ScuzzBlog: Diaries May 2026
Entry 28th May 2026: Post 1: scuzz website - origins of those image sizes.
scuzz website - origins of those image sizes.
At times you may see I refer to old gallery images. The size and
image arrangement may look a little odd today, but back at the
dawn of the millennium the website would have appeared fine.
Let me explain ....
I had created a page for the website as early as 1999 but never
really made much of it. Webspace in those days was offered as part
of any 'pay as you go deal' with folk like Freeserve, AOL, Virgin
and the like.
By 2004 I was very active on the Yahoo Groups and decided to form
my own group and support it with a webpage. It was then that I
created the first website which was a framed version. Back in
those days sites generally had a left hand menu and right hand
content page.
I was using a Windows 98 machine and the screen resolution was
a massive 800 x 600. All pictures were taken with an Epson 850Z.
I converted a bench to take all pictures and used an old bamboo
screen as the backdrop. All of the original gallery images were
taken in this format.
In the day there were very few dedicated retro computer sites.
The two most notable was the Old Computer site and Bo Zimmerman.
I have copies of the original pages I used to reference and it
is incredible just how small the pictures are.
For me it was important that the site could be viewed on an
Amiga and I tested all I did so I could see things clearly on my
Amiga 1200. I even created some of the pages on the A1200.
In terms of the reasons behind what I did I had started collecting
Amigas in the nineties. I would venture onto Aminet and buy various
computers and add-ons. I actually bought my A4000T from Aminet. In
2003 I discovered Ebay and my attention turned to the auctions big
time. In those days auctions were for the most part actual auctions.
My aim was to create a photographic record of all the most popular
computers. I was not bothered if the machine worked, it just had to
look OK for the pictures.
Auctions were fast and furious and I was rarely around for the time
they completed. I was very busy at the time and out the house for
very long periods. So the night before I would put bids in for a
number of a targeted computers and was amazed at how many I won.
Bids were rarely over 25 quid. I would buy Amiga 500s for fifteen
quid just to see what was inside them.
Consequently I began to amass a massive collection. I had an old
Citroen BX on the drive that postie would leave the boxes in. And
this auction marathon went on from 2003 to 2008 and then I stopped.
The only computer I didn't get from my list was a Lynx.
Once I had assembled a healthy batch of kit I would create a new
acquisitions page on the website and update the pages with the
computer images. I made sure I took pictures from all sides of
the machine. By example I show the Atari 130XE which arrived here
on 14th April 2006 and is still here.
I shut up shop generally from 2008 to 2016 accepting only gifts to
the collection and the odd filler from Ebay. All was placed under
covers until I retired in 2014. I started to set up the workshop
with Amigas in 2015 and then launched the new scuzzblog diaries
back in 2017. Since then I have photographed higher resolution
images of the majority of what I have.
The site continues to grow as does the collection. It takes up a
lot of my time just checking over stuff and keeping it tidy. I also
spend a good time answering queries on the kit.
Anyhoo... I just wanted to explain to those that didn't know just
why there are these sets of smaller images of the kit and why some
are photographed on a wooden bench and others on a grey bench. I
have no intention of updating the first edition of the site cus it
would probably take me five years. That is how long it took me to
create all the images in the first place, and I would have to fully
repeat the process. Not gonna happen.
I think I'm done. Cuppa me thinks.
scuzz website - origins of those image sizes.
130XE
~oo~
Previously on scuzzblog
Atari 130XE - XL Compatible Eight bit.
~ August 4th 2018~
August18 0401: scuzzblog: Atari 1050 - At long last
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