It, along with the c64, are two machines I would like to get, if I ever find/make the room for them. But I have my hands full right now fixing all my other vintage computers and consoles, many of which decided to die on me all at once! I don't know why, beyond a short experience with a Vic-20 before I had any computer of my own, but I've a nostalgia for it. I did own one briefly back around 2005, but refurbished and sold it within a couple months. I did the same with a C64 at that time as well. I had a lot of machines go through my hands back then that I wish I had held on to now. But it was my lively hood at the time...I had to sell something for money to pay the rent. Thank God I own my home now...
It was a nostalgia thing for me too. It was interesting to do some reading about the VIC and it’s early VIC chip. How the composite output quality varied depending on the VIC chip installed.
I HAD a Vic20 BITD, my 3rd ever micro after the ZX80 and 81. Did like it and got an 8 or 16K ram pack for it, had a few carts (Jupiter Lander and Radar Rat-race, and another one I can't remember) Loads of genuine tapes. Was very in to it as it was my first colour machine and sound (not that Radar Rat Race user the sound chip to the height of it's abilities). Played quite a few Scott Adams things on it, only thing I didn't like was the games that needed starting with a SYS command.(what was the common one SYS49152 springs to mind). I must have played Jupiter Lander a lot because Cindy knows what the game is from the starting tune.. Must say I would not want one back, I'd rather emulate it on the rare time I want to play something.
There was always something about the colour scheme on the Vic's case that I liked Not quite sure why. I never had a Speccy or Commodore machine growinig up, it was always my Atari 800XL. In fact my first CBM micro was a Plus/4 with floppy drive that I really liked. It was great being able to load games so quickly! Sitting here looking at theVIC20 just now and it still looks good to me
I must admit that I never liked the look of the Vic20 nor the C64 (talking case style), but then again I wasn't buying it for to look at it
I like The VIC 20’s PET style key font. My VIC has the later C64 keyboard and case badge, and is the later cost reduced motherboard. I built my own RAM expansion and I’m currently building a ROM/RAM expansion as well. The S-Video mod certainly helps the picture output so if you have a TV with an S-VHS input it would be worth doing.
I'm using the retrogames Vic-20 clone so it has HDMI which gives a nice picture with the built in crt filters. Been playing Gridrunner a bit, what an addictive little game that is.
I didn't much care for the look either, back in the day. But because by '85 all the updated 8/16-bit computers had basic wedge shapes and then grey and beige colors too, like the Amiga500/C64/C128 and the ST/XE range (The XL line gets a pass because it was the first with a wedge shape the others after copied, and also due to a better color scheme and design) I now tend to prefer the older VIC/C64 bread bin style as it sets them apart. I feel the same about the 400/800/XL line too. For the same reason, if I ever do own an Amiga or ST computer again, they will be the expandable ones with the under-monitor or tower box and separate keyboard. I find the wedge shaped computers generally as boring as laptops today. Even my newest PC is still a mini-tower with keyboard. Beyond the feat of accomplishment, I never cared for the VIC/C64/Atari 8-bit custom hacks into laptops either... I know I've seen a VIC-20 laptop too, though I can't find it atm.
Actually I think those mods look nice, very professionally done, BUT, I also prefer a machine with a case that's a statement, which is why the 800 will always be THE computer in my place. It just commands a desk. The 400 I like less, but it's the machine to play Star Raiders on...They are a perfect pair. Boo hoo...Wish I had a 400 One day....
I'm totally impressed by them myself too. But They aren't what I do for myself...you've all seen what I'd do for myself custom-mod wise.
I do have 3 or 4 Vic-20s, I can't remember and one of them is NTSC. This one has got a very crispy video output if compared to other models I own. Maybe it's because it has an S-Video plug instead of the usual composite video output. I've always considered the Vic-20 the little brother of the C64, but after using it and getting to know its limitations, I've developed a good passion for it. So I've written a couple of graphical programs using the "modern" libraries or emulating the old cartridges to extend the BASIC with graphic statements. Sometimes I've adapted some little assembly routines written for the C64 and it was pretty easy, let alone the graphic capabilities and memory restrictions. The VIC-I chip is quite fascinating and reading the VIC-20 most famous forum (Denial/The Sleeping Elephant) I've found out about a number of stories and curiosities on hardware and programming.
The 800 is, in my humble opinion, one of the finest looking micro's ever built. You know it means business just by looking at it!
Yup, Matt's modded 800 looks the dog's danglies (that's a good thing Matt), but an 800 is just a bit of art.. You pull up to a table with one of those there and you know you mean business.
Another machine I always liked the look of was the Memotech MTX series. If Darth Vader used an 8bit micro, it would probably have been one of those beasties...
I have to say that the Apple II was a good looker, the Sord M5 on the other hand was UGLY.. Like an unglamorous Speccy rubber key..
Ah the Sord/CGL M5. Only ever saw one, in a hypermarket near Portsmouth - still sticks in my mind to this day. It looked like the illegitimate lovechild of a one night stand between a Speccy and an MSX
Awful Forth only machines, our buyers got them and Jupiter Aces's in iirc, Utterly clueless the Maplin buyers.. Ask the staff and managers what people were asking for, don't be silly, that's too clever for them..Never sold a single one of those and I don't think we ever had an enquiry for one, good thing as I never studied Forth..
I have to dig into my archives and let them out. But it was mostly little programs inspired by books or modifications of published routines. The most recent ones are written for Basic+a graphic library (the JP version of the Commodore's BASIC EXTENDER original cartridge or another sw that I've downloaded from Denial). Both expand the commands and instructions of Basic v2 introducing some graphic commands to plot lines and dots, manage the bitmap screen, etc. I've published most of these listings for the VIC-20 in RMW, in a column dedicated to fractals and other geometric figures.
Back in the early 90’s when everyone was interested in Amiga’s and Atari ST’s you couldn’t give 8 bit Computers away. So I picked up various models including the MTX512 and Jupiter Ace off ads in MicroMart. I ended up selling them all to buy an A1200HDD and at the time it seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. Now I could probably buy a car if I sold them all over again LOL
I think that's something that 99.9% of us were guilty of. When I think of the thousands of floppy disks even that I just binned when I moved from ST and Amiga to PC alone Would have been neat to keep a record of every computer owned, there'd be some high numbers here for sure! Good to see you getting stuck in with your machines just now Richie
When I cleared Bob's attic, I found 3 cardboard boxes of 3.5 floppies, that was on top of the hundred upon hundreds of cover disks he had. Back in Amiga days, even I had less than that. Oh, and when I said cardboard boxes, I'm talking heavy-duty ones just a bit smaller than a TV would have come in. Sad to see them binned, but I had no time to sort out a home, and it took 2 of us with each box, I think Cindy would have wanted to divorce me if I had come home with those.
At the height of my 'collection' I had something like 3500 ST disks and 1800 Amiga ones. They took up a lot of space! The PC was amazing as I ended up with a set of 8 cd's that had just about every floppy title known to man!
