Pete is retired firefighter from the UK, and sent us the longest distance donation
we have received so far. When he warned us that the 32 KG box might be a tad bit difficult
to handle, he wasn't kidding! The treasures inside were quite wonderful, however, and it
felt like Christmas in July around the museum. Pete helped us find not one, nor two, but
three! Amiga 600's, three BBC Micro Model B's, an Acorn Electron and
even a BBC Master (and various other bits and pieces). Pete has an affinity for
business machines and describes his interest in his own words:
I am a retired Fire-fighter of 30 years and now have more time to spend
on my collection of old computers. I started off in the Electronics
Industry back at the start of the 60's, I later joined the Fire service
full time. However I did not lose my interest in electronics and took
up using, repairing and collecting computers back at the end of the
80's. This was all self taught and helped to relieve the trauma of the
job. The thing was that I was never into playing games on the computers
and my interest was and still is, in the design and use of the business
machines.
I did however do some basic programming on my daughters Atari 65XE back
at the end of the 80's. I still have all of that kit but have not fired
it up for many years. This machine has switchable roms and a special
high speed tape unit that loads in at, and records at 10 times the
normal speed. The unit runs at normal speed, it is all done with extra
hardware and software, this setup may even be a collectors item by now.
I do try to keep my machines here in working order where possible, and
run them at regular intervals to keep them in order.
The software is a problem as well, as I have well over 1000 sets here
for the various machines. As I do not have the space that you have
there I am spilling over into the loft and out house.
We are very grateful for this donation from overseas.
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Did you know?
The Amiga 600 was the smallest classic Amiga ever made. With no keypad, it did pack a greater
punch with a built in hard drive interface that many machines (ours included) incorporated an industry
standard Compact Flash interface into.
The 600 was supposed to be launched cheaper than the Amiga 500 (the machine it was replacing) but in
reality, it ended up being around $50 more. The machine never caught on well in North America,
and was the first Amiga to be produced in the UK at a Scotland factory.
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