Why VIC-20 and not C64?

JohnnyRockets · Post by **JohnnyRockets** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:31 am

First off, let me say, I love the VIC-20 for too many reasons to count.

I am curious why most of you love the VIC-20 versus other computers like the C64?

Just wondering for fun, not trying to create any waves or negative feelings...

Just good feelings here!

rhurst · Post by **rhurst** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 11:55 am

Simply put, you never quite get over your first girl either. Despite over 20 years and counting in a blissful marriage, there will always be that June 1982 memory with Mary Beth Kraus. Certainly don't linger there, but nothing else can supplant it either.

1982-1997: VIC 20, C16, C128, C128D, Amiga 2000, Amiga 3000/16, Amiga 3000T, Amiga 4000 were a big part of my machine-hugging days. Not any longer, that level of intimacy between man and a machine model has simply dissipated over the past 2 decades -- at least for me.

Witzo · Post by **Witzo** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:59 pm

A similar story: the VIC was my first.
Nostalgia, and a wish to fulfill my 13-year-old dreams of being able to understand and code what I didn't manage back then.
I still have notes from back then in 1985, and plan on making some programs based on them

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 1:15 pm

The main appeal of the VIC-20 for me is that it was something of a lost experience from my childhood. It was something that my parents bought before I was born in their free-spending yuppie days and it packed up before I was old enough to fully appreciate it.

JohnnyRockets · Post by **JohnnyRockets** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 1:40 pm

I guess I'd have to agree.

I love the VIC-20 and want to be able to do all the things that I did not understand when I was 12-14 years old!

I love the C64 because it represents all the coolness I could not afford back then!

BUT I no longer want to deal Cassette Tapes or Floppy Disks.

So I am now in the process of buying all the proper solid state storage devices for the VIC20 and C64 AND a VIC20. I already have the C64.

Kananga · Post by **Kananga** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:50 pm

I don't know about this Mary Beth Kraus, but the Vic-20 was my first computer and for almost a decade the only one.

Muzz73 · Post by **Muzz73** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 9:25 pm

I actually started on a C=64 and now love the VIC-20 just as much. There's just something about it... while my 64 is more advanced in a technological sense, the VIC has a certain charm to it that I just can't get past.

My son got his first VIC-20 over the summer and now he's hooked as well. Not a bad place to be!

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 4:15 am

Nothing is going to replace the C64. But I've grown to love the charm of the Vic20 and what it can offer. Must being doing something right if I'm working on Gamebase20 all the time heh...

matsondawson · Post by **matsondawson** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:09 pm

I like the challenge of programming through its limitations.

JohnnyRockets · Post by **JohnnyRockets** » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:16 pm

matsondawson wrote:I like the challenge of programming through its limitations.

I'm kind of coming around to that idea too!

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:10 pm

Like most here, the Vic was my first computer and so will always have a place in my heart for that reason alone but there is more to it than just simple nostalgia...

I was lucky as when I got my Vic my friends each had different machines so it was easy to compare (though, of course, there was always justification for your favoured machines foibles!).

So, through my friends, I had access to a Speccy, Atari 800 XL, C64, Amstrad CPC464, TI 99/4A, Acorn Electron and the Beeb amongst others.

I used to slagged a lot because my computer was the weakest out of them all but you know what? It loaded games faster than all of the above, the Datasette format was more reliable at saving my programs than all of the above except the C64 but that thing cost a fortune at the time. The 800 XL was nice but getting games for it was easier said than done and most of the games had better soundtracks on the C64 anyway! Although my Vic didn't have hardware sprites it didn't have the God-awful colour clash of the Speccy and though I had to play games through the telly it wasn't ties to a monitor (and built-in tape deck) of the Amstrad! The Beeb was for academic things and the Electron was a nice wee machine but it lacked the friendliness of the Vic and, again, lacked games... the less said about the TI, the better!

In short my Vic was cheap, cheerful, accessible, had tons of cheap games, loaded quickly for a tape-based machine and was easy to program. Why wouldn't I love it!

fsporsche · Post by **fsporsche** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 12:33 pm

My love of the Vic-20 was it simplicity to learn to program, even limited to memory it was a great first computer. Also the games and educational programs were great and it was expandible...

Bacon · Post by **Bacon** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 2:59 am

I love both the VIC 20 and the C64 in more or less equal amounts. The VIC because it was my first computer and it is just so... friendly

The C64 because it was (and still is) a fantastic machine and an embodiment of all that was cool with computers. When I got my Amiga 500 computers had come to lose a lot of their magic for me, and the PCs that came later didn't have anything about them to get really excited about.

JohnnyRockets · Post by **JohnnyRockets** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:12 am

Bacon wrote:I love both the VIC 20 and the C64 in more or less equal amounts. The VIC because it was my first computer and it is just so... friendly
The C64 because it was (and still is) a fantastic machine and an embodiment of all that was cool with computers. When I got my Amiga 500 computers had come to lose a lot of their magic for me, and the PCs that came later didn't have anything about them to get really excited about.

Hey Bacon,

I couldn't agree more!

I work in the computer field and they are just machines that do things. Appliances really, almost on the level of my oven or refrigerator.

But my Commodore machines, well they still have the magic for me!

be236 · Post by **be236** » Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:22 am

I think the VIC-20 was my first computer.. it was great and exciting to use for the first time.

Then later I got Commodore 64 and it was even better...

I just keep the VIC-20 (sold the originals, re-bought them later) around for fun...

But I prefer to use C64 more often.. mainly because you can't do much with the strange 22-column screen of VIC-20! heheh... listing programs or writing programs take up too much space on the screen, so hard ....