INTRO
Welcome to my little corner of the web dedicated to all things retro!
These pages give you an overview of parts of my collection of retro computer gear. My main focus is on Commodore-related stuff-computers, peripherals, original software, manuals, and all that good stuff. But you'll also find some other hobby projects I enjoy working on in my free time.
For me, it's really a step back in time, to those days of heavy CRT monitors, beeping disk drives, and rattling dot-matrix printers. Times when I spent countless nights programming with friends. Sometimes we worked for weeks on a game that never got finished. Other times we'd spend hours figuring out how to crack that one copy protection in assembler.
The internet? That didn't exist yet. We exchanged programs at meetups, carrying stacks of floppy disks and multiple drives in our bags.
Yes, those were different times... but collecting and working on this gear lets me relive those great memories, and that's what keeps it fun.
Got something gathering dust in your attic or garage? Working or not-sometimes all it needs is a little love to get it going again. Feel free to send me an email: info@justforthefunofit.nl
OTHER
When collecting, I mostly focus on things I have a personal memory of-it helps keep the collecting fever somewhat under control.
Still, every now and then I come across something from the early days that's just too cool not to reel in. A fun Pong clone, a quirky calculator (a bit of Commodore history right there!), or a modern handheld from Nintendo that my kids spent countless hours playing with.
On this page, you'll find some of those "other" machines and game consoles I've picked up over the years.
Not all from my childhood, but each one with its own little story.
PHERIPERALS
I've always enjoyed collecting all kinds of peripherals too. Things like datasettes, old printers, modems… basically anything you could plug into your computer back in the day.
On this page, I'm showing some of the peripherals that have ended up in my collection over the years. Some still work, others are there just for the nostalgia.
But every piece brings back memorie, plug it in, cross your fingers, and hope it still works just like old times!
RETRO SET-UP
After more than thirty years I started again with my first computer set-up. A Commodore 64 and a Commodore 128D.
MY FIRST PC
I don't have a picture of my Commodore set-up in my teenage years but this one is a few years after my Commodore period.
At that time IBM machines just came into play for me needed for the school I just started on.
The photo was taken just after I replaced my Commmodore with a DOS based XT PC. A Philips NMS with 10Mb harddisk (Wow!) and Wordperfect 5.0.
Before that I did everything on the Commodore 64 using Easy script and high Eddy for grapics.
INPUT DEVICES
Here you'll find my current collection of input devices: Joysticks, lightpens, paddles, and more.
Some I used myself back in the day, others I rediscovered years later at retro fairs or online. Each device has its own charm, from those clicky micro switches to the classic rubber fire buttons you had to press with two thumbs
Perfect for experiencing those old games the way they were meant to be played!
BASIC CODE PROGRAMS
One of the great memories I have is the hours and hours of programming the commodore 64. At first in Basic and after some time in assembler.
At first I typed in some basic programs as they where published in several computer magazines. You needed to type them in and store them on tape.
Lately I was looking for the smaller programs called one-liners. Small programs that only required a few to just one line of code. As the line length only allows 80 characters including the line-number this was a challenge. Some tricks could be used like shortening the commands to save characters. For example "print" could be replaced by "?". And the special commodore characters could also be used to create special effects.
On this page I collected some of the one-liners that I created or found in the magazines, or internet.
GITHUB
Do you enjoy messing around with retro-style programming? Then check out my GitHub page! I've posted a few BASIC programs there some I wrote myself, others are inspired by old books and magazines.
From simple sprite demos to small game, it's all in that classic retro style, just like we used to do. No fancy editors, just good old typing, running, and seeing what happens.
Have fun, and feel free to drop me a message if you try something out!
BOOKS
Books… yep, besides old hardware and software, I've always had a soft spot for the books and magazines from back in the day.
Here you'll find an overview of the books and magazines I've collected over the years-manuals, programming guides, magazines, and those classic thick computer books you could spend hours flipping through.
Some of them I read as a teenager, others I only discovered much later at fairs or through Dutch marketplaces like Marktplaats. Each book has its own story-just like the computers themselves.
And let's not forget the hours spent typing in listings by hand… something the current TikTok generation probably can't even imagine!
YOUTUBE
You can also see some of my projects on my youtube channel.
In addition to collecting, it is also fun to take on a challenge every now and then to write a program. Fun to puzzle. It's nice to share that through a video.
Making the video itself is a challenge. Struggling with light, sound, editing, good examples, etc. I do this more for myself to learn more about this medium. But of course it's also nice if others can learn something from it.
SOFTWARE
Once you start collecting old hardware, it doesn't take long before you want the software too, right?
For me, it's not just about the machines-it's about reliving those moments, those games, those loading screens…
Thousands of titles were released for the Commodore over the years, so collecting everything? Impossible. But that's not the goal for me anyway.
I focus on cartridges and software that bring back good memories-games I played for hours as a kid, or titles I saw in the local shop window but could never afford back then. Those are the gems I look for now.
PROJECTS
Besides collecting, repairing and programming on the Commodore computer, I have several other hobbies. Always fun to try out different things.
On this page you can find a few of them.
COMPUTER COLLECTION
Click on the image to go to the main computer collection page on this site.
Here you find an overview of some of the computers I collected over the last couple of years.
The renewed interest in the Commodore started during the corona period. One of the things that I, and many other people along with me, have started doing is tidying up. While cleaning up I came across my old trusty Commodore 64 again.
Over time I had gotten rid of a lot, but luckily I kept this one. Curious to see if it still worked, I connected it to the power supply. And…
There where ten wonderful minutes before the power supply put an end to it. A rookie mistake. Never connect a power supply that has been gathering dust for 35 years, especially not the Commodor 64 power supply.
So.. Then started looking for repair videos and replacement parts. So the collection started again.
My main focus is commodore related hardware, although I sometimes get tempted and buy other Retro hardware also.