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Do you box up everything because it might be useful some day? Have you been doing so since 1985? Are you a computer and/or gadget freak?
I need stuff from the 1985-87 era. What kind of stuff?
- Sharper Image catalogs
- Issues of Computer Shopper, Byte!, Compute, Computer Gaming World (or any other publication of that variety -- and yes, I'm aware there is a collector's market for some of that stuff; I don't want to collect -- see below)
- Manuals for telephone equipment (consumer or otherwise)
- Any ads for tech stuff from any magazines of the era
I don't need (or even want) actual physical copies. Scans are ideal and they only need to be good enough to be legible. If you can't scan them yourself, I'll happily pay for postage, scan them on my end and return whatever you sent me in the same condition you sent it (or pay you should something evil and postal happen in transit or while in my care). I don't even really need entire magazines. The ads are most useful to me, though reviews of hardware are great too, as well as speculative articles. I am completely aware that in asking for scans of ads and reviews from 1985 era Computer Shopper I am asking for A LOT. I'd be completely happy with a representative sample of just 10-15 pages, preferably covering several different areas of tech (pc, C64, Atari, printers, bulk floppy sales, etc).
Just to make matters easier, you can be enormously useful to me if you've got any of the stuff listed above just by leaving a comment here with some of the following information:
- Prices of floppy disks, tractor feed paper, ink ribbons
- Vendors for above
- Location of users group meetings and what their focus is
- Names of equipment manufacturers, what they make, how much it costs
- Ads for things that sound stupid or impossible
Also, if I'm being completely dense and missing some available public source (or even quasi-public) for that stuff, I'd appreciate being told I'm a bonehead who doesn't know how to google. Providing you also include a pedantic example of how I should have done it.
If you don't have anything of this sort, but know people who might, please send them the link to this page.
All queries should be directed to the comments, where I'll happily arrange whatever variety of transport is required.
- Music:Enigma - Endless Quest
Comments
So might The Digital A.N.A.L.O.G. Project.
I don't know if you're interested in Sinclair User (since they're English and the Sinclair computers never really caught on in the US), but the magazine published from '82-'83, and you can see scanned pages at World of Spectrum This one has ads.
A good university library should have the complete collection of Byte! in its archives. (Or at least mine did.)
Keep in mind that in 1985, the Amiga and Atari ST made their debuts. So, it was really the waning days of 8 bit computing and I think we knew it at the time. I remember a rather defiant editorial in, I think, ANALOG (the above mentioned Atari computer magazine, not the SF magazine) making the case that surely after 16 bit computers, we'd get 32 bit ones and on and on, but 8 bit computers would always serve as a baseline. (In an odd way, it was right. 8 bit microcontrollers haven't gone away. You can buy a 8051 or 68hc11 right now and party like it's 1985. Actually, they weren't new in 1985 either.)
My characters -- at least in the 1985 segment -- are mostly using C64's. In the later part of the book, the computing equipment is going to be much more spread out across platforms.
I really wish more of the stuff retained the ads. In many ways, that's what's most useful for me. The language used to hawk 8bit computer gear is distinct and there's nothing like it now. Of course none of it stuck in my head, so I don't have a good model to draw on -- so the more of those old ads I can find, the happier I am.
Thanks!
Because if it's just research, then Wikipedia is your temple.
Type in the year and see what comes up. Type in "floppy disk" and see what happens. Type in a trade name and you'll get advertising slogans, etc.
My book takes place in 1966 - and generally I rely on vague memories and Wikipedia to keep things straight. For example, I wanted to make a snide reference to a character who is a bimbo. Well, I figured I mention that she has drug-store dyed hair. Probably Clairol - Wikipedia-d "Clairol" and found a lot of great stuff - like "Nice and Easy" hair color has been around since the 1950's. And since the bimbo is a slut - I can have some fun with that. Well, you get the idea.
Did you know that the "Is It Real or Is It Memorex" didn't come into use until the 1970s?
Now, if you actually need to junk itself... ;)
What I'm chasing down now are the advertisements from the era and mailorder price lists, to get a sense of the economics. (When half my characters are parent's-basement dwelling teenagers, cash tends to be tight).
It's really strange the way that stuff has been preserved. If I want to run the software from the time, hoo boy. I've got damn near every single byte that got set next to a brother-byte. If I want to know about the hardware, I'm doing great. The people that designed the hardware? Tons of info. How much it cost? A bit less. Who all sold it? Less still. What kind of completely useless crap shady jerks hawked in the back of magazines? Er... Not so very much of that anymore.
So of course it's the stuff that I can't find that is most appealing. In short, I want scans of old crap. I try and keep all my OCD genes occupied with digital pack-rattery and well away from the boxes upon boxes of useless gewgaws.
That probably means at some point between now and the end of the year. Clearly, I will need to make another trip up to your neck of the woods. Gonna wanna pick Dru's brain about some stuff anyhow. ;)