Panasonic TH6-x3v, according to google, is a small TV? I'm not in CA, so I don't know what would be good in that area, beyond ebay.
Learning more about old tech:
This is a big topic! And there's a lot of stuff, it's easy to get lost. MY advice would be to pick a platform that is easy to emulate, and to learn it very well.
Commodore 64 is a popular place to start, and the c64 manual and programmers guide are very good and easy to find online.