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copyrights (c) manu/PKP
Who are the
"Pelikonepeijoonit" ? Why do they have this site up?
Pelikonepeijoonit consist of 3 members: our webmaster Manu Pärssinen (manu@pelikonepeijoonit.net),
Ville Heinonen (ville@pelikonepeijoonit.net)
and myself, Mikko Heinonen (mikko@pelikonepeijoonit.net).
We chose to appear under this title to emphasize the fact that our
collection is based in Finland, which, despite being very much up to date
these days, was seriously lagging behind at the time of the microcomputer
boom of the 1980s. Furthermore, Finland has a very small computer
industry, and virtually all machines ever produced here have been PC
clones. There's no chance of stumbling across any prototypes here.
Basically I'm saying that, even though we've "only" got about
120 machines (not including duplicates) at the moment, it has taken us
serious time and effort to assemble this collection, and we considered it
worthy of presenting to the general public under one title. Previously,
both Manu and I have had our collections on display on our respective home
pages, and at least my page wasn't visually very attractive.
Our principle
Collecting the machines alone is fun, and many of them would be worth more
money if left in their original packaging and never tested. However, we
believe in using them as well (gently, of course!). Therefore, the most
part of our collection is actively used for entertainment purposes.
We are also interested in finding software for them.
 A
bit of history
I think it's safe to say
that the whole thing is my fault. I never knew I had the soul of a
collector until I came across an ad for an Ericsson step/one (the mono
version) in 1992. It had previously belonged to a Finnish governmental
agency and was for sale for a very "reasonable" price. To this
day, I have no idea why I wanted the damn thing, but I did. And when I
finally got it - then again, who else would have wanted it - I fell in
love with it immediately. The "retro" feeling of a green display
was unimaginable, and I even ended up using it as my "primary"
computer for a few months while my PC was being repaired.
As the pattern goes, once
you've brought the first piece of junk in it'll soon bring others along. A
couple of months later, I bought an old C-64 from a friend to use as a
games machine. Unfortunately, it broke down so I had to get some extra
ones to use as spares, and before I knew it I was surrounded by PCBs. At
some point I bought an A500 with my friends (to pave the way for a
transition to an Amiga 1200 user later on), and then a Sharp MZ off
another friend, and then...
There was a time when I
seriously thought of quitting. I had about 30 different computers, no room
left to store the machines and I thought I had most of the systems
available (I was wrong). However, I soon moved to my own flat and suddenly
discovered I could store more stuff. Moreover, my brother Ville had
developed a growing fascination to the bits of silicon and we found
ourselves looking for additions to our collection - instead of looking
elsewhere. At this point we realised that this was incurable.
The hobby picked up pace in
1998, when we had some extra money thanks to us both being employed for
the summer, and Ville made a trip to Scotland. At first he wasn't very
keen on the idea of bringing back any computers, but "things
developed" and he returned with gems like the SAM Coupé and Acorn
Electron, previously unknown to us Finns. Thank heavens for EU and the
loose customs policy.
Another major breakthrough
was our acquaintance with a friendly video games salesperson who had some
rare items in stock. He was interested in our collection and sold us some
of the Sega items we have, the brand new Multi-Mega being the pick of the
pack.
And, last but not least, we
managed to awaken the retrogames enthusiast inside Manu. He already had
some old machines to start with, but soon doubled his collection and
wanted more. He was an experienced internet surfer as well, and quickly
gathered information about machines previously unknown to us, and that
"sort of" aroused our appetite. The future still looks bright,
after Ville's trip to Japan, Manu's trip to USA ... and more to come.
The machines we grew up
with
These are the computers
we've "primarily" used during these years, counting only one at
a time.
Mikko: VIC-20 (1984-85), C-64
(1985-88), Amiga 500 (1988-90), Goldstar AT/286 (1990-92), Pinus 486SX
(1992-93), Amiga 1200 (1993-95), PFX Pentium (1995-96), Amiga 1200
(1996-99), Fujitsu Pentium II (1999-)
Manu: Sony Hitbit MSX
(1985-1990), Amiga 500 (1990-1994), Amiga 1200 (1994-1997), Amiga 4000
(1997-1999) , Pentium (1997-)
Ville: VIC-20 (1984-85), C-64
(1985-88), Amiga 500 (1988-90), Goldstar AT/286 (1990-92), Pinus 486SX
(1992-93), Amiga 1200 (1993-1995), Amiga 500 (1995-96), Home-made 386SX
(1996-1997), 486DX4/120 (1997-1998), Fujitsu Pentium II (1998-1999), IBM
Aptiva (1999), Apple iMac (1999-)
Mikko & Ville also had
while "not collecting": Atari Lynx (1990-93), Atari Lynx II
(1993-)
Pelikonepeijoonit in the
media Online
:
Mentioned in Arto
Teräs' report of AltParty
Mentioned in Agricolan Tietosanomat 2/1999
Interviewed for www.addiktio.net
Mentioned in Vitonen
article about GameWorld
Many more...
Printed :
GEAR Magazine (UK) #6 - photos for the article about handheld games
PELIT magazine 11/2002 - mentioned in a spoof about GameWorld
MIKROBITTI magazine 9/2000 - in the internet link recommendations
TIETOVIIKKO newspaper 40 and 41/2002 (?) - mentioned in an article about
Salora Manager
KESKIPOHJANMAA newspaper 17.4.2000 - interviewed in an article about
collectors
ILTA-SANOMAT newspaper 2.12.2002 - interviewed in an article about
GameWorld
TYRVÄÄN SANOMAT newspaper 12.12.2002 - interview / exhibition at the
Tyrvää museum
SATAKUNNAN KANSA newspaper 17.12.2002 - a mention about the Tyrvää
exhibition
PELIT magazine 5/2003 - interview / photos for a big gaming history
article
OTE magazine 5/2003 - mentioned in a gaming culture article
DIGITAL PRESS COLLECTOR'S GUIDE #7 (USA) - several mentions
AAMULEHTI/ALLAKKA newspaper 23.8.2003 - full page interview with photos
PELIT magazine 9/2003 - photos for a gaming history article
MIKROBITTI magazine 9/2003 - link in an "electronic failures"
article
PELAAJA magazine 4/2003 - two quotes in a "Space Invaders anniversary"
article
CLASSIC GAMER MAGAZINE 1/vol2. - review of Manu's VSB game Radio
:
RADIO YLE SUOMI - mentioned in an interview about the museum exhibition
YLE X 22.9.2003 - a long (about 40 mins) interview with Mikko about
collecting video games and the GameOn museum in Helsinki If
you've seen us elsewhere, please let us know!
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