4 ms·
The Vic-20 was my first computer, so it has a special place in my heart. It was a hand-me-down from an aunt at the time when the C64 was the star of the show, a
by harel 2y ago
The Vic-20 was my first computer, so it has a special place in my heart. It was a hand-me-down from an aunt at the time when the C64 was the star of the show, and I only had 2 games for it. My only option was to learn how to program. It was so crude, that the thought of running something like Elite on it never even crossed my mind. I'm shocked someone actually went on and did that. Wow!
- buescher 2y agoIt does require a 32k expansion which almost nobody had - I don’t remember pricing from the era but I would guess 32k of static ram (the VIC did not have a DRAM controller) would get you more than halfway to a c64
- harel 2y agoI was happy I had a tape drive. 32K was rich-kid stuff. However, restriction was a great enabler of creativity, and I'm grateful for it.
- mixmastamyk 2y agoI did too, and am. Unfortunately my dad bought two (another for sister) and so we had to "suffer" with black and white TV monitors. May be also why we didn't get a 64, although it may have been too early for that. I didn't learn that assembly language programming was a thing until maybe fifteen years later, and didn't know the 20 could be programmed that way until another decade later after that. Nor that it supported a modem, etc. So feel a bit cheated.
- rasz 2y agohttps://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/looking-for-old-prices-ideally-wholesale-but-retail-is-fine-from-1985.1243854/ https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/looking-for-old-pr... In 1985 8KB 6264 = $7, 1986 same chip $4. So ram alone would be $15-30, then add pcb case and margins and we are around $100, more than VIC-20 itself was worth at the time.
- cbm-vic-20 2y agoI ended up typing a lot of game code from magazines on the VIC-20, and eventually learned how to write 6502 assembly code for it. This is really nice!
- wombatpm 2y agoI did the same, learning basic along the way. I got a dot matrix printer and learned how to send print statements to the printer. I wrote an essay for school and printed it out line by line using print statements. Good times.