Ah memories of Vic 20 Club in Perth WA. One of the first club mods was to crack open the data cassette machine and add in a small speaker to the output feed. Originally they had no sound output, which didn't matter if your cassette only had one program on it - but as we were playing with Basic, it was common to record many small programs onto a longer cassette. Without any way of listening to the program being loaded, you could not tell of the end had been reached, so the tape would keep rolling into the next program.
Yes, it was handy to be able to make sure you were at the start of the program before load, and these didn't load the program if it missed the start, and wouldn't stop at the end. Most of us moved to the floppy disk drive ASAP.
@@TaralgaBushAdventure Yes, I am nostalgic about a lot of things from then, but not tapes. Although that did make storage very available. I had to go to a computer shop for floppies, but tapes were everywhere.
I hope you enjoy working out what's "bad" in this machine. If the RAM is the original "MOS" brand, then...yeah, your soldering iron will be your friend IF the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. That's a good thing! That means you'll be soldering on sockets for those chips. That's always a great first "mod" to one of these. My C64 has a bad power supply, so for the few times I've run it, I've used my ancient varactor to power it up. My original VIC-20's power supply went down 25 years ago, so I use the varactor for that, too. Come to think...I should get cracking and mend or replace those power supplies myself. Anyway...my 2020-vintage "The C64 Mini" now steps in when I need my Commodore fix. It can function as a C64 or a VIC-20 at a whim. Mahalo for this; I immediately subscribed to your channel as a result. Aloha and good luck!
I'll find out whether the RAM is soldered or socketed soon when I open the computer up. I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun figuring out how to get this C64 working. The C64 mini sounds cool, looked it up at turns out it can be got for cheaper than I paid for this C64. Maybe it would've been a more 'sensible' choice but I don't have a TV that uses HDMI. It's always an option if for some reason I don't want to use the original, neat that it can be both a C64 and a VIC-20. You're welcome and thanks for subscribing!
@@toomanyinterests I've entertained myself for hours probing and noodling around my old computers. In this day and age, I'm fortunate to still have a computer monitor that my old Commodores can plug into. Enjoy your Commodore adventures, too!
@@jimcabezola3051 That's neat, I'll have to keep an eye out for a monitor then. The list of things I'm looking out for has gotten so long I forget most of it though. Yes, my Commodore adventures are just beginning!
Yeah, It looks like your RAM is bad, But at least we know that the VIC-II video chip is fine, The CPU is fine, The ROMs are fine and possibly other parts of it are fine! Before you try replacing the RAM, if any chips are socketed, You can try pulling them out and putting them back in again to see if that makes a difference! The RAM on these computers is known to go bad, I have an Atari 800xl that has bad RAM and both computers have 8, 4164 RAM chips inside! Also, At one point in the video, You can see what looks like a sticker with a sad face on it, Indicating that someone had probably already tested it and found it to be broken lol Can't wait for you to get this working and to see you stream with an actual C64! I think 140$ (US) is a pretty good price for a C64 with those accessories although it isn't nearly as much of a steal as the game consoles you got! Also, I've heard that the Wico Command Control joystick is a pretty great joystick! You should even be able to use it with your ColecoVision once you get it working! (EDIT) Also, I don't think it's very common for this version of the C64 power supply to go bad and kill the computer! There is a version that does although I forget which, All I know off the top of my head is that the one that goes bad is similar to my VIC-20 one although it is a different model!
Well, that's good that some parts are fine! I'll be opening it up soon, and by that I actually mean soon and not the month or two a commentor has been presumably waiting since I said I'd get back to the Selectric. I haven't done too much work on my game, I really need to get back to that too. There's a few stickers on it, but none that I can see that have a sad face. There is a reflective one that probably once had text on it, maybe it had a reflection that looked like a sad face? Probably my own. That's great I can use the joystick with other stuff, another reason I should just buy the $150 new power supply for the ColecoVision off ebay. I think it was the power supply the American units have that mostly go bad, although I may be remembering it wrong.
@@toomanyinterests Can't wait to see the Selectric working! I got mine almost perfectly working but after fixing it's final fault I accidentally snapped the metal wire that moves the carriage so it's unusable at the moment. Thankfully, There's a place in Phoenix that can repair these so I'll probably bring it there at some point! When you fix the C64, You can avoid typing your whole program into the computer by hand by saving your program with the virtual tape drive in the emulator, using a program called AudioTAP to convert that .TAP file to an audio file and then you can record that audio onto a cassette and play it back into the computer assuming the Datasette is working! I've looked back at the video and it seems the sticker I thought was a sad face is the 35 sticker on the side lol Guess I just didn't see it right! Yep! The Atari joystick was used for a ton of stuff including but not limited to, Any Atari 8 bit video game console or computer, Any Commodore 8 bit console or computer other than the PET, The ColecoVision, Several Sega consoles (I think the SG-1000, Master System and Genesis will work) and probably a ton of other stuff that I don't have off the top of my head! Man, If only the ColecoVision power supply wasn't so expensive! I still need to look into what power supplies go bad although It's 1:30am here so I'm going to bed lol I'll see about looking into that tomorrow or if you want to look into it just look up "C64 Bricks of death" and You'll find everything you need to know!
@@Dedicatedtolivinginthepast Unfortunately you're gonna be waiting a while till I get to the Selectric! A shame about the wire, great there's a place that can fix it. Thanks for the advice on how to transfer a program, I do think there may be something wrong with the datasette though. Well including postage the ColecoVision replacement power supply cost AU$150, so US$100 which isn't that bad considering it's a pretty nice product and it comes from Poland. I encountered the term "C64 Bricks of death" when checking what voltages the power supply should output. This one seems fine for now.
you are getting video so the VIC is working, could be a bad ROM? Check all the old Adrian Black videos on troubleshooting Id super recommend a SD2IEC! there is some SD2IEC's with epyx fast loader cartridges for under 30gbp. God knows how people in the UK survived with tape, but disks are waaaaaaaaay better!
Thanks for the advice, I will check his videos. The SD2IEC seems quite convenient, postage from the UK will probably end up being expensive but I'm sure there'll be SD2IEC's available closer by. I think there's something wrong with my datasette anyway so I will need something to save and load programs from.
Ah memories of Vic 20 Club in Perth WA. One of the first club mods was to crack open the data cassette machine and add in a small speaker to the output feed. Originally they had no sound output, which didn't matter if your cassette only had one program on it - but as we were playing with Basic, it was common to record many small programs onto a longer cassette. Without any way of listening to the program being loaded, you could not tell of the end had been reached, so the tape would keep rolling into the next program.
That's a handy mod, maybe I'll do it if I end up using the datasette.
Yes, it was handy to be able to make sure you were at the start of the program before load, and these didn't load the program if it missed the start, and wouldn't stop at the end. Most of us moved to the floppy disk drive ASAP.
@@TaralgaBushAdventure I'll probably get a floppy drive or modern alternative, I imagine it'll be much more convenient.
@@TaralgaBushAdventure Yes, I am nostalgic about a lot of things from then, but not tapes. Although that did make storage very available. I had to go to a computer shop for floppies, but tapes were everywhere.
I hope you enjoy working out what's "bad" in this machine. If the RAM is the original "MOS" brand, then...yeah, your soldering iron will be your friend IF the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. That's a good thing! That means you'll be soldering on sockets for those chips. That's always a great first "mod" to one of these. My C64 has a bad power supply, so for the few times I've run it, I've used my ancient varactor to power it up. My original VIC-20's power supply went down 25 years ago, so I use the varactor for that, too. Come to think...I should get cracking and mend or replace those power supplies myself. Anyway...my 2020-vintage "The C64 Mini" now steps in when I need my Commodore fix. It can function as a C64 or a VIC-20 at a whim. Mahalo for this; I immediately subscribed to your channel as a result. Aloha and good luck!
I'll find out whether the RAM is soldered or socketed soon when I open the computer up. I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun figuring out how to get this C64 working. The C64 mini sounds cool, looked it up at turns out it can be got for cheaper than I paid for this C64. Maybe it would've been a more 'sensible' choice but I don't have a TV that uses HDMI. It's always an option if for some reason I don't want to use the original, neat that it can be both a C64 and a VIC-20. You're welcome and thanks for subscribing!
@@toomanyinterests I've entertained myself for hours probing and noodling around my old computers. In this day and age, I'm fortunate to still have a computer monitor that my old Commodores can plug into. Enjoy your Commodore adventures, too!
@@jimcabezola3051 That's neat, I'll have to keep an eye out for a monitor then. The list of things I'm looking out for has gotten so long I forget most of it though. Yes, my Commodore adventures are just beginning!
Yeah, It looks like your RAM is bad, But at least we know that the VIC-II video chip is fine, The CPU is fine, The ROMs are fine and possibly other parts of it are fine! Before you try replacing the RAM, if any chips are socketed, You can try pulling them out and putting them back in again to see if that makes a difference! The RAM on these computers is known to go bad, I have an Atari 800xl that has bad RAM and both computers have 8, 4164 RAM chips inside! Also, At one point in the video, You can see what looks like a sticker with a sad face on it, Indicating that someone had probably already tested it and found it to be broken lol Can't wait for you to get this working and to see you stream with an actual C64! I think 140$ (US) is a pretty good price for a C64 with those accessories although it isn't nearly as much of a steal as the game consoles you got! Also, I've heard that the Wico Command Control joystick is a pretty great joystick! You should even be able to use it with your ColecoVision once you get it working! (EDIT) Also, I don't think it's very common for this version of the C64 power supply to go bad and kill the computer! There is a version that does although I forget which, All I know off the top of my head is that the one that goes bad is similar to my VIC-20 one although it is a different model!
Well, that's good that some parts are fine! I'll be opening it up soon, and by that I actually mean soon and not the month or two a commentor has been presumably waiting since I said I'd get back to the Selectric. I haven't done too much work on my game, I really need to get back to that too.
There's a few stickers on it, but none that I can see that have a sad face. There is a reflective one that probably once had text on it, maybe it had a reflection that looked like a sad face? Probably my own.
That's great I can use the joystick with other stuff, another reason I should just buy the $150 new power supply for the ColecoVision off ebay.
I think it was the power supply the American units have that mostly go bad, although I may be remembering it wrong.
@@toomanyinterests Can't wait to see the Selectric working! I got mine almost perfectly working but after fixing it's final fault I accidentally snapped the metal wire that moves the carriage so it's unusable at the moment. Thankfully, There's a place in Phoenix that can repair these so I'll probably bring it there at some point! When you fix the C64, You can avoid typing your whole program into the computer by hand by saving your program with the virtual tape drive in the emulator, using a program called AudioTAP to convert that .TAP file to an audio file and then you can record that audio onto a cassette and play it back into the computer assuming the Datasette is working!
I've looked back at the video and it seems the sticker I thought was a sad face is the 35 sticker on the side lol Guess I just didn't see it right!
Yep! The Atari joystick was used for a ton of stuff including but not limited to, Any Atari 8 bit video game console or computer, Any Commodore 8 bit console or computer other than the PET, The ColecoVision, Several Sega consoles (I think the SG-1000, Master System and Genesis will work) and probably a ton of other stuff that I don't have off the top of my head! Man, If only the ColecoVision power supply wasn't so expensive!
I still need to look into what power supplies go bad although It's 1:30am here so I'm going to bed lol I'll see about looking into that tomorrow or if you want to look into it just look up "C64 Bricks of death" and You'll find everything you need to know!
@@Dedicatedtolivinginthepast Unfortunately you're gonna be waiting a while till I get to the Selectric! A shame about the wire, great there's a place that can fix it. Thanks for the advice on how to transfer a program, I do think there may be something wrong with the datasette though.
Well including postage the ColecoVision replacement power supply cost AU$150, so US$100 which isn't that bad considering it's a pretty nice product and it comes from Poland.
I encountered the term "C64 Bricks of death" when checking what voltages the power supply should output. This one seems fine for now.
you are getting video so the VIC is working, could be a bad ROM? Check all the old Adrian Black videos on troubleshooting
Id super recommend a SD2IEC! there is some SD2IEC's with epyx fast loader cartridges for under 30gbp. God knows how people in the UK survived with tape, but disks are waaaaaaaaay better!
Thanks for the advice, I will check his videos. The SD2IEC seems quite convenient, postage from the UK will probably end up being expensive but I'm sure there'll be SD2IEC's available closer by. I think there's something wrong with my datasette anyway so I will need something to save and load programs from.
@@toomanyinterests I got mine from the UK! I cant post the full link but the seller is mauhards, it was £27.50. well worth it
Thank you for telling me the seller, once I get the Commodore working I think I'll get one.