Picking up my first C64 today...

[MN12BIRD]

Hey guys I missed the 8-bit computer era for the most part. While I played a little C64 in the public library or whatever but I never owned one.

 

Today I'm picking up one in good shape in the box for $25! But its JUST the keyboard system itself no disk drive or monitor.

 

I suppose it has a composite AV output so I can really use an TV and the monitor isn't necessary. cool... but not needed!

 

But I'm going to need a disk drive for it I suppose. What would be a fair price for the disk drive these days? Are they hard to find?

 

Also IIRC you had a cartridge slot on the side. Can you get games on cartridge and not need the drive? That would be good to find a game to start out with.

 

Any other tips for a first time C64 owner?

 

Can't wait to pick it up!

[Garak]

Today I'm picking up one in good shape in the box for $25! But its JUST the keyboard system itself no disk drive or monitor.

 

Excellent!

 

I suppose it has a composite AV output so I can really use an TV and the monitor isn't necessary. cool... but not needed!

 

Yes, one can do either.

 

But I'm going to need a disk drive for it I suppose. What would be a fair price for the disk drive these days? Are they hard to find?

 

I'm not sure as I either use the drives I've had since the 80's or an alternate means (and there are many out there) like the XE1541 cable and software on the PC side.

 

Also IIRC you had a cartridge slot on the side. Can you get games on cartridge and not need the drive? That would be good to find a game to start out with.

 

Yes, some games did come on cartridge. Out of the thousands of C64 games that exist (GameBase 64 lists 20,600 some entries and they aren't even finished yet!) I'd say maybe less then 100 were on cartridge. Although, Mayhem might know far better about then I.

 

Any other tips for a first time C64 owner?

 

Well, lots I suppose. It's better if you play around with it first then ask questions. Oh, there is also Lemon64 which has a pretty good user base in it's forums.

 

Have fun and good luck!

 

Garak

[Mirage]

You can use a TV, but depending on the TV, it will be less sharp than a monitor. Fine for games, generally, but for programming or other text entry, most TV's won't be ideal. You could get a disk drive to save your own stuff, sure. If you're going to program on it. For games, it's a must -- if you are going to get games on disk. Do you have any, or a way of getting them? Otherwise, yes, you can get cartridges and they're usually pretty cheap. I'd look on lemon64.com or gb64.com, find the games that you really want, and seek those out. You can try them out in emulation first (or only). 1541 drives are easy to find and super cheap -- the shipping will cost you more, and they're flakey.

 

But really, C64 use has moved way beyond the use of the 1541. I don't know how serious you are about this, but you have a couple good options. One would be to get a PC64/XE64 cable (google to read about them) and use a Windows or DOS machine (an old one works great) as a hard drive. Then, you just download the .d64 files from one of the emulation sites listed above and load them into the real C64 directly. Takes a little effort to set it up, but well worth it. Then, there is the new 1541ultimate project (1541ultimate.net) which is the best option. You load the .d64 or .prg images onto the flash card that goes into the 1541ultimate cart, and away you go... all the cart images, disk images and program file images you could ever want, right there. The catch? It'll cost you over $200. But if you're serious...! If you are, I would forego the expense and trouble of getting a real 1541 and go with one of these methods... the time or expense may seem like a lot, but the payoff is so much greater.

 

Either way, good luck!

Edited December 22, 2008 by Mirage1972

[MN12BIRD]

Well I'm not that hardcore into it to drop that kinda cash on it and since I would rather keep it "retro" I'll stick to finding a disk drive.

 

Now here is a really stupid question. I do have an old DOS Pentium computer kicking around. If I can find a 5.25" drive for it I could simply download images of games and copy it to a floppy for the C64? Does it use a special format or is it that simple?

[pinball22]

Yeah, what Mirage said. I don't actually currently have an alternate disk method, but once we get our game room remodel done, I'm going to do something. If you do want an actual 1541, as was said before, they're cheap but heavy and have a fair chance of not working when you get them. I'd look at flea markets... they tend to show up a lot for like $10. Other advice... be happy! You have one of the awesomest game systems ever now.

 

Games you must play:

 

Archon

Beach-Head

Ghostbusters

Impossible Mission

Jumpman

Mr. Robot

M.U.L.E.

Oil's Well

Paradroid

Raid Over Moscow (press F8 to open the hangar door!)

Space Taxi

Spooks

Sword of Fargoal

Toy Bizarre

[Mirage]

Well I'm not that hardcore into it to drop that kinda cash on it and since I would rather keep it "retro" I'll stick to finding a disk drive.

 

Now here is a really stupid question. I do have an old DOS Pentium computer kicking around. If I can find a 5.25" drive for it I could simply download images of games and copy it to a floppy for the C64? Does it use a special format or is it that simple?

 

No, it's not that simple. A PC drive can't write a Commodore formatted floppy. But, do the research on the cables I mentioned, and you can write Commodore programs or disk images directly to a 1541 from a PC easily. I've done that, and it works well. It costs the same to just use the PC as a hard drive though, as I mentioned above, and is really a better way, but yes, either way will work fine. It sounds like one of those two ways would be your best solution, but the HD way will work without a 1541 at all.

[MN12BIRD]

Oh anyway I got it now.

 

 

It works but I have nothing to do with it yet lol.

[nathanallan]

There is a monitor cable that you can get cheap that splits the monitor port into the RCA jacks on the front of most TV's. The Atari 8-bit computers use the same cable, so if you have one of those it'll work on your C= as well as the Atari and a bunch of other computers, too.

 

I second using the XE cable to slave a computer and use it as a virtual drive, it's really easy and if you do it right, you can have the old pc on a network, download the files to a folder and have the C= see it immediately.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I haven't found very many carts for mine at all. Might be the area, this town (El Paso) was never very computer literate.

 

Another place to check out is vintage-computer, they love their Commies over there. Very smart, very helpful guys, too.

 

Good score for you, Commodore is a fun machine! Nothing to do? Start learning C= Basic! Fun!!

 

Nathan

Edited December 22, 2008 by nathanallan

[fiddlepaddle]

Be sure to not mix up your C64 carts and your Intellivision carts. It's possible to insert a C64 cart into the Intellivision and it'll burn the console up.

[Ross PK]

You'll also be able to experience the 'novelty' of loading games by tape now too that's if you get a tape drive.

 

Seriously though, it's cool to see you get a home computer of the 80's (for most of the 80's they're what people in the UK had as game systems instead of consoles after the crash), I always thought you were strictly consoles only.

 

But yeah, the C64 has a lot of good games on it, a lot of the games are the same as what are on the Atari 400/800/XL/XE.

 

Off the top of my head, a good game worth checking out is NYC The Big Apple, it's kinda like a really early GTA.

Edited December 23, 2008 by Ross PK

[nathanallan]

Radar Rat Race and Temple of Apshai come to mind as games to see if you can get.