the last commodore shop....

[ral-clan]

Thanks Orion70. I was half-kidding about the Temple of Apshai, but I really would like it if you find it! And I will pay you back right away!

[Mirage1972]

For someone who knows the place: any way to get from the Mall of America (next to which my hotel is located) to Downtown St Paul? - I mean, apart from Taxi. I've never been there, and google maps says Raymond Av is almost 10 miles far from the hotel; a little too much to go walking .

The Twin Cities has an excellent bus system, but if you don't want to bother with that... no, not really. Take a cab or the bus. Once you get downtown, most of it is very pedestrian and bike friendly. They even have lots of skyways. I used to walk from one end of town to the other in the winter without ever having to go outside! You won't have that problem this time of year though.

[Jeff-20]

I want to go to Mall of America for a weekend or something. Is it worth it? I would take the bus from Chicago, so maybe I would stay one night in a hotel. I want to know how long does it take before one has seen it all or gets bored?

[Mirage1972]

Jeff, I'm sure others may disagree, but I finally visited the Mall of America about a year ago and was a bit disappointed. Sure, it's a really big mall. You'll probably never see a bigger one, but that's really about all it is. I was most impressed with the outside, which reminded me of an airport. I was unimpressed with the carnival or whatever you call it sections with the rides, and the aquarium was mediocre. I don't think my assessment was all that far off base because my wife's impression was the same (actually, she wanted to leave before I did). I would visit again, but only if I was already in the area.

If the idea of a really big mall appeals strongly to you though, maybe you'll like it better than we did.

[orion70]

The Twin Cities has an excellent bus system, but if you don't want to bother with that... no, not really. Take a cab or the bus. Once you get downtown, most of it is very pedestrian and bike friendly. They even have lots of skyways. I used to walk from one end of town to the other in the winter without ever having to go outside! You won't have that problem this time of year though.

Thanks. The pedestrian skyway/subway system has been implemented in several northern US cities, like Rochester where I am now, and this doesn't surprise me, given the incredibly cold weather they have during the winter! My fiancee was here when a min temperature of -42°C was recorded back in January .

Ral-clan: I won't be able to send things from here, as I will buy them on my last day of vacation, a few hours before leaving. So, I'll do that from Italy. If I find TOA, I'll give you a price including S&H by the end of next week.

Bye guys, I'll write back and post pictures when back in Italy.

[ral-clan]

Orion70 must have visited "Raymond Computer" yesterday, because I got the following response to my several week old request for VIC Apshai from Raymond himself:

As best I can recall I have never even seen a temple of apshai for the vic - I had a guy from Milan, Italy in the shop today and he too
is looking for that.

Thanks for double-checking for me Orion70!

[nbla000]

I think you are searching for the original tape, right ?

btw there are tape images and a disk converted version on zimmer, there is a manual too....

[Mayhem]

And the box scans are in GB20 too (cos I own the game and scanned it)...

[carlsson]

And I have a VIC reseller's catalogue from 1984 which lists Temple of Apshai for the VIC-20. So clearly it did exist.

Actually, I stumbled across Temple of Apshai on eBay the other day, but it was the Atari 8-bit version which you're not looking for.

[ral-clan]

I think you are searching for the original tape, right ?

btw there are tape images and a disk converted version on zimmer, there is a manual too....

Yes, I know this because the version on Zimmers is from a tape I archived! The great VIC-20 ports of EPYX games like Rescue at Rigel, Crush-Crumble & Chomp and Temple of Apshai had never been archived before 2005 (except for Fargoal). So, a few years ago I made an effort to track down and rescue/archive/dump all of them. Marko Makela took my TAP images and made wonderful disk executables for them which are now on Zimmer's site.

I have nice boxed versions of all of them except for Apshai - for which I only have the cassette that I dumped for Marko. I am still on the lookout for a boxed version.

[davidv_]

Yes, I know this because the version on Zimmers is from a tape I archived! The great VIC-20 versions EPYX games like Rescue at Rigel, Crush-Crumble & Chomp and Temple of Apshai had never been archived before 2005 (except for Fargoal).

I also scanned and archived the other very rare EPYX vic game ricochet here:
http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... e=Ricochet

There are two scans of the vic version of Aphsai here:
http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/wiki ... title=EPYX

I dont know why you guys think its vapourware

[orion70]

Thanks for double-checking for me Orion70!

You're welcome. Here I am, back from the US, now typing on my home keyboard as usual.

I had a great time at Raymond's, he's a nice and smart guy and he's been very kind listening to all my requests.

The shop is located roughly half-way from Minneapolis to St Paul, in a quiet peripheral neighborhood. Internally, it is a complete mess, with several wooden scaffolds containing Commodore VIC-20, 64, 116/Plus4, and Amiga software (in no particular order). VIC software is confined into 1 x 2 meters, and it mainly consists of loose Commodore carts of the common kind, plus some others boxed and a lot of software on cassette both in big and small boxes. There are also a lot of books and manuals, most of which I never heard of. C116/Plus4 software is only on one sector of the same scaffold; I was not interested on it, so I can remember only some boxed classic Infocom adventures.

In comparison, the part dedicated to the C64 and Amiga was remarkably bigger, with games, software and books of all genres. Raymond also sells C= hardware; all common platforms, plus a working SX-64 (for $150, which was not too much considering the currency exchange, but too heavy to transport or to send in Italy).

I had "only" one hour to spend there due to limitations imposed by Superior Rulers (my girlfriend, who on the other side skipped the Mall of America for my trip to Raymond's, may God bless her). My choice was limited to the following (some criticism is accepted, but it's stuff I did not have and was curious about):

VIC-20
- Develop-20 the Game Programmer's Toolkit by French Silk Software, big box w/cassette and 120 pages manual, fair condition;
- Money decisions I and II by Commodore, big boxes w/cassettes and manuals, good condition;
- Loan Analyzer by Creative Software, boxed tape w/manual, new and shrink-wrapped;
- Turmoil by Sirius, boxed cart, no manual;
- Trashman by Creative Software, boxed cart w/manual, new and shrink-wrapped;
- Satellites and Meteorites by UMI, boxed cart w/manual;
- Snake Byte by Sirius, boxed cart w/manual, new and shrink-wrapped;
- Sword of Fargoal by Epyx, boxed cassette w/manual;
- Big golden-label 8K RAM expansion by MSD, new and shrink-wrapped.

Commodore 64 (yep, I couldn't resist )
- PractiCalc64 by Computer Software Associates, boxed cassette w/manual, new and shrink-wrapped;
- Simon's BASIC by Commodore, boxed cart w/manual, new and shrink-wrapped;
- Easy Script by Commodore, boxed disks w/manual, new and shrink-wrapped;
- Annals of Rome by PSS, boxed disk w/manual, new and shrink-wrapped;
- Loose cart of The Gateway to Apshai, just to have a peek at the sequel ;
- Magic Desk I by Commodore, loose cart w/manual (the one that made my brother and I proud to have a C64 back then, during the C64 vs Spectrum war);
- Visible Solar System by Commodore, loose cart w/manual.

Magazines (and yes, he's got plenty of them)
- Commodore Microcomputers Dec 1985 "The Best of 1985 Collector's Edition and Buyer's Guide to the C64/128", good condition, 140 pages also featuring the launch of Commodore Amiga by Andy Warhol ;
- Creative Computing Apr 1983, 310 pages of great computer history, including the Winter CES of that year fully covered in a funny and long article...

I paid about 150 bucks, which is not bad considered the exchange (90 euros). The sum was calculated with a C64 application he uses for that purpose since 1992, when he programmed it. The monitor was a small one adapted from a SX64; the receipt was printed with an Epson dot-matrix printer connected to the system. When I said to Raymond "good to see the C64 working again", he answered "good to see it's still working", which says everything about the philosophy of the place.

Guys, I had to surrender to dust (I'm allergic), time, weight of items, and weakness due to endless walking. I wish some of you will be able to visit this incredible place and spend more time than I did, with less hurry and clearer ideas.

Waiting for the pics and a short movie from my fiancee - who kept the camera but promised to send them ASAP - I greet you all and go to bed trying to defeat the jet lag.

[Mirage1972]

It sounds like you had a blast! I definitely need to stop in there sometime. He may have my missing 1984 Gazettes!

[jbuonacc]

- Develop-20 the Game Programmer's Toolkit by French Silk Software, big box w/cassette and 120 pages manual, fair condition

- Big golden-label 8K RAM expansion by MSD, new and shrink-wrapped.

[nbla000]

Welcome back to Italy Orion

Many compliments for the stuff, a lot of rare items....

Do you want to make a new game using the Develop-20 the Game Programmer's Toolkit ?

Tell us more about Develop-20, do you may grub it on tap form ?
I don't want to ask you for manual scanning, i think 120 pages are too much, maybe just the summary....