Intellivision Board details

[rubber_jonnie]

Gosh I'm curious about all the retros / games consoles you have now! Do you have a list of them - ignore if I'm being too nosey! :lol:

Very nice neat job, looks great. I'd have done something similar, but I didn't want to remove the modulator, I much prefer non removal these days where possible.
As for my collection, well it's difficult to list here, so here's photos of my man cave:

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There are a lot of machines under the bench and difficult to see, I expect I probably have over 100 different machines as they aren't all in this room, I have some stored in another.

I also have a lot of handhelds and lots of consoles too, again either in other rooms or on display here. The machines you see are those I use regularly and are permanently out. To be fair, I have been very lucky and have probably been collecting for 30 years now.

[raspberrypioneer]

Very nice neat job, looks great. I'd have done something similar, but I didn't want to remove the modulator, I much prefer non removal these days where possible.

Thanks, I'm happy with it! The RF mod removal isn't for everyone - the mod is not reversable without it. :o

As for my collection, well it's difficult to list here, so here's photos of my man cave:

There are a lot of machines under the bench and difficult to see, I expect I probably have over 100 different machines as they aren't all in this room, I have some stored in another.

I also have a lot of handhelds and lots of consoles too, again either in other rooms or on display here. The machines you see are those I use regularly and are permanently out. To be fair, I have been very lucky and have probably been collecting for 30 years now.

Very nice, I should have started collecting years ago! :D I'd be like a kid in a sweet shop in that room, nosily looking under that bench for sure! Some must be pretty difficult / expensive to get hold of now.

[rubber_jonnie]

Very nice, I should have started collecting years ago! :D I'd be like a kid in a sweet shop in that room, nosily looking under that bench for sure! Some must be pretty difficult / expensive to get hold of now.

Probably the most unusual are the Mattel Aquarius and the Sharp MZ-700, and other than that it is mostly 'normal' stuff, so C64, BBC B's, TI99 4/a, Dragon 32, Tandy CoCo, Spectrums and so on. Oh, and a QL too.

Opposite, where I didn't photograph is a pair of SGI Octane workstations.

I have quite a few ST's and STE's including Megas and an MSTE and also an Archimedes A5000. I have lots of 8 bit Atari's too, my weapon of choice BITD. There is also an Electron, and I have more in the other room with some other stuff.

What started as a drive to collect all the computers that were available in my childhood (My first machine was a ZX81 which gives you the timeframe) overflowed a bit...

I've also built some replicas too, so the OSI 600D (C1P-MF) and the Science of Cambridge MK14, and I have a Cosmac Elf II SBC in the pipeline. I'd like to build more.

[raspberrypioneer]

Probably the most unusual are the Mattel Aquarius and the Sharp MZ-700, and other than that it is mostly 'normal' stuff, so C64, BBC B's, TI99 4/a, Dragon 32, Tandy CoCo, Spectrums and so on. Oh, and a QL too.

I guess I'm more in the normal camp as I know or remember those. I would like the Aquarius, probably because it was thought to be the next step after the Intellivision we had as kids. :lol: That was a Vic20 instead then later a C64. Some of my collecting is driven by the other machines I could have got like the Spectrum, ZX81, Oric and TI99/4a (sounds a bit like where you started :lol: )!

I have quite a few ST's and STE's including Megas and an MSTE and also an Archimedes A5000. I have lots of 8 bit Atari's too, my weapon of choice BITD. There is also an Electron, and I have more in the other room with some other stuff.

What started as a drive to collect all the computers that were available in my childhood (My first machine was a ZX81 which gives you the timeframe) overflowed a bit...

I've also built some replicas too, so the OSI 600D (C1P-MF) and the Science of Cambridge MK14, and I have a Cosmac Elf II SBC in the pipeline. I'd like to build more.

I've got an Atari 800xl and its pretty impressive considering it was ahead of the C64 by a couple of years or so. Very easy to get up and running these days and so well built too. We were big fans of the C64 and used to look down on the 600/800xl. Some of the best 8 bit Atari games hold up very well against the C64 equivalents. If only it wasn't so expensive back then! I might well venture into more Atari collecting.

I've got an Electron, which I really like. Another almost story :lol: I've not gone into anything that I've not come across. Yet! :D

[rubber_jonnie]

I guess I'm more in the normal camp as I know or remember those. I would like the Aquarius, probably because it was thought to be the next step after the Intellivision we had as kids. :lol: That was a Vic20 instead then later a C64. Some of my collecting is driven by the other machines I could have got like the Spectrum, ZX81, Oric and TI99/4a (sounds a bit like where you started :lol: )!

The Aquarius is quite rare these days as not many were sold here. I took mine back as it was faulty, but it was really the next step after the Intellivion. Oddly round my way I don't recall seeing much in the way of consoles like the 2600, Intellivision or Colecovision, it was all about the computers in the likes of WH Smiths and Dixons.

I had an Oric for a while, but took that back too as it was faulty :shock: I do have an Atmos in my collection now, it was given to me by my ex brother in law, much better than the original Oric, shame it failed.

I've got an Atari 800xl and its pretty impressive considering it was ahead of the C64 by a couple of years or so. Very easy to get up and running these days and so well built too. We were big fans of the C64 and used to look down on the 600/800xl. Some of the best 8 bit Atari games hold up very well against the C64 equivalents. If only it wasn't so expensive back then! I might well venture into more Atari collecting.

I've got an Electron, which I really like. Another almost story :lol: I've not gone into anything that I've not come across. Yet! :D

I've ended up with 4 Electrons, not by choice....

One came from somebody over at the Stardot forum, cost me £10 and sat dead for around a year, I thought it was a bad ULA, turned out to be a dead ROM... I removed the ULA and installed one of Mogwaay's replacements and it was still broken. Once I burned a new ROM it was fine.

In the meantime I ended up with 2 more for spares that I ended up refurbing and a flood damaged one with a +1 interface that I also revived and refurbished. All turned out pretty nice in the end. I have a spare mainboard that works in my parts bin!!!

The Atari's are pretty reliable and have great support these days

I hit the Atari stuff when it was cheaper than the C64. I had a 600XL and a 1064 RAM expansion, but sadly the RAM was dodgy and we took it back and exchanged for an 800XL, which was much better, especially once I got a disk drive for it. I also bought a 65XE which I still have to this day along with another 600XL, 2x800XL, an XEGS, a 400 and an 800.

My friend had a C64 but I always preferred the Atari's and they had some much better games. Shame the C64 took away it's thunder really. That and the mismanagement at Atari.

The 800 was my unicorn machine and I only got it recently.

Quite a few mods done too, the 600XL has an internal 64KB upgrade, the 65XE and one 800XL have U1MB and VBXE and PokeyMAX, the other 800XL has a 256KB upgrade, the XEGS has a 512KB and Svideo upgrade, the 400 has a Super Colour CPU card (Gives composite out) and a 1088KB RAM board and the 800 has an incognito Gold.

I love my Atari's, though these days I'm lucky to have a bit of everything.

[raspberrypioneer]

The Aquarius is quite rare these days as not many were sold here. I took mine back as it was faulty, but it was really the next step after the Intellivion. Oddly round my way I don't recall seeing much in the way of consoles like the 2600, Intellivision or Colecovision, it was all about the computers in the likes of WH Smiths and Dixons.

I had an Oric for a while, but took that back too as it was faulty :shock: I do have an Atmos in my collection now, it was given to me by my ex brother in law, much better than the original Oric, shame it failed.

I remember the magazines as well, checking out the specs and games. I don't remember much in the way of games consoles there either - was always about the new home micros. I actually found a PDF of one of the magazines I spent ages studying before I decided which computer to buy. Another nostalgia hit :lol: I love how different the machines from this era are! Crazy how much its all moved on!

I've just seen the Aquarius but never used one. I suspect, a bit like the Oric-1 as well, I get taken in by the styling / look of the case! The Oric keyboard isn't terrible but wouldn't like to use it for too long. More nostalgia for the Oric-1 than the Atmos for me, but the Atmos is much better. I've got a great little device for my Oric-1 called the LOCI, which has been developed quite recently. It plugs into the expansion port and lets you use the Atmos ROM instead of the buggy Oric version. Its also a disk and tape drive. The Oric I've got is in near mint condition - my wife thought I'd bought a fake! :lol: I checked on the Oric forum and the feeling was if it's working don't fix / replace anything. I've left it as is.

I've ended up with 4 Electrons, not by choice....

One came from somebody over at the Stardot forum, cost me £10 and sat dead for around a year, I thought it was a bad ULA, turned out to be a dead ROM... I removed the ULA and installed one of Mogwaay's replacements and it was still broken. Once I burned a new ROM it was fine.

In the meantime I ended up with 2 more for spares that I ended up refurbing and a flood damaged one with a +1 interface that I also revived and refurbished. All turned out pretty nice in the end. I have a spare mainboard that works in my parts bin!!!

Gosh you've gained some experience with the Electron! I perish the thought of the ULA going. Luckily mine arrived working, also in very good nick. Only a couple of really simple mods there for me - audio is available through the repurposed RF port so volume is controllable on the TV; and I applied the composite colour mod although I use RGB which is much better.

I like the Electron - if it was 100% BBC micro compatible, it could have been a winner I think. The Electron got me onto messing about with the Boulder Dash game on that platform which I've extended to create Boulder Dash 2, 3 and a kind of enhanced version. I ported that over to the Oric and then the Vic20. Was thanks to the Stardot forum that materialised in the first place. The Oric and Vic forums are very helpful and active too.

The Atari's are pretty reliable and have great support these days

I hit the Atari stuff when it was cheaper than the C64. I had a 600XL and a 1064 RAM expansion, but sadly the RAM was dodgy and we took it back and exchanged for an 800XL, which was much better, especially once I got a disk drive for it. I also bought a 65XE which I still have to this day along with another 600XL, 2x800XL, an XEGS, a 400 and an 800.

My friend had a C64 but I always preferred the Atari's and they had some much better games. Shame the C64 took away it's thunder really. That and the mismanagement at Atari.

The 800 was my unicorn machine and I only got it recently.

Quite a few mods done too, the 600XL has an internal 64KB upgrade, the 65XE and one 800XL have U1MB and VBXE and PokeyMAX, the other 800XL has a 256KB upgrade, the XEGS has a 512KB and Svideo upgrade, the 400 has a Super Colour CPU card (Gives composite out) and a 1088KB RAM board and the 800 has an incognito Gold.

I love my Atari's, though these days I'm lucky to have a bit of everything.

Wow that is some Atari collection! I don't really know that much about my 800xl (or Atari family really). Solidly built especially compared to the C64's I've got. Mine just needed a retrobright which came up a treat. It arrived working, and it seemed so easy to get going - power from a regular 5v USB charger and special cable, composite lead same as the C64. I just had to make up a USB to SIO port lead to load programs. I've recently got the A8PicoCart for loading programs to make that even easier. I do like the styling of the Atari's as well. Maybe an Atari ST should be next on my list?

[rubber_jonnie]

I remember the magazines as well, checking out the specs and games. I don't remember much in the way of games consoles there either - was always about the new home micros. I actually found a PDF of one of the magazines I spent ages studying before I decided which computer to buy. Another nostalgia hit :lol: I love how different the machines from this era are! Crazy how much its all moved on!

I've just seen the Aquarius but never used one. I suspect, a bit like the Oric-1 as well, I get taken in by the styling / look of the case! The Oric keyboard isn't terrible but wouldn't like to use it for too long. More nostalgia for the Oric-1 than the Atmos for me, but the Atmos is much better. I've got a great little device for my Oric-1 called the LOCI, which has been developed quite recently. It plugs into the expansion port and lets you use the Atmos ROM instead of the buggy Oric version. Its also a disk and tape drive. The Oric I've got is in near mint condition - my wife thought I'd bought a fake! :lol: I checked on the Oric forum and the feeling was if it's working don't fix / replace anything. I've left it as is.

I bought a lot of mags back in the day, in fact I still have some Atari User originals and one very old Sinclair User. I really don't remember a thing about early consoles, just computers, and they just weren't on the shelves in the stores.

I did like the look of my Oric-1 but it wouldn't power on so I just took it back straight away. It was a large Dixons IIRC and I just got my 65XE in place of it. I'll have a look at the LOCI you mentioned, I'd not heard of it.

Gosh you've gained some experience with the Electron! I perish the thought of the ULA going. Luckily mine arrived working, also in very good nick. Only a couple of really simple mods there for me - audio is available through the repurposed RF port so volume is controllable on the TV; and I applied the composite colour mod although I use RGB which is much better.

I like the Electron - if it was 100% BBC micro compatible, it could have been a winner I think. The Electron got me onto messing about with the Boulder Dash game on that platform which I've extended to create Boulder Dash 2, 3 and a kind of enhanced version. I ported that over to the Oric and then the Vic20. Was thanks to the Stardot forum that materialised in the first place. The Oric and Vic forums are very helpful and active too.

It was more by accident if I'm honest. This forum is brilliant, and I like Stardot and some others that are helpful and friendly. I did have a bit of a run in with somebody over at Stardot, but it passed and all is well now.

Trouble is, it was around my Acorn A5000 and there is not a huge amount of help for them other than Stardot. I just saw your BD posts over at Stardot BTW.

BD is a great game on the Atari 8 bits, one of my favourites.

I haven't needed much help with some my other stuff, I can usually work stuff out myself, my VIC-20 was just a marginal VIC giving a really dark image. As long as I can get a schematic i'm good.

BTW, I don't think I mentioned, I have a C128 too. Weird machine.

Wow that is some Atari collection! I don't really know that much about my 800xl (or Atari family really). Solidly built especially compared to the C64's I've got. Mine just needed a retrobright which came up a treat. It arrived working, and it seemed so easy to get going - power from a regular 5v USB charger and special cable, composite lead same as the C64. I just had to make up a USB to SIO port lead to load programs. I've recently got the A8PicoCart for loading programs to make that even easier. I do like the styling of the Atari's as well. Maybe an Atari ST should be next on my list?

Yeah, I love my A8's, they are my favourite overall. I have SIO2SDs and a Fujinet too as well as A8Picocarts. I also have a SIDE3 which is brilliant bit of kit, runs carts, floppies and hard drives and includes SpartaDos.

The Incognito Gold is great, it means my 800 can be an 800 or an 800XL and I can pick how much RAM I want. These days all I tend to want are SD card solutions TBH.

[raspberrypioneer]

I bought a lot of mags back in the day, in fact I still have some Atari User originals and one very old Sinclair User. I really don't remember a thing about early consoles, just computers, and they just weren't on the shelves in the stores.

I did like the look of my Oric-1 but it wouldn't power on so I just took it back straight away. It was a large Dixons IIRC and I just got my 65XE in place of it. I'll have a look at the LOCI you mentioned, I'd not heard of it.

I occasionally watch a YouTube channel called the Retrocollective. An amazing collection of machines, games etc and is now a museum, in Gloucestershire somewhere. Suspect you've probably come across it (your collection might rival theirs :lol: ). It has mock-up of a WH Smiths games section too. I really need to get there!

The LOCI is all I need for my Oric-1, not expensive either - I got mine from the maker in Bulgaria. The Oric stuff has a strong continental following, lots of hobbyists there enjoying the same stuff as us. :lol:

It was more by accident if I'm honest. This forum is brilliant, and I like Stardot and some others that are helpful and friendly. I did have a bit of a run in with somebody over at Stardot, but it passed and all is well now.

Trouble is, it was around my Acorn A5000 and there is not a huge amount of help for them other than Stardot. I just saw your BD posts over at Stardot BTW.

BD is a great game on the Atari 8 bits, one of my favourites.

I haven't needed much help with some my other stuff, I can usually work stuff out myself, my VIC-20 was just a marginal VIC giving a really dark image. As long as I can get a schematic i'm good.

BTW, I don't think I mentioned, I have a C128 too. Weird machine.

An very active and friendly forum, no-one grumpy (so far :lol: ). I suspect many are getting more enjoyment from their old computers now than they did BITD thanks to forums like Stardot. I wonder how many people have this hobby but no 80's or 90's nostalgia to tap into.

I've seen mention of the Acorn Archimedes and A5000, but sadly don't mean much to me. I do like getting another chance to find out though.

Yes BD is excellent on the Atari. Easily rivals the C64 version which I played a lot of. I think it was developed on an Atari to begin with. I thought BD on the Electron stood out from the other games which made me take a closer look at it.

Yeah, I love my A8's, they are my favourite overall. I have SIO2SDs and a Fujinet too as well as A8Picocarts. I also have a SIDE3 which is brilliant bit of kit, runs carts, floppies and hard drives and includes SpartaDos.

The Incognito Gold is great, it means my 800 can be an 800 or an 800XL and I can pick how much RAM I want. These days all I tend to want are SD card solutions TBH.

I'm very much into the SD card / USB memory stick solutions, so convenient. We only had cassette drives BITD as disk was way too £££, so haven't missed them. I don't miss tape either, especially that panic when you could hear the cassette drive chewing up the tape! Not to mention the glacial loading speeds. I saw the Fujinet when investigating the 800xl, another impressive bit of kit. The old-new tech mix also appeals to me! :D

[rubber_jonnie]

I occasionally watch a YouTube channel called the Retrocollective. An amazing collection of machines, games etc and is now a museum, in Gloucestershire somewhere. Suspect you've probably come across it (your collection might rival theirs :lol: ). It has mock-up of a WH Smiths games section too. I really need to get there!

The LOCI is all I need for my Oric-1, not expensive either - I got mine from the maker in Bulgaria. The Oric stuff has a strong continental following, lots of hobbyists there enjoying the same stuff as us. :lol:

Yes, I dip into the Retro Collective from time to time, I remember them as the Retro Man Cave, then RMC before their current name, and I'd love to visit the museum but never find myself in the area. I can't imagine I'd ever rival their collection, but it would be nice to have their space to have them all out rather than just a few.

I was looking at the LOCI and I think I need to get one, will post on the forum when I do, be good to spread the love. Interesting that the Oric & Atmos have support on the continent, the Atari 8 bit is the same with a lot of stuff coming out of Poland.

An very active and friendly forum, no-one grumpy (so far :lol: ). I suspect many are getting more enjoyment from their old computers now than they did BITD thanks to forums like Stardot. I wonder how many people have this hobby but no 80's or 90's nostalgia to tap into.

I've seen mention of the Acorn Archimedes and A5000, but sadly don't mean much to me. I do like getting another chance to find out though.

Yes BD is excellent on the Atari. Easily rivals the C64 version which I played a lot of. I think it was developed on an Atari to begin with. I thought BD on the Electron stood out from the other games which made me take a closer look at it.

I think a lot of people took up the retro hobby over Covid and the rise of making has made the retro sphere an amazing place to be, there is just so much fantastic stuff out there and the forums are the lifeblood of it all. It's a good question about people having no nostalgia to tap into, I think thats true, but I do wonder sometimes if I have too much!!!

You can read about my A5000 here: A5000 thread It was more an accidental purchase, I got it from another forum member with a couple of other machines, took a fair bit of fixing, but it was an interesting project for sure.

BD was one of my first Atari disk games, it really was great and I played it a lot despite never being very good at it :) Still play it today.

I'm very much into the SD card / USB memory stick solutions, so convenient. We only had cassette drives BITD as disk was way too £££, so haven't missed them. I don't miss tape either, especially that panic when you could hear the cassette drive chewing up the tape! Not to mention the glacial loading speeds. I saw the Fujinet when investigating the 800xl, another impressive bit of kit. The old-new tech mix also appeals to me! :D

Yeah, SD and CF card solutions have revolutionised things for sure. Just working with my OSI C1P-MF recently with floppy drives has been a really frustrating experience, but then it's a build from scratch so what can you do? It does at least work with Goteks fairly reliably, but of course the 5.25" media is becoming more and more unreliable as time passes.

Tape loading was such a drag back in the day, that was one thing the Ataris were particularly bad at, but I hit the sweet spot where Atari's were cheap and so were their disk drives, so I ended up with a decent set up and loading times were fast. The C64 seemed to be better served for turbo loaders than the Atari in the tape department.

It's been a while since I heard a tape get chewed, but the sound was crushing, you just knew it'd never work again, even if you did manage to get it out of the tape deck without snapping it.

[raspberrypioneer]

Yes, I dip into the Retro Collective from time to time, I remember them as the Retro Man Cave, then RMC before their current name, and I'd love to visit the museum but never find myself in the area. I can't imagine I'd ever rival their collection, but it would be nice to have their space to have them all out rather than just a few.

I was looking at the LOCI and I think I need to get one, will post on the forum when I do, be good to spread the love. Interesting that the Oric & Atmos have support on the continent, the Atari 8 bit is the same with a lot of stuff coming out of Poland.

Me too! The videos are really well done. Looks like a great location too!

I'd definitely recommend the LOCI, even more so for Oric-1 users with the Atmos ROM 'upgrade'. I didn't realise that the Atari has a large following in Poland, funny how some machines get linked to countries.

I think a lot of people took up the retro hobby over Covid and the rise of making has made the retro sphere an amazing place to be, there is just so much fantastic stuff out there and the forums are the lifeblood of it all. It's a good question about people having no nostalgia to tap into, I think thats true, but I do wonder sometimes if I have too much!!!

You can read about my A5000 here: A5000 thread It was more an accidental purchase, I got it from another forum member with a couple of other machines, took a fair bit of fixing, but it was an interesting project for sure.

BD was one of my first Atari disk games, it really was great and I played it a lot despite never being very good at it :) Still play it today.

It stepped up a gear or two for me over Covid too, and I've been hooked ever since (possibly excessively :lol: ). Sadly, my kids humour me with just a feigned interest. I think they feel more sorry for our generation considering the modern stuff they have.

Well done restoring the A5000! I've only seen the battery corrosion problem on videos and it looks scary, beyond what I'd consider doing, especially with all those fine connections and surface mounted components. Brilliant to see them brought back to life (bit like the RMC trash to treasure series!), though somewhat annoying about the battery corrosion in the first place.

Yeah, SD and CF card solutions have revolutionised things for sure. Just working with my OSI C1P-MF recently with floppy drives has been a really frustrating experience, but then it's a build from scratch so what can you do? It does at least work with Goteks fairly reliably, but of course the 5.25" media is becoming more and more unreliable as time passes.

Tape loading was such a drag back in the day, that was one thing the Ataris were particularly bad at, but I hit the sweet spot where Atari's were cheap and so were their disk drives, so I ended up with a decent set up and loading times were fast. The C64 seemed to be better served for turbo loaders than the Atari in the tape department.

It's been a while since I heard a tape get chewed, but the sound was crushing, you just knew it'd never work again, even if you did manage to get it out of the tape deck without snapping it.

The 5.25" disks seem like a very long time ago for me now. Had lots of 3.5" disks at one stage but not any more - wish I'd kept them now. The early Commodore drives were sluggish and cost as much as a C64 so were not a realistic possibility for us as kids. I tinker around with that kind of stuff a bit, using an Arduino to load C64/Vic20 programs (D64, PRG, T64 files). I've got a browser front-end going with that so it looks nice and you can see the box art images - another nostalgia hit (although the artwork was more than a bit misleading!) :lol: C64 fast-loaders are essential - not sure I've come across them on other platforms.

We used to have 2 Commodore C2N tape drives for the Vic20 and C64, and got hold of this 'backup' device which connected up, you could play (load) on one tape drive and record on the other. Highly necessary for preserving the collection, and keeping off-site backups of your mates collection too ofc :o