Date: November 16, 2025
We discussed shared community history and technical knowledge. We talked about the evolution of user groups from 1980s, who often had printed newsletters (CATS, Update, Chicago-area publications), through Yahoo groups to current online forums.
Participants recounted their first computer acquisitions—ZX81s and TS1000s purchased in the early 1980s, often with lawn-mowing money, and used for school, work calculations, and learning machine code. Technical discussions covered RAM pack construction, EPROM cartridges for diagnostics, board repairs, and peripheral interfaces including joystick ports and microdrives.