Back in my uni days, I moved away from my family who lived in Alice Springs. I moved to Adelaide by myself in 1994 to study and get my IT degree. 

I had an old second hand 386 PC my father organised for me to use. It was not the Amiga 2000 we had in Alice - which I wanted to keep.

With only money from a work experience job I did over the summer in Alice Springs before moving to Adelaide, money was very tight.

I missed my Amiga computer but there was no way to afford one, starting from over AUD$1200 at the time just for the A1200 system with no peripherals. 

 Thank you for your patience during my extended absence from this blog.

I hope you understand that this past 2 months since the sudden and unexpected death of my younger brother has been an incredibly tough time for me personally and my family. I have had a lot to deal with, and it has been hard. Really hard.

I got away from things for two weeks to Japan in April, for a trip already pre-arranged almost a year ago. 

 I am pleased to say I received my two Checkmate displays this week from the UK, one black and one cream coloured. Let's take a closer look! 

This will be part one of a two part blog series as there is a lot to look at and a lot of systems to try them out on!

Welcome to my first blog post of 2025. I hope you and your family had a great Xmas and new year period and got some much needed rest and relaxation.

I had planned that also, but it didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped...but it started out well enough, with a planned train trip just after Xmas 2024 to Melbourne on the Overland train to see family.