My first computer was one I built myself from a kit of parts: https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=802

When I say "built" I don't mean assembling a few cards, but soldering every IC in place. Even the keyboard consisted of individual switches soldered to the PCB. I've still got it in the shed - I ought to put it on eBay sometime as they are now collector's items.

After that a Dragon 32, a couple of Amigas, and more PC compatibles than I can remember, the latest being a 12-core Ryzen, GTX3080, 32GB monster.

Work also provided some interesting machines to play with - DEC PDP8, IBM System 38 and AS/400s, a nice little Silicon Graphics Indigo and a selection of lovely IBM xSeries servers.

I disagree that computers are no longer fun. The availability of cheap boards like the Raspberry Pi, the huge range of free software, and the extensive documentation and information now available online make them more fun than ever.

Ermmm! The PCW was a fully-fledged CP/M microcomputer, which all such devices were for years before IBM realised they weren't just a hobbyist fad but threatened their mainframe business.

OK, Amstrad sold it bundled as a word-processor with a printer, but any CP/M software could run. The important one being Sage Accounts. I used sell the darn things and it ROFL.

The acronym PC (Personal Computer) didn't exist until IBM called their micro-computers that. There were plenty of other makes around, almost all using CP/M or MP/M (the multi-user version with dumb terminals like Unix).


I know the PCW was a P.C, but it was not, as people used to say, PC compatible. As far as I remember, it had a z80 CPU and those silly 3 inch disks. I got some of them here. I do remember the daisy wheel printer , noisy and slow, even compared to other daisy wheel printers at the time.
but for what the machine was for, it did it ok.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

How about this one: https://down10.software/download-index-card-database...

Thanks, but it will not extract, saying format is corrupted, Explorer or Winzip will not open it. I did do a search to see if I can find it anywhere else, but no luck at the moment.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

A little yeah. I sued to build everything up myself, from simple desktops to raid arrayed servers. Haven't had the inclination to do that in probably 25 years. They are just an appliance to me now. Sad but true.

I build my own desktops and used to build them for other people, only as a hobby type thing or to help people out. I am not sure what I am going to do on my next build, thinking of going to the dark side and getting a mac Mini.
but yes, I remember the IRQ problems and that sort of thing, even with Plug and play, plug and pray is it became known.
A mate has or had a turtle beach sound card in a 233 Mhz windows 95 machine, for some reason now, and again it would just conflict with other stuff. the machine is still set up in the studio, I really need to get in touch with his wife to see what is happening to it all, still music belonging to other people on the drives down there.

Yeah - I tried it and found the same.

There's another that you might like to look at: https://www.azzcardfile.com/

It's not free, but it has a free trial so no harm in looking. I've verified that it works on Windows 10.

"They are just an appliance to me now."

Same with cars. Years ago one could strip the engine and gearbox and rebuild in a couple of weekends. Wouldn't contemplate nowadays.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Yeah - I tried it and found the same.

There's another that you might like to look at: https://www.azzcardfile.com/

It's not free, but it has a free trial so no harm in looking. I've verified that it works on Windows 10.

Thanks man, you are so kind.
I will have a look, not sure if I want to pay that amount for it, but we will see.

I am not doing much today, so I will have a look later, well I don't think I am, my friend who I meet for coffee is not well, so I will not be doing that.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

"They are just an appliance to me now."

Same with cars. Years ago one could strip the engine and gearbox and rebuild in a couple of weekends. Wouldn't contemplate nowadays.

Yes, just a tool. I remember when I had my ZX81 trying out basic programs from a magazine and getting excited when they worked, even did that with the speccy and CBM64, even tied a bit of assembly language with the CBM64. Oh yeah, and forth with my old Jupiter Ace.

Never got into programming much, I wish I did now, my brother is mucking around with Python for music or something like that, he is a few years older than me. Not sure if I could be bothered now,






I remember when I was a child, my Dad used to take the engine out of a car Sunday morning, strip it down, clean it up and do the rings, valves and what ever else needed doing and get it back in the car and running by early evening. Now people are scared to even top the radiator up these days.

It seems you can get a free licence for it by posting about it on a blog or forum. So, if it suits your needs, a post here describing your experience with it might qualify.

" Now people are scared to even top the radiator up these days."

That would be silly as a seized engine due to overheating would be costly.

The four major top-up areas usually have highlighted caps. Oil, coolant, windscreen washer fluid and power steering.

The dipstick top is usually coloured yellow for easy identification.

No excuse for not dealing with basic procedures to keep an expensive machine running smoothly.