Comments on: Emulation vs. the Real Thing

By: Peter Ferrie

Peter Ferrie — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 04:55:12 +0000

I always loved the sound of the floppies booting on the Apple II. Plenty of games had such unique loader sounds that you could identify the game just by the sounds that the drive made. There was an application floating around that reproduced some of the sounds, which was great for the nostalgia, but it was just not the same.

By: Trixter

Trixter — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:11:22 +0000

My crawlspace is on a bed of stones, and I am lucky enough to live on a hill so that my house doesn’t need a sump pump. Even if the sewage drain does back up — which it did once to the tune of $2000 clean-up — the drain is about 3 feet lower than the crawlspace, so I’d have to get 3 feet of water in my basement to affect the vintage store, and if that happened, I’d have a lot more to worry about than my vintage computer store. Climate in there is cool and dry.

So far I have been fairly lax about covering the gear with a tarp or garbage bag, because I’m in there once every few weeks to rotate stuff around and can visually inspect everything. But I don’t recommend that — if I were more responsible, I would have everything covered so that the dust and critters falling from the floorboards/joists a few feet above wouldn’t fall into the machines.

One real problem storing anything in a crawlspace or garage is that, if it touches the floor, eventually a family of mice or spiders will move in. Spiders are not bad for the hardware, but mice definitely are — the urine will destroy the electronics. So wherever you store your gear, make sure it’s off the ground!

By: Lee S.

Lee S. — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:06:46 +0000

An insightful post. I hope it gets more eyes.

But branching off, I’d like to read more about your methods of storing hardware in your crawlspace. It sounds like a better climate than my hot garage, but I worry about the dirt. Not to mention the camel crickets infesting it.