pouët.net

I'm currently writing an article about the demo scene for a youth culture portal site, and I've been asked by the editors of that site where sceners on oldskool platforms (e.g. C64) get their equipment; are there any special shops? Moreover, is there any especially popular equipment among sceners on oldskool platforms, things that have "cultural value"? As I'm primarily into the PC scene, I thought it might be appropriate to ask.

where sceners on oldskool platforms (e.g. C64) get their equipment?

1) You can easilly find several old stuff at ebay and usually cheap. 2) I got my C64 and additional hardware and monitor through other nice supporting sceners. 3) Non scene friends who wanted to sell me their old CPC.

the very same as Optimus for me. Ebay, Sceners, and ppl who didnt have any clue about what price their hardware was actually worth having.

eBay is a good source indeed.

You can also find people selling old hardware on dedicated C64/Atari/Amiga/Spectrum/Amstrad forums.
http://www.atari-forum.com/ for Atari stuff.

I'm no specialist for c64 forums though, sorry ;)

Ack, Ebay... it's hard to find good hardware without getting yourself torn a new one in "rounded" shipping fees -where rounded sometimes means double :(

National auctioning sites can be loaded with treasure, sometimes a stone's throw from your own place.

anybody wants to buy my atari ST, mild condition, have been using it as an ashtray for the last 15 years.

comes with free monitor, mild condition,i kept hamsters in it though.

And not to forget: scrap yards. In some countries there are some especially for electronic stuff, sometimes you'll find jewels there.

Yes, people dump a lot of old computers at the local recycling center. The staff at my place is a bit picky about people taking stuff with them but perhaps they can be persuaded... It's mostly old PC:s though, and I already have one of those.

Those shabby electronic shops that are owned by nerdy tinkers or second-hand shops.

Peter Denk/Atari-Fachmarkt: http://www.atari-fachmarkt.de/
PartsData: http://www.partsdata.de/index.php?cPath=635&cat=Atari+Amiga
Nick Harlow/1632: http://www.1632-sales.zenwebhosting.com/acatalog/
Best Electronics: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/ (warning: site is pain to the eyes.. and prices are even higher than for the other ones. but he has a lot of hard to find bits...)

for complete systems, imho local auction sites are the way to go. for example, i've bought a number of falcons on marktplaats.nl for ~75 euro each. on ebay, it's more like 200-300 euro.

I myself just go upstairs to my roof and grab some old hardware out of my tons of cartons up there :)

From Amiga500/1260/2000, 1581, dozens 1541, C64, C16, Atari ST, Atari XE, Schneider CPC, several 2400baud Commodore "Volksmodem", ..., ... => Its all up there hidden in some old cartons... Even the old bontempi I bought at a fleemarket near the mekka symposium is still there...

I even went up there once to grap an REU and a FLASH8 Turbocard to sell them at ebay...

havoc: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com nice layout (so last century) but it still lacks some accurate dutch color scheme ;)

Thanks. So eBay is the way to go, and in addition there's electronics shops and the scrap yard.

Don't forget the market newsgroups on Usenet. When I was looking for a CGA card + color monitor I posted an ad in such a newsgroup and got offers from several people to pick that stuff up for free eventhough I had been willing to pay for it. That would never have happened on ebay or a national auction site :-)

There are probably a few Amigas sitting at RE-PC in C attle waiting for me to come in and buy them.

If you actually show an interest in stuff like this, and you have a recycling shop that has someone who knows their stuff (i.e. they take all the good/rare parts that Adobe spec'd in their Macs that they are turning in for refurbishing and put them in their own machines - and when you see them they say "you didn't see that. It's not there." - that sort of person - then they'll generally save stuff for you, knowing it's going to a real home that will USE it. Not just turn around and put it on Ebay.

And of course, there's always "Hey does anyone want an Ultrasound" "Yes me me me!" "crap I wanted it" "hey, I have another, do you want it?" "YES! SWEET!"

(it's currently playing Nectarine, that Ultrasound I got from that conversation on Pouet...)

VCS 32 in 1 ... wow, I thought even 1 Euro on eBay is too much for that one...

Old computer equipment? Right in front of my eyes, you insensitive clod!

In case of Amiga hardware you might check out
Vesalia store

In the case of the Oric, the hard part is not to find a working computer unit, but to find a disc drive unit.

When mine broke, I tried to get some on ebay, but had to stop because I'm not willing to pay 600 euros for a 3" Microdisc unit :-/

THE MUSEUM!!!

Dbug: Yeah, it seems to me that there is plenty of old C64:s that can be picked up for nothing in flea markets etc. but coming by a C1541 in working condition is a bit trickier since the majority of users never got one of those.

ElTopo: Well, On the Oric, it's even worse. Even if the 'majority' of users never got one, considering the number of C64 that has been sold this is still a huge number of floppy drives. And they are all compatible. Ok, a picky demo will perhaps complain about the exact model of the drive, but basicaly they are very similar.

On the Oric the market was spread between the original Microdisc, 3" floppies, that was way more expensive than the unit itself, and thus has not really sold very well... and all the other models of drives, that all came with their own format and incompatible specific operating system.

So well, even if you can get a Jasmin or Bytedrive, 80% of all available software (and nearly 100% of recent one) is Microdisc only compatible.

And if I add that all Microdisc does not work with all Orics because of electrical problems, the probability to find a working set is quite slim.

Dbug:
Someone needs to make a Microdisc compatible compact flash unit...

By the way, what's the easiest way to fix/replace the floppy drive of an A500? Can one find compatible drives easily nowadays or do I need to get an old amiga floppy drive?

Mine has been out of order for ages and winUAE does not feel the same whatsoever :)

I'm told that it needs to be an Amiga drive, or that there needs to be some mechanism built that would allow the disk checking. Plus it needs to be a DD drive. (Not positive on this, as a HD drive SHOULD detect DD media and fix itself, but it will NOT do this if you have an HD disk.)

Untested, and since my soldering skills are "ACK MY MACHINE IS A GIANT BALL OF SOLDER" (I'm informed the term is 'tin') I'm not using any of my machines as guinea pigs.