Hi all,<br>I was gone for 24 hours and we jumped
up to 17 members. I'm glad to see new faces and new
postings.<br><br>I've been having trouble with Yahoo lately. I'm not
receiving messages in my email, and all the clubs I belong
to do not always show up in my list. So I'm making
the rounds as much as I can.<br><br>Welcome
all!<br>Davey B.

FYI, the standard 5-pin DIN to RCA plug audio
cable works to connect a variety of computers to a
standard composite monitor (one with audio and video
plugs). I know it works for the TI-99/4a (WARNING: be
careful and use a voltmeter as TI brought out 12 volts to
run the modulator and it is ACTIVE on one plug, tape
off that plug and DO NOT plug it into a monitor),
Atari 8-bits, and (thanks to emucompboy) the Panasonic
JR200U. And it's cheap and available.<br><br>Davey B.

But I'm number 14. Selling new Xerox 8088 computer.

Here's one on E-Bay, for connection with a Commodore monitor:<br><br><a
href=http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1280720067
target=new>http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1280720067</a>

Depends on what your screen is. If you have a
Commodore monitor, with separated chroma and luma, then
you'll need the special Commodore cable. E-Bay is your
best bet. Otherwise, you can probably go down to your
local stereo store and find a five-pin round connector
to four RCA jack cable, and try the jacks until you
figure out which one is video.

Does anyone have a wiring diagram for the cable between console and screen for a
c64? or even better a place where i can get one premade?

Hi all,<br>I was not even aware that we had a
problem here until I was contacted by Mike, the founder
of the Tomy Tutor club. Apparently, this club was
offline for a few days. It appears we are back online and
intact. Feel free to post away!<br><br>Davey B.

I'm happy to see that we are now up to 13
members. I'd like to welcome all the new people and let
you know you are free to post about anything having
to do with home computers. Also feel free to post
pix of your collection and links to your favorite
classic computer sites. Let's keep the action going in
here.<br><br>Davey B., founder

Hi all,<br>First, I'm wondering if anyone here
would be interested in setting a specific time to open
the chat room for discussion. I'm only available from
9:00 PM to 6:00 AM EDT on Friday and Saturday due to
my job and phone line restrictions (Gotta keep the
phone line open during the day.) If anyone is
interested please post.<br><br>Second, I'm working hard to
start up my own domain in November. It will be devoted
to the Retro-computing and gaming scene. I intend to
have an online magazine, file downloads, and info on
home computers. If anyone has specific ideas or wants
to contribute articles to the magazine, let me know.
Also I'm looking for a talented artistic volunteer to
do web artwork.<br><br>That's all for
now!<br><br>Davey Brain

Has anyone else noted that a couple of the
messages are now missing? This happened one other time in
this group, the messages were gone, then reappeared
several days later. Be assured that I did not delete
them; I would only delete a message if it was clearly
inappropriate in this group, which emucompboy's eBay messages
were not. Just wanted to reassure
everyone.<br><br>Davey B. ;&lt;))

You are right Brain.. If you are patient enough
most of the time you can get some good deals.. I
personally finance most of my ebay buying through selling of
stuff.. So its not a problem. I too have also found some
good buys through just email contacts...Some items you
are probably only going to find on ebay though....

I was thinking that if any of you have a website
I'd love to have you put a link to it on the links
page here at the club. I have a website (the founders
homepage) that highlights my collection and tells how I've
aquired it. I'm working on getting better pix (and more
of my collection, not generic pix of systems). If we
can get enough pages together, perhaps we can start a
Home Computer Webring to link them together. It's just
a thought.<br><br>I'd also like to extend an offer
to all the members. I used to write websites for a
company I was a partner in, so if anyone wants to put a
site up and doesn't know where to start contact me at
dsbrain@... and I'll be happy to help you in writing the HTML
for your site. Lets get our collections out there for
everyone to see!<br><br>Davey B. ;&lt;))

I recently got a spam email advertising some kind
of BidBot software that would automatically log on
and bid at the last second in eBay auctions. I read
it then deleted it, but now I'm wondering if I
should have looked more closely at it.<br><br>I really
liked eBay but I'm suffering a little eBay burnout
right now after loosing so many auctions at the last
second. Most of my purchasing recently has been through
local thrift shops and private emails, no outbid on a
set price. And the prices are about the
same.<br><br>My strategy right now is to look at the "ending
today" stuff and bid on overlooked items that I can
possibly get for the minimum bid. I've managed to get an
Atari 600XL for $5.03, a 64K CoCo2 for $2.25 (with 2
joysticks and a modulator for a TI-99/4a included), games
for $1.00 or less and BASIC books for less than
$1.50.<br><br>Just my 2 cents worth...and you're right, eBay is
nuts.

Hey, that was a low price...... I couldnt pass that up!!!   :)

I wanted that joystick for the Tomy Tutor!  Now I am going to have to pout.

LOL..... Well, you just need to mark down all of
these auctions times, and have bids ready to go the
last min or so.. Like I do.. LOL... Don't you know
your supposed to put your whole life aside to win
these things? hehe<br><br>swap_and_shop

E-Bay is nuts. I am so tired of receiving a
"you've been outbid" notice after the auction has already
ended. They should have their mailer check to see if the
auction is ended before sending that one. If it has, then
they should just send the "You lost"
e-mail.<br><br>Sheesh. I was top-bid on an auction from day one 'til the
last 30 seconds of an auction. Then six sniperbot bids
came in! E-Bay should make it so that if a high bid
comes in in the last two minutes of an auction, then
the auction will automatically be extended by two
minutes.

Of course your Ramdrive is worth whatever a known
buyer is willing to pay for it.<br><br>As a buyer, I
measure the cost of an item against how much fun I'm
going to have with it. I think I wouldn't be able to
have $152.50 worth of fun with that particular item --
but obviously, there's someone else who
would!<br><br>I've spent about $600 on an APF Imagination Machine,
nine cartridges, and four cassettes. One of these
days, I better be having $600 worth of fun with it!

I guess I forgot to mention one good eBay buy I
got. My Panasonic JR200U is probably the most uncommon
computer in my collection. When it went up on eBay, there
were only a couple other bids and I ended up getting
it for just over $20.00. I think that qualifies for
a best buy.<br><br>Davey B.

Actually the price is very attractive.   Last week one went for $211.00 and
another went for $178.00 with only 4 megs of ram...     Yeah I am swap_and_shop
on ebay.. and who are you?? :)

Best computer buy? Hmmm, highly subjective, that.
Seeing as how we're bidding on one-of-a-kind items,
getting something at all, in any kind of working
condition, is a "best buy." That said, I have: <br>Tomy
Tutor<br>Panasonic JR-200U<br>NEC Trek<br>Yamaha CX5M (an MSX
computer)<br>Spectravideo 328 with about 40 cassettes<br>Microprofessor
MPF-II<br>Laser 3000<br><br>Worst computer buy? That's easier.
That'd be the VZ200 (NTSC) which I bought. It was
unfortunately Dead On Arrival. In over two years, it's been the
only NTSC VZ200 I've seen on E-Bay.<br><br>Worst deal?
I've been stiffed by several sellers; I sent the money
and did not get the goods. One of them even had the
nerve to give me negative feedback! Sheesh.<br><br>Say,
if you're swap_and_shop on E-Bay, I wanted that CMD
Ramdrive, but durn, it got awfully expensive!

I have a new version of Virtual MC-10 on my website,
<br><br>www.geocities.com/emucompboy<br><br>More games are packed with it, and
it has a limited ability to load in .WAV files.

Hey, thanks for bringing up the topic. I'm an
eBay shopper, so I'll answer that topic.<br><br>Best
eBay buy: 64K Extended BASIC Color computer w/2 deluxe
joysticks (and a TI modulator I can use): $2.25 plus $7.50
shipping<br><br>Worst eBay buy: Tomy Tutor; worked for 3 days, then
shorted out, I repaired but a ROM is burned, usable for
parts only, over $90 w/shipping (I did get 3 carts and
a set of joypads<br><br>Most unusual eBay deal: bid
25 cents on a box of 5 1/4 disks, came to $3.25 with
shipping, ended up buying 16 boxes of disks for about $1.87
a box including shipping<br><br>For me the best
deals I've made haven't been on eBay and haven't been
on hardware. Hardware is great, but having software
is what makes a computer truly useful and fun. I got
a Commodore C128 with all kinds of disk drives,
printers and the like for $40.00 at a thrift shop, but
what was really kewl was that it had over 300 flippy
disks of software. I'm still exploring that. And today
I received (for shipping only) over 500 disks of
programs for the TI-99/4a, along with many books and
magazines. That was about 3 cents per packed
disk!<br><br>OK, all time best computer deal anywhere...a complete
TI-99/4a with video modulator, power supply, five
cartridges in mint condition, $2.00 at a local Christian
thrift store<br><br>Honorable mentions:<br>1. TI-99/4a
system with PEBox and all, disks, carts, the works, a
free gift from my sister.<br>2. An Apple ][gs system,
monitor, keyboard mouse and all, offered the boy scouts
$5.00, they accepted it, but I felt guilty and ended up
giving them $10.00.<br><br>Fun topic! Lets hear from
others on this.<br><br>Davey B.

Hey, lots of people not talking in here.. Let's
talk about something. I suspect that many of us are
Ebay members too.. Whats the best computer buy you
ever got on ebay? Whats the worst computer buy you
ever got? And what is the strangest deal you ever
made..<br><br>For me, I often find I have to do lots of buying and
selling to get the pieces I want. That means bidding on
large lots, and picking the pieces I want. some ebay
lots are so large, shipping would be prohibited... Oh
well, just trying to start a conversation..

All you members, feel free to post any links you
know of to the links page here. As long as they are
about home computers and collecting it would be
kewl.<br><br>Also if you have a picture or two of your collection
feel free to post it too. I'd like to see some
pictures here.<br><br>Davey B.

I wanted to mention about the Classic Computer
and Gaming Show (CCAG 2001) that is going on on June
30th in Lorain Ohio. Check out their website at
<a href=http://tomheroes.com/ccag.htm
target=new>http://tomheroes.com/ccag.htm</a> for more information.<br><br>I will
be displaying
3 computer systems there: a Tomy Tutor, a TRS-80
MC-10 and an Aquarius System. I am presently in the
market for more Tomy Tutor and Aquarius
hardware/software, and any MC-10 programs that exist. If anyone can
help out, please email me at dsbrain@... and
let's work something out.<br><br>I hope to see some of
you at the show!<br>Davey B.

Hi,<br><br> I love vintage microcomputers from
the<br>70's and early 80's, along with their
related<br>items. I am especially interested in<br>S-100
systems.<br><br>The systems I currently have:<br><br> Apple II+<br>
Apple IIe<br> Apple IIe Platinum<br> Apple IIc w/ mini
monitor<br> Apple IIGS w/ monitor<br> Apple III w/ monitor
III<br> Commodore VIC-20 w/ datasette<br> Commodore 64
w/1702 monitor and 1541 disk<br> Commodore 16<br>
Timex/Sinclair 1000 w/ 16K module<br> TRS-80 Model 1 w/ monitor
and disk drive<br> TRS-80 Model 100<br> TRS-80 Color
Computers (gray and white cases)<br> TI 99/4a with
expansion chassis<br> IMSAI 8080 case and MPU (NON-WORKING
now)<br> Cromemco Z-2 (NON-WORKING now)<br> IBM 5150 PC w/
5151 mono-monitor<br> IBM 5160 PC w/ 5153
color-monitor<br><br>Various related items I currently have:<br><br> Cromemco,
Godbout and IMS S-100 boards<br> Altair 4-slot
motherboard<br> Altair 8800b Frame<br> Microsoft Z80 Softcard<br>
"Byte" Magazine (first year)<br> "Kilobaud" Magazine
(first year)<br> "Popular Electronics" '74,'75,'76,
'77<br> Many books/flyers/manuals for the above<br><br> I
want to get a hold of an Altair 8800<br>more than
anything. And, I'm hoping to get my<br>IMSAI 8080 running
soon.<br><br>Donations Welcome 8-)<br>Raife

The club looks like it needs another member or
two!<br><br>I have about 80 different home computers from the
70's to 1985. But I am in Australia, so we have some
ones that are "common" here but are not in North
America, and vice versa. So it might be possible to
arrange some swaps?<br><br>For example, VZ-200 and
VZ-300's are reasonably common here, but I do not have an
Atari 400. That would be a good swap.

Welcome to the club for collectors of home
computers. If you enjoy collecting please join and show off
your collection here.<br><br>As of today, my small
collection includes a Mattel Aquarius with mini expander, a
TI99/4a complete system, an MC-10 Micro Color Computer
with ram pack, a TRS-80 Color Computer 2, a Sinclair
ZX-81 with ram pack, 3 Timex/Sinclair 1000s with TS1016
ram packs, an Atari 2600 with almost 100 games, 2
Atari 7800s with about 25 games and a Gridcase 3 8086
laptop with a brilliant orange display.<br><br>So what
have you got?<br><br>Davey B.

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