The Kindness of Strangers Near and Far

Last night I received a private message from a fellow lemoner who lives in the Toronto area that the Peggy Kelly Media Arts Studios had a Commodore 64, Commodore 1702 monitor, Commodore 1541 floppy drive, and a Star SL-10C printer that they were trying to find a home for. The manager of this arts center had posted to a mailing list that my internet acquaintance reads. Thankfully he remembered that I live in Saint Paul, MN.

I left a message with the arts center last night to let them know that I was interested. I received a call this morning that I could come and pick it up. Since I had the day off, I decided to make the drive across the metro area to save these retro goodies from ending up in a landfill. While I was there, I was shown around the the studio. The studio has a training area for electronic media production, a photography studio, a media conversion room (photos/VHS/Film to DVD, PAL to NTSC conversion, etc...), and a sound booth/audio recording facility. The art center that houses this studio also has an art gallery, coffee shop, and a shop with jewelry and other crafted items. The center is located in Edina and I recommend any readers in the area to check it out.

My thanks go out to both Golan and Phil for their kindness.

... and of course, the obligatory photos:








As you can see, both the printer and the drive appear to have never been used. The monitor is lightly used and in good condition. The tube appears to be in better shape than the 1702 that I've been using over the past year. The C64 is in good cosmetic condition, but unfortunately it boots to a blank screen. This is a very common issue with C64s that can be caused by several different failures that are usually easy to fix. I have a stack of dead C64s that I can use for parts, so I am pretty sure I can bring this one back to life with a chip swap or two.