How did I get started?
My first hands-on experience with computers was back in 1981 or 1982 when I was in high school. My school had two computers, an Apple II and a Sinclair ZX-80.
I was the first student given access to the Apple II as part of a bribery scheme to get me doing my homework regularly. No-one really seemed to know anything about the computers - the Apple II was used by a couple of the science teachers to run some basic chemistry software and a little bit of LOGO programming and no-one really used the Sinclair ZX-80. (The Sinclair ZX-80 was nearly permanently locked away in a desk drawer.) So I was given permission to use the Apple II during my free time (provided all my homework was up to date) and handed a couple of manuals and left to my own devices.
I taught myself Applesoft BASIC by reading the manuals and a couple of magazines I found. (Back in the day, computer magazines had type-in programs - pages and pages of mainly BASIC code that you would laboriously type in and run.) After a while the powers-that-be at my school let me take home the Sinclair ZX-80 to play with. That was fun, although a bit frustrating trying to learn the different behaviour of that small wedge of white plastic!
Sometime in 1982, my parents bought me my very own computer - a Commodore Vic-20! Many, many, MANY hours of hacking away at that machine honed my BASIC skills and along the way I taught myself a smattering of 6502 Machine Code.
Christmas 1986 saw my first real upgrade - a Commodore 64. A few years later I stepped on up to an Amiga 500. When I was a starving university student, I sold my Amiga gear to pay a few bills, but I kept the old C=64 and Vic-20 even though my poor old Vic-20 sported a busted keyboard. I didn’t enter the world of PCs until 1996…
Sometime in the early 1990s I picked up a Commodore PET 2001 through the local classifieds. And added (but later sold 
) a Commdore 128. There things sat until I discovered the world of emulation and I started playing around with various emulators, but they never felt real to me. I always craved the feel of a real computer. About five years ago I stumbled upon an eBay auction for a Vic-20 and my life hasn’t been the same since. 
Slowly I added to my meagre collection - a Ccommodore 16 here, a Ccommodore Plus/4 there and one special day I won an auction for a Sinclair ZX-80! 
Over time my collection has grown to include a variety of home computers from the early 1980s and somehow I have also started collecting old video game systems from the late 1970s and early 1980s. (The video game collection is sort of an accidental collection - I’ll explain that in a later blog post.) I finally decided it was time to organise my collection and hopefully build a web site around this hobby. This blog is just the start.
June 15th, 2006 at 2:46 am
The site looks great! You have an excellent start to it and I’m looking forward to watching it grow;-) I had an A1200 in college and am still very fond of Amiga products. I also have wonderful memories of that most ubiquitous of consoles, the Atari 2600. One of these days I’m going to get one off of ebay (if it weren’t for that mortgage thing… ;-). I look forward to reading more, and thank you for sharing this!
June 15th, 2006 at 2:57 am
Thanks for the kind words!
I’m pretty much a Commodore boy - I currently own seven different models of Commodore computers.
At one stage I was employed by Commodore Australia as a technical evangelist, promoting Amigas and doing demonstrations at trade shows and in shopping centres. I’ll have to post something about that one day…
BTW an Atari 2600 shouldn’t cost you much more than $10-15 on eBay - just don’t get suckered into bidding more than you intended.
One area of the site I’m planning is an online auction hints and tips section. I’d like to do something with a price guide for particular copmuters/consoles and hints on where/how to grab a bargain. You’d be amazed at some of the gear I’ve scored pretty cheaply off eBay!
June 15th, 2006 at 3:00 am
Something broken with your smart quotes, it looks like.
I think my brother might still have his C128. Probably cost prohibitive to ship it though, right?
June 15th, 2006 at 3:06 am
Hey George! Welcome to my new site.
I’ve still gotta figure this thing out - I’ve had the quotes go wonky on me in a couple of places, but I’ve fixed most of them.
At the moment I am fine for 128’s, though I still want to find a 128D. I think the cost of shipping a 128D would be more than I’d be willing to pay.
June 15th, 2006 at 4:45 am
hey arb, heh this is pretty cool. unfortunately, since i’m just a pup, my first machine was an atari 520st. loved that thing. couldn’t do much with it other than play brataccas for hours on end (and never did actually manage to do anything but activate the droids and get myself killed).
i’m a add this to my links in my blog, good work here