CPC6128 here! I actually bought it with the colour monitor, which went up in smoke and flames only 5 minutes after purchase, then used a scart cable on a TV, and now I've "upgraded" to a green GT65 😀

Got a C64 too in the attic somewhere.

Here's my C64 which I've been banging on about for a while now, but it's brought me countless hours of joy. My most recent project was desoldering a couple of key chips and installing sockets.

I also have a C128DCR stashed away for a rainy day, also a fun machine:

I have a small pile of them, but they're tucked away in boxes while I prepare to move house, so no photos...

Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ (Not a 128K, just a 48K in the QL-style casing)
C=64 Breadbox
Apple IIgs
Tandy TRS-80 CoCo2
Panasonic MSX-2
Atari XE65

I've got a few myself which don't see action often. Might post pics later.

Tandy CoCo 3
Yamaha CX5M (MSX)
Apple IIe
Apple IIgs (technically counts)

My curriculum starts on 1985, when my parents bought a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +. Now, I've got these 8 bit systems (most of them have some modifications):

- My Sinclair ZX Spectrum +. The same my parents bought. I had to repair the keyboard, replace a blown up 7805 and I made a composite video output (for new TV sets), so it now has RF + composite video output.
- A Harlequin. It is a modern clone of a ZX Spectrum 48k, using the same PCB size (and it has the same connectors). I bought the PCB and components, and soldered it about two years ago. It lives inside a ZX Spectrum + case (with a new keyboard membrane) and it has a dual ROM switch with the original Sinclair ROM and OpenSE.
- ZX Spectrum +3. It was a english +3, but I replaced keyboard (with a spanish one) and then replaced ROMs with spanish +3e ROMs, converting it in a spanish +3e. Also, I repaired some hardware bugs (related to sound output) and made another composite video output for this. I has now RF, RGB SCART and composite video output.
- Amstrad CPC 6128. It was my wife first computer, but had a faulty floppy drive. I replaced the floppy drive with one from a CPC 6128+, and put it a ROM selector (to choose between AMSDOS and PARADOS). I've got no space to store the original green phosphor monitor, so I made it a CPC to SCART cable and I have a picoATX PSU to provide power.
- Amstrad CPC464+. A friend gave me this one. I've upgraded it to almost a 6128+ (RAM and FDC mods, but no internal FDD).

Also, I have some extra hardware for my 8 bit computers, like:
- A modified floppy cable to connect a standard 3.5 floppy drive to Amstrad CPC 6128 and Spectrum +3.
- Another modified floppy drive cable, to connect a standard drive to Amstrad CPC 6128+ (for the upgraded 464+).
- A HxC floppy disk emulator.
- A picoATX PSU, with cables for powering +3, CPCs and external floppies.
- A divIDE (HDD interface for ZX Spectrum).

Also, I've had some ZX Spectrum +2A that I repaired and fitted with composite output. I sold out them all, because I'm starting to have too many computers at home.

On the 16 bit side, I've got an Amiga 500 (with TV modulator) and a HP 200LX. Besides that I've got a 486DX2 and a Pentium MMX 166 systems, but I'm not going to keep them.

Awesome to see that the 8-bits are being taken care of. I had some time to carry on restoring my 464 last night. As a bit of back story, my Dad bought this from Dixons in London around 1987 and would have had to lug it back on the train to Yorkshire. I wanted to fettle the tape drive a little and see if any games would load. First step was to replace the rubber band inside the drive.

Lots of empty space

Main board with Z80 and AY sound chip

Old-school tape drive

New band on top, old stretched band on the bottom

Lots of awesome games, but will any still work after 25 years in the garage?

Cleaned tape heads with some isopropyl

Kids' games were a bit gruesome in the 80's

After all that, some games work fine, but others have problems loading so I might play around with the head alignment a bit.

Lovely pics. I'm really ejoying this. But, 1987? Wow. How may new computers retailed with tape decks that late? The 3.5 was already commonplace.

I can remember the year, but I was taking a break from personal computers so direct contact memories of that time are spotty. The way I was recalling it, tapes were pretty much discarded right after the the PET and VIC20. This was in Canada for me though, do appreciate this stuff was much more expensive in Europe then, so there was a bit of an adoption lag.

Yeah 86/87. This was the cheapest CPC package and could be had for around £200, or even less. I do remember that at this time we had BBC micros at school with 5.25" floppies, but the cost was prohibitive for a lot of families.

Yeah, I know that here a 1541 floppy drive cost as much as the machine (C64) itself! I also have a small collection of machines, but I rarely use any of them:

Texas Instruments TI-99
VIC-20
C16
Atari XE65
Mattel Aquarius
Atmos Oric
C64 (x3)
C64C (x3)
C128 (x2)
SVI 328
SVI 328 MK II
SVI 728 x2
SVI 738 X'press
MSX 2+
Amstrad CPC 464
Amstrad CPC 6128
ZX Spectrum 128

Got some games to load after fiddling with the tape head alignment. Still some tweaking to do I think.
Also need to build that SCART cable, green screen really sucks 🤣

We have colour. This would have blown my mind as a kid. Fortunately I was able to just imagine the colours back then 🤣

Got tapes loading reliably after a lot of messing with the alignment. Got to say they've faired a lot better than the floppy disks in the garage. Much lower data density I guess.

I have an Apple IIc stored somewhere, but it hasn't been used in years. I'm kind of afraid to find out what condition the 5.25" floppies are in. They were still good last time I used them, but that was several years ago.

A friend of mine had a C64. That computer must have had the slowest floppy drive ever, but once the games managed to load it was a much, much better gaming machine than the Apple ever was. Apple's graphics and sound were so horrid it was hard to get excited about, even back then.
I wish I had a C64 or Atari 800 back then instead of the Apple. Who knows, in that alternate reality I might not have ever become a NES fan. I might have never gotten into consoles at all.. weird.
The Apple taught me programming though, and that's what I really treasure about it. The dumbest, cheesiest BASIC programs I ever wrote are on those old floppies.

Does this count ?

Synoptic wrote:

Does this count ? http://altair.micronick.com:8080/?action=stream […]
Show full quote

Does this count ?

Synoptic wrote:

Does this count ?
<snip>

Nice!

I'm trying to build a homebrew Z80 CP/M machine using some recycled parts from an old HP Protocol Analyzer.

So far I have a pile of chips and a schematic! 😜

Don't drop your jaws too much, it's a Clone, not the real thing, although it behaves exactly like the real thing.

I don't have 6k$ to put on an Altair.

Synoptic wrote:

it's a Clone

Of course it's a clone... Still really neat though!