Howdy from a hoarder...

[kevman3d]

Hi there.

My name is Kevin and while I'm not a collector as such, I have managed to hoarde and truck my old computer gear with me since it was bought back in 1982-83. I did have a ZX81 but gave that to a friend a few years back, however I still have a ZX spectrum 48k in a DKTronics keyboard, a couple hundred cassettes, huge collection of old magazines going back to the early 1980's (I think I have one magazine from 1978) and a pile of random old sinclair peripherals (printers, Betadisk + old AppleII dual floppy, etc) as well as a stack of books. I also bought an old Atari 600XL many years back from the Lions Auction in Devonport with a 5.25" drive, but absolutely no software at all (hence its still sitting in a box)

I guess its almost a collection in a way, just one that's lived in storage for years.

What got me interested lately that's taken me to this site is the hopefully upcoming "From bedroom to billions" documentary that highlights the growth of the UK home games industry - essentially the story of my childhood, and of course a strong influence for the NZ home computer era (much more so then the US trends).

But figured I'd pop on by and say howdy.


Kev.

[lizardb0y]

Hi Kev, welcome

It's great to see another Sinclair fan - you'd think with the popularity of the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum there'd be more of us around! I've managed to piece together an almost complete Sinclair collection from the ZX80 to the ZX Spectrum +3 and Z88. Back in 1997 I restored a ZX81 using the ULA from an old Issue One ZX81 board I'd had (literally) rattling 'round in an old trunk since the early 80s! Your collection doesn't sound too much like hoarding to me; have a look at Tez's post What kind of a collector are you? and see what you think.

[tezza]

Welcome to the forums Kevin, and thanks for the link.

Do you drag the old machines out occasionally and give them a whirl?

Yes, cassette tapes and other media DON'T like damp places. However, there are lots of ways to get Internet sourced copies of software on to clean cassettes these days, and other hardware solutions which provide ways to get software into the old gear. The biggest problem for a lot of people is having the "play space" (aka Mancave) to do it in. I would love to have a huge room for all my toys where I could just walk in and play with or show off any one of them without dragging them out and setting them up.

A retirement dream maybe, but I'll need different house that the one I'm in presently. I once suggested our lounge as a partial display room. It didn't go down well