It’s been 2.6 years…
While looking at the collection I have built since September 2023, I realised how far I have come with this ‘small project’. As I had been without a C64C for so long, I forgot what fun I had with it as a kid. I have been retro gaming since 2004, either using MAME, other console emulators, dipping into real hardware with the PS1, SNES and Sega Megadrive (Genesis for our friends across the pond)but none of those have stuck for a long time, probably because these where either my younger brothers or friends consoles, and not mine. Since building a BMC64 in a Raspberry Pi3 case (with a wireless keyboard that had stickers on it so I could hit the right keys) it has gone from strength to strength.
Back in the day, I had multiple joysticks, some good and some bad, this has now been fixed, albeit this is the only one I have found that I used to have.
I have all the Powerpack tapes I used to have too, I have decided not to collect the Commodore Format magazines, as these are too expensive to collect all 61 of them, and I don’t know how/where to store them, but as I have a DVD ROM with them one, I can still read all 61 of them anyway. On the subject of tapes, I used to be a budget games kinda guy, as I was able to get great games at bargain prices, games at £2.99 a pop made my original collection grow – unfortunately prices have gone up in the retro gaming market, even buying ‘budget games’ you are lucky to get a decent looking (working) tape for less than £6. I have cheated a bit by using The Ultimate Tape Archive (can’t directly link it here, but Google that with a popular archiving website – you ‘might’ find it!) and recreated some tapes I had by using the Clone Master. I have to admit, using cassette stickers and photo paper, they do look like I have bought them off a 90’s dodgy car boot sale dealer!
When I did getting ALL of my games, disks, etc out, I realised I had rebuilt my collection, having multiple joysticks, two tape decks, all the power packs I had, the games I used to play a lot, so I have been lucky enough to rebuild what I collected back in the day with £10 a week to my name over four years, but I was able to do it in 2.6 years!
I am also lucky enough to indulge in what I couldn’t have back in the day, with the 1541-ii, and the modem, I have copied stuff back onto floppy disk so I do have the same experience I would have had as a kid, and by going on BBS’s like its 1990 and not even worry about ringing up a huge phone bill for my parents!
I do regret losing my original collection, however, by doing it all over again, and that includes building the C64c from the ground up, it’s like being 13 again, but this time, looking on Ebay and getting the packages from the postman is just as good as going down to WHsmith on Saturday.
I’m lucky to be able to do this twice, with the same enthusiasm as I did in the early 1990s.
I am so glad for emulation, teasing me back into the 8-bit computer I had, and I’m pleased that there is a C64 scene that I can interact with, so maybe putting my old C64 in a bag had a silver lining.