Based on your Twitter posts you have a lot of affection for the Amstrad CPC – was this your introduction to computing?
Yes. First got to use a CPC 464 at some point in 1985 and we got a CPC 6128 for Christmas 1985.
Did you have any other computers / consoles growing up?
Gotta catch ’em all! Got a GX4000 in 1990 and an A1200 in 1992. But also picked up various Spectrums and C64‘s as people started dumping them.
When did the the retro-computing bug hit you, or did it never go away?
Never went away.
What made you decide to launch a Youtube channel and what led to the decision to use real hardware.
At the time most of the footage on Youtube was emulated and everything looked wrong. I just thought there was an opportunity to do it properly.
What are the challenges of making videos with real hardware?
Cables everywhere! I no longer have a nice setup just a mess of cables and machines!
And getting some stuff working can be a pain.
Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to dig out their old 8-bits from the loft and get back into retro computers.
Just do it. And get yourself a modern storage solution as that will make your life far easier.
What frustrates you about the retro computing scene?
People who want to sit in their little silos and not look at stuff from other machines. Worse, people want to want to relive the 1980’s playground battles. Why wouldn’t you want to experience all the systems? Must be terribly boring if you only like the Sintrad 64 and hate everything else.
Which of your videos are you most proud of?
Probably the 50 games in 10 minutes videos I did in lockdown, but only because they took ages to do. But then again during lockdown I didn’t have much else to do!
Which is your go-to game?
Probably Space Harrier (arcade version)
What would an CPC Mini need for you to be interested in it? (We’re supposing for the sake of this question that it wasn’t produced by Retro Games Ltd…)
Please leave the CPC alone! This is one thing we’re quite happy to be left out of!
You’ve recently started podcasting – do you have any guests you’d love to feature on your show?
The podcast is really only a sideline. Since I’m only spoken to ‘real users’ so far I’m not sure any ‘big names’ would be a good thing. It’s another example of me doing things ‘my way’ I guess.
Thank you to ChinnyVision for taking the time to answer our questions. You can check out his Youtube channel here, and Twitter here.
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