They don't make 'em like they used to.

This morning I've been rummaging through our loft, trying to make room for some of Kierans baby toys which he does not play with any more. I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a couple of boxes containing some of my old computers that I haven't used in years. I just had to get them out and have a go!!!

Amongst the collection was an un-upgraded Atari ST520FM, a Commodore Amiga 1200 (with a 1gb Harddrive), and my beloved Commodre Amiga 500 with its super 68040 accelerated processor (from 7Mhz to 40Mhz thanks to the A530 upgrade), 120Mb harddrive, toggle switch for changing between Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0, external floppy disk drive, Action Replay Mark III cartridge and a VideoMaster digitiser!!! WOW!

Fortunatly years of neglect did not mean that these machines would not work, and within minutes of setting them up I was able to load up all sorts of stuff stored on the harddrives. I found programs and songs that I had written years ago which I had forgotten about.

It nearly brought a tear to my eye!

Although I emulate the Amiga on my PC to play all of my old favourite games, nothing beats playing the games on the original hardware - It's the same with my Commodore 64 and Plus 4... Games load instantly when emulated on a PC, but sometimes it is nice to type Load, press play on tape and wait several minutes for the game to load.

The full retro experience!

The A530 turbo with 120Mb harddrive and 40Mhz (68040) processor), Action Replay III cartridge and VideoMaster video and audio digitiser.

A retro icon.... An original Atari joystick - what a classic!

The Amiga 1200 with its 1Gb harddrive

The toggle switch for swapping between the different ROMS - Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0