First post, by eesz34
What was the point/event that made you decide to intentionally obtain and run old hardware?
For me, I found the Red Hill CPU guide about a decade ago. I was enthralled and read the entire website. For about the next decade I watched Youtube retro channels and pondered buying some old hardware, but ever-practical me kept suppressing the urge because I thought it would be pointless as I'm really only interested playing around and admiring old circuit boards, not playing games.
Then a couple years ago I picked up a NOS Teac 5.25 floppy drive because I had a thing about them even 25 years ago, but never had one, and this was a rare opportunity despite having nothing to install it in. Then earlier this year I found a 386 on eBay that was listed as not working and I thought the seller was about ready to give it away. I finally said "screw it" and made an offer, although it doesn't have a 5.25 bay so I have other plans for the Teac.
I won't be buying much more due to space and it just being impractical for me. But I finally feel like that itch was scratched ha ha.