What's new Pussycat too?

Fantastic Alex! I'm having one of the better Christmas's too in many years as far as new toys go.

First, my mother and brother's gift to me is a new PYLE quadrophonic surround sound amplifier to replace my recently deceased original Quadrophonic JVC amp (which I will repair one day, but too much of that on my plate atm). The new amp will easily integrate with with all the other original rack stereo components and bring my vintage 80's stereo system in the 2020's with modern features like Bluetooth, etc. too. It will be the first time I have the equipment hooked up and properly working in a decade.

Second, I bought myself the TRS-80 Coco 2 which turned out to be a mint condition machine and I've already got tons of upgrades in it or coming for it, all Christmas presents to my self. But still new toys.

Three, I have a new LCD screen and VGA out upgrade coming for my Atari Lynx II, and with other components I have to repair it (recapping, etc.) my Atari lynx will be functional again for the first time in about 15 years.

Four, since I put up a blog on restoring my Bally Arcade console recently (extrapolated from the thread I wrote up about it here) and someone is sending me parts to help get it running again.

Five, I have an Atari 8-bit finished with upgrades and restoration and in operating order for the first time in almost two years now.

Though not just a good Christmas, but a pretty good year all around for new (to me) business equipment and office trailer, lot's of new toys I was able to afford to buy all year long because the business really took off this year, finally getting my house finished in it's restoration and remodeling after 6 years of work off and on.

The only downer was the tragic loss of my two new Siberian Husky pups, another "gift from God" I wanted for years, but unfortunately a short lived one that created great pain and heart ache in the end. But still a great year and Christmas over all, and hopefully this next year my brother will allow us to try again for more Husky pups, as my Beux is 11 years old now and they have an average life span of a mere 12-15 years. Though he seems to still act spry and young, so I'm hoping he beats the average and has more than just a couple more years of life in him.

Merry Christmas to one and all on the eve of Christmas eve...now it's time for me to go to work on my last job of the year and before Christmas, trimming a tree (no, not putting the trimming on a X-mas tree, a real tree-trimming job).

 

Merry Christmas guys. It’s been an up and down year for all of us. I was heartbroken when I heard about @M.D.Baker loosing his puppies.

I was pleased I managed to sort @AlexDrito a Dragon. I just finished building my lower case board and new power board for my other Dragon. So 6809s have been the focus the last few months.
I finally fitted a U1MB to my 65XE and picked up a SIDE3 and @Klyde helped my finally get a working Cumana disk interface for my Oric so I can enjoy the wonder that is Sedoric

I picked up a Wii U so now I have every Nintendo console from SNES to Switch. I still want get a Saturn and Dreamcast but that’s for next year

So I haven’t done too bad even if my health has not been so good.

 

Well done Richie, wanted to get a Wii U, but things have been too cash volatile as of late (make that 2yrs) but I can't complain re the toys side of things, the 1200XL being the icing on the cake. Still hoping for the 400 next year but I won't moan if it does not happen.

Most important thing Richie, your health, too much stress and all the nice machines mean nothing, you first, nice machines second..

 

There is no doubt at all, Daz, that as well as you enjoying a remarkably excellent retro Christmas already - great acquisitions there with the Lazer and Richie's old Dragon - Manu Klyde is also one of the most amazing, skilled, kind, generous and understanding guys you could possibly meet.

It's great to hear that you can see clearly now...



ENJOY, Daz!

 

The SCART cable for the VTECH Laser 500 works like a charm! Thanks again, @Klyde!

 

How about a picture of the VTech Laser 500? Here in the states the only 'VTECH' that I recall were little kid computers and stuff. But what I am seeing in these images is an 80 column screen for a serious computer!

 

Sure! There you go. @Klyde was so gentle to find TWO VTech Laser 500 for me and here are some pictures. One of them lacks the F keycap, but mon ami parisien, he'll find a way to print a 3D replacement as the original keyboard is very rare and parts are quite impossible to find.

 

Very nice looking machine! Too bad V-Tech only sold kids electronic toys in the states...I guess there was just too much competition for them to try selling it here with Apple, Commodore, Atari, Tandy, Texas Instruments all fighting for market share and of course any other companies didn't last long at all up against those top 5. And only four of them lasted into the mid-80's with Texas Instruments bowing out, and Atari and Tandy just barely holding on, but all 4 that lasted through the 80's had 8-bit machines around until the early 90's. With Apple and Atari having the oldest 8-bit lines, both well over a decade, even still produced for some part of the world long after Commodore and Tandy.

Total Failures in the US market: Coleco Adam, Mattel Aquarius, Time/Sinclair, Tano Dragon, and many others lasting a year or two, or less. A couple in and out in mere months! I read not long ago that even a version of the BBC micro had a short lived release.

 

All I got for Christmas was socks and this dumb toy (from family, I bought myself plenty)!


It's got a simple little circuit in it with a couple of little sensors on the bottom that sense a the surface and it goes up several feet in the air and when it gets so high, it slows and drops slowly back to the ground and sort of "hops" sometimes I catches itself sometimes just before it touches the ground or surface and starts up again. It has a one button remote for me to turn it on and off (as well as the master power switch on the bottom). Otherwise it goes where ever it happens to lean or get caught by the wind. It might also stop if it gets out of range of my remote, automatically, but I haven't tried that yet.

Definitely an outside mechanical-electronic toy instead of the desktop ones I usually get, or perpetual motion stuff. So I don't know if I can use it for a desk/shelf knickknack or not. I'd have to make or print a stand for it and that's just so it sits up. I don't know if I engineer a way where I can have it on, but it just goes up and down on my desktop, like have it on a wire. Maybe, but I'd have to make an extension to secure to it that has reach beyond the props for it to be hooked to the wire/small pole or something.



But really, I did get another Christmas gift from the family. A new amplifier to go with the rest of the components my dear departed JVC Quad stereo amp left behind. I will repair the JVC one day, but right now I have enough repairs and mods on the list. So I asked for an inexpensive (just under $100) Pyle brand 5.1 surround amp, which does bring my stereo system into the modern age with Bue-tooth and USB stick and SD cards too. It's a 200W system, that puts out 40W per channel. While my JVC is 400W and 100W per channel.



But it's really more than enough for my small house and room. I still can't turn it up more than 1/4 volume before I wake the dead. It's drives my old 3-way floor speakers well enough and then I had bought a pair of 50W shelf speakers as I only had the two big floor models and they just want too much for large speakers anymore, even at the lowest end they are several hundred dollars. So I got this pair of shelf speakerOs about a foot tall instead. My front center channel speaker I'm using and old 9x6 oval auto rear speaker that I built a box for.

One downside to the Pyle amp is it only has half the RCA inputs of my JVC, which means I have to run components through and RCA switch box to choose from some of my components (both part of the stereo system and some consoles and other video equipment). It has a sub-woofer out though, but I don't need it because I have two 16 inch woofers on my large three-way speakers. And the last thing is no turn-table input with pre-amp and ground. I can make my own ground for the turn-table, and we'll see, it may be my amp works good enough but might need to be turned up more than a 1/4 way for LP's. otherwise I'll have to make or buy a small pre-amp box for the turn-table.

Also, this holiday weekend I had the HDD on my "new" windows 10 PC crash. I'll get a new one for it, but in the mean time I had to drag out my old HP portable from 2004. I did upgrade it to windows 7. I'm using it right now. But, the back-light of it's screen died and so I have to plug it into my TV/monitor like a desktop. Also, it has an over-heating issue which happens rather quickly, within about 5-10 minutes. But I took a couple of spare 12V PC fans I had laying around along with a 12V PSU and attached the to a little wire stand with zip ties. I have one fan blowing into the grill that the original little fan is behind (it still works, it's just not enough anymore) and the second fan positioned on the other end where some more vents are, drawing the air out. I've had it on steady for two days now with no over-heating issue!

 

Some lovely stuff there, Matt, particularly your new high quality amp - that's a great bit of kit.

I got some varied 'odds and sods' but they're smashing gifts all the same and I'm very grateful for them:



As you can see, there's a new Tom Tom SATNAV (I've previously only ever owned 2nd hand ones so they've always been way out of date mapping-wise!) and I received plenty of booze and man cave paraphernelia. This will be the new Baz project in 2022 - turning me garage into a decent Bazza mancave BAR! It will need boarding out, thoroughly clearing out and the damp spots tackling but where's there's a will, there's a way - as Matt has so ably demonstrated of late. I also got a new hedgehog drinking bowl AND Bev renewed my subscription to the Sidmouth Donkey Rescue home so me and Ashley will remain supportive pals for another year at the very least.

Merry Chrimbo once more and a Happy, healthy New Year in advance, lads.

Any pics of what you got when Santa totally spoiled YOU?!

 

My big present was having me, my daughter and my wife (and fluffy cat) all together for Xmas.

I got a couple of tops and some socks but with the car looming in days it was all about that. I already had my Xmas pressie with the 1200 and the work that was done on it.

 

Nice haul Andy. Gadgets and a few supplies for the forthcoming BazBar

p.s. just noticed that the wee thing I was sending down to you has been delayed in the post, looks like it has been with Royal Mail since the 16th December! Will keep an eye on the tracking...

 

I'll post a couple of pictures later, but did have some fun last night playing Sonic on the C64mini that I treated myself to

 

The guy has just updated Sonic again..

 

Is that the 1.2 version Paul?

 

Not sure if its 1.2 or 1.3, think its newer

 

Sorry, 1.2

 

Cheers, Al.

I'll keep my mince pies peeled and look f'wd to your pics.

Well done, Paul - you remind us that the main presents - any given time - is the safety, health and company of our loved ones.

I'm sure you'll soon have your car up n running again real soon with some Chrimbo cash to chip in and as you remind us, your 1200XL is the kind of pressie which would keep anyone smiling for the rest of this festive season and well beyond towards next year's!

Enjoy, mate and all the best, fellas.

 

The car should be fine, the tax is on the 1st of Jan and the insurance on the 14th, as long as they let me pay monthly it will be ok with the insurance, if not then it'll take a couple of weeks to build up the extra. As for Xmas pressies, trust me, I like them but as the wife and I got older it became less of a 'thing', when there's some spare money we might have a treat but just seeing my daughter well and happy is a lovely thing. Throw in a sprinkling of fluffy cat on my lap, and I'm happy.

Been having a laugh reading / looking at 2 books, Shit London and Shit London 2. Basically it's books of pictures taken by Londoners showing just how cringy and blight London can be but in a comical way, as an example there's a row of shops in Palmers Green and right next to each other are a shop called Smokers Paradise and a Cancer research charity shop.

 

LOL! You've gotta larf at the black humour of it, Paul.

Cheers for the comical observations.

I remember when some Hooray Henry brought out Crap Towns in the 90s and Ull always used to top it... until one year it came 2nd or 3rd and everyone in Ull was shocked senseless - we wondered how any place could be worse than living around ere Oop North!!

;-)

 

@Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine Your Warp+ 32-in-1 OS will be shipped out tomorrow Paul, I've been blocked on getting it posted 3 days in a row now!. I went to the post office on Monday, arriving at 11:40 am, finding out that they changed their lunch hour from 12-1pm forward to 11:30 am-12:30 pm! I wasn't going to wait around for 50 minutes.

So I try again on Tuesday, but my local post doesn't open until 9 am and it was about 20 min. before as I was passing by my town, but on my way to work in another town 20 minutes away, so I stopped at that office when I got into town, waited in line for 10 minutes and finally got to the counter, package ready, international paper work done and ready, and either by user fault or just a crappy computer system, the lady couldn't get the computer to accept the package! After another ten minutes of her trying, over and over, she finally asks for assistance from here colleague in the next booth, who comes over and messes with it for another 5 min. and finally says the system will have to be rebooted. I ran out of time and patience and just left, package and paper work still in hand.

Today I returned to my home town Post office, a quarter after 9, while on my way to the job site, and had to meet my customer there at 10 am to get the keys to the rental house we are to work on. So I enter the post office, and there are two old ladies huddled over the computer screen, having computer issues and trying to get it up since before 9 am. I don't have much faith in them accomplishing it anytime soon...so I left. I will attempt sending it out again tomorrow.

We are waiting until 9 am to head out to work, which will bring us by the local post by 9:15 and we have no one to meet, so we have time. But of course I'll end up being the first customer with no waiting and with everything already filled out and ready to go it will all be lickity-split fast and I'll be in and out in two minutes, because I have the time.

 

Matt, no rush, do it when it's easiest please..

I had a look at where you are on Google and it seems pretty far from town so please take it easy...

Have to say I like the privacy, had a look at Bob Wooleys house and again, he's in a lot of free space...

 

Some additons to the Al-Cave this Christmas

The two books were unexpected and amazingly I didn't have either of them yet.

The Fusion, Zzap and Crash annuals were all a Kickstarter campaign that arrived just in time for Christmas. Great reads and brings back memories of Christmas specials of the old computer mags.

Joypad is slightly different. It has a switch so can be used left or right handed and also a paddle controller at the end as well. Mainly wanted it to see if I could get the paddle going with Arkanoid on the A8 but no luck so far. However the actual joypad/stick works really well and it's now my new default controller for the 800XL.

Bat Lamp was a total surprise. It's not the brightest LED, but ideal for working on little fiddly projects. In the same photo you can also see the Atari Hot Wheels collection and Evercade VS console. The C64mini is sneaking into the side of the shot as well...

 

It went out this morning without a hitch, exactly as I foretold yesterday. I'll PM you the tracking number and photo of the receipt for that block code thing to photo with your smart phone to take you straight away, if your into that, I don't really know how.

 

The old QR code, not really in to all that, I take a persons word, that's good enough for me (as long as I know the person )
I'll let you know when it arrives, thanks again Matt..

Was going to send you some of that Yorkshire tea over but saw Andy has already done that.