Hello, from Cincinnati!
Posted: 08 Jun 2024 19:22
Hi, my name is Thomas. When I was 9 I watched Steve Jobs demonstrate an apple computer on PBS. I was fascinated, but as a poor kid on welfare it was a pipe dream to own one. I spent the summer doing chores around the neighborhood, collected soda bottles for the deposit etc.
I saved $50 in a year, a fortune. Then I found a $50 rebate coupon on the Atari 400 and bought the display model, which was discount sale.. for $100 with a tape drive and BASIC. Just my price!
I got started with Atari BASIC , Analog Magazine and a Cassette tape to back up and "hopefully" reload the software I'd type in on it's flat keyboard and a BW TV I fished out of the trash.
Later I bought an 800xl a 1050 floppy (heaven!) by 12 I was writing scrolling games and adding some assembly I'd write with a list of op codes and hex numbers. I created a floppy sector copier for the 8-bit Atari with a hardware mod for the 1050 that worked remarkably well.
At 16 I got a child work permit a Fast food job, and purchased my Atari 520 St.
I still have my 520 ST, box and all. It still works but never been recapped so I'm restoring it. I have some other ST stuff, a few SCSI controllers from ICD, RAM upgrades and even the "tweety board" audio channel splitter. I still have software that still loads and I need to add to the public repositories, it's quite an extensive collection, I was a total software pirate back then. I ported several infocom games to the ST that infocom never released for the ST. I'm hoping the floppies still load, I did back up my SCSI Hard drives years ago.
I have a few spare ST MBs including a damaged 520 rev b board from a badly soldered , but somehow working, 16MGHZ upgrade installed by my 16 year old self with a cheap, way to under-powered and no temperature control radio shack soldering iron on the kitchen table . I'm probably going to use as parts at this point as I did some damage to traces and had one of those plug in RAM expanders cut pins on the ROMs for dual TOS and every other hack I could think of buy or duplicate. I'm turning My shed into my rerto PC home so I'll post some pics later.
I saved $50 in a year, a fortune. Then I found a $50 rebate coupon on the Atari 400 and bought the display model, which was discount sale.. for $100 with a tape drive and BASIC. Just my price!
I got started with Atari BASIC , Analog Magazine and a Cassette tape to back up and "hopefully" reload the software I'd type in on it's flat keyboard and a BW TV I fished out of the trash.
Later I bought an 800xl a 1050 floppy (heaven!) by 12 I was writing scrolling games and adding some assembly I'd write with a list of op codes and hex numbers. I created a floppy sector copier for the 8-bit Atari with a hardware mod for the 1050 that worked remarkably well.
At 16 I got a child work permit a Fast food job, and purchased my Atari 520 St.
I still have my 520 ST, box and all. It still works but never been recapped so I'm restoring it. I have some other ST stuff, a few SCSI controllers from ICD, RAM upgrades and even the "tweety board" audio channel splitter. I still have software that still loads and I need to add to the public repositories, it's quite an extensive collection, I was a total software pirate back then. I ported several infocom games to the ST that infocom never released for the ST. I'm hoping the floppies still load, I did back up my SCSI Hard drives years ago.
I have a few spare ST MBs including a damaged 520 rev b board from a badly soldered , but somehow working, 16MGHZ upgrade installed by my 16 year old self with a cheap, way to under-powered and no temperature control radio shack soldering iron on the kitchen table . I'm probably going to use as parts at this point as I did some damage to traces and had one of those plug in RAM expanders cut pins on the ROMs for dual TOS and every other hack I could think of buy or duplicate. I'm turning My shed into my rerto PC home so I'll post some pics later.