color variant commodore 64

[discgolfer72]

so I have 3 commodore 64 computers at home all brown with dark keys

yesterday someone came in my arcade/vintage gaming shop

and traded in these 2 commodore 64 machines and a ti99/4a

 

the top one in the pic has light colored function keys , and I have never seen that

is this a standard color variant/or just faded color

is this a early or late machine

or does it mean this model had non standard insides

 

 

 

 

[oracle_jedi]

The dark brown keys/light brown function keys were originally used on the VIC20.

 

When the 64 was first released, I saw pictures of early machines with the silver label and this style of keyboard.

 

Later the darker coloured function keys and the rainbow logo became standard, and then I guess as a cost-cutting measure, the darker function keys showed up on later VIC20s.

[discgolfer72]

The dark brown keys/light brown function keys were originally used on the VIC20.

 

When the 64 was first released, I saw pictures of early machines with the silver label and this style of keyboard.

 

Later the darker coloured function keys and the rainbow logo became standard, and then I guess as a cost-cutting measure, the darker function keys showed up on later VIC20s.

so this is just an early production of the c64

 

any perks internally to it being an early production model

Edited December 30, 2017 by discgolfer72

[BassGuitari]

It's just got a VIC-20 keyboard. There was some overlap and mixing-and-matching when the C64 came out. Your 64 is probably an earlier manufacture since the VIC-20 was discontinued by '84 or '85 (by which point VICs were probably being made with the newer C64/gray F keys anyway).

[discgolfer72]

It's just got a VIC-20 keyboard. There was some overlap and mixing-and-matching when the C64 came out. Your 64 is probably an earlier manufacture since the VIC-20 was discontinued by '84 or '85 (by which point VICs were probably being made with the newer C64/gray F keys anyway).

thanks

looks like I will bring this one home and swap it for a more common dark key one at my shop

Edited December 30, 2017 by discgolfer72

[carlsson]

Check the A/V output. The early C64 have a 5-pin like the VIC (only composite video) while later ones have 8-pin with luma/chroma as well.

[discgolfer72]

Check the A/V output. The early C64 have a 5-pin like the VIC (only composite video) while later ones have 8-pin with luma/chroma as well.

I know its a 8 pin because I tested it on my commodore monitor with the luma/chroma cable

[+OLD CS1]

Some of those early model 64s used ceramic VIC-IIs. Nothing special about them so far as I know, just neat.

[discgolfer72]

hmm interesting

 

so my sd2iec came in a few days ago

I too k it into the store to play with today

 

wanted to double test the commodore machines

the one with the lighter function keys behaves weird with the sd2iec

 

 

all the other 5 commodore machines I have (at store and at home) all display a list when using the file browser.

the one with the lighter keys only will show the current selected item when using the browser

it does this over chrome/luma, composite, or using the rf output

 

the machine otherwise plays all the stuff ive tried to launch

and seems to perform well (no glitches or artifacts )

[carlsson]

The C64 text display consists of these elements:

 

* Screen memory which holds the text/graphic symbols currently displayed

* Graphics memory which holds the character colour for each position

* Background colour which is one register value in the VIC-II, normally the same for the entire screen

* System value that keeps track of current text colour, used for PRINT statements

 

If I recall correctly, there were at least three versions of the KERNEL ROM:

 

1. This version defaulted to fill the graphics memory with white characters (on dark blue background), irregardless on what the system value for current text colour was set to. PRINT will still print in the expected colour, but for POKE directly to the screen memory you would have to POKE to the graphics memory as well to get the expected colour of your text.

 

2. This version defaulted to fill the graphics memory with the background colour, irregardless on what the system value for current text colour was set to. Similar to above, but if you POKE to the screen, it will be invisible unless you also set the colour memory accordingly.

 

3. This version defaulted to fill the graphics memory with the current text colour, which means both PRINT and POKE would behave as expected without the need to set the colour memory unless you wanted a different colour than the default one. It happens to be the most common version of the KERNEL.

 

It is possible that the file browser is cheaply programmed so it only POKE:s to the screen memory and assumes it will display as expected. If you had a very early C64 with the 5-pin DIN and perhaps the silver label, it likely would be in the 1 category and display text in white. If you have a later C64 with grey function keys, it most probably belongs to the 3 category and would display text in light blue in the default config. If yours only displays some of the text, it might be category 2.

 

You can try this by pressing SHIFT + CLR/HOME followed by moving the cursor down a few lines and POKE 1024,81 or similar. If you see a white ball in the top left corner, you have version 1. If you see a light blue ball, you have version 3. If you see nothing, press the HOME key without shift to move to the top left corner and check when the cursor is blinking if there is a blue ball hiding behind it. Then you have version 2.

 

Of course the problem could be something entirely different, but it seems very likely.

Edited January 7, 2018 by carlsson

[discgolfer72]

The C64 text display consists of these elements:

 

* Screen memory which holds the text/graphic symbols currently displayed

* Graphics memory which holds the character colour for each position

* Background colour which is one register value in the VIC-II, normally the same for the entire screen

* System value that keeps track of current text colour, used for PRINT statements

 

If I recall correctly, there were at least three versions of the KERNEL ROM:

 

1. This version defaulted to fill the graphics memory with white characters (on dark blue background), irregardless on what the system value for current text colour was set to. PRINT will still print in the expected colour, but for POKE directly to the screen memory you would have to POKE to the graphics memory as well to get the expected colour of your text.

 

2. This version defaulted to fill the graphics memory with the background colour, irregardless on what the system value for current text colour was set to. Similar to above, but if you POKE to the screen, it will be invisible unless you also set the colour memory accordingly.

 

3. This version defaulted to fill the graphics memory with the current text colour, which means both PRINT and POKE would behave as expected without the need to set the colour memory unless you wanted a different colour than the default one. It happens to be the most common version of the KERNEL.

 

It is possible that the file browser is cheaply programmed so it only POKE:s to the screen memory and assumes it will display as expected. If you had a very early C64 with the 5-pin DIN and perhaps the silver label, it likely would be in the 1 category and display text in white. If you have a later C64 with grey function keys, it most probably belongs to the 3 category and would display text in light blue in the default config. If yours only displays some of the text, it might be category 2.

 

You can try this by pressing SHIFT + CLR/HOME followed by moving the cursor down a few lines and POKE 1024,81 or similar. If you see a white ball in the top left corner, you have version 1. If you see a light blue ball, you have version 3. If you see nothing, press the HOME key without shift to move to the top left corner and check when the cursor is blinking if there is a blue ball hiding behind it. Then you have version 2.

 

Of course the problem could be something entirely different, but it seems very likely.

thanks very useful information

I'm home now and don't go back to the store until Tuesday

but ill check it then