Denial

Wilson wrote:...the Mega-Cart seems to have raised the average price of a Vic-20 some...

Heh, then our user group brings that average way down based on the price of the VIC-20s we sell.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

matsondawson wrote:1986 My family was kinda poor and the only computers we had were the ones we could beg or borrow. I had to do most of my coding in my head and write it in a book.

I thought I was the only one! I rarely had the opportunity to connect my VIC to the sole family TV. Most of my VIC 20 memories are of me bored in grade school, writing programs on that lined paper you only see in grade school. I would never get to type them out. When the VIC was hooked up, I'd just play games or experiment with commands to see what was possible.

The very first computer I ever used was a friend's VIC-20 back in 1983. I remember being really impressed with the machine. It had a real keyboard too, not the rubber keys on the speccy.

That Xmas I got a C64 and I still use it daily. I'm a Commodore collector, and early last year I picked up a VIC-20 in excellent condition for £5! It came with the older type cassette player and a 3k expansion. I started getting carts from Ebay, then found this group and learned of the Mega-Cart.

Since it arrived, it has never been removed from my VIC

I was totally blown away by Robotic Liberation and that gets run at least once a week.

Fantastic little machine. Even a friend of mine who is hard-core Acorn got one and has fallen in love with it after using mine.

Pete.

I bought my Vic-20 back in 1982 at Jafco in Washington State. For the first year I didn't have the casette deck so I could never save my work. I remember repeatedly typing in the cheesy programs in the Vic Manual...my favorite was the man who did jumping jacks.

The first Cartridges I ever owned were "River Rescue" and "Submarine Commander" (best games ever). I remember after the Vic-20 was obsolete, buying cartridges was awesome. I would take a trip down to KB Toys at Bellevue Square where tons of cartridges and Casette games were selling for $6 - $10 each. Those were the days. I wish I could go back in time and totally CLEAN OUT THE SHELVES!!!!

Barney

I feel like we've had this discussion several times over the past years .

But that's okay, we have a lot of new users and it's always good to hear these stories. They're actually my favourite part about VIC-20 history.

I got my VIC-20 (my first home computer/video game ever) for Christmas of 1982. For details of this story you'll have to dig up one of those older "when did you get your VIC" threads --- but it's worth it. You'll get to read the VIC stories of a lot of the older users on Denial - and some that don't drop by anymore.

I got my VIC20 in December 1982 - and was the second person at our school to own a computer. At school we had CBM PETs therefore the choice for the VIC was pretty clear for me (contenders were the Atari400 and TI99/4).

Games were hard to get at the time. Despite a willingness to spend my pocket money on purchases, it seemed easier to score pirated tapes.. my first purchase (Traxx) was flanked by a pirated tape of five more games which was merrily put together at the department store by other kids hanging out in the games section..

Later, when everybody had a C64, I continued to write programs for the VIC but enjoyed the C64 games at friends' houses.

The megacart was my best tech purchase of 2009:-)

Empa Kendo wrote:Games were hard to get at the time. Despite a willingness to spend my pocket money on purchases, it seemed easier to score pirated tapes.. my first purchase (Traxx) was flanked by a pirated tape of five more games which was merrily put together at the department store by other kids hanging out in the games section..

You mean the kids were opening commercial games at the store and using the demo VIC to make pirated copies on the spot? Now that's one I've never heard before --- took a lot of spunk! Of course, your average department store clerk in the early 1980s might have known more about the washers and dryers and not really clued into what the kids were doing.

Early 1982

In the middle of 1982, then I bought a 16k ampliation, a 3k and Graphics and a Machine Code Monitor, two mountly pay.

ral-clan wrote:

Empa Kendo wrote:Games were hard to get at the time. Despite a willingness to spend my pocket money on purchases, it seemed easier to score pirated tapes.. my first purchase (Traxx) was flanked by a pirated tape of five more games which was merrily put together at the department store by other kids hanging out in the games section..

You mean the kids were opening commercial games at the store and using the demo VIC to make pirated copies on the spot? Now that's one I've never heard before --- took a lot of spunk! Of course, your average department store clerk in the early 1980s might have known more about the washers and dryers and not really clued into what the kids were doing.

When I was a kid there was a great video game shop that allowed you to try out games in the store before you bought them. They had all the consoles of the day set up and you just gave them the case for the game you wanted to play and they put it on for you.

About twelve years later, I moved into a flat just above the store. It was still there but it had turned into an ordinary PC sales/repair shop.

2007: Saw Impossiblator 3 on AssemblyTV (which was broadcast by a small TV station), later noticed that it didn't work on xvic. Started checking out other VIC-20 demos & modern games and was amazed on what this little computer could do.

2007 - early 2009: Multiple "how to fix xvic for impo3" planning discussions with tlr (via IRC); the text file in impo3.zip proved really helpful. Started looking for a VIC-20 to buy. Spent most of the time working on x64dtv instead, got stuck on rewriting it...

2009-05 (or maybe -06): Got my first VIC-20! Unfortunately, it didn't come with a suitable A/V cable. Heard about Mega-Cart, wanted to get one.

2009-06-16: Created svn branch for the xvic CPU/VIC-I rewrite. Used a new CPU core from an under-construction x64dtv rewrite (yep, xvic uses the terribly misnamed "6510dtvcore.c"). Spent the rest of the summer learning how the VIC-I works (in a rather indirect way, due to not being able to test programs on a VIC-20 myself) and rewriting the related code (with a lot of help/support from tlr), until...

2009-07-31: New xvic seemed to work much better, and without (confirmed) regressions. Called it "done" and tagged the rewrite branch for merging into VICE trunk, where fixing continued.

2009-08-03: Wrote my first VIC-20 program: unconnected

2009-08 (or maybe -07): Finally got an A/V cable for my VIC-20. Turned out that the VIC-20 was broken (LED turns on, no video output, LOAD"$",8 doesn't hit the drive). Couldn't repair it, couldn't find an another one to buy.

2009-11: Joined Denial to give the VIC-20 away for spare parts. Answered some questions, asked some new ones, announced VICE 2.2.

2010-02: Looks like I'll never get a working VIC-20. Time to grab my coat on move on... had fun, see you!

^
You can't just leave the community like that! I'm sure you'll get a cheap Vic on eBay if you check once in a while...

Regardless, thanks for all your work on the xVic thing. You've done a great job!

Pedro Lambrini wrote: I'm sure you'll get a cheap Vic on eBay if you check once in a while...

I may sell some of my cost-reduced model VICs in the near future. I'm only interested in the two-prong ones now.

nojoopa wrote:2010-02: Looks like I'll never get a working VIC-20.

Our user group has some NTSC VIC-20s for sale.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org

I actually GOT my first Vic 20 in 2007 or 2008... couldn't get it hooked up properly, put the whole lot (including lots of games and tapes) in a box and forgot about it, amid my piles of other stuff.

Not sure what sparked my interest again but I picked up several more VIC lots on Ebay, and finally got one system working in the fall of 2009.

Funny thing was, NO ONE I knew had a Vic in the 80's. I'd barely heard of it. I had friends into TI, Apple II, even a kid with a Radio Shack Color Computer 3, but no Vic. Later, all my friends had C64's.

Now that I'm trying to assemble my "war room" of old computers, the Vic has a place of honor, and I'm exploring all its charms for the first time. I hope to write and release my first Vic game this year.