Useless lists: Computer stuff

A co-worker who’s moving was telling me today about finding a dusty box in his attic that turned out to be an original Atari 2600, and for some reason that made me want to blog about it. Instead, this turned into a list of all the various computer and video game systems I own that I’ve accumulated through the years—all in the spirit of blogging useless lists (like I did the other day with the books left on my bookshelf).

It’s pretty geeky. And probably a little sad. Reading over the list, it highlights that I’m often behind the times when it comes to hardware. I’m retro-geeky. Read on if you dare.

Most of these items are in storage, and the older stuff is “collectible.” Yeah, that’s the ticket…

• Atari 2600: This isn’t the original clunky faux-wood console, but a newer, smaller, sleeker version (same guts, just in a case about one-third the size of the original) that I picked up at Radio Shack Factory Outlet in the mid-90’s. It was bundled with one joystick and 20 games.
• eMachines PC: My current computer, purchased at Costco about a year and a half ago. Runs Windows XP.
• HP Pavilion PC: The other current computer, we picked up at a garage sale for cheap maybe two years ago. When we got it, it had Windows ME on it (I hate Windows ME!), and I finally wiped it clean and reinstalled Windows 98 on it. Works better now. I also just upgraded it to WiFi.
• AMD-based PC: The main computer I used for a number of years before buying the eMachine. AMD K6-2, I think, running 333 MHz, 96 MB RAM, 10 GB harddrive. Windows 98. Was—still is—a good machine. I’m thinking about setting it up and using it at work.
• Sony PlayStation (One): I bought this from my brother this year, with a bunch of games.
• 286 PC: My old 286, running MS-DOS. It’s in storage.
• Nintendo 8-bit system: An original NES, with several sets of controllers and games.
• Sega Genesis: 16-bit system. Several games.
• Pentium PC: An original Pentium, 75MHz, 32 MB RAM, 1 GB harddrive. We actually have it set up for the kids to use.
• 4 or 5 monitors, for the PCs.
• Commodore 64: I have at least 3 or 4 of these.
• Commodore 64C: It’s the same as a regular C-64, only it’s in a sleeker case.
• Several Commodore 1541 disk drives: To go with the C-64s, of course.
• 2 Commodore Plus-4s.
• 2 Commodore-16s.
• 2 Commodore monitors: One is specifically a Commdore 15-something model monitor, the other is an RGB monitor that works really well.
• Commodore SX-64: The “portable” Commodore 64 computer.
• A ton of software and odds-and-ends for Commodore computers.
• Amiga 1000: I think it’s a 1000; I haven’t looked at it in a long time.
• Timex Sinclair: The little chiclet-keyboard, and a 16K RAM expander.
• Various printers: 2 that we actively use, an old Epson dot matrix, 2 that go with the Commodores.
• What’s left? Oh, yeah, my Sony Clié PDA. That’s notable because it has more RAM and processing power than most anything else on this list.