[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Percom Atari Drives
February 28th, 2011 by Benj Edwards
“Introducing the Percom Alternative to Atari Disk Storage.”
I have a set of these Percom drives for the Atari 800, and I have to say they work very well. The only drawback? Don’t drop them on your toe, as the sharp metal case edges tend to have a guillotine effect at high speeds…
Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever been physically injured by a computer or video game system? Tell us about it.
February 28th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Damn, yes, I’ve got pain in my back carrying heavy 17″ CRT monitor! 🙂
February 28th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Does getting calluses from the d-pad count?
NES controllers were especially effective at this.
February 28th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
I have been hurt several times by computer/gaming equipment. Several years back, I dropped a Compaq Proliant server (HUGE beast), and struck my knee. It hurt for a couple of days afterwards.
Lately, though, my cell phone (With its 500 MHz processor is pretty much a tiny, Android powered computer) has gained a taste for blood, and I keep cutting my thumb on a sharp part of it where the two halves of the case don’t quite match up.
February 28th, 2011 at 8:28 pm
I’ll have you all beat with this one.
When I was young, internet accounts were very expensive and I was quite a little computer hacker. I got a message from the owner of one of the term sites I had slipped onto, saying they were onto me for a long time and the police were on their way to pick me up …
So I did what any frightened kid would do and hacked my hard disk open with an axe and tore the rest of it apart with my hands; cutting up all my fingers and bleeding profusely in the process, so there was no chance of data recovery at least on my side.
Nobody turned up, my fingers healed quick, and I flew straight after that.
I was young (underage) and from a poor family with no father, no friends, and it’s what loner kids did back then. I feel sorry this semi-harmless stuff ends otherwise normal kids who need a bit of TLC lands them in jail these days.
Thankfully, 15 years later or so, I’m a perfectly well adjusted adult 🙂
March 1st, 2011 at 10:23 pm
I may have been hurt by one of the Percoms. I seem to recall them putting out a drive for the Tandy Coco, and I had a 2nd one to go with the stock model I got. It made a dent in my foot when I dropped it. Hop hop ow ow #%@%@#!
I’ve been cut too many times by inside chassis edges to count.
March 2nd, 2011 at 1:13 am
I’ve never been that memorably injured by a piece of computing equipment, but my thumbs hate installing RAM, I can tell you that.
April 1st, 2011 at 1:35 am
Whilst moving a Commodore brand monitor recently, when I picked it up, it swung toward me funny, nailing me in the crotch with the corner, just barely missing anything… vital. It still hurt for awhile though.
April 17th, 2011 at 10:44 am
Yeah…heh, i recall beeing really stressed out at some old computer party/meeting (you know, Copy party of the 80’s) that i somewhat managed to connect the TVModulator for the A500 into the A500’s serial port (or was it paralell?) ..anyway it ended up with frying some CIA chips and some more… not the best copy party i’ve attended to in my life…
April 17th, 2011 at 10:45 am
Yeah…heh, i recall beeing really stressed out at some old computer party/meeting (you know, Copy party of the 80’s) that i somewhat managed to connect the TVModulator for the A500 into the A500’s serial port (or was it paralell?) ..anyway it ended up with frying some CIA chips and some more…
electric shock, a nice way to jump start yourself with.
not the best copy party i’ve attended to in my life…