Hello, everybody.

[rayzer]

Hi, my name is Ray, and I am finally breaking down and actually posting something. I did post a message about 13 years ago in a chat room, and that's about the extent of my "social networking" experience. I tried posting an intro here before, but I messed up and timed out, I think, and the post never made it, so here's my second try.
I have so many questions, I'm wondering if should post them all individually, or if I should try out the blog thing. I've gone through a good bit of the posts on this site, but it seems there's not a whole lot I could add that's not already common knowledge. I've read the forums rules, and I'll try to post my questions in all the right places, without offending anyone. (Don't know how I could do that, talking about computers, but you never know!)
I collect pretty much anything I can get my hands on, my place is like a black hole for computers, once they cross the event horizon of my front door, not even the light from them escapes. I'm a pretty good parts swapper, pretty bad electrician, and still have much to learn, so any help will be much appreciated.

Good luck everyone, and may all your explosions be minor.

 

[ahm]

Hi Ray, welcome aboard. Don't worry about posting in the wrong place. We have people to move things around if need be (I'm one of them).
And we're pretty harmless for the most part, so fire away.

BTW, filling out your Location field is an excellent start! Thanks!

Andy

 

[Tetrium]

Welcome to the club!

As you've seen, plenty forums here to post in
And don't be shy with taking photo's of your stuff, for some reason I like seeing those

 

[rayzer]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I figure in this day and age, when anyone can get a map to your front door, your least worry should be your location. As far as photos go, I don't think they would be too impressive, seeing as most of my systems reside in old beat-up generic cases. However, if there's some interest, I'll dig out my camera and post a few pics of some of my better stuff in the collections section. I don't suppose there's an award for the ugliest computer in history, is there?

 

[Vint]

. . . . . I don't suppose there's an award for the ugliest computer in history, is there?

What's an ugly computer? Never heard of such a thing. Isn't beauty only skin deep? Even if the cover might be construed as 'unattractive', once the cover is removed, inside lies the beauty of circuitry. Now what could be more handsome than a circuit board populated with caps, resistors, IC's and the like, I ask you

Welcome to the forums, rayzer!

 

[Tetrium]

To me it's not about having teh most coolest case for your hardware, but more what you do with it
I use standard AT and ATX cases almost exclusively, but thats more because it makes it easier for me to mix and match interior with exterior. And also it's cheaper that way ;D
Some features I realy like about some cases (like the digital display for the '66' in the front of the case that displays the speed of your CPU) while some other clone cases just look pretty darn nice!
But then again taste is in the eye of the beholder, ask 100 persons what they consider nice looking and you'll get 100 different answers. That only makes life interesting afaic

What's an ugly computer? Never heard of such a thing.....

Lol, that would be worth a whole thread of it's own!
Personally I think the 1999-ish Packard Hell cases are pretty darn ugly.

 

[Jorg]

Lol, that would be worth a whole thread of it's own!
Personally I think the 1999-ish Packard Hell cases are pretty darn ugly.

Hi Rayzer! I guess secretly most people here do not like anything better than answering questions, so fire away :D

Oh, and a thread for the ugliest computer, that sure would be fun.. why don't you start one with your best example

 

[barythrin]

Welcome to the group So what's your collection look like so far?

 

[Tetrium]

.....Oh, and a thread for the ugliest computer, that sure would be fun.. why don't you start one with your best example

ooo, a couple ones come to mind!
Btw, I have the funny feeling that sometimes something can be so complete and utterly hidious, it becomes beatiful again

 

[rayzer]

Been kinda distracted last couple days, a long story, maybe I'll post a rant about it, it's a good one, with a moral lesson. Anyway, I agree with vint, every computer is beautiful, in it's own way. The only reason I say ugly is because it seems a lot of people here are into "stock" vintage stuff, and most of my machines are frankenstein systems with mismatched bezels, scuffed up cases, and as with a lot of old office systems, someone wrote crap all over them. I personally value functionality over aesthetics. I think it's amusing when someone first looks at a machine with a raised eyebrow, and after a few seconds says, "Wow, that's cool!" Now, about the collection. Sadly, it's not even a 10th of the systems I used to have, I had to leave a roomfull sit at my old place, no room in the uhaul, and I wasn't going 600 miles back to get them. Plus, I've had to scrap about a dozen more recently, due to water damage (another long story), but as it stands, some of the survivors are:

IBM PC convertible with all the trimmings.
Victor VPC 2 with a blown psu, soon to be revived, hopefully.
HED-918 XT board in a generic tower case, my smallest board in my biggest case.
Wyse 386 - SBC and memory daughtercards only, originally kept for ram, rethinking that decision.
Derby Systems 486 - recently restored, found this one in an old store I was remodeling.
AST Advantage 4066d - Haven't messed with this one yet, status unknown.
Toshiba Satellite- ??
Toshiba Protoge - ?? haven't messed with either toshiba, yet.
4 Commodore machines - 2-c64's, a c64c, and a 128d.
Atari 800xl system complete with disk, tape and printer.

As you can see, it's your basic pack-rat's pile of stuff, nothing fancy and not terribly impressive. There are far more yet to be built, so the list will be growing as I get to them. Pictures will be coming soon.

 

[ajcc]

Been kinda distracted last couple days, a long story, maybe I'll post a rant about it, it's a good one, with a moral lesson. Anyway, I agree with vint, every computer is beautiful, in it's own way. The only reason I say ugly is because it seems a lot of people here are into "stock" vintage stuff, and most of my machines are frankenstein systems with mismatched bezels, scuffed up cases, and as with a lot of old office systems, someone wrote crap all over them. I personally value functionality over aesthetics. I think it's amusing when someone first looks at a machine with a raised eyebrow, and after a few seconds says, "Wow, that's cool!" Now, about the collection. Sadly, it's not even a 10th of the systems I used to have, I had to leave a roomfull sit at my old place, no room in the uhaul, and I wasn't going 600 miles back to get them. Plus, I've had to scrap about a dozen more recently, due to water damage (another long story), but as it stands, some of the survivors are:

IBM PC convertible with all the trimmings.
Victor VPC 2 with a blown psu, soon to be revived, hopefully.
HED-918 XT board in a generic tower case, my smallest board in my biggest case.
Wyse 386 - SBC and memory daughtercards only, originally kept for ram, rethinking that decision.
Derby Systems 486 - recently restored, found this one in an old store I was remodeling.
AST Advantage 4066d - Haven't messed with this one yet, status unknown.
Toshiba Satellite- ??
Toshiba Protoge - ?? haven't messed with either toshiba, yet.
4 Commodore machines - 2-c64's, a c64c, and a 128d.
Atari 800xl system complete with disk, tape and printer.

As you can see, it's your basic pack-rat's pile of stuff, nothing fancy and not terribly impressive. There are far more yet to be built, so the list will be growing as I get to them. Pictures will be coming soon.

I'm with you, functionality over aesthetics any day. Apart from collecting computers I remember seeing and using, I'm not that picky.
What are you using the systems for?
And the systems yet to be built, are they currently piles of parts?

 

[tezza]

I'm with you, functionality over aesthetics any day. Apart from collecting computers I remember seeing and using, I'm not that picky.

Interestingly, I've gone the other way. When I first started collecting my main priority was "does it work". I was prepared to put up with scuff marks, yellowing, mismatched stuff and the odd bits and pieces.

I fairly soon changed my mind though. It's easier to replace electronic parts (or even boards) than to fix up bits of broken plastic on a case. Although my machines have to work, I'm more interested in showing them off, or just enjoying their form and function. I've swung the other way now and (if I was confident I could fix it) would pay more for a model that's in mint condition externally and not working, than one that is scruffy and goes.

Tez

 

[ajcc]

Interestingly, I've gone the other way. When I first started collecting my main priority was "does it work". I was prepared to put up with scuff marks, yellowing, mismatched stuff and the odd bits and pieces.

I fairly soon changed my mind though. It's easier to replace electronic parts (or even boards) than to fix up bits of broken plastic on a case. Although my machines have to work, I'm more interested in showing them off, or just enjoying their form and function. I've swung the other way now and (if I was confident I could fix it) would pay more for a model that's in mint condition externally and not working, than one that is scruffy and goes.

Tez

That's a good point that's worth thinking through before acquiring new stuff. I know that I wouldn't mind a yellowed and scruffed up sun 3/60, but I'm very uncertain if I would buy other ugly looking machines.

 

[rayzer]

I'm with you, functionality over aesthetics any day. Apart from collecting computers I remember seeing and using, I'm not that picky.
What are you using the systems for?
And the systems yet to be built, are they currently piles of parts?

The purpose of these systems is, of course, complete and total world domination. In the end, you shall all bow before me and call me master. Can you tell that I really love 4x games? And, seriously, besides the pleasure I take from building them, I want to have a solid gaming platform for every series of processors up to pentium. I also will set up a small digital studio to do some guitar tracks eventually. The systems to be built are carefully tucked away in plastic bins, waiting for their day.

 

[rayzer]

Interestingly, I've gone the other way. When I first started collecting my main priority was "does it work". I was prepared to put up with scuff marks, yellowing, mismatched stuff and the odd bits and pieces.

I fairly soon changed my mind though. It's easier to replace electronic parts (or even boards) than to fix up bits of broken plastic on a case. Although my machines have to work, I'm more interested in showing them off, or just enjoying their form and function. I've swung the other way now and (if I was confident I could fix it) would pay more for a model that's in mint condition externally and not working, than one that is scruffy and goes.

Tez

Some people have a flair for show, thankfully, or else the world would be a pretty dull place. There's nothing wrong with taking pride in your hard work, and if getting that old gem to shine is what does it for you, I'd say you've done it well. Personally, I don't take much time to spiff things up, because after I get it running, I'm glued to the screen. The only bad thing about having shiny new stuff is that sick feeling in your gut you get if you happen to ding it up bit. I'm often tempted to go give new stuff a kick, first as a stress test, second to get that first ding out of the way.

 

[Raven]

I like to have non-perfect systems, just slightly damaged, so that I don't feel like I have to be in a clean room to operate the machine, myself. I do like there to be no obvious breaks or holes in panels and such, but my 5160 has two huge scrapes of paint missing in the metal, and a dent in the side - neither of which bothers me one bit, because it works, and it looks good enough for me. Interesting discussion, btw.

 

[Erik]

Welcome aboard, Ray.

Enjoy!

 

[Rick Ethridge]

It never hurts to post and ask questions. Nobody I know here bites. I learned most of what I know in Vintage Computing from someone wiser and smarter. We're here to help and have fun.
Welcome!

 

[rayzer]

Yes, I am still alive, just been taking a break from it all for a bit, haven't touched a system for weeks now. In case you all haven't noticed, I'm not kidding about never posting anything, anywhere before, so I'm still figuring out how this all works. If I'm doing something wrong, don't hesitate to give me a heads up, I may have missed something basic in the FAQs. Rather than pollute the forums with one answer(basic) questions, I think I'll start up a blog and post all my crap there first, and if it makes the grade then I'll start a thread on it. Is this a good idea? or not? If not informative, my blog should at least be entertaining, sorta like watching a monkey play with a wrench.

 

[Tetrium]

Yes, I am still alive, just been taking a break from it all for a bit, haven't touched a system for weeks now. In case you all haven't noticed, I'm not kidding about never posting anything, anywhere before, so I'm still figuring out how this all works. If I'm doing something wrong, don't hesitate to give me a heads up, I may have missed something basic in the FAQs. Rather than pollute the forums with one answer(basic) questions, I think I'll start up a blog and post all my crap there first, and if it makes the grade then I'll start a thread on it. Is this a good idea? or not? If not informative, my blog should at least be entertaining, sorta like watching a monkey play with a wrench.

One tip, posting on the forums is supposed to be fun! It's not like registering here is a contract!