[Coco] Anyone else collect other old computers/game consoles beside the Coco?

[Todd Wallace]

I don't have tons of systems.  I do have sega genesis 2, a PS1 and PS2 if those even count.  My first computer i ever touched was a timex sinclar 1000 that my dad won in some sweepstakes.  Later that christmas we wanted something more powerful, and we got the color computer 3.  I never used the timex much.  But the coco3, i was HOOKED. started with no cassette, no floppy, no monitor. just the manual from which i spent hours entering in sample programs and being amazed.  turn it off and start from scratch. the following year we got a monitor, then a RGB monitor, then a floppy drive. at that point I was older and started getting my own stuff for the coco. got my hands on the 300 baud modem pak that only worked on 32char screens.  struggled with the standard 80char bbses I encountered with it. all the local bbses were mostly PCs.  But i happen to meet a guy who had coco stuff and he sold me a direct connect modem that used the bitbanger. 300 baud. and he hooked me up with a terminal program called "Ultimaterm" and what a difference it made.  BBS's became an obsession with me. Those were the days. Thanks for the trip down memory lane :)

- Todd (LordDragon)

On Aug 25, 2011, at 7:11 PM, Jeremy Michea wrote:

> I thought it might be an interesting discussion. Obviously we all love the Coco but what else do you love? Many of you may know that I'm a huge Atari fan and have been collecting for the Atari 2600/7800 and 8-bit line of computers for about 20 years now, on and off as it was my first console in 1980. Through the 80's I also owned the original Nintendo (NES) and Turbografx-16 but the only computer I used aside from PC's (late 80's and early 90's) was my beloved Coco.
> 
> As a side note, I almost didn't get a coco. Brand loyalty at the time lead our family to buy an Atari 800XL but my father wasn't interested in buying all new software and games for a new system so a friend suggested the coco since he had all kinds of software to share with us (well, copied software on cassettes but as a 13 year old in 1982 I wasn't aware or concerned about piracy so that's another story) so we got a used Coco 1 with the chicklet keyboard, a cassette player and a bunch of cassettes with, yes, mostly games. I did do some homework but lets be honest, I spent most of my time playing some great coco 1 games.
> 
> As another side, yet rambling note, what BBS's did any of you use back in the day? Here in Southern Ontario, the one I used the most in my area was called "Route 66". I believe it was the only coco based BBS in my area where it seemed predominately Commodore 64. Also downloaded a lot of software from Route 66 as well as a local coco user group that met once a month in a local french public school.
> 
> I remember being so excited when the Coco 3 was announced. I spent the summer prior to its release in the glorious field (literally) of corn detasseling to save up the money to buy my brand new Coco 3. I remember being in complete awe of the demo in the store and the manager was nice enough to make a disk copy that I played a lot at home. :)
> 
> Anyway, I've rambled enough. Anyone else have any stories about their other retro passions, coco musings, etc? :)
> 
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