Hi

Day 13.. I dunno three days just flew by.

When I reflect on most memorable collecting moments
I also reflect on the great efforts some Ebayers go through
to get their stuff onto the auctions. Kinda taken for granted
but the following is typical of the kind of person I do have
a lot of time for...

And so Day 13 and the very special Commodore box sets...

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz267.htm

One of the most enjoyable parts of the Commodore collecting
involves the reassembling of the box sets. Whether Amiga or
Commodore, when you get these box sets, which were the
trade mark of Commodore, you can`t but help but want to
put all the component pieces back together when missing.
Fortunately Commodore generally listed all the bits and
pieces that should have been in the box on the outer
packaging, so it was just a case of ticking the stuff off.
Further, Commodore C64 sets have the special box
sets of the tape games and software in matching inner
boxes, which makes finding them easy. You often get
these boxed sets of tapes in tape auctions. You then
just have to match them up with the bigger box.

For one such auction the Computer Compendium I travelled
to Portsmouth and met up with a real Commodore enthusiast.
He has collected most of the box sets and various computers
and to this day nudges me about auctions and remarks if
I win or he, when we go for items on Ebay. What is magic 
about this guy is that loads of the stuff he puts up for sale
is stuff he has rescued from tips and the like. He does the
car boot rounds and charity shops. This is really how
collections like mine are built. If it wasn`t for such folk 
loads of this stuff would just get dumped. But from
being rescued they then travel back into collections. And
when I get hold of such box sets with missing bits, I set too
reassembling the whole. 

I recall this particular one guy cus we stood out in the 
freezing cold till very very late just talking Commodore
until really we could stand the cold no more. Guys like
this work solitarily at their hobby and auctions rarely
coming into contact with those who rely on their services.
Many many times I have spent a reflective evening
chatting to someone about their Ebay activity. Sadly
for them, the wife often just does not understand and so
we get dumped onto the pavement... You can tell
the computer collecting is a form of escape... Bit
like the guy retreating to the garden shed. 

To all those Ebay folk who feed the retro collections
I do thank you all.. Do have a wonderful Christmas.

Happy days.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

Hi

The Encyclopedia of Games Machines: Author Winnie Forster
Originally a German book and its been greatly expanded and
translated into ze English ( sorry ). The aim of the book is to
cover every single system ever made. ... Sounds like he has
done his homework cus Retro Gamer couldn`t find a single
ommision. Price £17.95 and probably worth a look this XMAS.

Other such gems are out in book form at the mo are..
The Video Games Guide by Matt Fox
Game Over by David Sheff
PSX The Guide to the Playstation by good old Kevin Bryan
and the ZX Spectrum Book 1982 to 199X by Andrew Rollins.

Retro Gamer this month features the Philips CDi in all its
various forms. Very interesting styles of machine... Also
known as the Compact Disc Interactive multimedia system.

Great articles this month on football managing games, Mortal
Kombat, Phantasy Star Online and a very long list of the stars
of gaming before they were famous...

Anyway Load 32 of Retro Gamer is out now...

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

Hi

To the Project known simply as Clone A......

[ quote ]

is a radically different approach to the same problem that
Dennis van Weeren has nearly solved with his Minimig 
project. Jens and Oliver Achten [ of MMC64 fame] who Jens
employed as an engineer with Individual in January, have 
been developing the Clone A project by reverse engineering
the original Amiga chipset. The target of the work is to
initially produce a FPGA replacement of each of the chips
( Paula, Denise and two CIAsas one chip and Agnus ) and
then clone the 68000 to produce a full Amiga 500... The
understanding is that at the moment they have managed
to develop the replacement mini boards featuring an FPGA
on each to replace Paula and Denise and one to replace the
CIAs. ... The hope is that a perfect clone of the OCS classic
Amiga is not far away...

[ end quote ]

I will keep you advised of developments as they reveal
themselves.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

Hi

Somehow I managed to acquire without really trying 
copies of the very first publications of The One for
the Atari ST, Amiga PC for 16-Bit Games.. dated
October 1988.. Featuring none other than Daly Thompsons
Olympic Challenge. Interesting that they refer to the 
Amiga as an Amiga PC. The editor was Gary Penn with
contributions from Steve Jarratt. 

[ quote ]

Over 40 pages of in-depth reviews, definitive guides to
top games, previews, news, arcades, more than enough
screen shots, and unrivalled review team lead by Gary Penn
and best of all... ( wait for it ) NO 8-BIT...

[ end quote ]

Editions 1,2,3 and 6.

Came with the original disks and also two copies of
the magazine ZERO dated March and July 1991. Don`t
think I have copies of this mag. Again for the ST and 
Amiga PC. Commodore are featured winning
a prize for Industry Achievement at the Arcade Show
held at Olympia London. On the cover of the March
issue is Gods... ' Holy Bitmaps! What an Almighty Scoopy '
Also ' Elvira's Big Tips Revealed '... ooh er !!

Bit of night time reading there.... Still getting through 
my car full of Amiga mags collected earlier last month.
You really can never have too many Amiga mags...

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

Hi

Seems that Andy Warhol left behind twenty works of
computer art that have only just been uncovered. These
were created on his favourite computer the Amiga, most
likely using DPaint. What is even more strange is that
those responsible for capturing the images decided to
use a MAC to recreate the images which took months.
Some say it would have taken just five minutes on an actual
Amiga. What is sad, is that because of legal issues
over his estate the images, for some reason, will only
ever be shown once. The ongoing curse of the Amiga
at work ....

[ Bit of Warhol Amiga Trivia ]

Andy Warhol and the Commodore Amiga 1000 
 Artnode.org has uncovered and posted a 
fascinating mid-'80s interview from Amigaworld 
magazine in which Andy Warhol discusses his 
relationship with his Commodore Amiga 1000, 
his experiments using it in portrait pieces of 
Debbie Harry and Dolly Parton, and his predictions 
about the future of computer art. 

BoingBoing reader Jose Luis of Barcelona-based 
blog elastico.net, says "It's always fun finding 
this sort of stuff from the past, and wondering 
what would have happened if he hadn't died a year later." 

[ End quote }

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

Hi

I know we have discussed Elvira before but I have
again had the game arrive in a bundle, and I gotta
say it show just how imaginative game makers were
when they had the box to play with. I mean, honestly,
these Playstation disc cases are economical but you
get nothing inside. Deliberately so I would add, as soon
you need to get the proper manual.

Anyway, back to Elvira... and very sexy she looks too.
Not quite up to BloodRayne standards, but hey this 
was 1990. A game by Accolade about this vamp
and sold as a Fantasy Adventure. Thing is in the box
you get with the disks, the installation card for Amiga
and Atari, you get Emelda's Spelles for ye Magical
Artes.. for which you need the 3D glasses ( included ),
You get the Horror Guide, a super sexy postcard of
Elvira herself ( there is a picture on my website ) and
Accolade's catalogue for 1990/91 .... which I gotta 
say is mighty impressive.

On that BloodRayne2 thang, a game which I am currently
playing on the PS2, if you can get past the blood lust and
more blood lust, it really is a fanstastic game, based on
blood lust, with just a hint of blood lust. She is quite sexy,
and I understand has featured in Playboy... Images are
on the web... But honestly do you think I've looked, I
mean would I .... Anyway if you crack the cheats you
can have her strutting around in differing outfits....

Anyway, enjoy your gaming, what ever your flavour.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

Elvira

[ Collecting retrospective from the summer ]
Hi

OK.. the morning started with Postie bringing me the 
Spectrum and the Apple which both didn`t work. Ar hum.
Anyway, just had a tap on the door and it was the DHL
man ( lucky that, as I wasn`t planning on being home today )
Anyroad-up... Inside the parcel was a Tandy Radio Shack
TRS80 Colour Computer 2, all nicely boxed with original
manuals etc... And whoopedooo  all worked. Very happy.
Very basic machine this, but for its day quite powerful, and 
what I like, very easy to use. A nice sturdy body, nice and 
bright and lightweight. 

Obviously the makers had probs with the word ' Colour '
Cus the book says Colour and inside you get an important
note for Color Computer Users. The computer actually
has COLOUR written on it.

53 key console
Television interface
6809E microprocessor 800,000 cycles per second
Clock rate 0.895 MHz
Read Only Memory with Color BASIC
RAM 16K expands to 64K
ROM cartridge slot
Two joystick interfaces
High speed cassette interface
Printer interface
XP installed ( er sorry can't back that last one up )

TRS-80 Color Computer 2 with extended BASIC contains
a 16K ROM meaning it contains 16*1024=16834 characters
(bytes) of permanently programmed memory

What came with the machine is a box of 5.25" disks with 
loads of stuff on... No disk drive .. :-(

Also came with a special Tandy dust cover, just the size of
the computer.

Well there you go, third time lucky today.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

C64 Box Sets