I spent yesterday afternoon testing and repairing VIC20s
Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 7:37 am
I spent a few hours yesterday helping TPUG (Toronto PET Users Group) organize and update their massive inventory of Commodore gear.
In the process, we found several VIC20s that they didn't even know they had. As the resident VIC 'expert', I got to spend the time testing them out, and building up as many working units as possible.
We found some interesting things:
Some had the "square" keys - never saw those before. Nifty.
Another had a copper-colored "VIC-20" label - not the usual gold or rainbow design. Interesting.
Two of them had a different Joystick port - instead of the usual plastic design, it was a metal DB9 - just like the COM ports on your PC. Yet, this was installed by Commodore, as far as we could tell. However, joysticks don't fit in this port, unless you file down the joystick connector. Weird.
Several were very, very, very yellow. Like this yellow:
It gave me a headache just to look at them. Good candidates for painting.
There was one Datasette that immediately blew the fuse of any computer it was attached to.
In the end, there were 5 dead/damaged ones (with a variety of problems) and 7-8 that work perfectly. All units are NTSC.
It was a fun afternoon. The final test for each unit was playing Gorf
So if you're interested in getting a spare VIC20 or some parts, let me know!
In the process, we found several VIC20s that they didn't even know they had. As the resident VIC 'expert', I got to spend the time testing them out, and building up as many working units as possible.
We found some interesting things:
Some had the "square" keys - never saw those before. Nifty.
Another had a copper-colored "VIC-20" label - not the usual gold or rainbow design. Interesting.
Two of them had a different Joystick port - instead of the usual plastic design, it was a metal DB9 - just like the COM ports on your PC. Yet, this was installed by Commodore, as far as we could tell. However, joysticks don't fit in this port, unless you file down the joystick connector. Weird.
Several were very, very, very yellow. Like this yellow:
It gave me a headache just to look at them. Good candidates for painting.There was one Datasette that immediately blew the fuse of any computer it was attached to.
In the end, there were 5 dead/damaged ones (with a variety of problems) and 7-8 that work perfectly. All units are NTSC.
It was a fun afternoon. The final test for each unit was playing Gorf
So if you're interested in getting a spare VIC20 or some parts, let me know!