How many of you still have your origional perchased new VIC?

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 12:21 pm

Sadly no. I sold mine to raise cash to buy a Plus/4.

What a mistake to make!

Happily this sense of loss led to a huge retro collection for a about 5 years before it was fashionable.

Later the collection financed us temporarily during acquisition of small partial clone persons...

The Commodore collection remains as a few Vic 20s, 2 C64 and a Plus/4 now. The rest are pretty much gone.

Very happy to have Vic's back but not quite the same sense of attachment as with my first computer.

rwv01 · Post by **rwv01** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:02 am

Wow, not too many so far. But it's a wonder we still have ours. It failed sometime in the mid 80s. It servived a move and about 20 years in storage in non working condition. If our family weren't such pack rats...
oh wait, it's not that surprising then.

Shoot, we got junk kicking around way older than that thing!

highinfidelity · Post by **highinfidelity** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:57 am

Yes, still have mine, and yes it has been my first computer. For one reason or another I've always kept its original box as well.

rwv01 · Post by **rwv01** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 8:14 am

highinfidelity wrote:For one reason or another I've always kept its original box as well.

Yeah, I've still got mine as well. They were well designed. Durable and good for repackaging the computer for storage.
I think that's why you see so many VICs that still have it. It just made sense to keep it.

wimoos · Post by **wimoos** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:12 am

I still have the same that I bought in 1981, serial no WGC6038.
Back in those days I soldered 6x 2114 on top of existing RAM to get 3Kbytes extra and I replaced the 6502 for a 65C02. I still have the original CPU.

It survived many moves, about 10 I believe and it has served as an automated scarecrow in a cherry-yard !

Now I have replaced the keyboard because of two broken keys and I replaced a VIA.

I used to have a cassette recorder hooked up (not the original one, but a Philips with a small mod), now I use 64HDD.

And of course a 32Kbytes RAM extension.

rwv01 · Post by **rwv01** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 7:30 pm

wimoos wrote:it has served as an automated scarecrow in a cherry-yard !

Wow. What was that like?

wimoos · Post by **wimoos** » Wed Aug 08, 2012 2:01 am

Sadly I have never made any pictures of the setup. In the cherry-yard we placed all kind of electrical devices that could rattle and scream to chase away the birds from the cherries (also used VICs soundgenerator to act as a siren!).

I built an autostart ML program and put it in an EPROM for the VIC. The VIC would then turn the devices on and off through relays that I connected to the I/O ports. With the screen and the keyboard, the respective duty cycles could be adjusted.

The ultimate effect was that the neighbours complained about the noise and called in the police

.

I still have the program and the EPROM I believe...

Bacon · Post by **Bacon** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:20 am

Sold mine in 1984 to get a C64. Back then I couldn't imagine ever getting nostalgic about it.

Muzz73 · Post by **Muzz73** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:21 am

Sadly, I never bought a new VIC-20... had a few used ones, though!

I suppose the closest I've gotten is my 10 yr. old son winning the boxed VIC-20 at CommVEx this year (which I think only had one owner) and he was as happy as a lark!

He was playing Choplifter and Jupiter Lander on the 47" in the living room today!

amramsey · Post by **amramsey** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:31 am

I've still got my original vic-20, received xmas of '82. I put a lot of miles on that sucker before finally upgrading to a c64 (still got that one also) and then several Amiga 500 computers.

At some point one of us kids (I think it was my brother) bashed two of the function keys off and they were replaced with washers screwed on. Ugly as sin, but worked nicely.

highinfidelity · Post by **highinfidelity** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:58 am

rwv01 wrote:
highinfidelity wrote:For one reason or another I've always kept its original box as well.
Yeah, I've still got mine as well. They were well designed. Durable and good for repackaging the computer for storage.
I think that's why you see so many VICs that still have it. It just made sense to keep it.

Correct. Many products of those days came in uselessly HUGE boxes full of air, just to make people believe they were buying much more than they actually did. All the contrary, the VIC came in a box were it could just fit in. I think this also had to do with Tramiel's idea of a "computer for the masses": the VIC had to pile up at its best, to save room and let dealers stock as many as possible.

Nathan · Post by **Nathan** » Sun Sep 02, 2012 2:07 pm

Have an original Vic that I got for free, still works too I'm not sure what the serial number is

Post by **Jeff-20** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:55 pm

I have most of the carcass of my original. It suffered a lot of damage in its early years. It's just a shell now.

Nathan · Post by **Nathan** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 7:00 pm

Put a new VIC mobo in it and then get a keyboard then ur original will work again :3

Post by **Jeff-20** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:40 pm

Oh, I have considered that. But I decided to just let it rest in peace with what's left of its original parts. I have plenty of new VICs to play with. My first is solemnly stored in a VIC package and shelved.

Denial

How many of you still have your origional perchased new VIC?

Not quite the same

Re: Not quite the same