Figuratively speaking anyway.

When I moved from the UK to the US, I left a lot of my retro gear behind at my parents and in the end told them to take it to the tip.

I don't have many regrets in my life, but that one was huge.

I had a BBC Micro with sideways ram with built in real time clock, AMX mouse, floppy drive, 10mb hard drive and controller, modem, 100's of floppy discs, all sorts of ROMs, JP101 sparkjet printer...all gone to the tip.

Back then, there was no ebay, no craigslist, no realy way to sell them.

I'm slowly but surely crawling back my lost inventory. One thing I can never recover is the BBS I wrote for my computer studies O level, and some BBS software I purchased (cos mine sucked!).

Now, I've had a BBC Micro imported along with disc drive, and some modern add-ons like a co-processor made with an r-pi, gotek and some other fancy stuff.

Recently, I got a ZX Spectrum, it has some bad ram chips so working on changing those out. I also got a Commodore 64 which is also faulty. A Vic20 showed up and a TRS80. I really wanted a Video Genie, also known as System-80 in Australia, but they're as rare as rocking horse sh*t!

Right now I'm also on the hunt for a Dragon 32, but getting people to ship from the UK to the US is not easy. That would about round off all the retro computers from my childhood that I'd love to add to my collection.

I never really got into the Apple stuff, and generally have a dislike for the company so none of that in my house!

One system I didn't own but was also somewhat popular was the Amstrad CPC464 but those come with a monitor and shipping might be a bit out of the question.

Why did the UK have all the best retro kit!

Oh yeah, the Osbourne 1 too - luggable computer with built in monitor and disk drive Yummy!
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (954:895/3)

Re: What's in your attic?
By: nelgin to All on Mon Oct 09 2023 13:00:24

Awesome that you are restoring a ZX Spectrum. I had a friend who did
that. He said the older hardware is easier to repair, connect to a
scope, etc. Reminds me of things i have heard from mechanics about
older cars.

I understand regretting the loss of retro stuff.

I wrote some clever code in my youth, a mixture of BASIC and assembly.
It was stored on floppy disks, and at some point after college i lost
those floppies. I don't even remember how i lost them, but with them
i lost all that code.

I remember playing arcade-style games on a Vic20 loaded from cassette.

I get most of my retro kicks in emulators, but i do maintain a couple
FreeDOS machines. One is a 2005 era HP NC6120, which has a Pentium M processor, a weird hybrid of a Pentium III and Pentium 4. FreeDOS
runs blazing fast on that hardware, but does not support its audio
chipset. The other is a 1999 era IBM PC 330 6577 79T, which has a
Pentium 133MHz processor and 32mb memory. It has USB ports, but they
do not reliably work. I installed an ISA CT2910 SoundBlaster 16 Pro
CSP and a Sony CDU31A optical drive. The hardware seems ideal for
retro gaming. Both machines have a good UART that communicates
full-speed over a serial connection to my Linux system. Some day i
plan to build a virtual modem using a Raspberry PI so i can "dial in"
to an Internet BBS from DOS hardware using a WIFI network.
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (954:895/3)

On 09 Oct 2023, nelgin said the following...

Figuratively speaking anyway.

I had a BBC Micro with sideways ram with built in real time clock, AMX mouse, floppy drive, 10mb hard drive and controller, modem, 100's of floppy discs, all sorts of ROMs, JP101 sparkjet printer...all gone to
the tip.

I feel for you as I did the same thing, back in 2015, I was moving to a new home and since I was only allowed in the place once before purchase I felt I was downsizing so my garage was filled with old computers. I had every Intel PC from XT up to P4 (1 of each, all working) probably a dozen 5.25 floppy drives, 6 or 7 3.5 floppies, about 7 modems ranging from 1200 baud up to 56k (the prized possession was the USR v.Everything) a Lt Kernal Hard Drive for the C64 with Multiplexer (the HD was dead) an Amiga 500 with Hard drive and extra Ram. A couple of Commodore Monitors, and a ton of misc hardware, My BBS backup tapes along with a external tape drive (that worked). Quite a bit, today with Retro selling high, All of this stuff would probably be worth in the area of about $3k!!! I gave all the Commodore and Amiga stuff away for free to a guy who lived near by at the time, and threw all of the PC stuff away..

Fast forward to 2018, I get the BBS bug again, go looking for my v.Everything, because I wanted to offer dialup on my new BBS, it's gone, I wanted to run said BBS on a backup machine, P4, Gone! I get the bug to start running my Commodore BBS and an Amiga BBS (I wanted a BBS for every OS I ever used) all of that stuff GONE! Granted, I did do the things I wanted, I run those boards but in emulation.. I did buy a couple of C64's to run a BBS replaced the Lt Kernal HD with a Clone, started to rebuild my retro stash. BUT I still miss all of my old stuff, the sad part about this all? I didn't downsize after all.. I upsized and have a FULL room for storage!!!!

Moral of the story. DON'T THROW ANYTHING OUT!!

Al

... A book in the hand is worth two on the shelf!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (954:895/24)

The only good thing that came from this, was I had the only working copy of Image BBS v2.0 in existance and I sent that to a former partner in a sysOp group who over the following 3 years cultivated it and finally released it to the public. We have since released a 3.0 version...

... BREAKFAST.COM Halted... Cereal port not responding.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Wrong Number Family Of BBS' - Wrong Number ][ (954:895/24)

I regret leaving my origonal Star Wars figures with my folks, who thought that they belonged to my older sibling who sold them.

Good times.

ooO(# .)Ooo
=-=Patch=-=

... I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Lair of the Wolverine (954:895/49)

Re: What's in your attic?
By: Bencollver to nelgin on Mon Oct 09 2023 14:38:08

Awesome that you are restoring a ZX Spectrum. I had a friend who did
that. He said the older hardware is easier to repair, connect to a
scope, etc. Reminds me of things i have heard from mechanics about
older cars.

I also have a Commodore 64 in pieces along with a BBC Micro. I'll get around to finishing them one day.

I wrote some clever code in my youth, a mixture of BASIC and assembly.
It was stored on floppy disks, and at some point after college i lost
those floppies. I don't even remember how i lost them, but with them
i lost all that code.

yeah, it sucks. The good thing is, we learn a lot about programming since being kids so I'm sure we'd write more reusable, efficient code. I know mine wasn't the best and I could have done better.

I remember playing arcade-style games on a Vic20 loaded from cassette.

Yup, and then there were the cartridges that loaded instantly but were may more expensive and you couldn't copy them.

full-speed over a serial connection to my Linux system. Some day i
plan to build a virtual modem using a Raspberry PI so i can "dial in"
to an Internet BBS from DOS hardware using a WIFI network.

Why bother? You can use a ESP8266 wifi development board and a RS232 to TTL board and some free firmware.

You will need an Arduino to program the device unless you can figure out how to connect an rpi to do the same job. If you don't have one then I can probably program one for you.
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (954:895/3)

Re: What's in your attic?
By: nelgin to Bencollver on Wed Oct 11 2023 10:45:33

Why bother? You can use a ESP8266 wifi development board and a RS232 to TTL board and some free firmware.

Several reasons.

I have a raspberry pi in my possession that a friend gave me. I don't
possess an ESP8266.

The flexibility that running a full-blown Linux system on the rpi would
give me. I could "dial in" to the rpi itself, which opens up additional possibilities.
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (954:895/3)

Mmmm... Pie =)

I am running the BBS on a Raspian 3, my 3D printer on version 4, and I still have an old version 1 hanging around collecting dust.

___
ooO(# .)Ooo
=-=Patch=-=
The Lair of the Wolverine | bbs.mywire.org 23016

... Hard work never killed anyone but why take a risk?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Lair of the Wolverine (954:895/49)

I regret leaving my origonal Star Wars figures with my folks, who
thought that they belonged to my older sibling who sold them.

Ouch, what a bummer!

Salu/2!
Cyberzoo

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Zooropa BBS | telnet://zooropabbs.ddns.net:2323 (954:895/35)

Hi there

Have not so much things on my attic. OK, TENT, Toys from my Kids (all Adults) some Computerstuff and what normal People stores on their attic. The most of my Computerstuff are in my basement(s). OK, my wife isn't so happy with that way, cause she needs a little space, too. Or the think she need some space, too...lol

I have a "Ofiice-Room" in a Part of the basement. All Cable-Network in my house is connected from this room.

The BBS-Server is in a 24 HE Server-rack and standing there. My Main-Computer are standing on the desk. A working Win2000 and WINXP, also a "Backup-Computer" for my Main-Computer are also in this office.

Beside the BBS-Server I restarted a rebuilding of my "old-dear" Amiga 2000/68030. One day I will connect him to my "HomeNet" and via Telnet-Outbound with the BBS-Server. I've started in the 90's BBS'ing with him and I have the old Tape(s) of that time.

In this room, too... there is a rebuild PC with OS/2 and PcBoard v15.3/15.4. Maybe I do it in the same way as I wanna do with the Amiga. As I thought about reestablishing my old BBS (with PcBoard) I rebuild the PC from the past with all the things, as I ran my BBS in that time.

OK... and don't laugh.... Thought the last month's about the Atari (1040 ST). Cause beside the Amiga Area were an existing Atari-Scene at this time (I think). So I've bought 4 of them, incl. "Net-Adapter" and HD via Adaptercard (SD-Card). Hopefully I get one to run perfectly. And who knows lol.

In the next room, direct to my Office, there are hundred's of original Software from 90 to now. Also the old Hardware from the last 25/30 years of computing. From AMD K6 and Intel Socket 7 (MMX 233) till now. And that's how it is with the Soundcards/Mainboards/Controller/HDD's/Graphic-Cards, Monitors, etc. Stupidly 95% of my Retrostuff are 100% funtionally and so.. over the years my Space from the Basement.... you know what I mean.

I like computing and love bbs'ing. This "little" Hobby which eats nearly 100% of my Freetime. And one day I hopefully get the required brain to handle this hobby, too.

So keep on BBS'ing....

Mike


--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: Global Chaos BBS (954:49/8050)

This is a wonderful story. I like BBS because many BBS stations still have no censorship, although others do.
Anyway, I'm spending more and more time on the BBS. Sometimes it seems to me that I am not registered only where range of my IP addresses is banned.


--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.14-beta (linux; x64; 14.21.3)
* Origin: Westwood BBS II (954:895/20)

Hi Roman

That's the disadvantage of 2023 and no modem or ISDN lines! Unfortunately, there are people all over the world who use this hobby to harm us Sysop's.

That didn't exist in that form in the 90's!

So a lot of things and time today a Sysop has to secure his system against those people in a daily work.

Mike

On 28.10.2023 11:54, Roman wrote to Mike:

@MSGID: 65217.hnet_computing@954:895/20 1bb55f8f
@TZUTC: -0500
@TID: ENiGMA1/2 0.0.14.b (linux; x64; 14.21.3)
@CHRS: UTF-8 4
@REPLY: 954:49/8050 4ee36634
This is a wonderful story. I like BBS because many BBS stations still have no
censorship, although others do.
Anyway, I'm spending more and more time on the BBS. Sometimes it seems to me that I am not registered only where range of my IP addresses is banned.

--- ENiGMA 1/2 v0.0.14-beta (linux; x64; 14.21.3)
* Origin: Westwood BBS II (954:895/20)

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v7.0
* Origin: Global Chaos BBS (954:49/8050)

Is exist an option to create an alternative DNS network. This way you can create your own addressing, bypassing the large Internet. After all, CompuServ only closed in 2009? I don't remember well anymore.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Central Ontario Remote (954:895/12)