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"Retrocomputing" is the use of early computer hardware and software today. Retrocomputing is usually classed as a hobby and recreation rather than a practical application of technology; enthusiasts often collect rare and valuable hardware and software for sentimental reasons. However, some do make use of it. [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia] If you see an old computer at an abandoned dumpster garbage and feel an irresistible urge to pick it up, or retrieved from friends and acquaintances obsolete computers, or still use your old Commodore, Spectrum, Amiga or whatever, leaving aside the latest Play Station and Xbox ... Then you also have the passion of RETROCOMPUTING!

The aim of Retro-computing.it is to preserve and present for posterity the history of computing. The history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and modern computing technology.
Retro-computing.it wants to be a kind of virtual museum dedicated to the preservation and celebration of computing, exploring its history and its ongoing impact on society, encompassing hardware, software, documentation, photographs and videos, providing resources and a meeting point for all interested users. An area where technical issues are addressed is also present, and an area dedicated to retrogaming: the retrocomputing applied to video games.
If you find useful information contained in these pages or you will manifest a bit of nostalgia, then I have succeeded in my purpose ... Happy surfing!

I still remember vividly when I saw for the first time "the computer": a glorious Commodore! I was 6 years old and still did not know what it was, nor how it worked, but the strange object had the power to attract my attention and fascinated me enormously! I was curious and my curiosity to see what was inside the "magic box" heightened my desire to know. The Computer was still a relatively unknown field to many and, unfortunately, for my family, "the computer" was just too expensive a toy!

It took me more than a year of continuous and insistent requests and whims before having my first personal computer. It was a brand new Commodore 64 : I was excited! I began to write my first programs in Basic (the one with numbered lines!) , encountering more than a few difficulty. At the time, it was not easy to find texts or programming manuals and I did not know anyone who could use a computer to ask for help! Even find new software was not easy for me. When I discovered the existence of the BBS, I was happily surprised for a moment: I could contact people throughout Italy (the world was not so small yet!) and exchange data and information with them... it seemed to me something of science fiction!
But it was not easy to use and in addition computer accessories were too expensive; still remember the floppy disk drive, which would have speeded up considerably the boots of my games and programs, costed almost as the central unit! When middle school started, It came to me that an emancipated professor of mathematics devoted one of his weekly hours to computing: I was eager to start school! Finally someone who gave due importance to the Computer! Since then, I never stopped ! Now computing is my job and I had already decided then, when I saw for the first time a computer! And now I am a computer engineer with a passion for the retrocomputing ! Maybe just curiosity and a sense of revenge drove me to this passion, the fact that there were so many things I did not know and that there was no one to ask for, the fact that I desired so many computer accessories and cannot have them ...

I think that the love of collecting obsolete computers was born as soon as I left my glorious Commodore for a "modern" IBM PC compatible: although I had a machine faster and more powerful, yet kept programming and playing with the Commodore!
After years of research and collecting, today I own hundreds of old computers and accessories, of various brands and models, pieces that many years ago were worth a fortune and that I dreamed to buy (if only I could then!), but I never thought about having them a day, although now of course no longer have the same value ... but not for me!
Even today, when I see a dismissed computer from a friend or among the shelves of second-hand markets and smell the scent of dust that stays there from years, I get excited and a little bit sad, because it takes me back in time... and looking at that computer I try to imagine the years of its splendor, just pulled out from its packaging and try to figure out who has used it.

I'd like to set up a museum with all the stuff I have collected and I hope I can do it, soon or late. Doing so I am sure I would achieve something useful and in addition I would find a more suited place to all my computers: by now I have no more free space for them. I occupied two houses, a garage, there are computers on the cabinet in my bedroom and a dozen boxes in the living room for which I still have not found a hole and, while I'm writing, I'm touching with the tip of my feet the box of a powerful Amiga 3000 that is under my desk along with a Commodore 116! Luckily, who lives with me is very patient and stands my passion.

So far, I planned on doing a sort of virtual museum, so at least I can share my passion with the rest of the world, and even if you can not see old relics closely, its content is accessible to a greater number of people ... power of the Internet!