How it all began
And there comes a time in the life of every person when he looks at the past and takes stock… He grabs that forgotten list of everything he wanted to do and starts erasing what has already happened. That’s what Vagelis did…
Well, he had done well! He was happy with what he had accomplished. He seized the dream of Medicine and became a successful internist with his own practice. He satiated his passion for music by learning to play drums and left his mark by releasing albums with his rock band.
There was only one small thorn… an unrealized goal, a dream born many years ago, in his tender teenage years, along with his passion for computers…
The dream
He wanted to obtain them all, make a big collection. Not so much for him, because he rarely thinks of himself, but to share it with others and pass on his knowledge and love for these magic machines to them.
For him, they were never just machines… They had a soul… And insightful as he was, he knew that one day they would overwhelm the world and become indispensable in our lives. He watched their evolution step by step, read, updated and collected his treasure piece by piece – even though those around him told him it was garbage.
Along with his collection grew his desire to expose it and tell the world their story. Desire became a necessity, but it always stayed low on his list because he prioritized the needs of others.
His dream never went away… It was burning and scintillating, struggling to stay alive. And then one day came in his life a gentle breeze, which also traveled from the years of his adolescence to the present day… Katerina, it was called… And she blew… and gave oxygen to the spark of his dream and made it a flame, strong and uncontrollable… Now he couldn’t put it off anymore… He wasn’t alone. Two dreamers who share the same passion can work miracles, create life. This is how the “RAM Rules” Computer and Gaming Museum was born.
So here we are, sharing it with you with the wish and hope that it will offer you all the excitement and emotion that its creators feel…
Katerina-Vagelis
The beginning
Narrated by Vagelis Athousakis
It was the summer of 1987, I remember, when my father, having understood, as a professor, that computers came to stay, decided to get me a computer. The truth is, I had been begging him for a whole year. Until then, all we were learning was from our classmates who had already obtained one.
Ένας φίλος είχε ήδη έναν Commodore 64 με τα υπέροχα γραφικά και τον καταπληκτικό ήχο! Άλλος είχε έναν Spectrum 48K με τις «γομολάστιχες» για πλήκτρα! A friend of mine already had a Commodore 64 with great graphics and amazing sound! Another one had a Spectrum 48K with rubber keys!
At that time, computer shops were constantly growing as the take away cafes are now growing. There was a shop in the middle of the great Evans street, coming down to the left, called Computer Link. Every time I passed by, I’d stop and stare longingly at the new models that kept coming! A Commodore 64, an Amstrad 6128, an MSX and others and I longed for one too.
The first computer
Finally, in July, if I remember correctly, I took my father over there and convinced him to buy the Amstrad 6128 which was a complete package, i.e. with its own screen and a disk drive which was groundbreaking for the era of the tape. It cost, I remember very well, 78,000 drachmas while salaries at the time were close to 200,000. That was a lot of money for the time, but a smart and insightful man like my father, understood that this was actually an investment! And it was…
At my house, 6128 was the corner of the future! Placed gloriously on my desk, it looked like a million bucks to a 14-year-old! It was my window to entertainment, to science, to technology… Everything we read about, we could live it! Ever since I write faster on the keyboard than by hand and with much more legible letters! You see, I am a congenital scribbler… As far as Computer Link is concerned, the story didn’t end there. Both my father and I didn’t want me to use my superfast (!!) computer just for gaming.
So I enrolled to Computer Link classes and I spent all summer afternoons learning MS-DOS, BASIC, computer and keyboard handling. At 8:00pm, I was coming back enchanted with the new knowledge… We were a bunch of kids with dreams and love for the new era… Freaks for most of our peers then. Our “revenge”, and mine personally, is the present day when if you don’t know how to use a computer you’re practically illiterate. I will forever thank my father for predicting the future and offering it to me… Unfortunately, he’s no longer here to hear this… My consolation is the ability I have now to offer my children their own future…
The evolution
During the same summer the Amiga 500 was released. A space-era machine with 512K memory!! The decade had started with the incredible RAM capacity of 1K and within 7 years had reached 512 and was already insufficient!
In October of the same year, I also acquired the first issue of a magazine that was meant to define the entire golden decade of home micros in Greece. The Pixel. It was first released in 1983. The cover of October 87 was the game Star Trek. The game with Super Graphics! So it said… And indeed the Special Review was amazing! Incredible graphics… Of course in Amiga and Atari ST only.
With this magazine we were introduced to the field, we wrote our first Listings in Basic! We did peek & poke, we learned about Uncle Clive, we read “London calling”. We also learned about Commodore’s competition with Atari, both made by the same man! We laughed at the cheers, we broke games that were hard for us. And in the end – unfortunately – we learned that everything is now a PC…
I had been waiting every month for the magazine issue to come out so I wouldn’t miss it! I sat comfortably in my bed and enjoyed every page. I deliberately took a week to read it and by the end of the month I had learned it inside out! It was a group of people who loved what they were doing and that was coming out on its pages. It’s always in my heart!
I still catch myself petting the cover and travelling back then, becoming a child again and waiting for the new world that was hidden in every issue. In our museum there are all the issues I have bought, as well as all the issues in photocopy.
Fast Forward a year. Summer of 1988, I found myself in Athens for a family walk. I had already become a connoisseur(!) of the field, and I went for a walk in the Greek Silicon Valley of the time, Stournaris Street. It was the joy of the gamer… There were shops dedicated to computers everywhere!
I was stuck on a window, I literally stuck my nose on it! In front of me there was a white, beautiful, somewhat snob Amiga 500, which was designing with 4096 colors the home screen of the Defender of the Crown. Ever since I had a desire to own it… I didn’t manage to get it until recently. The little shop was called Plaisio…
In the present day
The decade of home micros was an unforgettable time! Many children found their destination overnight, others their hobby, others their mate. A time with daily evolution, an era of exploration and creation. Computers were models, like cars. The companies were nominal, with pioneering creators and visionaries! They weren’t faceless PCs, they weren’t pieces that you put together, you put them in a box and you had a computer as it is today.
We were reading in the special magazines about when each company would release the next model. We were looking forward to the computer test to see, to compare, to enjoy its design, its curves and angles! The computer could not be upgraded like it is now. You bought it like a car, you loved it! And when it became outdated, you’d get the next model. In the end, they had, at least for us then, character and soul…
So with great pleasure, my wife and I welcome you to the exhibition and the museum of our heart! We will try to share with you some of the magic of a brilliant era that has passed but has not been forgotten and will never be forgotten!
The beginning
Narrated by Vagelis Athousakis
It was the summer of 1987, I remember, when my father, having understood, as a professor, that computers came to stay, decided to get me a computer. The truth is, I had been begging him for a whole year. Until then, all we were learning was from our classmates who had already obtained one.
Ένας φίλος είχε ήδη έναν Commodore 64 με τα υπέροχα γραφικά και τον καταπληκτικό ήχο! Άλλος είχε έναν Spectrum 48K με τις «γομολάστιχες» για πλήκτρα! A friend of mine already had a Commodore 64 with great graphics and amazing sound! Another one had a Spectrum 48K with rubber keys!
At that time, computer shops were constantly growing as the take away cafes are now growing. There was a shop in the middle of the great Evans street, coming down to the left, called Computer Link. Every time I passed by, I’d stop and stare longingly at the new models that kept coming! A Commodore 64, an Amstrad 6128, an MSX and others and I longed for one too.
The first computer
Finally, in July, if I remember correctly, I took my father over there and convinced him to buy the Amstrad 6128 which was a complete package, i.e. with its own screen and a disk drive which was groundbreaking for the era of the tape. It cost, I remember very well, 78,000 drachmas while salaries at the time were close to 200,000. That was a lot of money for the time, but a smart and insightful man like my father, understood that this was actually an investment! And it was…
At my house, 6128 was the corner of the future! Placed gloriously on my desk, it looked like a million bucks to a 14-year-old! It was my window to entertainment, to science, to technology… Everything we read about, we could live it! Ever since I write faster on the keyboard than by hand and with much more legible letters! You see, I am a congenital scribbler… As far as Computer Link is concerned, the story didn’t end there. Both my father and I didn’t want me to use my superfast (!!) computer just for gaming.
So I enrolled to Computer Link classes and I spent all summer afternoons learning MS-DOS, BASIC, computer and keyboard handling. At 8:00pm, I was coming back enchanted with the new knowledge… We were a bunch of kids with dreams and love for the new era… Freaks for most of our peers then. Our “revenge”, and mine personally, is the present day when if you don’t know how to use a computer you’re practically illiterate. I will forever thank my father for predicting the future and offering it to me… Unfortunately, he’s no longer here to hear this… My consolation is the ability I have now to offer my children their own future…
The evolution
During the same summer the Amiga 500 was released. A space-era machine with 512K memory!! The decade had started with the incredible RAM capacity of 1K and within 7 years had reached 512 and was already insufficient!
In October of the same year, I also acquired the first issue of a magazine that was meant to define the entire golden decade of home micros in Greece. The Pixel. It was first released in 1983. The cover of October 87 was the game Star Trek. The game with Super Graphics! So it said… And indeed the Special Review was amazing! Incredible graphics… Of course in Amiga and Atari ST only.
With this magazine we were introduced to the field, we wrote our first Listings in Basic! We did peek & poke, we learned about Uncle Clive, we read “London calling”. We also learned about Commodore’s competition with Atari, both made by the same man! We laughed at the cheers, we broke games that were hard for us. And in the end – unfortunately – we learned that everything is now a PC…
I had been waiting every month for the magazine issue to come out so I wouldn’t miss it! I sat comfortably in my bed and enjoyed every page. I deliberately took a week to read it and by the end of the month I had learned it inside out! It was a group of people who loved what they were doing and that was coming out on its pages. It’s always in my heart!
I still catch myself petting the cover and travelling back then, becoming a child again and waiting for the new world that was hidden in every issue. In our museum there are all the issues I have bought, as well as all the issues in photocopy.
Fast Forward a year. Summer of 1988, I found myself in Athens for a family walk. I had already become a connoisseur(!) of the field, and I went for a walk in the Greek Silicon Valley of the time, Stournaris Street. It was the joy of the gamer… There were shops dedicated to computers everywhere!
I was stuck on a window, I literally stuck my nose on it! In front of me there was a white, beautiful, somewhat snob Amiga 500, which was designing with 4096 colors the home screen of the Defender of the Crown. Ever since I had a desire to own it… I didn’t manage to get it until recently. The little shop was called Plaisio…
In the present day
The decade of home micros was an unforgettable time! Many children found their destination overnight, others their hobby, others their mate. A time with daily evolution, an era of exploration and creation. Computers were models, like cars. The companies were nominal, with pioneering creators and visionaries! They weren’t faceless PCs, they weren’t pieces that you put together, you put them in a box and you had a computer as it is today.
We were reading in the special magazines about when each company would release the next model. We were looking forward to the computer test to see, to compare, to enjoy its design, its curves and angles! The computer could not be upgraded like it is now. You bought it like a car, you loved it! And when it became outdated, you’d get the next model. In the end, they had, at least for us then, character and soul…
So with great pleasure, my wife and I welcome you to the exhibition and the museum of our heart! We will try to share with you some of the magic of a brilliant era that has passed but has not been forgotten and will never be forgotten!
