Most liked posts in thread: What's new Pussycat too?

What do you call a field full of skeletons?

A Scho-field...

Not my joke..

 

All right guys, here are a few pics of my stereo & video players set-up, though the CED player, Lazerdisc player and turn table are out of view atm. And one of my finished re-rebuilt speakers. Through the last rebuild the 12" woofers remained original, as well as one 3" mid-range speaker, and the cabinets were repaired with wood putty and painted antique white except for the face which was the original black. And I ordered speaker cover material and made new speaker covers from scratch.

This rebuild included more wood putty, fixing chewed corners from the puppies, two new woofers and two new 4" mid-range (an inch bigger and twice the watts of the other 2. And the two 3" replacement tweeters from the first rebuild remain. The Antique white colour I used before turned out to show too much dust and grime needing constant cleaning to look good, so I decided to go with a Dark Walnut color for the outside of the cabinets this time. I repainted the black faces of the cabinets and added faux gold-leaf trim to the front perimeter this time too. Though I ran out of both the Dark Walnut paint and gold-trim, so my second speaker isn't completed yet, hence it's absence. But you may be able to guess what it will look like...

After the last rebuild the speakers remained the same 200 watts they were originally, but with better quality tweeters. This time I upped the power to 260 watts (exact power as my Pile Amplifier. My JVC amp is 400 watts, 200 per speaker for stereo and 100 watts per speaker in 4 speaker quad mode). Pictures of my finished subwoofer and rear speakers to come soon, I just didn't think about it this time since the focus was the rebuilt speaker and my stereo with LED lighting (the JVC receiver and second tape deck have not been given the LED treatment yet...

Sorry about the photo quality, but I have very poor natural and artificial lighting in this area of my room, at least for taking photos. I took several with and without flash and from different angles. There are "blemishes" on the top of the speaker cabinet, these are due to issues with lighting, glare and camera and the paint job looks unblemished in real life. I'm not sure why they are showing up in the photos and I don't see them on the camera screen when taking the photo. I'll take better pictures of both speakers when I finish the other and take photos of my sub and surround speakers.

 

I wonder if the puppies will like the new taste?

We at Maplin did all the speaker cover material, the material for the fronts as well as the speakers themselves.. All silly prices tho, I hated doing the material as it was in our storage cellar and the delivery people knocked seven hell out of anything down there, including the various cloths. Upshot, you would go to cut a few metres of cloth only to find there was a repeated hole in the cloth roll.

Also, it STANK of damp there...

PS, nice work there Matt, I too, love the old illuminated displays, more the VU type ones and not the bands of LED's like the KIT car line. Thought the KIT type looked cheap..

 

Finally got round to setting up my latest purchase last night, the Atari STe that I mentioned previously. Picked it up through a Gumtree advert and the seller delivered it to me in person. Condition is very good, not a lot of yellowing and the floppy drive works fine as well. It also came boxed and with a 4meg upgrade.

Spent last night loading up some games like Kick Off 2 and Vroom and a lot of ST Format coverdisks. Had a fun time playing some old titles like Revenge of the Mutant Camels and a few shareware releases. The plan is to keep the machine as is but eventually add an sd card hard drive interface. Also perhaps a dot matrix printer if I find a reasonable deal, thinking something like a Star LC-10 which I owned back in the late 80's/early 90's.

Just having a play around with the ST made me realise how much memory (our own, not the computers) can play a part in this hobby. The ST was my first 16 bit computer, the first machine I used seriously for desktop publishing (Timeworks). I sold them for a good few years as well and had my own hardware and shareware business based around them. Wish I still had one of the catalogue discs for the shareware side, PD Force. Also got involved in the demo and hacking scenes and in general had a great time.

Of course I also ended up purchasing various Amiga systems but the ST was and always will be my first proper 'big' computer. And controversial as it may seem, I still prefer the cleanness of GEM to the Commodore Workbench!

So, big success so far and now I need to try and remember some of the software I want to track down as it would be nice to get boxed versions of a few more games and utilities.

 

So glad your acquisition brings back so many fond and treasured memories, Al.
Think that's what we all get a kick out of - the huge nostalgia buzz when a dear old "first lurve" comes back to daddy ;-)
As you know, that ST book's yours and I too owned an ST for about a year or so but just didn;t ever win me over as I was still in lurve with me 800XL and didn't find any big quantum leap with its 16bit big bro but did get into the DTP on the Amiga so your memories bring back some others for me via Page Setter, I think it was called, on the A500. Plus, I too bought a Star printer - the LC24-10 which was very similar.
I definitely did enjoy some fine releases on the ST incl Kick Off 2, Buggy Boy, Carrier Command and I bet there were some shareware disks I also enjoyed... I'll wrack me braincell and have a wee think over the weekend and get back to you, mate.
DO post some pics of your new joy.

 

I had an Epson FX80 with the graf trax chips update, to this day I don't know why I owned a printer, I didn't need one, rarely used it. I guess it was because all the folks around me had one. These days I do use a printer on the PC, in fact I just purchased a new one via Paypals 3 split payments. I already had 2 printers but the nozzles went bad and no cleaning fixed it. I wasn't going to buy new ink only to see it wasted.

Cheaper to buy a new printer with 6 months free ink than to buy new ink..

As for dogs, well done Matt, some people see animals as pets, I see them as family and treat accordingly, nice to see others do the same. Mind you, we as a family go out and look after the local cats as well, we feed the odd treat and play with them even though their owners take good care of them. When we leave the block you see cat's coming out from nooks and crannies to come over to us, the puss fights then start

 

I still have my Panasonic NLQ dot-matrix I custom painted to match my XL system...and still haven't actually used since college! I even have 3 ribbon cartridges, two used and one NOS, all I rejuvenated from drying out...and I'm sure all will need rejuvenation again before I use it!

Before college I only had a 1020 printer/plotter which I did use for many years for printing out on-disk manuals and printing/plotting graphics. Again, repaired it and rejuvenated two or three sets of pens for it, even made some pens new colors, and again, have yet to use it since then. Both printers made ready to go within the last 10 years and still haven't used them.

Mainly due to my computers being down with repairs or upgrades more than up and being used in the last 10 years too! Though I still have great plans for both, if I can ever find the time.

Even my 3D printer I've had for about 3 years now hasn't been used in about a year, since I added lots of new upgrades to it including an updated motherboard to handle new upgrades like auto-leveling and laser etching. I just recently got around to installing the firmware for it and hope to get around to it again soon too.

But as you all know, this year, so far, has been about my audio/video systems and getting them repaired and upgraded. But the 8-bit bug is coming around again and I'm getting the urge to return to all my 8-bit systems and finish what I started and left unfinished since last year due to work and life. I am of course constantly doing projects, that never stops, but the last year or so has been mostly projects to do with my business machinery and keeping it all running. Even the last bits of my home rebuilding/remodeling has been on hold. Which isn't much in comparison to what is completed, but for example there is still no interior trim in my house, around the windows, doors, floors and ceilings. The rest is exterior improvements like a porch and deck and proper landscaping.

 

Also had to do a little big of rejigging in the mancave so it now looks neater than before....

 

Ok fellas, here is an all-in-one picture of all my speakers for my JVC/Pyle 5.1 surround system. Pretty much all are DIY rebuilds at this point except for the two bookshelf speakers I use for the rear L/R. Yes, I did switch from gold to silver trim on my two front loudspeakers. They go better with my silver component system and the silver screen for my projector directly behind it.

My center channel speaker is attached to the top of the subwoofer with a swivel (U/D) base. Of course they are together for the family picture and not in the normal listening positions. I'll take another picture of the front speakers once they are set-up correctly.

I finished off my DIY subwoofer with black vinyl. The bookshelf speakers have a grey-silver cloth for their covers (magnetically attached) and the front loudspeakers have black cloth covers for them (Velcro attached). The front center channel speakers originally only had the center mid-range speaker you see, the "tweeter" holes on either side were fake. But I installed tweeters in it.

 

Nice setup there Matt, careful they don't blow your cave / office down

Loud Rush may be too much for it to take..

 

Feed me some Rush, ma'an...

 

Boom, banga bang...

 

That poor Oric has seen some action, Sensi, always worth a grab and will sell on easily. The Track and Field controller is nice, I wasn't a big player of any of those button mashing games. I really didn't have the coordination for them, another type of game I more enjoyed watching a good player doing their thing.

Nice little pick up there Al...

 

Apparently, he's Scottish, they never GIVE anything away..

 

Finally managed to get time to take a couple of quick snaps of my finds over the last week...


Saw this storage case while I was in a reto game store in Scarborough. It was sitting on a top shelf jammed above a pile of boxes. The owner was using it to store some unboxed 2600 cartridges but I got him to part with it and knocked him down to £10 for it.


Still to give it a proper clean up but it fits the A8 cartridges quite well and the wood effect adds to the 1980's look.


This was my other purchase from the same place. Couldn't believe when I spotted it tucked into a corner. One of the few ST games I've actively been looking for and it was the only Atari title he had. The sticker price was £30 but done some pleading and we settled on £15 eventually. Very pleased to get a hold of this title.


This is another title that I've been after for the ST. My pal with the large retro shop up here in Scotland posted a photo and I had to snap it up right away. It is totally complete and even includes the dongle and score card notepad.


While I was picking up Leaderboard I noticed another two titles that I used to play on the ST so picked both up. I was trading in a couple of Amiga titles so only had to add a couple of pouinds to get them and Leaderboard.

So, a great little haul for me in the past week and none of it broke the bank either. Need to head back down to my mate's place at the end of the month as he also has a couple of Kick Off data disks that I want to get as well.

 

I also took a few snaps of the hardware section while I was in my pals shop. Feast your eyes on this little lot lads!

 

I recognise those Amiga titles

Nice Pics Al and Andy, a little pricey for the C64C, but it seems to be in good nick..

Not been to a retro shop in years, every sat me and my mate Jim used to walk around the West End, we would always nip in to CEX (or Software city as it was before CEX took the shop over) and have a nosey around. Sadly all that stopped just after 9/11, we watched it unfold on a giant TV in a shop on Tottenham Court Road, we because we could not hear the audio thought it was some new action film trailer, I said to Jim, those effects are pretty good, then a breaking alert banner flashed up, and we saw it was for real. After that it didn't feel safe down there, so the trips stopped, mind you, it was hell for me by then with the knee's, so did me a favour.(by that I mean the walking around and not the shocking death of all those poor people, that didn't do any one a favour)

Don't even know IF there is a retro shop near me, not that I'd likely go considering my drop in retro mood..

Just seeing the pics is enough for me..

Turned my C64 on the other day, not to play, but to upgrade the Ultimate 1541 carts firmware..Did it then off it went..

Oh, got diagnosed with PTSD the other day, it's been sitting on top of my depression all this time..Explains the night terrors and much of the mood issues.

Watched Guardians of the galaxy 3 with Serena, twas the web digital version, will get the Blu ray when that's out in August, do like to own the Marvel and DC films.

Well that's my news snippet, glad you lads are getting some treats, a happy chappy is a good chappy..

 

I do my best and I come here for a laugh with my good mates, while I may not play much now I still enjoy seeing others really enjoy doing whatever it might be. I really like Al's globe-trotting and love of getting around, it's not so easy for me now but hearing about his travels is just great. Listening to others love of retro life is still a buzz to me. I watched the Youtube channel, 8 bit show and tell, it's mainly for Commodore folk but the host, Robin just has a great way of explaining stuff, the one I watched was him fixing a decade's old game on the C64 that was released with a bug that meant you could never finish the Brit version. In the episode he explains how he found the bug and fixed it, it was absorbing to me and really enjoyed it. So my retro thoughts are not all dead.

The point being, I still love hearing you guys talk about the stuff that interests you all, I may not be much of a do'er now but this all still makes me smile. Remember, I can still walk, talk, fart (something I apparently do too much) and get around, I'm not in the poor state Mr Hawking was, as yet, so don't feel too sorry for me.

To quote Sir Elton John, I'm still standing...

 

One of the reasons I haven't been around much of late is directly related to the weather, but it's a good thing for my business with plenty of fallen trees and branches to clean up. But I'm still maintaining lawns at the same time, and even fell behind due to missing a week between taking a long Independence day weekend (in the past working through it) and then directly after 4 days of being rained out. So I've been working overtime, and in the usual summer heat with indexes plus 100 degrees F. Most days by the time I get home and check on my dogs, I take a cold shower and crash into my bed. We took this regular weekend off again since we caught up on the lawns. But it will be another long week ahead still doing the regular lawn schedule but also more chainsaw work after until it's all done. We have several large trees (trunks ~1 meter in diameter average) that were uprooted on regular customer's ranch. After that who knows, we usually run into a slow spell with late summer dry spells.

 

Was just looking at the news and saw that your area was getting a seriously warm time of it Matt, glad it's helping with business though. Keep fighting the good fight me old mate..

 

Jeez, guys... doom news indeed. I'll try and lighten it up a bit though I share your concerns re. the state of the world, what we're doing to the planet and military/security issues, media manipulation and the number of disasters lining up to shaft us up royally...

BOUGHT FOR A TENNER - can anyone guess which micro is lined-up to pair with this big boy?






CLUE (if you should need one).... educayshun, educayshun, educayshun...

 

Not much lurve for the Beeb on here, I believe, but never mind.

I had a sesh last neet til about midnight and enjoyed these two old classics plus a few others, once I got the internal MMC drive and chip reseated:









OK, no I wasn't pished - I had the camera taking one handed pics at a "jaunty" angle!

Beeb Beachhead's graphics aren't as good as the Atari's or CBM's but a decent effort all the same.

It brought back a stack of memories for me (mainly 32K)

Also, I didn't get into any trouble with sleeping Bev's... thanks to a nice headphone mod on my Beeb and some Atari headphones lying around spare...

 

Careful Andy, it's a Scot, those mints will have been pre sucked!!

 

That's so sucking true

(it's actually just the middles that are left)

 

Can't offer the same service as I am a heathen (to some), but if there IS a better place then I hope he's gone to it.

Not sure about the C64C power box, I was led to believe they were all the same, fewer pins simply because the others were not used. Then can pop and there's no simple way to get in to them, plus I'm sure they are epoxy internally. Careful not to mix up the spares place with Retro Lemon, I have to say the pricing is quite high on there at the moment.