Vic-20 on a 10 Worst List

[Darrin]

This article wasn't fair on the old VIC-20.  This was my first computer and obviously the writer was a bit hazy about what computers were competing with the VIC at that time.  In the UK, the main competion was the ZX81 which was monochrome, had a membrane "keyboard" and came with a whopping 1KB of RAM.  Suddenly the VIC's 3.5KB looks huge.

According to the article, most other computers came with "16KB of RAM".  Hmmm... if I remember correctly, a 16KB RAM was available for the ZX81 at a cost of about 3 times that of the computer and due to the iffy connection to the computer (it looked like a pack of cigarettes stick onto a VHS video tape when attached) it could cause the ZX81 to crash if you jolted the computer.

Anyway, I used my VIC with a "Super Expander" for an extra 3KB of RAM (I think), additional BASIC commands and "high res" graphics.

[Darrin]

eslapion wrote:
 
I also make this: http://www.eskimo.com/~areed/vic/supervic_cartridge.htm

That's sweet.  I'd have killed for one of them back in my VIC days.  By the way, my VIC-20 still works after all these years, but is in storage at my brother's house in the UK.  He should still have my Super Expander too.

[Darrin]

Come on guys!  We all know that "Blue Meanies" was the best game ever made for any platform.   :-D

[Darrin]

adric22 wrote:The emachines - OH YEAH!  I used to work on these things and they had dismal failure rates on the power supplies.  In fact, the computer store I worked for searched long and hard at the time to find a supplier of those little proprietary power supplies.. We finnally found one and bought up around 40 a month.  Half of those we sold to customers and the other half we used ourselves to fix all the ones being brought in for repair!

I had 2 of them in my house for a long time; a #366 and a #400 series and both of them soldiered on for ages.  My kids had one and my wife had the other.  They eventually ended up in the garbage not because they stopped working, but rather because they were replaced.  I was lucky I guess.  :-)

Packard Bells - Oh yes.. these were crap.   Actually some of them weren't too bad, the main problems were the modem/sound board combos and the crappy-ass software included on the machine.  

I used to sell Packard Bell computers back in '97.  I think you got what you paid for.  That modem/sound card combo was a pain.  The first ones I sold has a 28.8 modem and I quickly discovered that the Packard Bell restore disk with that model (and some others) looked for a PB Combo Card attached in order to identify a "legal" system for restoring.  If you had removed it and replaced it with a 56K modem and new sound card then you go the infamous "This restore disk is only for use on Packard Bell systems" error message.