I am looking for a new computer. The Vic-20 might be it...

Forums › Desktop computing › I am looking for a new computer. The Vic-20 might be it...

freitasm

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Topic # 15145 6-Aug-2007 21:56

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rscole86

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Reply # 81370 6-Aug-2007 22:33

ZOMG!

I must buy it!

paradoxsm

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Reply # 81371 6-Aug-2007 22:34

The VIC-20 held a very special place for me, it was the first "REAL" computer I owned and did my first programming on...
(The TRS-80 was very complicated inside and tempremental and did not last long)

I still have it to this day and it's almost orange instead of red but sadly it no longer works.

sbiddle

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Reply # 81374 6-Aug-2007 22:39

I missed out on a vic 20. I got a c64 as my first computer and it still works but the cassette unit is no good now. Floppy still works fine.

tallPete

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Reply # 81381 6-Aug-2007 23:53

You could do a lot worse! I still remember the day I went and bought one, and Llamasoft Gridrunner.

About the time I subscribed and eagerly awaited getting my monthly copy of 'Bits and Bytes' magazine (that will sort the men out from the boys in here!). Now those are something I should scan and put online.

It all paid off in the end - It was my first computer, and computers have since given me a pretty good life and income, travelling the world and now I consult in IT.

All from that first VIC!

Fossie

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Reply # 82021 11-Aug-2007 17:09

Hmm..looks like the apple ii

BiggusDoggus

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Reply # 85757 7-Sep-2007 14:24

sbiddle: I missed out on a vic 20. I got a c64 as my first computer and it still works but the cassette unit is no good now. Floppy still works fine.

OMG - I dreamed of getting a C64!

My first was a Sinclair ZX81 - 3.5mhz processor and 1kb of RAM. But that wasn't enough for me, oh no. I took the plunge and upgraded it to a raised keyboard and boosted the hell out of it with a, wait for it, 16kb RAM pack!

Those were the good old days...

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

rwales

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Reply # 85782 7-Sep-2007 16:37

I still have a working and operational VIC-20. You can keep your Dell XPS M1710. I do all my serious gaming on the VIC.

adom

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Reply # 85807 7-Sep-2007 22:06

I started with a Sinclair Spectrum... complete with the spark etch printer that wiped out the TV and the local HAM radio guys signal every time I printed something :)

mkgrnwlt

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Reply # 88301 27-Sep-2007 13:10

BiggusDoggus:
sbiddle: I missed out on a vic 20. I got a c64 as my first computer and it still works but the cassette unit is no good now. Floppy still works fine.

OMG - I dreamed of getting a C64!

My first was a Sinclair ZX81 - 3.5mhz processor and 1kb of RAM. But that wasn't enough for me, oh no. I took the plunge and upgraded it to a raised keyboard and boosted the hell out of it with a, wait for it, 16kb RAM pack!

Those were the good old days...

Good old days? Well, maybe.

I, too, first had a Sinclair ZX81 with 16KB RAM add-on. Never could get the cassette storage device to work very well (not at all). Then graduated to a C64. Now that was a spiffy machine, with vast quantities of storage. Added a "real" monitor, printer and floppy disk. Then I acquired an Osborne Executive "portable" -- 128KB RAM and 2 floppies built into the case with an 80-character built in display!

I truly became real, though, when I finally acquired a Fat Mac in '84. That lasted several years, eventually growing to 1MB RAM with a HUGE 10MB hard disk. Computing heaven!

Every now and then I stop and think about how our perspectives have changed over the years. Simply amazing!

_Allan

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Reply # 90333 9-Oct-2007 20:41

The Vic 20 was the beginning of my IT Career. When it first arrived on the market I was living in Copenhagen. I walked past this hobby shop on the way to and from work everyday and they had this computer in the window. One day I bought one and took it home. The family TV become in high demand there after!
Some months later I’d written a database application using the basic programming language and storing the data in a sequential file on the cassette tape.
I took my application back to the shop where I bought my computer and they bought my application off me. The payment was Floppy Disk drive (1520 I think?) and a dot matrix printer. That was the start of my IT career.
On my return to New Zealand I started up a Commodore shop. The mainstream products where the VIC 20 and the Commodore 64. I was also selling my services programming in basic and a database product called Superbase 64.
Today I’m still operating the same company and am celebrating 24 years in the IT business. Heavens knows what I’d be doing today if there had not been a Commodore VIC 20?

_Allan (my blog, my tweets, company tweets, company web site)
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Aloha

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Reply # 90352 9-Oct-2007 21:40

Wow! Flashback!

I was 11-12 years old when our school got the first Commodores: mainly C-16s and C +4s.
I remember I wrote many programs on the Commodore +4s in BASIC. :)

Then I got a C-64 with casette tape. Unfortunately we had no money at that time to buy a floppy drive. :)
I still remember my favourite games: Ace of Aces, Ace 2 and the best game is The Last Ninja 1 and 2, but unfortunately it ran only on Floopy drive. Jeeeez!

I is a kollege stoodent. Bee nice.

signz

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Reply # 90377 9-Oct-2007 23:48

Sorry, I predate them all ...

I learnt to program on an Exidy Sorcerer in the showroom at Dick Smith in Artarmon (Sydney) ... in my lunch breaks.

Try this for history:

012737
101
177776
774

which is machine code (entered in binary, of course - represented above in Octal) for a PDP-11 to send a series of A characters to the attached TeleType device ...

I fell in love with computers the day I watched a lady enter 2 paper tapes into a CPU and it coorelated 2 sets of data (airline departures and noise levels) and issues invoices. That was 1979 ...

First mini computer I installed in NZ had 64K of RAM and ran 17 terminals and 8 printers ...

DS

paradoxsm

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Reply # 90378 10-Oct-2007 00:05

Amazing stuff, I came about only when they were boring consumer devices, though my days with the VIC-20 were anything but boring. I found my old tapes and the "datasette" only yesterday so i'm hoping to bring it back to life! I'm cleaning out my retro stuff from wet basements and reorganizing stuff that was only "junk" 5 years back a bit better as it's now getting very nostalgic. Friend and I have quite a collection!

I still use the ancient (IBM) Model-M "Clicky" keyboard I used from my first ibm PC though as my daily input device attached to the modern AMD machine. (Just typed this on it)