New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

I have made a late entry to the RetroChallenge 2011 with a commitment to photographing and cataloging some of my collection as I move it into storage. Starting late yesterday, I have made it through six storage boxes. You can follow my efforts on my Vintage 8 Bit web site or via Twitter. The photos are a bit crappy so far, but I'm working on that.

Thanks for posting that link. It's interesting to see other people's collection. It's also useful to see all the bits of pieces people have in case we ever want to swap things amongst ourselves. Matt Dawson and I swapped a few things recently.

Documenting the collection in photos is a good Retrochallenge thing to do. I take photos of my gear as it comes in both for record keeping and insurance purposes.

Are you testing the units before putting them in alternative storage, to get an audit of any hardware issues?

tezza wrote:Thanks for posting that link. It's interesting to see other people's collection. It's also useful to see all the bits of pieces people have in case we ever want to swap things amongst ourselves. Matt Dawson and I swapped a few things recently.

There's more to come I'm starting with all the systems that have been packed into storage boxes as these have all been previously tested before being boxed.

tezza wrote:Documenting the collection in photos is a good Retrochallenge thing to do. I take photos of my gear as it comes in both for record keeping and insurance purposes.?

I used to make sure everything was photographed, tested and documented as I acquired them, but time and space pressures have resulted in me becoming quite slack in recent years. As far as insurance goes, I am revisiting this now. Values and rarity (not to mention acquisitions) have changed considerably since I last cataloged the collection, so this badly needs updating.

tezza wrote:Are you testing the units before putting them in alternative storage, to get an audit of any hardware issues?

Not this time around - there's too much to get through to properly test them. I'm documenting the last known condition of each as I go, and expect that having more space and fewer computers in my workshop (read "garage") will mean I'm able to spend more productive time testing and repairing in future.

I don't know if anyone's been following this, but I've been posting updates to my site as I go. Some items of note are:

My new storage facility:

The contents of each of these boxes is photographed and cataloged.

Compare this to my previous storage facility (my garage):


My new, modded, C64:


It has been a busy few weeks

Yes, I'm taking note now and again. I'm impressed by the sheer amount of stuff you have Andrew.

I like the clear storage boxes. I've got just one like that for my C-64 but the rest are old cardboard boxes of various sizes and conditions. I'd like to gradually move the lot to storage plastic bins but I'm deterred by the cost. Easier to stack though I'm sure.

A highly modified C64. What's the switch and DB socket? RS-232?

tezza wrote:A highly modified C64. What's the switch and DB socket? RS-232?

Ah I see. That question is answered on the blog site.

Yeah, RS-232 was my guess as well, but that would surely require some circuitry, and it looks like wires taken directly to the main board when I peer through the User Port.

tezza wrote:I'm impressed by the sheer amount of stuff you have Andrew.

I haven't started on the shelving yet To give you an idea, in my office (noting only what I can see from where I sit) I see:

• A Spectrum 16K in tatty box
• A Spectrum 16K in near mint box
• A RAM Turbo module for ZX Sepctrum in near mint box
• Eight of the 10 Spectrum ROM carts ever released (Anybody got Trans Am or Horace and the Spiders?)
• Oric 1 in tatty box, with about a dozen tapes
• Atari 7800 complete in good box
• Unboxed Nintendo N64 with a stack of carts
• Sony PSOne with 5" LCD in very good box
• An Atari XEGS in polys
• A Nintendo SNES with carts
• An Amstrad PPC640 portable in good physical condition but non-functioning.
• A Gimini Economy 8600 Game System Mark II
• A Sony Hit Bit (one of the later models) in tatty box
• A boxed Nintendo Super Famicom
• Boxed Nintendo NES Action Set
• Philips VG8020
• Osbourne 1, working but in need of cleaning up
• Tidy Osbourne 1 in need of repair
• Commodore SX-64 with blown PSU in need of repair
• Dragon 32
• Apple II+
• IBM PC Convertible
• ZX Spectrum +2
• The modded German C64

tezza wrote:I like the clear storage boxes.

Yeah, I recommend the wide, flat ones that are sold at the Warehouse as "under bed" storage - wait until they're on sale (they often are) and buy a bunch. They're much better than cardboard boxes for protecting the gear as well as stackability.