Denial

Pedro Lambrini wrote:So, what did you think when you first switched it on? Was it a culture shock for you after being active on the C64 for such a long time?

Not as much as you might suspect. A good mate of mine in the first year when I started secondary school (1985) had a Vic20 still so I got to play a fair few games on it when I visited his house. So by the time 17 years later I got my own hardware I knew most of the basics: the concept of the memory expansions, that most general hardware from the C64 would work on it fine, that the screen didn't blank when searching for and loading games heh.

Naturally some of the earliest titles I tracked down to buy and play were the Vic20 equivalents of the Llamasoft games...

I don't remember exactly, but was in september or octuber 1982.
Was my first computer.

My very own VIC I finally got in 2004. I started using the babysitter's in 1983, however.

pitcalco wrote:My very own VIC I finally got in 2004. I started using the babysitter's in 1983, however.

Why the wait? It seems like quite a gap between 1983 and 2004!

1982, and turned 17 later that year. I was destined to write Dark Tower for some micro computer at the time, having learned BASIC at my high school's computer math course.

Pedro Lambrini wrote:

pitcalco wrote:My very own VIC I finally got in 2004. I started using the babysitter's in 1983, however.

Why the wait? It seems like quite a gap between 1983 and 2004!

Don't worry. Through the 80's I certainly had a lot of friends from which to borrow a VIC for a few weeks or months at a time. Nobody was in a rush to get them back, either. Besides, I was also busy with my Atari, and later a C-64. Now I've gone back to my roots with the VIC.

amramsey wrote:

Bacon wrote:...and probably two white Commodore joysticks (could have come later, I'm not sure).

Oh man, I had one of those joysticks too. Those things were absolutely terrible! Ended up with a Wico later on and never looked back.... until now I suppose.

Yep, Commmodore didn't know how to make joysticks - I have a couple of Plus/4 joysticks to prove it.

Coming to think of it, I probably only had one joystick for the VIC 20. Two sticks wouldn't have made much sense with a computer with only one game port. When we bought a C64 and sold the VIC and all accessories we bought a QuickShot joystick which was almost as bad, but then we fianlly bought a Wico bat stick - the best joystick I've ever used. I have two of them again and I love them.

For that matter, there appears to have been more peripherals Commodore didn't know how to make. Floppy disks come to my mind. I remember some test of different brands and those Commodore labeled ones were the far worst at its time (c:a 1984). Later batches may have been better.

Since some of those joysticks very much resemble other brands, I wonder if Commodore didn't just get them made on an OEM contract, possibly also floppies, tapes, printer paper and so on. Still they should've been able to input something about the quality of things.

I had been thinking all along that I got my VIC-20 on Christmas morning 1982, but I'm beginning to doubt my memory. I think it must have been 1983 because I'd been using my neighbour's for quite some time.

Anyhow, that morning I got:

A VIC-20 2-pronger with 64-style grey function keys
included with it were:
- a Commodore duffel bag
- a velvety Commodore binder with notebook and pencil case and other bindery kind of things

A 1530 Datasette

And that's it. I don't think I got my first game or joystick until at least Easter, or maybe my birthday in June.

Ian Colquhoun wrote:A VIC-20 2-pronger with 64-style grey function keys
included with it were:
- a Commodore duffel bag
- a velvety Commodore binder with notebook and pencil case and other bindery kind of things

I think that was the 'back to school' bundle Commodore Canada put together. Blue duffel bag with white writing, binder that looks like a computer and a white pencil case. Great idea really because it meant kids with VIC-20s could easily spot other VIC-20s owners to facilitate piracy.

Related trivia: They had a French version of the binder too. I got one a few years ago and passed it along to eslapion.

I thought that kit was great when I got it. I never used the bag for school, but it did make a great transportation device for my VIC. I used to lug it around to friends' houses, and off to the cottage in the summer time. Unfortunately I tried to jam too much stuff into it one day and split it wide open. Ah well...