Collecting Goals & Activities for 2023

[Keatah]

Collecting Goals & Activities for 2023:

It's not too early to start this thread. Here in the Northern Hempisphere the weather is becoming conducive to indoor vintage computing and classic gaming activities more and more by the day.

 

Rightsizing:

Continuing to very slowly sort through my Apple II material.. Thought I'd be done with it this summer, but so much stuff was intermixed with it. And it's slow going because I only spend 1/2 hour a week or less on it. Should I ever have a block of time I'll go at it full speed.

 

The latest de-bloating activity was gathering all the S-100 crap I had packed into the nooks and crannies of the cellar area. Not sure why I ended up with 3 boxes of it. For whatever reason S-100 made an early impression on me as a kid. Loved looking at the early "micro" and Interface Age magazines. Chock full of pics of "sophisticated" circuit boards. You get the idea. Ultimately wetting my pants when seeing the Apple II motherboard - had MOAR chips than contemporary arcade cabs!

 

The 3 boxes of cards are going curbside this week. Very likely they'll be picked up by the weird guy that comes by. Must like sorting through my trash for some unfathomable reason.

 

Buying:

There's only 4 - 6 pieces of hardware I want to acquire. They're modern add-ons for the Apple II. Storage and disk related. I am also looking for a 1600x1200 LCD panel as a spare for my ancient 4:3 monitor. Last one I got was fake stuff from china - half expected that so was prepared.

 

Continuing on with manuals and documentation.. Have most everything I want in that category. So anything I get in that category will have to be interesting. It's really open-ended. I have the wife pre-conditioned to not complain if books and papers show up.

 

Typically if I buy something from ebay, to scan it, I'll just give it to the library afterwards. This to avoid a hoarder's situation.

 

Selling:

Generally don't bother selling stuff. Either let the wife handle it or put it out for the "guy". Most all my duplicate stuff will go this route sooner or later.

[jhd]

I, too, have a weakness for printed documentation and advertising material. To me, that is even more interesting than the hardware itself.

 

It is both difficult and very expensive to collect vapourware, but at least the advertising material and literature relating thereto is more accessible.

 

(That said, other than a handful of vintage magazines and a few other bits and pieces, most of my extensive collection of printed ephemera relates to topics other than vintage computing or gaming.)   

 

 

[Keatah]

My approach to printed media falls into three types. More or less.

 

1- the stuff from when I was a kid. This is a default given.

 

2- a specific necessary manual, for reference, keycharts, background story, programming manual.. Here I try to have either scanned copies or the actual manual from the mfg of the computer. However I don't pile on the 3rd party books, just kept the originals I had.

 

3- something that extends the software out of the screen in which its displayed on. Tutorials and educational material. This was popular with a lot of early 8-bit software. For some classifications of software the documentation & manuals would often be more entertaining and impart more knowledge than the proggie itself. Think early planetarium programs - their accompanying books would be like mini-courses in astronomy.

[+OLD CS1]

I will be clearing out more of my stuff.  I have a good bit of Commodore and Amiga items that I will not need.  I have considered letting go of a couple of my enhanced Amiga consoles, including parting with either my ACA500+ or A500 Vampire.  I would like to build up more practical parts of my collections, meanwhile putting good sets of stuff into good hands (like my Odyssey 2 and a couple of hand-helds.)  I also want to fix up things, like put new screens in my Lynx and Nomad.

 

I will be keeping up my habit of buying home-brews every month or so, to get some good new stuff and support the community.  There have been some really good Commodore 64 releases this past year I need to catch up on, as well as several great Atari console games in the AA store.

[digdugnate]

I'm not sure if I'll add to my 994A collection again or not.  I guess I could always pick up an MBX to take up space on my table.   On the console side, I'm considering getting a drive replacement for my Saturn if the wind blows right, but otherwise I'm pretty ok with the stuff I have.  

 

On the other hand, there are new AA 2600 homebrews....

[Cebus Capucinis]

Honestly, to sell the bulk of it. While it's "cool," I guess, I just don't need a "personal video game museum" that will just inevitably end up in a booth of an antique store or something alongside the rest of my crap.

 

"Collections" of stuff, these days, just remind me of that scene in One Hour Photo with the unnamed / unremembered people whose photos end up at such places.

[+OLD CS1]

1 minute ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

inevitably end up in a booth of an antique store or something alongside the rest of my crap.

I would like to no only keep my collection down to a usable size (I do not "collect" just to have things, and there are plenty of preservationists in our groups,) but also so that when I meet my untimely demise sky diving with super models, my family is not left in a position of deciding whether to bulldoze my room or set it on fire.

[Arnuphis]

I'll be looking for peripherals for my Pet 8296 now its fully up and running. A matching dual disk drive would be nice! Also getting a 128d if I see one not listed for an insane price. Going to replace the screen in my SX-64 with an LCD one. I recently got my first Coco 3 so I will be playing around with that and seeing what I can upgrade with.

 

Every year the local Amiga show comes around at this time and I keep asking myself 'Do I want to get a real Amiga again?' Thankfully a look at the prices helps me decide my MiSTer is good enough!

 

Still keeping an eye out for an Acorn A5000 in decent working condition and finally the elusive disk drives for my Sharp MZ-80 a and b.

 

I will as always be following the C64 scene and picking up new titles that look good. Waiting patiently for my mega65 and Spectrum Next.

 

Apart from that I have pretty much everything I always wanted. Oh hang on.. Atari Falcon. Always wanted one.

[TheDevil'sCompass]

I've been slowing down a lot lately. I'm getting to the point where the items I want from my childhood are more than I'm willing to pay. Have around 10 more items I'd like to pick up for my Apple //c but can't say I'll ever get them all. It's becoming more and more difficult to justify them.

 

Just picked up a TI 99/4a, so there are some items I'll be picking up. Prices appear to be more reasonable for what I want. I think it will be fun working off of tape again.

 

Pretty much done on the console side of things. May pick up a game here or there for my Genesis or NES, but not as invested in growing those collections.

 

I'll be picking up the Atari 2600 Lode Runner when it's released even though I don't have a system. May or may not get a system at some point. Mostly just picking up the game because I'm a Lode Runner fan. Would like to pick up two arcade Lode Runner PCBs, but prices on those are too insane for me. Even I'm not that big of a fan.

[+OLD CS1]

17 hours ago, digdugnate said:

I'm not sure if I'll add to my 994A collection again or not.

I am pretty much at a point where I could "coast" for quite some time.  Unless I miss my guess, you are about that close, as well, but there is always something better!

 

6 hours ago, Arnuphis said:

Also getting a 128d if I see one not listed for an insane price. Going to replace the screen in my SX-64 with an LCD one.

Good luck on the 128D; it is a pretty cool machine.  I have two of them and only use one, so maybe this year you might be able to grab mine (no promises.)  I have planned to put an LCD screen in one of my SX-64s for a looooooooong time.  Yet another project I may not get around to within my life-time.

 

6 hours ago, Arnuphis said:

Every year the local Amiga show comes around at this time and I keep asking myself 'Do I want to get a real Amiga again?' Thankfully a look at the prices helps me decide my MiSTer is good enough!

[...]

Waiting patiently for my mega65 and Spectrum Next.

Woah The Mega65 alone seems like the price of a really nice A500 system!  Or, am I little out of touch on current prices?

 

4 hours ago, TheDevil'sCompass said:

Just picked up a TI 99/4a, so there are some items I'll be picking up. Prices appear to be more reasonable for what I want. I think it will be fun working off of tape again.

Working from tape is fun and can be challenging.  I enjoy working with the original media and will never give it up.

[Keatah]

Climatologically speaking, a fire would make greenhouse gasses. If you bulldoze it, it would simply rot away in a construction debris landfill or just bio-degrade where it sits. That's the better option.

 

At one time or another I bet most of us thought ourselves as preservationists. Especially in the early days, when every "new to MAME" ROM came out. Valuable and cherished stuff from arcades long gone by. And here we are today, shits' available everywhere for a song & dance.

 

Anyhow.. I've seen some anti-collector vids on youtube in recent months. "Collectors", after years of doing this stuff adopt two postures it seems.

 

One angle is never stop! It's awesome!

 

The other is more nuanced and emphasizes simply cutting back because of costs. The ebay flippers and scalpers, watchers, the flea market seller that constantly refers to online prices. And then of course the WATA scammers. All that. And I wholeheartedly support that kind of slowing down.

 

Another thing about buying games & carts in person, I believe, is that it's all misplaced. You're not gonna recreate the adventurous cartridge purchasing experience when this stuff was brand new in the 70's & 80's.

 

One thing I've never really heard them talk about is downsizing to only the nostalgic stuff you actually owned. And that is a huge point. All the material I got from ebay from the 90's onward, most seems like filler material. And about 10 or 20% is sentimental. So much filler stuff. A few adopt the idea that less is more, however none go into detail.

[Keatah]

7 hours ago, Arnuphis said:

Every year the local Amiga show comes around at this time and I keep asking myself 'Do I want to get a real Amiga again?' Thankfully a look at the prices helps me decide my MiSTer is good enough!

Many folks say similar things, myself included. There's also WinUAE if you want to try out more and different configurations. While not perfect, I was always impressed at how well WinUAE handles everything and the custom chips.

 

I say it often enough (but not often enough) that the way to contentment in classic computing is to have your most favorite system or two in real physical form. And pick up the rest in FPGA or Software Emulation. It's a balance everyone can find.

[Keatah]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

I have planned to put an LCD screen in one of my SX-64s for a looooooooong time.

Do they make a kit for that?

 

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

Working from tape is fun and can be challenging.  I enjoy working with the original media and will never give it up.

Tape is totally fun and nostalgic on the TRS-80 Pocket Computer. The programs are never that long considering it has only 2K RAM. And while I can use my iPod or phone to play back WAVs of the tapes, it isn't the same thing. This is one thing I grew up with and refuse to change how I work with it.

 

That's one thing I'm thinking about doing, buffing up and rounding out the software side of the PC-2. I'm already complete on the PC-1.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Keatah

[Arnuphis]

8 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

 

Good luck on the 128D; it is a pretty cool machine.  I have two of them and only use one, so maybe this year you might be able to grab mine (no promises.)  I have planned to put an LCD screen in one of my SX-64s for a looooooooong time.  Yet another project I may not get around to within my life-time.

 

Woah The Mega65 alone seems like the price of a really nice A500 system!  Or, am I little out of touch on current prices?

 

I will gladly take one of your 128d's if you decide to part with it!

 

The Mega65 is more of a Commodore 65 replica than anything else and kinda special. I'll tell you more if mine ever arrives! Amiga prices are just nuts these days and the hardware on the 600,1200 and 4000 is a bit flaky with leaky caps and whatnot. Just not worth the hassle. The MiSTer does a really good A1200 and that's enough for my nostalgia fix. I prefer the 8-bit Commodores myself and keep them around to enjoy the feeling of 'real metal'.

 

As for the SX-64, I ordered a screen from here https://shop.tentelian.com/Replacement-screen-for-Commodore-SX-64-5-6”-LCD-JD567M03-AT056TN52-p370607976

 

Waiting on that to arrive and I will let you know how it goes. Going to 3d print the mounting bracket myself. Its gonna be a fun project!

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

On 10/10/2022 at 4:23 AM, Keatah said:

Do they make a kit for that?

There are, as @Arnuphis points out, but I suffer from NMI and will be building my own.