Denial

Just wondering how many of you still have your origional VIC that you got
back in the old days, while they were still current. (or relativly current at least) Perchased new or otherwise.

Was it your first computer?
Does it still work?

I have mine.

Unfortunately not.
We gave our original VIC (with broken INS/DEL key) to a cousin after I got a Beeb. Last I saw it (25 years ago), it was boxed up in their attic. It might still be there...

Sorry for selling mine when c64 was fresh, but now i got 3 other vics

Well, who knew we'd develope a nostalgic interest in them all these years later? At the moment I've got two old pc clones sitting in my bed room that just seem like so much old junk. Maybe some day they too will reach the nostalgia stage and suddenly gain new value.

Yes, I have my brother's vic-20 bought in 1982 which was his first computer but also my first computer in 1987. It works just as good as when it was new but it isn't in it's original state inside:

http://www.soundclick.com/members/defau ... 5&id=63394

http://www.soundclick.com/members/defau ... 5&id=63396

What mods did you make?

We still have ours as well. The only thing I did was add a heat sink to the VIC chip. (after replacing the old one. Why the heck didn't they heat-sink them in the first place? (rhetorical))

Still have mine, when I took it out of the box my younger brother asked "Do the keys come off?", as he snapped the F1 key right off.

I fixed it by using a tiny drill bit to drill a hole in the two pieces of the broken part and super glued them back together with a piece of straight pin.

My F1 key is now and forever crooked, and if I would have had my way back then, my brother's nose would be the same!

buzbard wrote:Still have mine, when I took it out of the box my younger brother asked "Do the keys com off?", as he snapped the F1 key right off.

Uuggh! How old was he?

I think he was about 13 then. I had worked all summer to get the money to buy it, and I hadn't even plugged it in yet and it was broken. He's just lucky (and I suppose I am too) that our parents were in the same room at the time.

Sadly, my original 'died' in about 1995, it's replacement is still working fine

Sdaly I don't have my original VIC 20, although that was labelled as a VC 20, despite us living in the UK.
It was traded in for a spectrum +3 in December 1987, a rather bad move in hindsight, a C64 would have been better.

Since then I am now on my 3rd VIC 20. I got my secong in 1998, it was £5 from a boot fair and stopped working after one weekend. Retro computers weren't such a thing then, so I couldn't find anybody to fix it.
I then bought another, but in my rush I failed to notice it was a two prong VIC, so I ditched that too.

I now have my 4th VIC 20, it is a CR version, and is almost identical to my original, except it says VIC 20 on it, instead of VC 20.

I have put the big heat generating components with heat sinks out of the box. Also heat sinked the vic chip.

Intersting thread! I sold my "VC-20" with a 3K and (I think) 24K (were such things available??) cartridge to get the money to buy a C128. The next (and 2nd) I bought was 2004 or '05 and this machine's still working.

My main interest in the computer was programming right from the beginning. Not before the C64 of my brother broke (defective 6522 after experimenting with the user port ), I had any contact with the inside of the machine. So I found it very interesting, that guys here equipped their machines with heat sinks to PREVENT any damage. Never would've had such an idea! I trusted the american electrical engineers blindly!

Kept my original (tossed original box), S/N < 200K, the old keyboard style and label, and it was working well until I allowed my brother to sell on ebay (2009) for $20, with a 3K, 8K, and VIC MON cart. I must have put over 3000 hours of mileage on that VIC.

Ironically, right after it was sold, I got into that uIEC/SD peripheral I thought I would use solely for C128D, but instead I wanted to play my games on a real VIC, not just on emulators. So I managed to get three VIC 20s, complete in boxes, averaging less than $10 each... all three work marvelous and were apparently mostly unused. I picked up various RAM expansion cards and game carts, too, even though I got two Mega-Carts.

A little sick, really, but nostalgia has a way of doing that to people. I find it somewhat comforting just seeing original VIC 20 packaging lying about -- feels like "home".