Commodore Vic 20; A Visual History - free pdf eBook

[Misfit]

A lovely looking book about the Vic hardware, user manual, press advertisements and cartridge games. I never realised there were so many revisions on the hardware. The pdf version is currently free.

https://www.oldcomputr.com/product/comm ... f-edition/

A bit of nostalgia for some?

[Dio]

With the revisions thing, as far as I can see it was a Tramiel directive to drive the price down, the C64 and ST are the same.

I assume he insisted that his factories were set up for rapid and regular revision rather than fixing on one design for years, and then operated on the principle that spending $20k revising the machine to save $2 a unit was a great idea because that turns into a profit really quickly. On the later ST machines, they were quite happy to revise the motherboard just to use a different DRAM chip - given that the memory was probably the biggest cost in the machine. Sugar adopted much the same strategy with the Amstrad machines in the UK.

Contrast Atari, who built the 400 and 800 with neat-in-1979 but overengineered, inefficient designs and then sat back and smiled happily at themselves for years. They could have revised it (along the lines of the XL machines) in 1981 or even 1980 if they'd wanted to. But they looked at its vastly superior specification (and it was way ahead of anything else until the C64 came along, even then it wasn't totally clear cut which was better) and totally ignored that they could have doubled their margin on the thing by optimising the design at least once a year. While they could - and if Tramiel had been in charge, they would - have optimised the 400 down to about the same price as the VIC-20 with a bit more effort.

[silentshark]

A lovely looking book about the Vic hardware, user manual, press advertisements and cartridge games. I never realised there were so many revisions on the hardware. The pdf version is currently free.

https://www.oldcomputr.com/product/comm ... f-edition/

A bit of nostalgia for some?

Ah, thanks for that.. fond memories :-)

[venusian]

Very much enjoyed that book. Lots of fondly remembered beige plastic.

[venusian]

That same sure has a really esoteric book about Commodore cassette drives too, also free.

[CrashedAlex]

Can I just say thanks to the OP for mentioning this book.

Took a quick look yesterday and it gave me much pleasure. The VIC was my first micro. Have many great memories of playing games with my Mum. I also had a few of the cartridges. They were 'big ticket' items at the time costing a whopping £20 each at my local computer shop. Just seeing the artwork again made me smile. I was a big fan of the Scott Adams text adventures.

The order in which we tackled them was Pirate Cove, The Count, Adventureland (which we borrowed from a friend), then Mission Impossible (completed in under 24hrs) and then Voodoo Castle.
That final one was the one we never completed. We got stuck trying to get through a crack in a wall.

Two decades later and I'm one of the first to get internet access at work. I went looking for the solution to the game. I found the email of the author himself.

In the spirit of the early computer magazines where things were about Tips and Hints more than Spoilers I sent off an email asking for assistance. But I also wrote the mail in the style of the instruction manual.

It said something along the lines of 'Greetings! We are two hardy Adventurers and we've been stuck since 1983 in this adventure...."

The next day I received an email from Scott Adams. He also 'played along' and gave me a few Hints as to how to proceed.

This was really quite wonderful to receive. It probably doesn't sound it, but things like that can be really powerful.

So thanks again for posting the link. It helped me to remember that anecdote.

And if you looking for something different, then text adventures are a good alternative to a lot of things we have today. Good lockdown entertainment in you like retro entertainment. Working together with someone else, making a Map, and plotting and planning the next step - all really. Influences me as a game designer to this day in fact.

[Deckard]

I remember we canned the cartridge Radar Ratrace and Jelly Monsters and I have very fond memories of Matrix too.

[Misfit]

Can I just say thanks to the OP for mentioning this book.

No problem, glad you liked it. That's a nice anecdote about Mr Adams.

Looking back I' stunned how many cartridges we must have had. No idea how we afforded them.

Not sure I solved a single text adventure back then but played a lot. Really should go back and try Scott's games again and the Level 9 ones for the BBC B

[gilesgoat]

.. I have two original Vic 20 I SHOULD have fixed .. and I yet have to buy/find some DIN connector because I can't test them missing the video cable ... ..

[CrashedAlex]

Deckard - Yes the same for me as well.

Still prefer Radar Ratrace over Rally-X - eating cheese made more sense.

And still have Jelly Monsters in a near mint box as well. I was blown away when I saw that it was a really decent Pac-Man running on the VIC.

And Scott Adams played along by writing with about our 'great quest' and how we 'should not be disheartened in this Adventure' - it was brilliant stuff.

[merman]

It's a great read.
I helped proofread/edit it.

[MattyP]

Thanks for the heads up on this great read!

Unfortunately never had a VIC20 and never realised that they released so many hardware versions!

[Whiteball]

Yeah the book was great. I have such fond memories of the early computer days.

We had a Vic-20 and I loved the arcade type games more, especially Yaks output.

We did play family get-togethers around some of the Scott Adams adventures, but Mysterious Island by Mr Micro was the one we played on most Sundays as a family.
I actually finished this and got the secret co-ords (lattitude and longitude). I was once told there was a prize, but never tried to claim (too young and shy in them days)


Remember my mum and dad had a rivalry over a game called Bonzo (by Kavan) on the Vic. I still remember when my dad cranked the volume on the TV when he finished (what we thought) was the last level and it played a little bonus tune. We all came running to see what the commotion was. The game wrapped back to the first level but at a harder difficulty, but they both kept playing. I think he wrapped around 4 times in total which was some going. Great, great times.

Edit: will have to dig out the tape and see if I wrote those co-ords down on the inside of the sleeve (was a habbit back then as we did that for high scores too).

[CrashedAlex]

I remember "Bonzo" quite well. One of the early Joystick games for the VIC.

It's fun to hear of the 'family moments' that happened with the early micro games. I remember the first time I reached "Rocket City" on the excellent "Skramble" from Rabbit. I think me and my Mum were shaking with excitement. I mean, we'd never gotten through the "Caverns" before!

And then when we borrrowed "Blitz" from my friend Dan. That one was so simple so was played over and over again. My Mum was the first to level the City.

Seeing the plane land, and the pilot get out and WAVE to us was this HUGE MOMENT! The fact that I'm writing about this thirty years later tells you how big it was to us. It was triumphant because of the sheer volume of attempts, then the amount of 'nearly!' moments. All quite incredible when you think this was a game where the only control was pressing the SPACE bar.

I think I'm going to dig out the emulator and have a go later this morning!

[Misfit]

And then when we borrrowed "Blitz" from my friend Dan. That one was so simple so was played over and over again. My Mum was the first to level the City.

Seeing the plane land, and the pilot get out and WAVE to us was this HUGE MOMENT! The fact that I'm writing about this thirty years later tells you how big it was to us. It was triumphant because of the sheer volume of attempts, then the amount of 'nearly!' moments. All quite incredible when you think this was a game where the only control was pressing the SPACE bar.

Ahh, Blitz. It feels like only yesterday now you bring it up. Amazing how such simple things could entertain for so long.