Commodore 8 bit fans ???

[WA7KKP]

Okay, these are common as fleas on a dog, or grains of sand on a beach, but they were kinda neat in their day, and one heckuva well documented computer for hackers who love to dabble in machine language/assembler.

I started with a VIC-20, and got all the memory expansion and the extender board -- wondering if anyone else out there went whole hog on this one . . . http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif?

Or those who used the C128 in CP/M mode . . . http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

GEOS??? Imagine, a C=64 with a GUI that rivaled the early Macs.

Gary WA7KKP

[KE7IPY]

I never had Commies when I was a kid (I was an Atari enthusiast, thank you very much), but I picked up Commodore 128 with a bunch of stuff off of Craigslist last Summer. I haven't set it up yet, but have been wanting to do something with it. I've been skulking around Ebay looking for an AEA Pakratt-64. I've seen an AEA Morse Code tutor for sale here and there, and a Pakratt-64 manual.

[KB3NDN]

i have a couple vic 20's, had a few c64's - i was bidding on a kim-1 on ebay but it went out of my price range. - i like anything that runs on the 6502. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[KE5FRF]

I had both a vic-20 and a c-64 when I was a kiddo. I was really into getting those basic game programs at the bookstore and entering the code by hand and saving it to cassettes. I have a lot of fond memories of looking for that ONE error that would keep the game from running properly. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[N5KRC]

I started on a Vic-20, and then on to a C64, Amiga 500, and finally an Amiga 2000 before moving to the PC world. I used to spend all night typing in programs from the back of Compute's Gazette Magazine, and then the entire next day trying to figure out where I fat fingered something. I couldn't afford a tape drive at the time, so the computer would just stay on for a few days until I was sure I was done playing with the program I typed in. Then I mowed lawns all summer, and bought a 1541 5 1/4" floppy drive, and for the life of me couldn't fathom filling up all the "blocks" on the disk! Then one day, someone at school taught me how to notch the side of the floppy, and then you could put more on the BACK of the disk! Those were the days!

[WA7KKP]

Quote[/b] (KE7IPY @ Mar. 19 2007,13:33)]I've been skulking around Ebay looking for an AEA Pakratt-64. I've seen an AEA Morse Code tutor for sale here and there, and a Pakratt-64 manual.
So happens I have one, looking for a new home.

E-mail me: wa7kkp /at/ gmail /dot/ com.

Guaranteed to be cheaper than E-pay pricing.

Gary WA7KKP

[W5MEJ]

Yes, I had a VIC-20, with a memory expansion board and a tape drive. Remember how you had to configure the memory board for the different programs? Most of the programs would only run with a specific amount of memory, so you had to re-configure the dip switches on the expansion board before you loaded the program.

I upgraded to a C-64, and eventually added a couple of disk drives and a 300 baud modem. Had a lot of fun learning to program in BASIC and assembly. Compute! magazine actually published one of my assembly language programs back about 1985. It was a small TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) word processor...you could keep it loaded, run other programs, then "hot key" into or out of it...sort of a crude "notepad", I guess, if you compare it to modern software.

I did acquire most of the GEOS programs...they were really pretty good, but I never took them seriously - I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to waste so much precious memory and processor time writing bloated code just to make your computer easier to use. Why control serious programs with a joystick? Man, was I ever wrong! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I never had a C-128 or an Amiga...about the time I was thinking about one, I got a good deal on a used Commodore Colt. What a machine! 8088 processor, 640k memory, two 5 1/4 disk drives and a 5 Meg hard drive...and a 1200 baud (external) modem. I spent the next several years writing progressively longer and more convoluted batch files...

Chuck

[kc7rad]

YES!

My 1st PC was a Timex Sinclair ZX-81 kit, then graduated up(?) to a RS Micro Color computer.

After finding out the ony language available for the MCC was BASIC (and a poor version at that), about 3 years later I really graduated up to a C-128 with a REAL 5.25" floppy drive!

I was styl'in!!! I did indeed use CP/M and GEOS! WOW a COLOR GUI! I wrote all sorts of programs in Turbo Pascal and assembler and C. I even wet so far as to get a TNC and be one of the first in the area (west-central IL) on packet.

That 128 was indeed nifty.

-Ken

[ae4xj]

My brother and I got a vic-20 for xmas. We thought we were so cool we could make our name scroll on the screen, even diagonally.


Anybody remember the text only adventure games?

[W4INF]

I learned BASIC on a VIC-20, and Assembly on a C-64. They were great in there day. The 128 was oversold, not much extra but a nicer keypad.

Well, there not good for anything but a keepsake now, but still cool there around.

BTW, they were outfitted with 6510 CPUs, but ran 6502 code, if that makes any sense.

Andrew

[W1GUH]

I had a C64 and it was an awesome machine. When I got serious with it and started doing assembly language, the more I did with it, the more impressed I was. Programming at that level you can really see what a superb job Commodore did in the design of that machine. Everything, especially including the video interface and the SID chip (audio voices...3 of 'em) worked exactly as the documentation said, and the precision with which you could use them was freaking OUTSTANDING.

Had a '128, but it spent most of the time in '64 mode.

Then, I got an Amiga...which probably needs its own thread...if nobody beats me to it here, I'll start it myself soon.

Since a lot of the goodness of the Amiga is more properly talked about in its own threat...here's what I'll say here.

In the days when you could choose between a PC and a Mac, neither of which did multi-tasking, you could buy an Amiga with required peripherals for less than a grand. And what you got for that is a machine that could do, simultaneously, Mac's GUI OS, and a command line OS, that was much better than DOS, it was a derivative of Unix....because, the machine was the first, true multi-tasking machine intended for the home. Pity Commodore had no marketing skills. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[KG4RUL]

I can remember about 20 years ago the Price Club in San Diego (they were the prototype for wholesale warehouse clubs likes Costco and Sams Club) was a Commodore dealer. All of their cash registers and network nodes were based on the CBM.

[KC1BUD]

I remember fondly my C-64 in fact it is still in my possession. I started on computers and computing languages at college back in the early 70s. Back then the only computer on campus was a big main frame very slow especially at the end of semester time. After writing our code we would go into the hall and have what we called compiling parties. It was slow and tedious at best. While in college I have had BASIC, FORTRAN, PASCAL and machine language. I learned how to count in binary on my fingers. The next computers they had around here in the libraries were Commodore Pets. My first computer was the C-64 although I really wanted the C-128, the wife thought they were expensive toys. Although some what slower than the TS 80s of their time, the 64s had a lot going for them. Along with the 64, I have the tape drive, plus 2 - 5.25 floppy disc drives, games and software. But it hasn’t been used in years. I have now forgotten most of the languages I learned back then, what you don’t use you lose.

[kd6aaj]

I still have my C64 with the floppy, 300 baud modem, and lots of 5.25 disks. I even wired it up for 12VDC operation.

I wrote my own ctcss 2-tone paging program in basic.
Just enter the cap-code (like 4265, all 2-tone cap-codes start with 4) and it plays the two tones on your tv (or whatever you have running)

I can make my old pager go off! I wanted to interface it to my car alarm with a xtal for 2 meters in the pager. Never done it yet.

Now, if I ever build the C64 floppy to PC adapter...

KD6AAJ

[pa3agz]

Is there somebody, who still has 'NL-5944 Morse Decoder + Generator' for the C-64.

Please reply direct to: Paul - ON3PCO - ex NL-5944

or check : www.on3PCO.be

Paul, would be very pleased, has he was the author of this program.

Bill - PA3AGZ

[AG3Y]

I had a VIC-20 and LOVED it ! My original VIC was the one with the 12V two terminal power plug, and it was a no-brainer to wire a 12 volt battery to it and use it for RTTY on field day ! I was one of the only guys I can remember who worked the mode with battery power to both the rig and computer. Even had one of those 12 volt video survey monitors to go with the package, completely battery operated!

I had an expansion card and a set of sockets that I had homebrewed as a sort of external "bus". One of the sockets could be manually switched from the RAM addresses, to the ROM/Game addresses, so I happily cloned game cards as well as the famous RTTY plug-in ROM packs and ran RTTY in that manner. ( RTTY on a 20 column screen ? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif - - you betcha ! ! ! )

Alas, I left the setup in the back seat of my car one evening, and when I went to bring it into the house, it was all gone! Sad day in my life.

I learned a heck of a lot about computer hardware architecture, and eventually went into the business for a short time between Broadcasting jobs. I never was that much of a programmer, but I did know my way around within an operating system.

BTW, after I lost the VIC setup, I seriously considered a CP/M machine, but a good friend of mine convinced me it was time to move up to the new-fangled IBM XT clones. 640K of memory, a 20 MByte HD, 2 - 5.25 inch floppies and CGA graphics! Man, what a machine ! Strange, I could run RTTY on the VIC with a simple level converter, but I needed to get a PK-232 to do the same thing on the IBM clone! And that converter cost as much as the entire VIC had just a couple of years earlier!

Ahhh, Memories!

73, Jim

[KE7IPY]

Quote[/b] (AG3Y @ April 26 2007,11:42)]I had an expansion card and a set of sockets that I had homebrewed as a sort of external "bus". One of the sockets could be manually switched from the RAM addresses, to the ROM/Game addresses, so I happily cloned game cards as well as the famous RTTY plug-in ROM packs and ran RTTY in that manner.
A friend of mine had a memory expansion board for the VIC-20 that was a plain circuit board with a bunch of IC sockets in it that fit on a port in the back that was bigger than the VIC-20 itself. Is that what you had?

[AG3Y]

Well, not exactly, What I did was to get a bunch of edge card connectors, and wire them so that all the pin 1s, 2s, 3s, etc. were in parallel from one connector to the next. The board was a piece of experimenter's proto-board with a single edge-card terminal row on one side.

I could plug in as many RAM packs as the computer would address, and also a Rom pack or two. The switch for the Rom socket could be switched between ram addressing and rom addressing, by selecting the CS line ( boy, I just remembered that ! ! ) to a different pin on the CS IC. The reason you had to do that, was that the ROM address buss was not writeable, so you would write code into the memory at a lower address, and then switch it to the higher block, and it would act like a ROM as long as the power was applied. I even wired in a battery back-up and could hold the program for weeks, even with the power to the motherboard turned off!

My little device was hardly any wider than the edgecard connector on the back of the keyboard/CPU box, and deep enough to hold about 5 or so cards. I really regret to this day that it got stolen out of my car!

73, and thanks for your curiosity. Jim