The C64, returns.

Started by Steve Elliott, June 25, 2019, 23:14:30

Previous topic - Next topic

Steve Elliott

#120
Yes I know quite a bit about why Commodore failed, but didn't want my thread to be derailed by talking about it here!

Quote
I went the Vic 20, C64, Amiga route and couldn't have been happier with those machines.

I'm not surprised, 3 excellent choices.  Sadly financially I or my parents couldn't afford them.

Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Xerra

Quote from: Steve Elliott on February 09, 2020, 16:26:50
I'm not surprised, 3 excellent choices.  Sadly financially I or my parents couldn't afford them.

Me neither. I inherited my Vic 20 when my grandad upgraded to his C64.

I paid half of the money for my C64 to my mother and she paid the rest after agreeing that it would be both my birthday and xmas present for that year. I spent the whole summer holidays that year working 2 newspaper rounds, working afternoons in a snack bar washing up and working an hour a night in an office emptying bins and ashtrays just so I could afford my share. Even then my mum waited until the sales before getting it for me :)

My first Amiga 500 I bought in 1988 and had to finance it as I was working on a Youth Training Scheme at the time, which was something like £27 a week.

It was hard back then but I think I appreciated the machines more because I had to work hard to get  them.
M2 Pro Mac mini - 16GB 512 SSD
ACER Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel® Core™ i7, RTX 3050, 1 TB SSD
Vic 20 - 3.5k 1mhz 6502

Latest game - https://xerra.itch.io/Gridrunner
Blog: http://xerra.co.uk
Itch.IO: https://xerra.itch.io/

Steve Elliott

#122
Ah cool, you certainly deserved them then. The nearest computer I had to the C64 was quite a bit later with an Atari 130XE. I didn't get a paper round until a few years after receiving my 16K Spectrum...Dad later paid for an internal upgrade to 48K.  The Amiga I could have saved up for (it was only a £100 more expensive than the Atari ST).  But all my mates had ST's and I'd been told the Amiga sometimes crashes.  Probably just because it had a more sophisticated OS.
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Qube

#123
Quote from: Xerra on February 09, 2020, 16:38:15
It was hard back then but I think I appreciated the machines more because I had to work hard to get  them.
Yup, I agree highly with that. I had a Vic-20 for my 10th birthday but my parents wanted to get me a C64 but couldn't afford it. I'm glad to be honest as I loved the Vic-20 typing in the examples from the manual and playing Hoppit and Blitz to death which came with it.

On my 18th birthday my Dad took me out and I bought the Amiga 500. I'd saved up for a long time and a few weeks before sold my Atari 800XL with loads of games. Of course the guy who came out to buy it said he wasn't interested in the games and wanted a price reduction. My Dad said "We'll keep the games then", to which the guy went "No no, I'll take them".

*edit* forgot to add that my Dad sold some of his Hi-Fi equipment to make up the difference just so I could have the Amiga on my birthday. I really wish he was still around so I could spoil him rotten but that story is not for this topic.

We were all poor kids back in the day and you young ones have it sooooo easy :P

Sorry for the thread derail :)

Quote from: Steve Elliott on February 09, 2020, 16:51:05
Ah cool, you certainly deserved them then. The nearest computer I had to the C64 was quite a bit later with an Atari 130XE. I didn't get a paper round until a few years after receiving my Spectrum.  The Amiga I could have saved up for (it was only a £100 more expensive than the Atari ST).  But all my mates had ST's and I'd been told the Amiga sometimes crashes.  Probably just because it had a more sophisticated OS.
I almost went for an Atari ST instead of an Amiga but once I saw NoiseTracker on a mates Amiga I knew that'd be the machine for me ;D

Sorry for the thread derail ;D
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Steve Elliott

#125
Well just waiting on a power supply now!  :P The disk drive has arrived with an Epyx Fastload Cartridge, all plugged in ready to go.   :D
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Pfaber11

I noticed a couple of C64 games on itch.io  . Not sure exactly what you do with them . I guess they're for use with an emulator .
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Steve Elliott

#127
Quote
I noticed a couple of C64 games on itch.io  . Not sure exactly what you do with them . I guess they're for use with an emulator .

You can either use the 'Vice' Emulator (VersatIle Commodore Emulator) that runs on anything from a Raspberry pi to a PC or Mac.  Or do what I'm doing and run on original C64 Hardware and use a Floppy Drive Emulator with all your d64 files (d for disk) games on a SD Card.

Fast forward to 13 minutes...A few of my favourite C64 games so far, Dropzone, Monty on the run, International Karate+ and Wizball.  Plus modern games like Sam's Journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sHVWL_Cybs&feature=emb_logo
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

3DzForMe

@Xerra,

Quote.   My first Amiga 500 I bought in 1988 and had to finance it as I was working on a Youth Training Scheme at the time, which was something like £27 a week.
     

Snap! I might've bought mine in 89, but I'd to buy mine on finance also as I was doing an apprenticeship
BLitz3D, IDEal, AGK Studio, BMax, Java Code, Cerberus
Recent Hardware: Dell Laptop
Oldest Hardware: Commodore Amiga 1200 with 1084S Monitor & Blitz Basic 2.1

Steve Elliott

#129
YTS worked out great for me too.  An office course and a placement in a market research company that led to a full time job in data processing using the mainframe. 
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

3DzForMe

QuoteYTS worked out great for me too.
My YTS amounted to a time filler for 9 months whilst I got old enough to join the MOD. Still, 9 months training as a Sparky helps with DIY around the house - even if it was over 3 decades ago!
BLitz3D, IDEal, AGK Studio, BMax, Java Code, Cerberus
Recent Hardware: Dell Laptop
Oldest Hardware: Commodore Amiga 1200 with 1084S Monitor & Blitz Basic 2.1

TomToad

Quote from: Pfaber11 on February 10, 2020, 19:33:06
I noticed a couple of C64 games on itch.io  . Not sure exactly what you do with them . I guess they're for use with an emulator .
The Pi1541 works great for those.  I built my own using the schematics from https://cbm-pi1541.firebaseapp.com/.  The Pi1541 is a cycle exact emulation of the 1541 drive, so fastloaders will work properly with it.  There are also SD2IEC devices which are far cheaper than the Pi1541, but they are not cycle exact so many games with custom loaders will fail.
------------------------------------------------
8 rabbits equals 1 rabbyte.

Steve Elliott

Thanks for that info, if I have problems loading from sd card I'll consider that option.
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Steve Elliott

#133
My new C64 Power Supply finally arrived so I was now able to test the computer, it's keyboard and it's ports (cartridge, cassette, video out, and power).  And also to test the fast loader cartridge and SD Card Drive (most of the games I have loaded fine, a few didn't).  Scrolling is much smoother with the real C64 than under emulation.

All worked fine (including sound from the SID) but the AV to HDMI adaptor gave running artifacts down the screen so was very distracting.  This was a very cheap £7 one so more expensive adaptors might work.  In the end I brought in an unused 32 inch flatscreen tv, simply plugged in the standard red, white and yellow cables then ran it in 4:3 ratio.  The artifacts dissapeared and it gave a much better picture, obviously not up to modern standards of course, but pretty sharp, very usable and authentic.  Unfortunately I was outbid on a Competition Pro Joystick, but have managed to order another one and it will come next week.  :D
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Xerra

Competition Pro joysticks. The best by far for the Vic and 64. I had one of these beasts and it lasted for years. Can't remember what happened to it but it never broke and I was never careful with it. No wonder these things still go for quite a few quid these days.
M2 Pro Mac mini - 16GB 512 SSD
ACER Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel® Core™ i7, RTX 3050, 1 TB SSD
Vic 20 - 3.5k 1mhz 6502

Latest game - https://xerra.itch.io/Gridrunner
Blog: http://xerra.co.uk
Itch.IO: https://xerra.itch.io/