Nice photoshop!nippur72 wrote:ah, sure, the VIC-phone!
I'm sure something like that would be feasible, but would require the sacrifice of four Vic keyboards.New VIC dreams
Wow, I have been having a lot of Commodore related dreams lately. Earlier this week I dreamed I found a PET in a thrift store (not a very interesting dream to re-tell), last night I had a VIC related dream.
I was working again for the Canadian government again and I had to acquire some items for the office. I went to a government surplus depot (sort of looked like a warehouse/big-box store. It was filled with lamps, desks, filing cabinets, typewriters, etc. etc. While there I thought I'd check for surplus computers. On a set of metal shelves I caught sight of some familiar looking boxes. There was about 11 or 12 shrink wrapped, new, old-stock VIC-20s! One was the familiar silver cardboard sleeve around a styrofoam block, but all the others were orange were the silver would normally be on the box (I think I must have been recalling the orange from the VIC-21 sticker). These were special VIC-20 bundles that came with extras - a "bonus pack". Opening one of the boxes I found that it not only contained a VIC-20 and manual, but also a whole bunch of strange but interesting looking European brand candy (it didn't cross my mind at the time how old this candy was). Also there was a whole lot of really cool looking cassette and cartridge titles I had never heard of before. A few of the cartridges were the strangest looking ones I'd ever seen. Basically a male connector with ROM chip encased in plastic with a long, flat plastic handle coming off it (sort of T or rake shaped). The long handle was only there so you could plug or unplug it, because the cartridge was so small and would get lost inside the VIC otherwise. Also there were some very strange cassette games in tiny, narrow cases. The cases only contained the reels of the cassette with tape on them, which you had to install into your own cassette shell at home. At the time I thought that this was a clever way to save money for the company - but in the light of day I realise how silly this idea is!
There was also another Commodore VIC product there I had never seen before. It came in a standard silver sleeve, styrofoam interior box like the 1540/41 did, but not as deep. Inside was an official swivel monitor stand for VIC-20 monitors. It was made of the same white-painted sheet metal that the VIC-1020 was.
I was working again for the Canadian government again and I had to acquire some items for the office. I went to a government surplus depot (sort of looked like a warehouse/big-box store. It was filled with lamps, desks, filing cabinets, typewriters, etc. etc. While there I thought I'd check for surplus computers. On a set of metal shelves I caught sight of some familiar looking boxes. There was about 11 or 12 shrink wrapped, new, old-stock VIC-20s! One was the familiar silver cardboard sleeve around a styrofoam block, but all the others were orange were the silver would normally be on the box (I think I must have been recalling the orange from the VIC-21 sticker). These were special VIC-20 bundles that came with extras - a "bonus pack". Opening one of the boxes I found that it not only contained a VIC-20 and manual, but also a whole bunch of strange but interesting looking European brand candy (it didn't cross my mind at the time how old this candy was). Also there was a whole lot of really cool looking cassette and cartridge titles I had never heard of before. A few of the cartridges were the strangest looking ones I'd ever seen. Basically a male connector with ROM chip encased in plastic with a long, flat plastic handle coming off it (sort of T or rake shaped). The long handle was only there so you could plug or unplug it, because the cartridge was so small and would get lost inside the VIC otherwise. Also there were some very strange cassette games in tiny, narrow cases. The cases only contained the reels of the cassette with tape on them, which you had to install into your own cassette shell at home. At the time I thought that this was a clever way to save money for the company - but in the light of day I realise how silly this idea is!
There was also another Commodore VIC product there I had never seen before. It came in a standard silver sleeve, styrofoam interior box like the 1540/41 did, but not as deep. Inside was an official swivel monitor stand for VIC-20 monitors. It was made of the same white-painted sheet metal that the VIC-1020 was.
Wow! A very detailed dream. You don't remember the names of those software titles?
For myself, I have been mostly clean of VIC or other computer related dreams for a long while now, at least as far as I remember. I wonder if that is a function of how much items you already have brought home; i.e. if your cupboards, tables and floors (!) are already crowded with vintage computers - good thing to live on my own - the less expected it is to dream about getting more. I mean, where would I put it when my place already is enough cluttered as it is?
For myself, I have been mostly clean of VIC or other computer related dreams for a long while now, at least as far as I remember. I wonder if that is a function of how much items you already have brought home; i.e. if your cupboards, tables and floors (!) are already crowded with vintage computers - good thing to live on my own - the less expected it is to dream about getting more. I mean, where would I put it when my place already is enough cluttered as it is?
Anders Carlsson
Last night i had my first real Vic dream !!!
For dream i intend (from wikipedia):
Dreams are the images, thoughts and feelings experienced while asleep, particularly strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep.
I dreamed that i had an expansion with a female slot to fit a cartridge of the vectrex system
Unfortunatelly i didn't play any games on my dream so i don't know if it worked
Btw i think it is a sign, i need to switch off for a while with my vic
DO YOU THINK IT IS SERIOUS ?
For dream i intend (from wikipedia):
Dreams are the images, thoughts and feelings experienced while asleep, particularly strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep.
I dreamed that i had an expansion with a female slot to fit a cartridge of the vectrex system
Unfortunatelly i didn't play any games on my dream so i don't know if it worked
Btw i think it is a sign, i need to switch off for a while with my vic
DO YOU THINK IT IS SERIOUS ?
Mega-Cart: the cartridge you plug in once and for all.
Last night I dreamed I was at a giant flea market somewhere in the USA. Several of you were there as well, at least Jeff, Mayhem, Nippur, Golan and probably a half dozen else.
We split up to cover one part each of the flea market. In my section, I found a lot of VIC-20 tapes and cartridges, some common ones but mostly titles never heard of before (as always when it comes to dreams). I was nice enough to go collect all of you before buying it, so everyone had a chance to pick what they wanted.
Here's the interesting part: NOBODY except me was even remotely interesting in buying VIC-20 stuff! I picked up strange cartridges with toggle switches for $2-3 each, piles of budget tape software nowhere near being archived - seller asking $1 each, other hardware to the point that I couldn't carry more so I left a lot of tapes behind. One seller had tape software for a multitude of computers including those most probably never released in the USA, but I bought a few of those titles anyway.
The part about a flea market where I can make a lot of bargains doesn't appear so strange any longer. The part about all of you not even bothering to look and rather wanted to let's get going away from here boggled me more. But I suppose it was only a dream, right?
We split up to cover one part each of the flea market. In my section, I found a lot of VIC-20 tapes and cartridges, some common ones but mostly titles never heard of before (as always when it comes to dreams). I was nice enough to go collect all of you before buying it, so everyone had a chance to pick what they wanted.
Here's the interesting part: NOBODY except me was even remotely interesting in buying VIC-20 stuff!
I picked up strange cartridges with toggle switches for $2-3 each, piles of budget tape software nowhere near being archived - seller asking $1 each, other hardware to the point that I couldn't carry more so I left a lot of tapes behind. One seller had tape software for a multitude of computers including those most probably never released in the USA, but I bought a few of those titles anyway.The part about a flea market where I can make a lot of bargains doesn't appear so strange any longer. The part about all of you not even bothering to look and rather wanted to let's get going away from here boggled me more. But I suppose it was only a dream, right?
Anders Carlsson
VIC-20 videotape
Ok, this is my lastest VIC-20 dream, part of a lot bigger dream.
I was by a friend of mine house, with my own VIC-20 (white shining keys due to being washed in a dishwasher), C2N, 8K expansion and TV-set. The house was very busy with many other friends coming and leaving (like in a college).
I had with me some old strange yellow tapes, given to me by the late uncle of one the friends that were there.
Not knowing about these tapes, I tried to load them into my VIC-20. I put one into the C2N and typed "LOAD". With a big surprise, the VIC20 started to play an episode of "Happy Days" (the tv serie). Wow! Vic 20 was doing video-playback!
The loading continued for long time, and the VIC continued to play what seemed to be a TV channel. At a certain point it started reproduce an episode of "Little Britain", in the part when the background voice says "Britain, Britain, Britain ...".
I was really surprised by what the VIC was doing and was struggling to understand how it was done. I figured that they had compressed the whole video in 8K ram space, since I was unsing an expansion. But even in the dream this seemed unrealistic, mostly because there were no sign of compression artifacts. I even phoned a fictional Commodore help-desk to ask for explanations. But no clues.
At a certain point the "Little Britain" voice materialized entering the room and I was distracted talking with him. We talked about Kenny Craig, the stage hypnotist, being my favourite character in that serie.
Then I resumed my quest for understanding the magic of video playback. It was really intriguing. By messing with run/stop and with C2n's stop/rew/play, I noticed that the video playback was coming directly from the tape and not from VIC20, that is, the video signal was actually recorded on the tape.
At first I was disappointed because video playback was not a feature of my VIC20. What a delusion. But then I started again to wonder about how it was actually done. I knew that video signals could not be recorded directly on tape because they are high in frequency. I knew that well because I had tried that in my childhood, without success.
Looking at how the cable were connected I eventually realized the trick: the audio signal from the tape was mixed with the VIC-20 video signal and then feed to the TV set.
I figured out that the VIC20 signal acted as a "carrier" and the tape signal as the "modulated" signal containing the real information. I also realized that in order to make it work properly, the VIC-20 had to display a completely white screen, thus avoiding any "ghost" images.
Indeed, the owner of the tapes, had put a small stub program at the start of each tape that made VIC20 go on white screen before of the video playback.
This way he was using VIC-20 as a VIDEO TAPE RECORDER!
I briefly checked all the tapes and, alas, they were all video recordings and not VIC-20 games as I had hoped. (But my disappointment changed when I discovered a porno at the end of a tape! eh eh!
).
I was by a friend of mine house, with my own VIC-20 (white shining keys due to being washed in a dishwasher), C2N, 8K expansion and TV-set. The house was very busy with many other friends coming and leaving (like in a college).
I had with me some old strange yellow tapes, given to me by the late uncle of one the friends that were there.
Not knowing about these tapes, I tried to load them into my VIC-20. I put one into the C2N and typed "LOAD". With a big surprise, the VIC20 started to play an episode of "Happy Days" (the tv serie). Wow! Vic 20 was doing video-playback!
The loading continued for long time, and the VIC continued to play what seemed to be a TV channel. At a certain point it started reproduce an episode of "Little Britain", in the part when the background voice says "Britain, Britain, Britain ...".
I was really surprised by what the VIC was doing and was struggling to understand how it was done. I figured that they had compressed the whole video in 8K ram space, since I was unsing an expansion. But even in the dream this seemed unrealistic, mostly because there were no sign of compression artifacts. I even phoned a fictional Commodore help-desk to ask for explanations. But no clues.
At a certain point the "Little Britain" voice materialized entering the room and I was distracted talking with him. We talked about Kenny Craig, the stage hypnotist, being my favourite character in that serie.
Then I resumed my quest for understanding the magic of video playback. It was really intriguing. By messing with run/stop and with C2n's stop/rew/play, I noticed that the video playback was coming directly from the tape and not from VIC20, that is, the video signal was actually recorded on the tape.
At first I was disappointed because video playback was not a feature of my VIC20. What a delusion. But then I started again to wonder about how it was actually done. I knew that video signals could not be recorded directly on tape because they are high in frequency. I knew that well because I had tried that in my childhood, without success.
Looking at how the cable were connected I eventually realized the trick: the audio signal from the tape was mixed with the VIC-20 video signal and then feed to the TV set.
I figured out that the VIC20 signal acted as a "carrier" and the tape signal as the "modulated" signal containing the real information. I also realized that in order to make it work properly, the VIC-20 had to display a completely white screen, thus avoiding any "ghost" images.
Indeed, the owner of the tapes, had put a small stub program at the start of each tape that made VIC20 go on white screen before of the video playback.
This way he was using VIC-20 as a VIDEO TAPE RECORDER!
I briefly checked all the tapes and, alas, they were all video recordings and not VIC-20 games as I had hoped. (But my disappointment changed when I discovered a porno at the end of a tape! eh eh!
).That is a little spooky nippur, beacuase I went here to write about a dream I had tonight. I loaded some program from tape, and when I started it, the tape started to load again. After maybe 20 seconds, quite high quality video began to play, looked better than most filmclips on youtube. Then the tape loaded again, sometimes while displaying video at the same time and sometimes with a blank screen. I figured someone hade come up with an amazing way to pack data on the datasette and new amazing graphics techniques etc... But everything couldn't be done in real time because of the blank screens while loading, for maybe 20 seconds each time... The films was displayed for maybe 20 seconds each time as well.
PRG Starter - a VICE helper / Vic Software (Boray Gammon, SD2IEC music player, Vic Disk Menu, Tribbles, Mega Omega, How Many 8K etc.)
Okay, new VIC dream.
I can only vaguely remember it. Another Denial member and myself had travelled to Europe to attend a major VIC-20 auction. I don't know who the other Denial member was, because it was no-one who really exists. The person looked like a real-life friend of mine, but in real life that person has no interest in VIC-20s.
Anyway, when we were there we met with Carlsson(!) and we all went to an old castle where there was to be a major auction of a VIC-20 collection. This auction was advertised all over the world, and was marketed with professional, museum quality posters like a Sotheby's auction. I remember seeing the poster. It showed a VIC-20 hanging artfully in the air against a muted brown background by its power cord, and the power cord was knotted to another longer black power cord. The caption below said something like "Everything Old is New Again." and it told you when and where the auction was to be.
We got there and there was a youngish (30s?), neat, brunette woman sitting on an elaborate old chair in this old castle, along with the VIC-20 items to be auctioned. I came to understand that she was the hier to the collection. The collection was her great uncle's or something (a wealthy old family). We were all waiting for the auction to start (as we were the first ones to arrive). I vaguely remember we were all watching the news on TV. For some reason I can't recall, a series of circumstances occurred which meant that no one could, or wanted to show up for the auction. The woman was discouraged.
That's all I remember! I don't even remember looking to closely at the items for auction. I do remember boxed software though, but nothing particular.
Oh, and I think the castle was up in France, we had to go to France from Germany by train to get to it. But it was all a quick blur.
I can only vaguely remember it. Another Denial member and myself had travelled to Europe to attend a major VIC-20 auction. I don't know who the other Denial member was, because it was no-one who really exists. The person looked like a real-life friend of mine, but in real life that person has no interest in VIC-20s.
Anyway, when we were there we met with Carlsson(!) and we all went to an old castle where there was to be a major auction of a VIC-20 collection. This auction was advertised all over the world, and was marketed with professional, museum quality posters like a Sotheby's auction. I remember seeing the poster. It showed a VIC-20 hanging artfully in the air against a muted brown background by its power cord, and the power cord was knotted to another longer black power cord. The caption below said something like "Everything Old is New Again." and it told you when and where the auction was to be.
We got there and there was a youngish (30s?), neat, brunette woman sitting on an elaborate old chair in this old castle, along with the VIC-20 items to be auctioned. I came to understand that she was the hier to the collection. The collection was her great uncle's or something (a wealthy old family). We were all waiting for the auction to start (as we were the first ones to arrive). I vaguely remember we were all watching the news on TV. For some reason I can't recall, a series of circumstances occurred which meant that no one could, or wanted to show up for the auction. The woman was discouraged.
That's all I remember! I don't even remember looking to closely at the items for auction. I do remember boxed software though, but nothing particular.
Oh, and I think the castle was up in France, we had to go to France from Germany by train to get to it. But it was all a quick blur.