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Back in 1991, I entered University at Lampeter, Wales, UK.

For four years, while ostensibly studying Philosophy, I learned how to wash clothes for the first time in my life, and rediscovered a love of computing, dormant since I'd sold my 48K ZX Spectrum (+ microdrive!) in 1986 following the inevitable introduction of a teenage male to booze, girls and used record shops.

At Lampeter, I discovered Microsoft Windows 3.11, VAX/VMS 5.2 and the Internet.  All three of these have evolved a lot since then, but while two of them went on to became household names, VMS stayed resolutely in the background, quietly running many of the world's mission critical applications until cheaper hardware and software made many such installations financially unviable. But: Oh, My! VMS was lovely.

Lampeter was an arts university, with no full time computing course, but even back in 1991 most students needed computers to produce and print documents, and the small but perfectly formed Computer Unit provided the required tools in the shape of PCs, served by a VAX 3400 (if memory serves). Electronic Mail was offered via (emulated) terminal connection to the VAX from the PCs, and users would have to learn and use VMS to read and send their mail. That was probably the only use of VMS for most users, with the Windows PC providing the majority of the tools. But some of us chose the red pill, and life was never the same again: NETHACK, FINGER, anonymous FTP, TELNET, MUDs, chatrooms, ADVENTURE, MORIA, EMPIRE, programming in DEC PASCAL and DEC C...

In 1992, DEC (or Digital as they were known to aficionados) introduced a new CPU and hardware platform to allow the venerable VAX hardware line to sleep the good sleep. They called this CPU the Alpha, and ported VMS to it (and changed the name to OpenVMS for both Alpha and VAX versions). They made several Alpha models, and these were some of the most desirable processing tools available at the time, with a pricetag to reflect the cutting edge capability, e.g.  the AlphaServer 2100 with 3x 5/300 CPUs retailed at more than US$600 000.

In 2012, I bought one of these for £10 on Ebay.

It doesn't work. But that's where the fun starts. This blog will detail the trials and tribulations of my attempts at restoring this machine to the point where it can run OpenVMS, and ultimately join in a local cluster of DEC hardware, and even join a network of DEC machines around the world.

The AlphaServer 2100 5/300 (the CPUs have actually been upgraded from 4/275s to 5/300s). The box beside it is a 3.5" hard disk in a StorageWorks enclosure.

There's a CD-ROM at the top right and floppy drive at top centre. Six 4GB disks are in the central column. This is a big beast of a server. (But they do come much bigger...)