Michael Brigham
Computer enthusiast. Oddball. Vintage computer collector and user.

That’s me to the left in the above picture, with Bil Herd of Commodore fame (TED series, C128)
getting my C128D(cr) faceplate signed at a World of Commodore event.

I am going to start this post with a special thanks to my sweetie Teona for putting up with my hobby and interest.
Thanks for letting my childhood dreams come true!

My first experience around a computer was with a Commodore PET at school in the early ‘80s. I wasn’t lucky enough to be able to use it myself as there was always a long lineup, and after school it was used for the computer club that I was too young to join.  

Around the same time, my cousin had a Vic 20, so of course I wanted one as well. I asked for it for Christmas, and instead of the rectangular box of Commodore, it was more of a square. My family got me the Atari 400.

OK, some good and bad things about it. Well, the only thing bad about that was the keyboard. Flat membrane. Yuck! But the sound and graphics were better! I had some of the same titles that my cousin had, and I loved playing those on my Atari better.

Over the next year, I gathered up the tape deck, not the 410, but the 1010, and a lot of games. My younger brother kept bugging to play the games, and my mother always said I had to share. SO, for the following Christmas, I asked for the 800 or 800XL, as it had more ram and a better keyboard, you know, for schoolwork of course. I’d then give my brother the 400, and we’d share the carts, but not the tapes. Win win. So, I got the 800XL. Typing and programming was a lot more enjoyable now.

I’d eventually get the 1050 drive, and had a blast with the various games out there, Spy Vs Spy, The goonies, etc, was such a change as compared to the limited game codes in the carts.

By now, most of my friends had a C64, as did my school. They’d would, ahem; trade games and such and I was alone with my Atari. So, I then asked for a Commodore 64, but the dela was I had to sell my Atari setup and put that money towards a 1541 disk drive for the 64. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I did that anyways. So, I got the C64, first gen version, which had the same style keyboard as the 64 with the Petscii graphics on the front, and it was a full board 64 internally. To me, this was the best looking out of all the 64’s. The later version 64c’s had the Petscii images on top with the letters and used a smaller cost reduced 64c board with the newer SID chip.

And this was my setup from 86 to late 1989 when I needed a PC for high school, so I got a 386, but kept the 64 too.

I’d eventually upgrade to a C128 when my 64 was acting up, then the 1571, then a 1581, etc. Prior to this. I also had an 8050 that I was going to use for a BBS but never got around to it. I loved the speed and capacity of that drive, which I still have.

In time, I bought a similar 800XL setup (or two) that I had when I was younger and used to have both the C128 and 800XL side by side and just run the same game for the fun of it.

Things get crazy from this point and get a bit hazy as I went into computer collection mode and bought anything that was a deal.

To me, the fun part about this hobby is the upgrades and modifications, and as time went on, the repairs and the challenges of all the above.

And here we are now!

For a lot of the computers we have, we are now using a Raspberry pi or similar to control and emulate a mass cartridge and storage media device. Pair that with the storage options of today, namely the SD cards, and you can literally have every piece of software ever written for that computer in a cartridge or emulated drive device!

This is the time to party!

Please check out my YouTube channel for  such examples.