I worked at a number of post production studio as a 3D animator in Australia from 1996. At the first company, I used an Original HAL for 2D animation, mainly for TV commercials, and vfx for tv productions. I remember, there came an update for the system, and the someone from the UK came to show some of the new features, and give us some tips with using the system. This young lady was the same who is on all the HAL tutorial VHS tapes. Our young camera operator guy had a fling with this girl while she was staying in Brisbane to show us the system, after a night of drinkin. The next morning the guy came to work late, with a huge hangover, and a big grin on his face. Anyway, later the company was acquired by another studio. This other studio had an original Paintbox, quite outdated by then, had the wired pen(metal), old software, very slow but still somewhat useful. Our HAL was upgraded to TFX, with lots of clip space.
I loved the Quantel systems, the menu was incredibly simple, intuitive for most TV work. We were drooling over the Henry and Domino systems, dreaming that one day we may be able to have on of those.
I very much appreciate your efforts on repairing these machines, and trying to get the emulator up and running. It is a huge amount of work and I applaud your effort and patience.