exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

I feel like I am getting to the end of my collecting. There is always going to be upgrades to buy that come along, but I've pretty much got everything that has that nostalgic feeling. I could buy an Acorn Electron for example, but I've no connection to it. Getting it for the sake of it. I've over 80 computers/consoles/electronic toys in my room, and I am running out of space now.

But there is one major itch to scratch. That link between when we had our ZX Spectrum+ and then bought the Amiga 500. I've noted the story before various places, but our Spectrum died circa 1989 (did well from 1984!). Tech had advanced since '84, so instead of getting it repaired we thought it was a good opportunity to buy into new technology. And there was this computer featured in Crash magazine the 'Sam Coupe' which looked cool, had a disk drive and could run my existing collection of Speccy games. We went to the local computer shop to check it out and buy one, but there next to it was an Amiga 500 running Drakken Drakken game. This was next gen stuff compared to the Speccy and the Sam. So we waited and I got the Batman pack and thus started the Amiga love :lol:

So after not being able to persuade Sam horders ( ;) ) to swap for a Sharp X68000 (I will put up another Topic soon here on the forum to see if anyone wants to swap for a big box Amiga) I got into conversations with someone who was doing the classic 'wife says have a clear out, found this in the cupboard, not used for 30 years'.

He was not keen on posting, and as these don't come up very often and I had A/L to use up, so 'what the hell' and I took the day off and had a round trip of 389 miles and nearly 8 hrs of driving to collect it:
The floppy drive was dead. The original owner bought a new drive belt and tried replacing it but was unsuccessful and 2 SMD capacitors parted way from the disk drive PCB!

We all know each computer has its known faults that materialise after decades, and the Sam's seem to be the SMD caps and drive belt on the Citizen disk drive.
After an initial clean-up things looked ok. The PCB pads are massive compared to Amiga ones
I then used my microscope and scrapped off corrosion. There are 3 resistors near C102 (lower pic) and the right most resistor took the brunt of the leaking capacitor. It had detached off the PCB nearest the cap. Thankfully it was just a 0 Ohm, so I replaced this with a bit of wire and managed to do this without stripping the disk drive down any further.
After a bit of fun trying to get the new drive belt around the pulleys, I had a working disk drive :D

Sam's have a SCART connector at the back, but there are some other signals. So you can't just plug-in a SCART-SCART cable. I've loads of SCART cables, so following a guide I cut and re-jigged some wires to make a compatible cable and had a nice RGB picture.

I've wrote a few disks using a Greaseweazle to give her a test out (I've a whole disk box full of Atari ST disks, and even the coverdisks still unwrapped are knackered :( )

Nice machine, though oddly never one I've had an inkling to get my hands on.

In terms of 'I'm getting to the end of my collecting', you can tell yourself that as much as you like, but then the next interesting thing comes along and BOOM, then you're back in the game. I keep telling myself the same with a similar amount of machines in my collection, but then I always fail.

Since I said I've given up, I'm sure I've bought a Wii U, PS2 Slim, 2 PS3's, 3 PS4's, a C128, Sharp MZ-700 and lord knows what else, and built an OSI Superboard 600 (That still isn't working), so best just to cave now and live with your condition :)

:dizzy:

I know what you mean. Things do come along, like the Sharp X68000. I never expected to get into that, but something happened then yes boom I was fully down the rabbit hole :lol: I think I've managed to climb back out of that one now. Until TF releases some addon :lol:

I suppose there is the Neo Geo AVS, Sega CD + 32X... oh no, here I come :o :lol:

Higgy wrote: 15 Mar 2024 17:26 I know what you mean. Things do come along, like the Sharp X68000. I never expected to get into that, but something happened then yes boom I was fully down the rabbit hole :lol: I think I've managed to climb back out of that one now. Until TF releases some addon :lol:

I suppose there is the Neo Geo AVS, Sega CD + 32X... oh no, here I come :o :lol:

PC Engine perhaps?

Higgy wrote: 15 Mar 2024 16:48 He was not keen on posting, and as these don't come up very often and I had A/L to use up, so 'what the hell' and I took the day off and had a round trip of 389 miles and nearly 8 hrs of driving to collect it:

Well, I tip my hat to you. That probably beats my taking the wife to a warehouse in London (160 mile round trip) on Valentines day to pick up 5 Sony PVM20 monitors!

rubber_jonnie wrote: 15 Mar 2024 17:06 Since I said I've given up, I'm sure I've bought a Wii U, PS2 Slim, 2 PS3's, 3 PS4's, a C128, Sharp MZ-700 and lord knows what else, and built an OSI Superboard 600 (That still isn't working), so best just to cave now and live with your condition :)

I was under the impression that this forum was a thinly veiled, retro computer version of alcoholics anonymous anyway? :) :hide:

I've been trying to own a Sam Coupe for several years. They are always hundreds of miles away or too expensive. I'd still like one even though I own the Spectrum Next which is much better supported (and can become a Sam Coupe if needed).

Each time there one in FB I pounce..

Nice find. Show us what is so cool

mrbombermillzy wrote: 15 Mar 2024 19:02
I was under the impression that this forum was a thinly veiled, retro computer version of alcoholics anonymous anyway? :) :hide:

Indeed it is :)

I fixed one from one of my customers a few years ago and I really liked the machine. I have put it on my wanted list but unfortunately they have become too expensive.

As for getting to the end of your collection. I literally ran out of space a few months ago. I now have to store machines on my attic. It's isolated but I always disliked putting working machines on there.
I always have to stop myself from obtaining more vintage computers. Only yesterday a friend (who has a friend working in recycling) called me and he had a bunch of older IBM PS/2 computers. First I declined but then he send pictures. There were a few common ones like the PS/2 Model 30 but also more rare machines like a Model 56 and a Model 57. So I jumped in my car and got the whole lot. Nearly all of them work with working hard drives which are time capsules btw. I just couldn't have these machine scrapped, I wanted these to be preserved.

So I try to stop myself from getting more machines... But I fail every time :roll:

About ten years ago a Sam Coupe fan in Canada contacted me on a Amiga forum and asked if I would buy and post it to him as I lived in the Midlands where some guy was selling one, yep I agreed and it took me a few hours to collect and box and send it to him, and I know now he got a bargain as he paid £150 I think and even with the export costs he was quids in, and he gave the Data-corder that came it so I was a little happy in a way lol

And regarding collecting, yes I have wayyyyy too much stuff and no room, but if it keeps me off the streets no harm done :lol:

Nice Sam, Higgy! Here’s mine:
I think I’m at the end of my collecting days too. I don’t have 80 machines (!) but at last count I was iro 40 or so and I don’t have the space or inclination to get more now. Once I finally managed to get a NextCube recently (I’ve wanted one for years and years) I pretty much had scratched all the itches.