Collecting stuff - ups, downs and change of focus

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I had a C64 and an Amiga back in the day and didn't intend to collect anything other than Commodore.

But last year a friend gave me an Atari 65XE, Spectrum +2A/B and a Toshiba MSX HX-10 along with a dead A500+ :(:( that came from a house clearance. I haven't used any of them yet but not sure I want to let any of them go, even though I'm sure I'll never have time to use them properly.

They're all in great shape, especially the Spectrum - I actually think it looks quite cool :cool:

@bebek - is the +2A/B any good compared with the Sinclair ones?
 
Have no idea, have never time to play with them :). Some applies to all my micros ...
 
I used to repair PC's when I was a kid, and in return I often received "old PC junk" that people had laying around on their attic. A few years passed and I had an entire room full of IBM 5150's, and every other 8088, 80x86 etc PC imaginable. It was so bad that I had to pile them up until the ceiling of the room... I was officially a hoarder ;)

My first gf didn't really like my "hobby", so I made the worst mistake ever... I threw it all away (collecting retro PC stuff wasn't a thing at the time). I often regret that decision, laying awake at night knowing that those beautiful machines received a horrible dead because of my foolishness. :)

Around 6 years back I bought a second hand Sega Megadrive, followed by a Sega Genesis, a Game Gear or 2..3, a Saturn, a few Dreamcasts... piles of games... and the collecting (aka hoarding) microbe infected me again. I also started collecting everything Nintendo (Gb, NES,SNES, Famicom), to even the Japanese consoles and handheld consoles. It got worse because I also picked up Atari stuff, NEC Turbografx etc... and even bought a few Sony PVMs to have the nicest experience as well.

I have this urge to own every variant/model of a console brand, and can't seem to control it.

A while back I switched from the Vectrex and its rather small gaming library to the Amiga. I got an A500, bought everything you can fit in it to make it run at it's max capacity. I moved to an A1200 and did exactly the same thing (1260 etc...). I then focussed on the C64, bought a few breadbins, a C64C, an Aldi model, the C64 reloaded, the awesome 1541 Ultimate II, etc...

Now I'm busy with an Amiga 4000 (Picasso IV, Fast ATA, etc...).

Sometimes I have the feeling that I don't have any focus, I try to learn everything possible from a certain system, get bored, and move on to the next challenge.

Luckily my significant other doesn't have a problem with it, she even encourages me to display all my retro gaming stuff on shelves :-)

I however think that it's time for a pause, and just enjoy gaming for a while.
 
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Hoarding is now officially recognised as a mental health problem so I must have a problem. It drives my Wife mad that I will bring something retro in and not do anything with it. But I am now making great efforts to clear out rubbish/useless tat. My plan is to sort and sift all the retro stuff and get shot of things that have no use whatsoever.

Talking about some kind of retro/hoarding getogether help group isnt such a daft idea imho (great excuse to visit the pub lol) It is not just old computers, I see this same thing in old classic car circles, people collect spares with a fear of the parts becoming unavailabe and it can take over people's lives and cause stress to family members.

I love old computers, amigas ataris c64's etc. Part of my youth I cannot seem to let go I suppose. If it were not computers it would be cars and that would probably drive my Wife to leave me or something lol.

Oh the joys of life :D
 
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Something I learned a while ago - all the collecting/possessions end up owning you.

Just a couple of years ago I was swamped with around 10 Amiga's and never really used them that much; but now that they've been sold I feel I have some space and freedom.


Think if I got into collecting/playing games again I'd just get one standard 500 and be happy with that (how it all started).
 
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When collecting becomes hoarding is when it starts to control you instead of the other way around. When it starts to fill up your home and affects your social life (worried about bringing people over etc.), I'd say it is time to start considering if it has become a problem.

I have a collector inside me as well, but I think I have it well under control. My retro-stuff has their designated places inside cupboards and in the basement and only a few (that I use and/or is working on) is visible in the apartment. I mainly have C64s and Amigas but have more or less stopped gathering more since I have what I want now (2xA500, 2xA500+, 2xA600, 2xA1200, various C64s, a Plus/4, C64 Reloaded and various accessories). I have also given away a few C64s to friends since I was up to about 8 which I thought was plenty of spares. :) For Amigas, I think 2x of each model is a good compromise so that I have a spare if one should go belly-up (until I fix it again). I don't have any attachment to big box Amigas so don't intend on getting any of those (except maybe if I find one in the dumpster - then I won't leave it. :)). If I had a house with lots of room, then maybe I'd consider a big box Amiga, but as long as I'm living in an apartment with very limited space, I need to be realistic and I want to fit in the apartment myself. For the same reason, I don't have any CRTs as they are just too bulky.
 
demolition said:
If I had a house with lots of room, then maybe I'd consider a big box Amiga, but as long as I'm living in an apartment with very limited space, I need to be realistic and I want to fit in the apartment myself. For the same reason, I don't have any CRTs as they are just too bulky.
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I don't know that I fully agree, A3000/A4000 are not *that* big and you can stash the keyboard on a keyboard shelf. The A500 takes up huuuuge amounts of desk space, especially if you have a sidecar HDD attached. :)
 
velourfog said:
I don't know that I fully agree, A3000/A4000 are not *that* big and you can stash the keyboard on a keyboard shelf. The A500 takes up huuuuge amounts of desk space, especially if you have a sidecar HDD attached. :)
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True, an A3000/4000 doesn't take up that much desk space since you can stack things on it, but I do have emotional attachments to 500/500+ which is why I'd rather spend my limited space on those than a big box Amiga. Also, 3000s/4000s can be a massive money-sink while the wedge Amigas are a little more sane in that area.
I don't have any A500 sidecars since, as you say, they take up too much valuable desk space. I use Kipper2k's internal RAM+CF solution and since I can also stack external drives, floppy discs etc. on top of the 500, it can actually be more space-economical than a 1200.
 
Hopefully the mods won't take this as necroposting.

I never thought that having a family would mean having almost no time to myself! That's one of the reasons why my collecting hobby is just that - 95% collecting, 5% using. Can't go upstairs without my wife giving me puzzled looks. How do you guys juggle between your family life and hobbies/sports/friends?
 
Half-Saint said:
Hopefully the mods won't take this as necroposting.

I never thought that having a family would mean having almost no time to myself! That's one of the reasons why my collecting hobby is just that - 95% collecting, 5% using. Can't go upstairs without my wife giving me puzzled looks. How do you guys juggle between your family life and hobbies/sports/friends?
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at least it's not just me. My wife is the same, if I try to do anything hobby related I have to "explain" my motives. Maybe we should open a thread in the oracle section "how to appease the wife during man hobby cave time"
 
Wives need to understand that men need "me" time as well. Personally I need "time away from other humans".

Family - if you mean children, my input went down drastically once they hit mid-teens, and by the time they started to hit 18 I started to have a lot of spare time on my hands, even more once they get girl/boy-friends. Enjoy them while you can!

And by the time you get to play with your collection of stuff, you may have moved on mentally - kinda think that's happened to me, while the kids were growing up I had a growing backlog of things I wanted to try, now they are largely grown up... meh, not sure I care any more.
 
Nah, I don't mean kids as I love spending time with my son. It's the time after he goes to bed that I sometimes like to use for my hobbies.
 
LOL your not mad !

I know a doctor that had 3 ejector seats from military aircraft hidden in one of his treatment rooms.
he kept bidding and winning.
he was about to retire and was dreading telling his wife about his "hobby"
 
Everybody has the urge to collect stuff, be it electronics, games, trading cards, stamps, coins, clothes, shoes, etc.

The problem is just that some of those things occupy more space and money than others :P

But I think as long as you're not completely ruining your life by throwing money out the window or putting your hobby first and your family/friends second, you're a completely normal human being.
However I noticed a recent trend of people spending money on digital stuff that they don't actually own (basically any online game with microtransactions), I think thats some real scary stuff.
 
Half-Saint said:
Hopefully the mods won't take this as necroposting.

I never thought that having a family would mean having almost no time to myself! That's one of the reasons why my collecting hobby is just that - 95% collecting, 5% using. Can't go upstairs without my wife giving me puzzled looks. How do you guys juggle between your family life and hobbies/sports/friends?
Click to expand...

Sounds like my life :).
 
bebek said:
Half-Saint said:
Hopefully the mods won't take this as necroposting.

I never thought that having a family would mean having almost no time to myself! That's one of the reasons why my collecting hobby is just that - 95% collecting, 5% using. Can't go upstairs without my wife giving me puzzled looks. How do you guys juggle between your family life and hobbies/sports/friends?
Click to expand...

Sounds like my life :).
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....and me!
In the last three months I have purchased pristine boxed Dreamcast, 32x, MegaCD MK1 and 2, and new GX4000 and 20th anniversary PS4......and I've yet to test them, let alone "play" with em.....I spend more time looking for amazing quality boxed freshness than actually playing with my toys..... I'm sure times will change.....after all there cant be THAT many more consoles left to buy :unsure:
 
I'm the opposite (like when James May opened a model train he just bought at auction NOS , ripped open and discarded the box)

All my "toys" get played with of some fashion,

this month me and my 6ry old have been playing on,

My P1-233 mmx, doom, pod racers , NFS seII, and many more :)
Gamecube mario sunshine, Luigi's Mansion (He loves this) and Wind Waker

Currently on the table is a PS2 Phat for a bit of ratchet & clank, GT4 and Disney skateboarding. Also setup is my Mist FPGA and hes been loving Menace on the Amiga 500 :D

Last month was my Apple LCII, BBC B , Dragon 32 and C64, next month ill drag out my Atari 130xe and 2600 with Harmony cart and possibly my Intellivision, its just what i can get out to use.

I love my kids using this stuff, to me its far better then sat on a shelf in a box, My 3DO is setup in the bedroom for a bit of road rash, he loves that also :D
 
Glad to hear the LCII is getting the use it deserves. May I suggest looking up the Mac Floppy Emu by BigMessOWires?
 
Maybe start a new helping organisation: AC = Anonymous Collectors :unsure:

My latest project: bought an A2000 mobo for checking out a periphal card; ended up collecting psw, case, FDD, DVD-rom, keyboard, ROMs, etc.
I promised myself (and my wife) to get rid of lot of amiga stuff but no success so join me to the club :picard
 
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