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

[Mark McDougall]

On 26/08/2011 9:11 AM, Jeremy Michea wrote:

> Anyway, I've rambled enough. Anyone else have any stories about their other
> retro passions, coco musings, etc? :)

My father got me interested in computers in the late 70's, eventually buying 
a TRS-80 Model 1, Level 1, 4KB. That got upgraded over the years to a 
full-blown disk system. Along the way he bought me a Coco 1 cassette system, 
which I upgraded eventually to a disk system. When I started Computer 
Science at uni, he bought me a Model 4P and sadly, the Coco was 
all-but-forgotten, years later donated to a good home. In later years I 
bought myself an Amiga 500, before moving on to the PC.

I also used to frequent the arcades in the era of Space Inavders, Galaxian 
and Pacman. After a few years break, I was re-introduced to the arcade at 
uni, playing the likes of Xevious, Juno First, Pitfall II, Star Force, Gyrus 
and pinballs like Centaur & Spy Hunter. Many fond memories there...

Although I held on to my TRS-80 Model 4P and Amiga, I wasn't much interested 
in 'retro' computing as such for several years, until one day at work a 
colleague showed me an emulator for the arcade Galaxian on the PC. Well, 
that really struck a chord with me and I've been 'retro-nuts' ever since.

I started out collecting emulators for arcade games, and TRS-80 computers. 
My interests then broadened to other micros that I had peripheral 
involvement with throughout the years, like Apple, Commodore, ZX80 etc. But 
at this point, I wasn't collecting any hardware, only emulators and ROM/disk 
images.

Enter my (now) wife; who told me tales of working in an arcade in her youth 
and playing the NES & SNES with her brothers growing up, boasting she had 
completed SMB1 & 2 on the NES. That piqued my interest further and I managed 
to find a NES and SMB cartridges at a local market. Adding fuel to the 
flames, her brother dug out the SNES and a handful of games. That really 
started the ball rolling...

Once I had started collecting some real hardware, I was hooked. From the NES 
and SNES I rounded out my Nintendo console collection with N64s and 
Gamecubes. A colleague got me into the DC so I also had to get a Genesis and 
a Saturn. I'd always wanted a Playstation, now I have all 3. And a couple of 
Atari 2600s. Add in box-loads of peripherals, carts, disks, roms... I have a 
healthy collection.

BTW back in those days, there wasn't a lot of demand for old consoles and 
you could easily find them for a few $$$, with some carts costing only $1. 
Sadly, those days are well gone, and eBay and a 'revival' of collecting 
video games and computers have driven prices through the roof. I'm 
particularly glad I collected most of my N64 carts back then...

My collecting wasn't limited to consoles by this stage. I have 3 arcade 
cabinets and more than a dozen PCBs. My wife has a long-standing request for 
a pinball machine (probably SMB). I've also managed to acquire a collection 
of retro micros, mostly for free! but I have paid for some. Most notably, a 
Coco3 with FD500, Multi-pak, Orchestra-90 and DOD cart, but also TRS-80s 
(Models I & 4P) & System-80's, Apple IIe, IIGS, Mac SE/30, Commodore VIC20, 
C64, Amiga 500/1000/1200/3000, BBC Micro, Sord M23, Timex 2068.

Still got a few systems on my Wanted List (Vectrex, Acorn Archimedes 
440/4000 and MicroBee), but I think that will just about round out my 
collection. Maybe Atari 400/800/ST, but I don't want to go beyond that for 
lack of time and space - and money - these days!!!

And as anyone that's been here for a while would know, I'm actively 
interested in hardware (FPGA) emulation, as well as developing 
peripherals/interfaces for more modern hardware. I've all-but-completed 
TRS-80 and Coco1 FPGA implementations, both with IDE support, as well as 
several arcade games. Most recently, as far as the Coco is concerned, I've 
got my Coco3 hooked up to a 'video converter board' (currently in 
development) for display on an LCD VGA monitor.

I've also dabbled in software for the retro machines as well, 'bootlegging' 
the arcade Space Invaders and the MSX version of Lode Runner to run on the 
TRS-80 Model 4, with varying degrees of success. Another project in limbo 
for a few years now is an (incomplete) 'bootleg' of the arcade Tutankham on 
the Coco3 - something I've been promising Nick I'd upload to his Coco game 
development site for a while now...

So that's my story. I'm still in midst of a busy career and don't have a lot 
of time to devote to my hobby, which obviously must be spread pretty thin 
across the breadth of my interests, by I'm hoping that in later years as my 
working life winds down I can devote some serious time and resources to 
retro gaming/computing in general, and the Coco in particular.

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"