Why VIC-20 and not C64?

[beanzVIC]

Why a choice, I love both. The Vic 20 has a special place as my first "real" computer after my mate got one while I had a ZX81. The sound and color was amazing after dealing with the lack of both on the ZX81.

The wizard and the Princess and Choplifter were a couple of the first games I played and they blew me away at the time.

[eslapion]

I took my time before posting anything in this thread other than the comment about typing code with a jackhammer.

That's because I really love both the 64 and the VIC but the VIC... well, it always had a very special place in my heart.

That's because on the 64, I really copied a lot of software, learned a bit of machine code and played a lot of games but I truly never learned nearly as much stuff as I did on the VIC.

That's because the VIC is, IMHO so much easier to program than the 64 and its a lot easier than the 64 to do impressive hardware hacks with.

I remember typing a software from some magasine that allowed making beautiful sounds using features of the 6522 so these sounds actually came from the user port.

I also remember doing things with darlington transistors when I was only 14years old so I could control 12 volts lights from the user port to make powerful light shows. I sold my plans to the owner of a roller skating discotheque. At the time, the VIC-20 could still be purchased at Canadian Tire but was considered obsolete and cheap.

I also remember having two 8k RAM expansions (VIC-1110) that I "joined" using about 40 soldered wires to make a single 16k expansion. That was a ugly hack but worked perfectly well. I would never have dared to do anything like that on the 64.

I really learned electronics and hardware on the VIC. On the 64 I should have learned programming to be able to keep up but I just didn't have the talent for it so I never got as far to understanding the inner workings of that machine, especially the software part.

[malcontent]

Funny how we're back at single board computers, and learning to do things like light LEDs i.e. with arduino and raspberry pi. It's like a smaller KIM.

[bills442]

I took my time before posting anything in this thread other than the comment about typing code with a jackhammer.

...
That's because the VIC is, IMHO so much easier to program than the 64 and its a lot easier than the 64 to do impressive hardware hacks with.

Ya, I'm currently finishing up some 'leftover' projects from when I was 12. The vic being easier to program than the 64 reminds me of my favorite saying about motorcycles: It's much more fun to ride a slow bike fast, than to ride a fast bike slow. The 64 has so much capability, that anything I could create for it would use such a small portion of its capabilities that it would be utterly unnoticeable ... the vic on the other hand, whether true or not, at least gives me the *feeling* that I could do great things on it that use a great deal of its capability

[ral-clan]

I live in a state of Arrested Development.
The Vic-20 was my first computer after fawning over my friend's Pet that his dad would borrow from the school on weekends. I never owned a 64 went from the Vic to the C-128. Over time I realized there was a distinct difference! To me - its limitations are part of its charm. I don't see it for what it couldn't do but more for what it can.
Such an optimistic perspective for a machine I can't quite describe?

Hey! My mom was a teacher in Ontario and would borrow the school's PET on weekends as well! Where was your friend located?

Yes...for me a very similar experience. The VIC was my first home computer, and also, there are many things about it that remind me more of the PET than a C64 did - white case, PET style font on the VIC's badge and PET keyboards on the earliest VIC-20s. The first VIC-20 white datasette was made from exactly the same plastic mould as the PETs black one was. The on-screen font was pixel for pixel the same as the PET.

As the years went by I was happy to say goodbye to the VIC to upgrade to a C64, then an Amiga, but now I'm back to liking the VIC the most - for the reasons stated above and also because it's an underdog.