7 ms·
Probably because back then you could rip apart your, say C64, and replace borked components with a soldering iron or so my dad told me.
by gunfighthacksaw 5y ago
Probably because back then you could rip apart your, say C64, and replace borked components with a soldering iron or so my dad told me.
- vidarh 5y agoYou could replace many ICs with just your fingers or a screwdriver. On the C64 the main ones like the CPU, graphics, sound and IO chips were in sockets, and that was similar on many home computers of the era. I freaked my parents out by switching chips between our C64 and the floppy drive to see what would happen (they had almost compatible CPUs and IO chips - many things kept working). Also: Repairing by touching chips to see if any of them were unusually hot was fun... EDIT: to bring this more back to the thread subject, as a Commodore user at the time we used to make fun of the Spectrums, but they absolutely had a massive impact on the market. Including on competitors - e.g. Tramiel got spooked by how cheap the ZX81 was, and it certainly contributed to choices made at Commodore. Sinclair's influence as a result spread wide and far beyond the sizable direct influence of his own machines.
- dng88 5y agoDo the touch hot chip diagnostics a lot. Mainly for the faked pineapple II. Cannot afford intel memory chip then and has to settle down for Fujitsu memory chip.
- AnonymousPlanet 5y agoOnly a couple of years a go I replaced a blown cap on a motherboard. It was faster than replacing it with a new board because I happened to have a cap with the right specs. So in principle you still could do this today. If you don't use your soldering iron on the CPU or the RAM or ... well, lots of other parts.