Hello from Wales

[serenarian]

Hello everyone.
My name is Peter Mooney. I live in North Wales and I've been into computers since 1979.

Back then I was teaching Maths in a 6th Form College when it was decided that we should teach Computer Studies too. We had an ASR teletype with a 300baud dial up connection to an ICL 1900 mainframe omputer at Salford University - and 1 hour of connection time each day. Our students prepared programs, in BASIC, off-line, punched to paper tape and then fed in and run in a mad scramble at 4 o'clock. Imagine 32 students sharing. To get ahead of the students I decided that I needed a computer. The choices were limited, and expensive. A colleague bought an Exidy Sorceror, and I really wanted an AppleII so I started saving. There were other distractions, such as buying a racing dinghy, skiing and motorbikes so it took some time. In 1980 I still hadn't enough for the barest Apple but had scraped together enough for a Video Genie 3003. For those who don't know, this was a Hong Kong manufactured Z80 machine that was compatible with the TRS-80 model 1. It's a big beast but the "all-in-one" design has a built in cassette recorder and power supply, and being able to run TRS-80 software was a big attraction.

It turned out to be a lucky choice too, because I found the "North West TRS-80 User Group" which met in the Manchester area. The group had monthly meetings and the expertise and enthusiasm to give me a head start (and a software library!). I maxed out the memory on the Genie, built some disk drives, and bought a printer within the first 12 months. At first I was just an enthusiastic listener, but like everyone else I suspect, I bought/borrowed/exchanged and copied software, but I soon got roped in to writing articals and giving lectures and demos. Writing software too with fellow members. One great thing about Tandy was the quality of the books and documentation, plus the willingness of fellow users to share knowledge.

Fast forward a little, in Spring 1982 the Spectrum was announced. It had a familiar Z80 processor, dot addressible graphics and colour. On paper it sounded promising, so I ordered one. Typical of Sinclair, the first samples were flaky and by August mine still hadn't arrived as promised. So I cancelled. walked into Boots and bought a Dragon32. Now you may scoff, and ask why, but there was some sense - because this was close relative of the Tandy Colour Computer of which there were several in our computer group. The green screen and upper-case only 32 x 16 text were a downside compared to a BBC Micro or even the Genie, but it had 256 x192 graphics, a proper keyboard, a printer port, plenty of CoCo software, and a disk controller that would work with my Genie disk drives. It was cheap too. I quickly discovered the beauty of the Motorola 6809 processor. When Dragon Data were struggling I bought a discounted Dragon64 as well and added the DragonPlus board which gave 80 column text, and 128k of memory. It runs all the regular Dragon and CoCo software as well as the OS-9 operating system.

From there it's been down hill. I bought an early twin floopy 8086 IBM PC clone in 1984, added memory cards and acquired business software.
Then came the announcement of the Atari ST and Amiga. But which one to buy? I waited for the excitement to die down and the initial flaws to be ironed out, but eventually bought a Mega1 which came with a mono monitor. I bought a Philips Colour monitor which it shares with the Dragon(s), upped the memory to 4megabytes, added an UltraSatan and last week ordered one of Exxos's Dual TOS kits. Many thanks, by the way. Delivered yesterday, out with the soldering iron and fitted by bedtime! Great value too, if you can manage some tidy soldering.

Today I still have the Video Genie, TRS-80 Model III,and Model 4, Dragon 32, 64 and Dragon Plus. several Spectrums, an AppleII, a handfull of RaspberryPis, 3 desktop PCs, a laptop - in fact 16 computers in all. Lots of software and peripherals, and yes they all work.

I left teaching in 1990 for a more lucrative IT Consultant career. If you used Business Banking, Telephone or Internet Banking for a well known British high street Bank then I may be to blame! I retired in 2005 so I expect it's been rewritten several times by now! Many happy years and great people that I worked with. I still waste time on computers, shocked by how bloated the software has become and wondering which new language will be the next flavour of the month. Remember the old days when even the first IBM PC was available with 64k and a cassette? An Atari 520ST was mouth-watering then!

[exxos]

:bravo: :welcomewave:

[sporniket]

welcome :)

[rubber_jonnie]

:welcomewave:

[JezC]

:swave:

Welcome to the forum!

[Steve]

Welcome! Great to hear you're from beautiful North Wales! A lot of my ancestry is from there, it's my spiritual homeland :) You also sound really knowledgeable on computers! Great to have another tech savvy person on the board.

[Rustynutt]

Got my attention with "motorbikes" :)
2012, a year before retirement after 30 years with the DOD.

Was this year I finally got around to installing my CT60 and SuperVidel.
Until then, an Afterburner 040 and NOVA ATI Mach 64 kept me happy on the Falcon.

Had a similar dilemma as yourself, Atari had just purchased Federated, a coworker invited me over after graveyard one evening to try Zork out on his accountant mom's TRS 80, just had to have one. Never did 8 hours pass so quickly.
Can't answer the why to the Atari question, just seems the "logical" thing to do.

Hadn't gotten into 8-Bit, so started out late with a 1040 STFm. Then came an XTRA RAM Deluxe, then HBS T-36....
Sure if the Exxos store existed then, I'd be "more broken" :)

My first experience with computers came around 1980. An "old time "NC" machinist taught me how to program in G Codes, and use a "Flex Writer" to punch paper tape, although with practice got the hang of using the keypad to enter programs manually.

Before relocating in 2016, sold all the ST's TT's, keeping only a Milan and several Falcons.

Not to hog your intro limelight, don't think I ever did one, so this can serve double purpose :) You'll prolly remember me as that guy that types way too much crap!

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[mrbombermillzy]

Welcome Peter! That was a very nice introduction. :) I'm sure you will fit in just fine here.

@Rustynutt + @serenarian I too suffer from this same MC affliction even now. :lol:

Perhaps we need to start a new thread: 'Members motorbikes'? I wonder if @exxos will allow the diversification of the forum topics into the field of 'mechanical engineering'? :D

P.S. That KX500 is a true monster! Ive a TS400 motor I mean to fit to something eventually.

[stephen_usher]

:welcomewave:

[serenarian]

Just in case we start a motorcycle section. When I said in my introduction that bikes, sailing and skiing were distractions. I have 6 bikes to choose from, but I thought I'd show you the bike I was riding today - a 1956 BSA DBD34 Goldstar. You can look them up but briefly its the one with a 65mph first gear and 1 and a half inch GP carb that has no tickover.

Goldie at Carrog.JPG