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Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 8:00 am
by GameOn
Work :P

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2016 9:29 pm
by Vic Porter
Self-explanatory: I port games for Vic.

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2016 2:45 am
by mingle
Vic Porter wrote:Self-explanatory: I port games for Vic.
Cool - can you get to work on Boulder Dash ASAP? :-)

Hi Guys,

The Vic was my first computer, back in 1983 - I have many fond memories on getting huge high scores on Omega Race and Astroblitz.
I had a simple unexpanded machine and cassette drive, which is why most of the games I had were on carts!

I've recently been getting into WinVICE 2.4, which is bloody marvellous.

My username is an abbreviation/concatenation of my first and surnames.

Cheers,

Mike.

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 6:20 am
by amigaman07
Hi all, I am amigaman07 in Sunny OZ!

The Amiga, being my Current focus hence the Name!

I began my Computer Days in the Early 80's Playing the Intelevision and a ZX81 (with a Whopping 16K RAM Expansion!)

After these Relics, I discovered the ZX Spectrum 48K, Commodore 64, and MSX 64K Range of Computers. And being a Trainee Technician Mechanic at the time, decided to Open these Babies Up to see what made them TICK!

Obviously, I got into the Computer Repair Game!

My First Main Repair Focus was the Atari St, and I believe there's a Lot of these Machines Still Running somewhere in the UK because of Me! ;)

I then met Neville Armstrong, formerly of the Keighley AMIGA User Group, and became his Main Repairer of AMIGA Computers for about 5 Years up to 2000. (When moved back to OZ)

I still have a Photo of my First VIC-20 Strutting it's Stuff in front of a Former girlfriend, I think she had Hold of my Joystick in the Photo? Taken in 1989 I think, and Yes, I had a girlfriend! ;)

I have since had Numerous VIC-20s over the Years, and I dare say the former! ;)

I currently Own 3 VIC-20's, 1 is an Original PAL Machine (Mint Like New!), 2 is a US NTSC 110V VIC-20 with Step-Down Converter (also Mint Like New!) and 3 is a Pal Machine in a Concept C64C Style Case! (My almost Daily Drive!)

As I say, I have Repaired Many VIC 20's over the Years and for those of you out there with Dead or Dying VIC's, these are the 3 Main Faults I find on the Majority of the Machines I have Looked at:

1) The MOS 901486-07 (PAL) Kernal ROM Fails (Bottom Right of Mainboard). Replacing this is a Swap in and Out Job, as it is Socketed, and is relatively Cheap to find and Replace.

2) The MOS 901486-06 (NTSC) Kernal ROM Fails. These are RARE and are Likewise EXPENSIVE!!! (took me over 6 Months to Find a Good Working one!)

(Side Note: The 901486 Kernal ROM is somewhat Interchangable, mainly for Diagnostic Purposes, but you will Notice fitting the Wrong Region Kernal throws the Clock Timing out a bit, and your Screen may be Half Out of View!) ;)

3) The MOS 6522 CIA has Failed. Replace this and your VIC Springs to Life!

I hope this has been an interesting read for someone, If Not, go Play your VIC-20!

Hoorah ;)

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 10:00 pm
by Vic Porter
mingle wrote:Cool - can you get to work on Boulder Dash ASAP? :-)
I'm not a fan of that game.

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 3:58 am
by ldxstx
Hi, mine is obviously based on the two assembly opcodes LDX and STX (sounding a bit better than LDASTA :)).
True love for the 6502... :mrgreen:

Thanks again for this wonderful forum and friendly community (btw is nice to be back after 3 years of sporadic lurking because of work...)
Ciao!

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:20 am
by sprazzi
Hi everybody...
I've just bought a VIC 20 which was the fist ever computer I have ever had... back in 1980...

And I just discovered the behr bonz cart, which I 've just bought (I hope I'll arrive sooner than soon :))

anyway, my nick is an italian word for "bursts" (of light)... just because it sounds fun :)

cheers!!!

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:44 am
by Bobbi
Welcome to the board Sprazzi! Benvenuto!

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:08 am
by sprazzi
Bobbi wrote:Welcome to the board Sprazzi! Benvenuto!
Thank you! :)
And why "denial" if I may?

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:17 pm
by English Invader
sprazzi wrote: And why "denial" if I may?
Denial is an anagram from the founder's surname (Daniels).

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 5:20 am
by jsonova99
I wish I had a nifty VIC-20 username but mine is simply my initials and the year I graduated from Villanova. I've been big into vintage video game systems, decided these old 8-bit computers would be fun. So I picked up a Vic-20 a few weeks ago (and C64), been having fun with it, but now it's got issues.

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 6:04 am
by joshuadenmark
Welcome Jsonova99 hope You got the issue's fixed soon :D

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2016 2:15 pm
by fuzzybad
Fuzzybad is simply my online handle.. here, there, everywhere. I've used it for years. Where I got the name is pretty silly. Many years ago I used the Gamespy handle generator, and it spit out "Fuzzybad-Mofo". For whatever reason, I thought this was cute and began using it for online games. After some time I dropped the 'Mofo' part.

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 2:34 am
by shadow
Hi there! My username isn't really based upon anything. I needed to make up something, and decided to go with something with a dark theme. (I didn't create it for this site, but rather the C64 wiki, and figured I should stick with it.)

I took an interest in 8-bit computers and started poking at the C64 in WinVice. I became particularly interested in the differences between the 64 and 128, and did some exploring with the new BASIC v7 commands and fancy 80-column screen. And then I decided I should learn about the 64's older cousin. I was initially turned-off by its 22-column screen, until I learned how to extend it- the screen hacks got me hooked. Now I enjoy enlarging the screen, rearranging the video memory in order to use the extra screen space, editing characters. I've learned a few things:

1) Video memory is stuck in the factory 4k window (the whole reason I registered here was to ask why I couldn't move it to $0400)
2) If you add rows with an 8k expansion installed and don't bother to move the start-of-BASIC pointer, you can watch the gibberish change as you type in a program
3) If you're adding rows, always place video memory at a location divisible by 1024; aka byte 36866 bit 7 should be low. The color RAM location is also determined by this value, either the top or bottom half of a 1k block, and the colors of characters in added rows will be at addresses beyond the end of this block. If 36866 is <128, the color RAM is at the low end of the 1k block and you have free memory above it to expand into. If 36866 >=128, the color RAM is at the high end of the 1k block, and the added rows read their color from the memory after the color RAM block, one of the cartridge I/O blocks. (I have no idea what those I/O blocks are, but you apparently can't POKE into them.)
3-1/2) The unused half-kilobyte in the color RAM block is usable memory, particularly handy if you've extended the screen and copied the character map into RAM on an unexpanded VIC- that leaves only a hair over 1k available!
4) It's not entirely true that you have to POKE individual bytes to write to added rows. You can POKE 648 to slightly higher values and use PRINT statements, albeit with the columns out of alignment.
5) The VIC did not have nearly enough factory memory, particularly if you want to extend the screen and edit characters

Re: Introduce Yourself: What's your User Name based on?

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 5:03 am
by Mike
Hi, Shadow, and welcome to Denial! :)

Some additions to what you've found out while in experimenting mood:
shadow wrote:1) Video memory is stuck in the factory 4k window (the whole reason I registered here was to ask why I couldn't move it to $0400)
The RAM in $0000..$03FF can also be accessed by the VIC chip.
3) [...] If 36866 >=128, the color RAM is at the high end of the 1k block, and the added rows read their color from the memory after the color RAM block, one of the cartridge I/O blocks. (I have no idea what those I/O blocks are, but you apparently can't POKE into them.)
Not quite. Access of the colour RAM wraps from 38911 ($97FF) to 37888 ($9400) in that case. If you saw colour RAM data extending into I/O 2 ($9800..$9BFF), you're using an extremely old, and imprecise, version of VICE.
5) The VIC did not have nearly enough factory memory, particularly if you want to extend the screen and edit characters
Oh! You will be quite surprised, if you keep looking, what people did on the VIC-20 even without any RAM expansions. :mrgreen:


If you're so inclined, we can gladly discuss the details in the other forum sections. :)