Tag Archives: donation

Nintendo Entertainment System / NES - Zelda

Nintendo Entertainment System / NES (1985)

Last December a friend of mine came back from the UK for a vacation and brought me this NES, with a few cartridges, as a gift. When I saw Zelda and Zelda II I told him that those could sell for a nice price, and after looking for loose cartridges sold in similar conditions, I made him a reasonable offer.

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IBM 5100

IBM 5100 (1975)

Since the initial price of this computer was between 9 and 20 thousand dollars in 1975 (43 to 95 thousand dollars in 2018!), I didn’t expect to find it in a small town near the even smaller town where I live. A friend of my father-in-law gave him this IBM 5100 for free, probably because my father-in-law talked to his friend about my passion. This person ran a small repair shop, but sadly passed away shortly after and I never got the chance to ask him where this computer came from.
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Apple Macintosh IIfx (1990)

Apple Macintosh IIfx - transparent

In the previous post I thanked Enrico for the donation of this Macintosh IIfx, now it’s time to show how it’s been cleaned and repaired. A quarter of a century ago this was the most powerful Macintosh of the series II: it was powered by a 68030 processor at 40MHz, outperformed only by the following Quadra computers with a 68040 processor.

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Donation from Enrico F.

Apple Macintosh IIfx - complete system

Last year I found an online classified from a person in Milan that was giving away for free a Macintosh IIfx, collection only. I called him and we had a nice chat on the phone, and he added a few other items to the lot after asking me if I was interested. But since I live in the opposite part of Italy, I asked a friend (Thanks Daniele!) who lives in Milan to pick up the items and keep them until he was coming back home. Continue reading

Apple Macintosh PowerBook Duo 2300c (1995) and Macintosh Duo MiniDock (1992)

Apple PowerBook 2300c

I received this laptop as a gift in 2010. I always liked the Duos, both for their design and the idea of a slim lightweight laptop (remember it’s 20 years old) which, if needed, could be hooked up to a dock to transform it into a real desktop computer.

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Acorn Electron (1983)

Acorn Electron

I have to thank my English aunt for this computer (she shipped it to me in Italy) and one of her walking companions, the original owner. Some time ago I received an e-mail from my aunt, who wrote “I think you will be amazed by what I have”, and included a detailed list of all the items she was given: the computer in its original box, a tape reader, magazines, games, books; the box arrived a few days later… and I really was amazed! Continue reading

Restoring an Apple Macintosh II

Apple Macintosh II

My thanks to Ettore for the donation of this complete system: a Macintosh II, a 13″ AppleColor High-Resolution RGB Monitor, a mouse and a keyboard. Ettore wrote to me that he had a Macintosh II upgraded to IIfx that he wanted to get rid of, but he didn’t want to take it to a landfill. Unfortunately not many people have the time or will to send a couple of boxes and often these old machines are dumped. Continue reading