiga side, I have a 1200 and a 500, although with the A1000 coming, I might phase out the 500...

desiv
(OK, even tho I'm downsizing, I wouldn't mind adding a SOL-20 to my collection at some time.. ;-)

[tone007]

I pull out my Tandy Model 100 from time to time...

That reminds me, I said earlier I wasn't a Tandy fan, but there's the exception.  The M100 is a cool little machine, I enjoy entering programs and saving them as WAV files on my laptop for later retrieval.

[swift240]

I use my C128 and C16 with 64K ram expansion hooked to a Commodore 1701 monitor and Commodore MPS1230 printer with Commodore 1570 diskdrive and Commodore 1541-MkII. and a ZX Spectrum+3 hooked up to an Alba 19" HDTV using scart with Multiface 3. Still use them today. Not to mention many carts and Joysticks for them all.

Mike.

[rvo_nl]

Im into all game consoles and am trying to collect them all.. besides that its commodore amiga and 64 all the way. I dont like Mac at all and I only have a PC for a few games, proper internet and ofcourse work.

[marcfrick2112]

Spirantho, That's some collection.... :shocked:

Well, I have C-64's and 128's (2 each) TI-99, 2 Mattel Aquarius, CoCo3, Tandy Model 4P, and a Timex Sinclair that hasn't been hooked up in a long time. :cry:

Ooops, I forgot, I also have an IBM 8086 PC (with EGA, 4, yes, 4 different colors!)

But, my favorite retro computers are Amiga and C-64/128....hands down...:hammer:

[spirantho]

Just not very familiar with the TI and found out that I really shouldn't have gotten the ST..  One letter "m" can make a huge difference.  The 520fm can hook to a TV (m=modulator).  The 520f needs a monitor, and it's just not worth the hassle for me.

You can buy cables to connect STs to TVs, at least in Europe where we have SCART. It wouldn't be hard to make a composite video either, someone must have done it somewhere....

[desiv]

You can buy cables to connect STs to TVs, at least in Europe where we have SCART. It wouldn't be hard to make a composite video either, someone must have done it somewhere....

No SCART in the US.

There are composite MODs for the ST, but I've only seen them on the "m" model.

There is someone making an RGB-Svideo adapter for the ST(including non-m's), but they had to go through several redesigns as the ST wouldn't work properly with the most common converter chip (AD724??).
Found the quote about it:

Out of spec HSYNC signal, so AD72x and friends can't properly sync up.                                      

Supposedly, he has found a converter chip that will work with the ST, but hasn't released it yet.

So, apparently it is kind of hard to do.. ;-)

desiv

[Franko]

Thought I'd put together a pictorial timeline of all the different computers & consoles I've ever owned...

(look kinda biased towards Commodore, when I look at it... )

http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/af79/frankosamiga/Commodore%20Scotland%20Pics/MyComputerHistory-1-1.png[/IMG]]

[fishy_fiz]

@Franko

I've seen you mention a few times about you liking SNES style RPG's, and the C64. Unfortunately the game was never completed, but I thought this might be of interest to you if you've not seen it before:

http://www.gtw64.co.uk/Pages/m/Shots_Mythos.php

Looks great, and the demo plays quite smoothly. Just a shame there's not more to it.

[yakumo9275]

I've had a lot of computers but what retro stuff I have now is

C128DCR, Jiffydos ROMS, uIEC/SD, Gideons 1541Ultimate-II.

Also have a GP2X, and I mess with TI99 stuff but dont own one right now. I did a TI99 Scott Adams interpreter (you can find it in the IF archive) and worked on the game compiler. My friend is writing an entirely new Classic RPG for TI99 which looks really cool.. and I follow the CoCo3 FPGA stuff, as I think CoCo3 was under appreciated and just too  late to market

I'm planning a retro CRPG for C64/C128/Coco3 as well as working on my Retro CRPG for psp/gp2x/pc.. not sure if I will try and port it to the miggy or not.