Companion & Companion’s Cartridge Complication

In this phase of the BBC Bridge Companion series, we’ll talk about a few simple tasks. Buying a system. Buying another system. Fixing both systems. And developing a cartridge PCB for them from scratch. Doesn’t everyone spend their weekends this way? First, I’d been puttering along in the emulator, but had not yet taken the plunge on the real hardware yet. It’s expensive buying things from eBay, and even moreso when it’s another country’s eBay, trying to get a fair deal for their prized government-backed information technology treasures. Oops, eBay Initially, I really did not want to pay the eBay asking price of $175 for a Bridge Companion, and then also pay a huge shipping fee on top. I kept looking at eBay, but missed when a boxed and complete unit was listed. PeteG from the re-enthused Discord server noticed, knew I was in the market, and gave me the tip-off. After a week-long bidding war, I scored that boxed Bridge Companion for £90 (about $145 CAD at the time,) shipped. This is…