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Help, I'm travelling through time.

  • Thread starter Thread starter So
  • Start date Start date
So

So

Lifer
So, I found this VIC-20, with it's box and a tape drive in a local thrift store, labeled "not working? needs repair?" and "$1"

Well, considering that it was in pristine condition I decided to put my hacking skills to the test, considering that even if it was actually dead, it would at least make a good casemod.

Well, I plugged it in and...no signal. Upon sitting back and thinking, I decided that consulting the manual might be a good idea. Well, when I looked at the "contents of the box" picture, it indicated that I should have an RCA -> Coax cable coming out of the video switch, not a RCA->RCA cable. I decided to take a look at the pinout of the video port online, and it indicated that there was a normal video signal right on the port (not a modulated signal like a 2600 had). So, I soldered up an RCA jack on the end of a pair of wires, and just poked them into the appropriate pins on the video out port and viola! Video. Now I need to find a way to get software onto the thing, since I don't exactly have a tape out on my desktop.

Cliffs:
I got a VIC20 for $1 that was supposed to be broken. One soldered together cable later, it was fine.

Oh, oblig. pics:

VIC201.jpg

VIC202.jpg
 
Sweet score. It's worth at least double what you payed :^D

Is there anything you can do with it? Good games or anything?
 
lol there's something funny about seeing a very old computer hooked up to a big screen TV. 😀 And yeah, definably loan pong, and pacman. 😀
 
Thats pretty cool. The computer thrift store near me has some old machines like that for $10. I've been tempted to buy one.
 
RedSquirrel said:
lol there's something funny about seeing a very old computer hooked up to a big screen TV. 😀 And yeah, definably loan pong, and pacman. 😀
Click to expand...

There's nothing but BASIC on the ROM, right? I need to figure out a way (other than typing by hand) to get software on there, or at least onto tapes so I can get it on there...

I'm rather lost with the commodore, as my first computer was a 286 PC.
 
So said:
There's nothing but BASIC on the ROM, right? I need to figure out a way (other than typing by hand) to get software on there, or at least onto tapes so I can get it on there...

I'm rather lost with the commodore, as my first computer was an 286 PC.
Click to expand...

You'd probably have to type it in, or get tapes. My first computer was an Atari, and that had ROM carts, as well as a floppy drive. No networking or anything... Actually, scratch that. You could get an acoustic coupler modem, but I didn't have one. Maybe you could rig something like that for the vic, and... Damn, I don't know...It's a whole different web than was around in the 80s :^D
 
There are hacks out of there to get Ethernet, hard drives, etc on the C64.

If you're a hack-worthy person, go for it!
 
LOAD"*",8

I still have about +600 5 1/4" floppies with C-64 programs in storage. I'll have to look for my Fastload cartridge too.:sneaky:
 
You can find ROM carts in antique stores by now I bet. I had one when I was 3. This machine is where I cut my teeth on computing. Mostly by playing pirates cove on the ROM.

Hmmmwhere to get tapes........
 
LOAD"*",8
Click to expand...

This won't work on a VIC 20. There was never a disk drive for it that I can recall (which is the ,8) You would need to:


LOAD"$"

to which the machine responds with:

PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
 
I'm having no luck figuring out how to get software onto this thing... I'd like to find a way to write the VIC-20 formatted cassettes out on an audio port of my PC and record a tape, *or* see if someone has made a rom -> SD adapter for it...

Or is there a method I'm missing?
 
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