Angry moms.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:08 pm

Back in the 1980s, did anyone else have an angry, screaming mother because you had forgotten to switch the GAME-TV box on the rear of the television back to "TV" after you were finished playing the VIC-20? My mom would turn on the television just as her favourite show was about to start and all she would get was snow!

Eventually she learned how to do it herself but for a while there --- whoah!

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:19 pm

I was 'lucky' enough to have a seperate telly for the Vic. I say 'lucky' because although we had a seperate telly, with a great picture, my brother and I were only allowed 30 minutes time per day but my dad would compulsively play Rockman for around 20 of those feckin' minutes!

So, although I didn't have a screaming mum regarding the RF switch I did have a screaming dad who hogged the computer and couldn't complete Rockman!

commodorevic20.com · Post by **commodorevic20.com** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:00 pm

I was "lucky" enough to have my own 12" black & white tv for my C64, Atari Games, etc.

Sorta on topic, my father would get angry whenever I hooked anything up to the 28" ("Big Screen") Color TV. He claimed it was going to "ruin" the TV.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:03 pm

Oh yes, the "will damage the TV" is probably universal.

Vic20-Ian · Post by **Vic20-Ian** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:11 pm

and don't forget the old chestnut

"you will get square eyes"

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:45 pm

I was lucky too in having a 10" b&w TV in my bedroom for my VIC-20 addiction. The only time I'd get in trouble is when I'd cross wire my Dad's ColecoVision Adam to my VIC to test my BBS software! I'd often forget to hook his modem back to the wall plug, so the next time he'd try to dial into school (he was taking night classes at York, and GOSH! he could dial in and work on his assignments from home!) he'd spend 20 minutes trying to figure out why he couldn't get a dial tone! DOH! I got yelled at a fair amount for that.

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:49 pm

It was odd, but when I had the Atari 2600, which my mom loved to play hersefl, it was no problem switching the TV-computer box on the back, but once I got a computer and didn't switch it over I got the screaming mother and the that's-not-good-for-the-telly,-son father. My simple explanation that they could slide the switch like on the Atari 2600 seemed to go in one ear and out the other.

As a result, I spent my Atari 800XL days on a 10 inch black and white set. Sad.

nippur72 · Post by **nippur72** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:54 pm

I've always used the VIC on the family's TV set, which was located in a busy zone of the house. It wasn't very comfortable, expecially because it was evident that I was "playing" and not doing homeworks

Also I didn't have a fixed setup for my VIC: everytime I had to unpack it from the foam box, place it on a chair and connect to the TV set.

I referred to the whole operation as "mounting the VIC20", which in turn became a synonym for "playing with the VIC20". So the word with my friends at that time was: "let's mount the VIC20!".

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:01 pm

nippur72 wrote:So the word with my friends at that time was: "let's mount the VIC20!".

That word has a whole other connotation in English (which I'll let Centallica explain). However, it does express your deep love for the VIC!

BBQedIguana · Post by **BBQedIguana** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:05 pm

ral-clan wrote:That word has a whole other connotation in English (which I'll let Centallica explain). However, it does express your deep love for the VIC!

Oh yes, there's a whole lotta VIC-20 loving going on there!!! NICE!

Post by **Jeff-20** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:10 am

My mom would make us disconnect the switch box all together. She thought it significantly degraded the reception despite my numerous efforts to explain otherwise.

And after it was disconnected she would swear the picture quality was poorer for having had the computer connected, and it would be months before I could connect it again.

The constant connecting and reconnecting always damaged the wires. The switch box would be a couple of short stripped wire stubs after a few months and needed to be replaced.

Legacy · Post by **Legacy** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:42 am

dad would take out the cable and hide it so no games or tv at all, that's when me and my brother discovered a coat hanger and some aluminum foil can go a long way! woot! Just keep the volume low so he doesn't hear it, shhh!

Bacon · Post by **Bacon** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:28 am

We had the VIC-20 connected to a small black and white TV in my older brother's room so no problem there. And we were pretty good at getting along so we seldom fought over who'd get to use the computer.

Sometimes we'd connect it to the family TV downstairs but I can't remember any yelling.

pitcalco · Post by **pitcalco** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:49 am

How come all of our parents regardless of what country we come from all had the same superstitions: poor picture, damaged reception? Even when I did some TV DX-ing when I was young and got all exited about tuning in a very fuzzy station that even the cable company didn't provide, I got to hear my father tell me that I could ruin the reception on the TV doing that. How did they know? Where did they all hear these things?

Post by **Jeff-20** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:19 am

I would always feel guilty days later when some channel had poor reception. My mom would be doing that frustrated antenna adjustment thing and mumbling about how the picture came in fine before the computer was connected a few days ago. Made me feel bad.