I don't tend to jump at these kinds of topics as I'd like to consider myself an artist when it comes to pictures. In that; I have chosen 35mm photography to be my medium of choice for still images. This is where I get my artistic style from, using an old Nikon FM, the best glass lenses ever made, and true analog film where a chemical reaction causes the images you see. I don't "like" taking digital pictures... Thus if I were to respond to a topic like this I'd be forced to use a digital camera and have it not be how I want it seen.
I do however have a few 35mm pics I took awhile ago... Unfortunately at the time I scanned these to digital I was not using a very good scanner... I'm not "happy" with the way these look compared to their originals, but it'll do for now because it takes me forever to take my film in to be developed.
The above is the resting place for my Amiga 500. I don't just have Commodore stuff and space... Is at a premium... It deserves better than that kiddie table... My back deserves better than that kiddie table... But I do assure you, while it may not look safe, the hard drive is perfectly stable and safe where it is at. I need more room...
My Amiga 500 is a bit of a hybrid... The case and many parts inside are of my original Amiga 500 which was bought brand new in 1987 by my father. It was originally an OCS Amiga with a kickstart of 1.2, though my father did have WB 1.3 disks. Due to a desire for NTSC/PAL graphics mode switching; I bought another Amiga as well as another motherboard. I took an ECS PAL motherboard with a kickstart of 1.3 and replaced my motherboard with that. Leaving most everything else using my original hardware (also replaced internal floppy drive). I use my original trap door RAM, my original keyboard (which is why my power LED is red despite having an ECS board), and my original case. Oh so sadly I stored my original Commodore monitor in my shed... When trying to resurrect the Amiga the monitor only showed the smallest bit of information on screen... We're talking like 4 pixels in the center. I immediately junked it and I've never forgiven myself since... I'm sure I could have repaired it now... ugh...
Speaking of monitors, while I do not have the classic original (actually upgraded) Commodore monitor I refuse to use anything but CRTs for systems designed with CRTs in mind. I use a scan doubler to take the 15hz signal the Amiga outputs and put it into 60hz for a late 90's CRT. Using a VGA to RGB adapter (already had for our Commodore monitor) I plug the scan doubler into that and the monitor into the scan doubler. These are devices sold back in the day for anyone wanting to get rid of the terrible flicker in interlace modes. While I do sometimes miss my original monitor, and if I had one, I would probably use it... I have to there are times the picture utterly amazes me using this thing. The later CRTs got rid of so much of the negative aspects of that display, including much of the interlace. While many people had interlace in mind when designing games, I don't consider interlace to be a "desired" quality when it comes to CRTs. They truly do mask some stuff, give off the illusion of more color, and are not "that" noticeable on real monitors... But I find when looking at games on my 1980's TV with interlace and all that stuff and then going over to my Amiga or DOS machines which have newer CRTs; I immediately notice how "clean" everything looks. I feel like I'm getting the 100% true benefits to using a CRT without the negative aspects of them. This is that I'm displaying native resolutions on monitors that have support for oh so many of them. Therefore they look good and right, without the need for terrible upscaling. LCD monitors simply do not support resolutions other than the ONE they shipped with. Using anything else risks stretching and bad upscaling. The colors... Oh so wrong on an LCD... My CRTs retain the original saturated and heavily contrasted colors. While I also use such a newer monitor for my DOS machine, I'd never consider anything else because my DOS CRT and my Amiga CRT are both monitors I used back in the day for my DOS/Windows systems. So I've only ever known DOS/Windows with those upgraded CRTs. Which, by the way, are fully capable of displaying HD resolutions; well into the 6K and beyond range. CRTs... Big, bulky, pulsating florescent tubes... But they are so much better than people give them credit for.
This being said the monitor I have connected to my Amiga is originally from a Gateway PC from 1997, 15 and a half inches. Very nice picture. While I would take a Commodore monitor if given to me; I like this one just fine to not spend stupid amounts of money shipping one to me. I also have the Amiga connected to the very sound system I had for the previously mentioned '97 Gateway. It includes two very nice sounding speakers with many controls as well as a subwoofer.
The above are the innards of my GVP hard drive, minus the hard drive. I has 8mb of fast RAM along with support for SCSI hard drives. I originally got it with an Apple hard drive dated from 1994, with I believe 300 megabytes of space... It took a crap on me not too long ago and I've upgraded it to 4.3 gigs using a newer SCSI drive with a simple pin adapter.
I also have an external floppy drive, an original from Commodore, which I utterly hate because of it's loud and obnoxious noises. I once used an after-market drive which I greatly preferred, but it died.
My 500 itself is decked out quite nicely when it comes to Workbench. Still using (and shall always refuse to upgrade) kickstart 1.3 along with Workbench 1.3 - You'll notice MagicWB style icons, of which I hacked into it. You can't install MagicWB onto Workbench 1.3, it was all a work around. The icons you see were a long and painful effort to find icons that looked good in the default Workbench resolution of 640x200, medium res. Almost all MagicWB icons are made for high res, 640x512 PAL or 640x400 NTSC. I hunted these down, it took me years... I now have icons that look good in both NTSC and PAL mode on the default medium res. I delight in being a power user on Workbench 1.3, it may not impress others, but it impresses the hell out of me, which is all I'm after. While I now have a PAL motherboard I spend an overwhelming (like 95%) amount of my time using NTSC mode for my Amiga.
Love the Amiga, always will... Love finding new ways to get things out of the original hardware.
Alas, while not on the same level of love as the Amiga, I do forever cherish the C64 as well as the VIC-20. This is my setup for both of them. They can be simply swapped over plug for plug. The one not in use goes off somewhere safe. I can't say I've been in a mood for either of them of late, though I have invested heavy time there. I try to keep a balance with my retro stuff but I often get in moods of one system only for awhile... and it's been like two years since I used the C64 and almost a year since I used the VIC-20. But when I'm into them, I'm into them... No amount of disk loading time can stop me... I have a 1541, the drive and C64 have JiffyDOS, though I rarely use it, instead opting for the original fast loading cart my dad used. I have another 1541 connected to my DOS computer for transferring files to C64 disks. The C64 is an NTSC model, I've rarely come into "much" problems with games. Most of the stuff I like is NTSC and I've got a great site I go to with 20 disk images per game, for PAL games there's almost always an NTSC fix to get them working on the machine.
I have a cassette deck, not original... My father never used tapes. He got the disk drive along with the C64 in 1982 brand new. I, however, get a hell of a kick out of those cassettes... They're truly awesome to behold. I have my limits, I don't want any 10 minute + load time tapes... But a lot of the newer C64 titles you can buy on disk or tape, and if it's simple enough I get them on tape for their AWESOME inserts. Above is my copy of Ghostbusters for C64 on tape. In terms of collecting old software I could easily get from the internet; I'm really only after those tapes.
My VIC-20 is in a slightly modified C64 case. Someone found it in the trash, gave it to me... Not only was the case very beat up but I can't say I was ever a fan of the VIC-20's color scheme. I took a spare C64 case and used a saw to make the cartridge slot bigger to fit the VIC-20. I did change all the labeling however, so the VIC-20 does have its VIC-20 labeling, and it looks much better in my eyes.
With my VIC-20 I have a special cartridge known as the MegaCart. It was expensive and took me a good year to receive but it has every single commercial cart ever released for the system on it, as well as many floppy and tape games as well, and includes every option for expanded memory. Very well decked out VIC-20. It's also NTSC, but almost all the VIC-20 stuff was NTSC.
Don't seem to have a shot of just my TV that I have the C64 and VIC-20 (and many other consoles) hooked up to. It is a mid 80's Montgomery Ward CRT at 13 inches. It is the very TV I first played my NES on and graduated to a Sega Genesis. I adore the picture quality.... If it died... I'd have to get the exact same one... I can't express just how awesome this TV makes all kinds of games for all kinds of systems look. The above picture are examples of the picture quality with the Sega Genesis game Sonic The Hedgehog. I have the audio connected to the TV but the volume is usually off in favor of a simple but nice external speaker setup with subwoofer.
Sooo... That's my Commodore set up anyway...
I do have an old video where I'm showing off my entire hardware collection (only really glimpsed at the software though) if anyone is more curious. If anyone knows how to use that damn joystick thing for my Amiga you tell me! I've had the thing since I was a kid and it does not seem to work the way I remember it.
So... Was that an okay Commodore rig showing?