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Hello from upstate NY

seaken

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2016
Messages
563
Location
Shokan, New York
Happy to have found this nice forum. I've read all the stickies and think you've done a very nice job setting this place up. I go back as far as dialing in to BBS systems to learn all I could about CP/M. That was in about 1987.

Yes, I came late to the game. I was born in Seattle, WA in 1964 and touched my first computer in school, in 9th grade in about 1979. It was a Commodore PET 2001. I wanted a C64 when they came out but I didn't have the money to buy a computer. I worked downtown and took the bus and I saw an Apple Lisa in one of the windows near the bus stop. I thought it was cool. When I found out it was $10,000 I realized computers were out of my reach.

I had a room mate who had a C64 and I played with it a little but mostly was busy with other things back then. I had another friend who had an Apple II. I was now in my early twenties and my parents were encouraging me to pursue goals other than computers. But I kept an eye on what was going on and I was trying to figure out how I could get my own computer.

In 1984 I moved to New York state. I met my wife and was married in 1987. Her family had a small business and they had purchased a business computer previously but were not using it. I asked if I could take it home. They said yes. It was a Northstar Advantage.

I went to the library (no internet yet) and read. I figured out how to hook it up to the phone lines and I was then using Bulletin Boards to learn about this CP/M paradigm, which was new to me and very interesting. I soon realized that my in-laws had missed the boat. They had a fantastic tool for their business that they had never utilized. Before long we were using the N* and Wordstar to write contracts, printing on a daisy-wheel printer.

I had finally got my computer! It was a hand-me-down, but I was finally back on my road to computers, which I had briefly started in 9th grade. Most of my computer hobby has revolved around business use until now but I have recently begun refurbishing non-business systems and looking at some games. I am now in the process of catching up to what I have recently discovered is a long-standing hobby in retro computing.

Happy to be here and I hope I can contribute. I found this place through a suggestion on "Tezza's" web pages while looking at his collection in New Zealand. His recommendation to visit has been "spot on" as they might say. (Not sure actually - may be more of a British thing).

See you in the forums.
Sean
 
Welcome from another New Yorker! Any particular computer catching your interest? When I got into the hobby a few years ago I gravitated to the TRS-80. Maybe because my first computing experience was on a TRS-80 Color Computer. A few of us even started a TRS-80 podcast. Have fun and join in on the conversations! Ask for help whenever you need.
 
I'm sorry for being so tardy! I got distracted with other things and I never followed up with VCF after my initial posts in 2016. I have recently got back to working on my old computers and just logged in again to VCF to catch up.

@Rick Ethridge, @pski and @EagleTG, thanks for the welcome.

I do still have the N* Advantage and it is on my list of things to do. I have just completed a couple of refurbishes and I want to do the Advantage coming up. I also want to get the CoCo2 working again if I can. Both of these machines are unique in my collection and I want to keep them and see them running.

Seaken
 
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