New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

I talked to Dick Smith on the phone a few years ago when doing some System 80 research. He's a passionate guy! I imagine he would be disappointed at the dilution of the brand into just another electronic consumer goods store.

Yeah it's such a shame too, you know my local doesn't even have soldering irons now :/

Epic you got to speak to the man tez.

They still sell irons down here, but not solder - 'it's hazardous!'...

The basic cartridge arrived today.

Plugged it in and ran PRINT FRE(0) which gave me the result of 37902 bytes free which indicates a 48k machine. I typed in a couple of basic programs and everything seems to be going fine.

Only issues now seem to be a couple of sticky keys.

Great to hear!

Yeah it's such a shame too, you know my local doesn't even have soldering irons now :/

It really is such a pity. I went to look for a new soldering iron last weekend and the first place I went was my local Dick Smith in St Lukes. There was nothing of the sort. It stocks the same stuff that you can get next door at Noel Leeming pretty much or that you can get down the road at Bond Bond or across the road at the Warehouse. It's quite sad really but I guess that's what the market wants these days. Who wants to fix something when you've got the perfect excuse to just go and buy something brand spanking new? Fewer and fewer people will understand the joy in getting something like a 400p up and running perhaps.

VIC Only place I have found soldering irons is Jaycar,

Thanks for that. Will check out Jaycar instead. At least the market's covered when it comes to new LCDs, cellphones and those funny centre console car fridges.