My introduction - TrailMyx

[TrailMyx]

I started programming back on my father's mini mainframe, a Data General Nova 3.  I was hooked on the programming aspect ever since.  I never was very good at coming up with my own games, but I did manage to port all kinds of existing games to platforms that didn't yet have such a game running.

My first personal computer was a ZX81 that I bought with the proceeds of my lawn mowing money.  I then graduated to the TS2068 for my first introduction to a color computer.  All my friends had Apple IIs, so my family got an Apple IIe for word processing and general school work.

After that, I managed to accumulate various computers over the years including a ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL, VIC20, C64, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad, etc.  It was about 5 years ago that I started collecting large quantities of broken computers from the above list with the hopes of fixing them as well as generally refurbishing them to completely working condition as well as overall improved physical appearance.  I mainly bought computers from Ebay that were dysfunctional but generally in OK physical condition to restore them to full health.

Today, I have a collection of more than 30 C64s, 30 Sinclairs, 20 Atari 8-bit, 12 Apple IIs and 10 Apple IIgs, 10 68K Macs, several Amigas and Atari STs.  My collection is growing weekly since this is pretty much my primary hobby and I do love troubleshooting hardware issues.  I have an odd collection of home-built ZX Spectrum clones where I built the entire computer from a raw breadboard and a box of parts.

So I'm not an expert at any one of these systems, but I do have a pretty good working knowledge for a large array of retro systems.  Furthermore, troubleshooting these computers is similar regardless of who manufactured them.  So I've found that if you can fix one type, you can pretty much fix anything.