The Resurrection Process:
When I first stumbled across my grandfathers Commodore 64's I figured
they
didn't work anymore, after all they were in constant use from 1983 to 1994!
Luckily I was bored and plugged the first one in, searched five hours for
the
special video cord, turned it on and Whoa it worked!
Both the commodore and the Vic-20 laying on the upstairs bed after 10 years,
notice the 300 baud barecom modem in the centre
You can't really do allot with a vanilla Commodore, you'll need some form
of
Non Volatile data storage, more specifically a Datasette or more commonly
the
1541 Disk drive. I rummaged around trying to find the old Datasette, finally
I
found it... one small problem, my brother jammed it full of clay. So I sat
around
for the next two hours with Alcohol and Q-Tips, prying clay out of a cassette
drive.
After I cleaned off the old typewriter desk, I plugged it all in, notice the Datasette
Eventually I got it clean, plugged it in and Whoa! Another thing working, so
for
the next few days I sat upstairs typing in programmes out of Ahoy and Compute!
magazines which I found lying around as well-- all dated before I was ever
thought of being conceived.
After a short while I got tired of typing in programmes only to mis-save them
on
a cassette tape, and trust me you get pissed when you lose 12 hours worth
of
assembly code. So I set off to find the 1541 drive my Grandfather had, found
it
with ease.
Unfortunately it turned out that the 1541 blew out its
+5v rectifier, turning the
drive into nothing but an expensive 25 pound box of electronics. I called around
but it seemed no one had +5v rectifiers, so... I ordered one
from the
64andmorestore (who I recommend
doing business with).
____
The +5v rectifier is the black plug that looks like | \ at the very back
|___|
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As It Is Today:
Sitting on a makeshift computer desk, here is my complete Commodore 64 system
with a good view of my new 1541 drive running Leader board Executive.
note: the Datasette isn't in the picture as I was cleaning it again.
Another shot showing the screen a bit more clearly.
Technical Stuff:
NAME:
C 64
MANUFACTURER:
Commodore
TYPE:
Home Computer
ORIGIN:
U.S.A.
YEAR:
1982
END OF PRODUCTION:
1993
BUILT IN LANGUAGE:
Basic
KEYBOARD:
Full-stroke 66 keys with 4 function keys
CPU:
6510
SPEED:
0.985 MHz (PAL) / 1.023 MHz (NTSC)
COPROCESSOR:
VIC II (Video), SID (Sound)
RAM:
64 KB
ROM:
20 KB
TEXT MODES:
40 columns x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES:
Several, most used : 320 x 200
COLORS:
16 + 16 border colours
SOUND:
3 voices / 9 octaves, 4 waveforms (sound output through TV)
SIZE / WEIGHT:
40.4 (W) x 21.6 (D) x 7.5 (H) cm / 1820 g
I/O PORTS:
RGB (composite, chroma/luma and sound in/out), 2 x Joystick plugs, Cardridge slot, Tape interfarce (300 bps), Serial, User Port, TV RF output
BUILT IN MEDIA:
Cassette unit. Provision for 170 KB 5.25'' floppy disc unit (1541)
POWER SUPPLY:
External power supply unit
PRICE:
$595 (USA, 1982) - £229 (U.K. 1984)
Software:
From top left to bottom right:
Original Gauntlet, still in shipping sleeve [before being released in box]
Timework's Word Writer with printer interface
CBM's Accounting Software
CBM's General Ledger Tax Software
Access Software's Leader board Triple Pack [Leader board, Lb Tournament, Lb
Executive]
Sesame Street, Grover's Adventures
Infocom's Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Ariola Software's Skyfox [German]
In addition to these titles I've got an order from 64andmore
consisting of:
GEOS 2.0
BAO/MS Flight Simulator II
Access's Echelon
Firebird's Elite
Microprose's Silent Service
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