Greetings from SA

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Hey all,

I've been aware of this forum for sometime and I finally decided it's time to join.. ;)

I'm from South Africa, and I love collecting old computers and related gadgets..
Some people think it's a bit strange for some reason.. perhaps it's because I'm only 23 and as such my fascination with old computers has nothing to with nostalgia (as might be the case for some older collectors).. :)


My current collection is not very extensive (yet!)
My favorites are handhelds or portable systems.. perhaps just because they don't use so much space..


My collection consists of:
An EG2000 Colour Genie (my oldest system).
I have an oldish 8088 system (with an MFM harddisk) - but the motherboard blew sometime ago.. - I don't know much about it, it's branded "Ultra" and the motherboard is a "DTK PIM-106"

Two 486 laptops, one of which was probably "state of the art" in it's days (Dx4 100Mhz, 12MB ram, 780MB HDD colour display etcc..) the other is somewhat older (25Mhz 4Mb RAM, 280MB HDD, greyscale display).

An IBM PS/1 system (useless as I don't have the monitor).
A Psion 3a, 2 Psion Siena's and several Revo's..
A Palm M125 ;)

I'm not sure if there's an agreed on definition on what constitutes a "vintage" PC.. Most of my collection is not very old and some of it is not old at all.. :) (Like my Palm M125)

I've never met another collector here in SA but I'm sure I'm not the only one..
Unfortunately there's not a huge amount of old computers readily available here - so collecting is a bit of a slow process.. ;)

[Erik]

Welcome aboard!

Enjoy the forums!

[Aposke]

I love collecting old computers and related gadgets..
Just like me
Some people think it's a bit strange for some reason.. perhaps it's because I'm only 23 and as such my fascination with old computers has nothing to with nostalgia (as might be the case for some older collectors).. :)
I'm only 17, and I collect them because I think they're fascinating.


My current collection is not very extensive (yet!)
My favorites are handhelds or portable systems.. perhaps just because they don't use so much space..
Just like me!

My collecetion consists of:

An IBM PS/1 system (useless as I don't have the monitor).
A Psion 3a, 2 Psion Siena's and several Revo's..

Got two psions too, and I had an old portable IBM system but sold it...


I'm not sure if there's an agreed on definition on what constitutes a "vintage" PC.. Most of my collection is not very old and some of it is not old at all.. :)
Same here. I don't really think any computer >1995 can be considered as "vintage".

Anyways, welcome to the forum!

[tezza]

An EG2000 Colour Genie (my oldest system).


Hi, good to see another Colour Genie owner on here. What version is it? Do you have the cassette level meter and is it 25 lines or 26?

I've got a site which deals with an earlier EACA machines (see the link in my sig). Rumour has it (Rumour being ONE reference in an old computer mag from 1981) that this early EACA model (a TRS-80 Model 1 clone) was sold in SA as the TRZ-80. I've never been able to find out any more.

If you have any leads, let me know. Do you know who distributed your EG 2000 in SA when they first came out? I know it's a long shot as you weren't even born at the time and the company would likely be long -gone, but if you have any docs with the machine, they might have a name or stamp of the distributor. Or maybe even a sticker on the bottom of the machine?

Tez

[redarrow]

Welcome aboard!

Enjoy the forums!
Thanks! :)

Just like me

I'm only 17, and I collect them because I think they're fascinating.

Well.. glad to know I'm not alone! :cool:


Same here. I don't really think any computer >1995 can be considered as "vintage".

No I guess not.. Some of them are still interesting though.
I think that the "Pentium" era is when computers started to become really boring.. :)


Anyways, welcome to the forum!
Thanks! I see you're also recently joined! :cool:

Hi, good to see another Colour Genie owner on here. What version is it? Do you have the cassette level meter and is it 25 lines or 26?

I've got a site which deals with an earlier EACA machines (see the link in my sig). Rumour has it (Rumour being ONE reference in an old computer mag from 1981) that this early EACA model (a TRS-80 Model 1 clone) was sold in SA as the TRZ-80. I've never been able to find out any more.

If you have any leads, let me know. Do you know who distributed your EG 2000 in SA when they first came out? I know it's a long shot as you weren't even born at the time and the company would likely be long -gone, but if you have any docs with the machine, they might have a name or stamp of the distributor. Or maybe even a sticker on the bottom of the machine?

Tez
Hi!
I wish I had more info on it myself..
However like most my computers I picked it up at a Fete.. Was a great bargain for just 20 bucks, but it came with nothing, no tape drive, no cables, no manual.
I've not even really tried to do much with it, it powers on and appears to work fine, done a little bit of BASIC on it just to test. Without a tape drive or anything though I can't really have much fun with it. (which is rather annoying).

It's a bit late right now (well for me anyway), but tomorrow I'll take and upload a few photo's of it for interests sake. ;)

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As promised, here are a couple of pics of my EG2000:

Top view:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/cgprogrammer/EG2000top.jpg

This is a shot of the label at the back, which apart from the name on the front is the only identification info on the machine:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/cgprogrammer/EG2000rear.jpg

[carlsson]

Welcome! Cool to see the "625 LINES PAL" sticker. I believe it is the first time I've ever seen a computer so clearly state the video system.

[rachael24]

Welcome to the forums!!

[redarrow]

Thanks for all the welcomes! :)

[garsky]

i'm a lost sould.lol...well, i'm here to check things out on how old stuff can be used. I really look forward that everybody could help me in every problem i could encounter. Of course, i'll try my best to share what i got. I'm from philippines anyway. and we welcome everyone saying..."MABUHAY!"