Finally!

[airsoftmodels]

Proud new owner of an interesting unit.  Need everything else to make it work.  Power supplies seem to be around $35 on ebay?

And I will want to select a multicart or emulated floppy drive for it.  Very excited, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Looking for respected vendors, and suggested purchases.  Thanks so much. 

[carlsson]

What do you want to do with it, how skilled in general are you about (old) computers, what is your budget? When it comes to power supply, make sure to get a new, verified PSU or at least a refurbished where the voltage regulator inside is replaced and sits in place. The original PSUs have a tendency to overvolt, due to the voltage regulator breaks or comes loose and then the higher voltage is fed into the computer and zaps it.

 

Multicarts, flash carts, memory card based drives exist in several price levels and order of functionality. I'm not sure what the choices are for readymade, but the cheaper EasyFlash carts can be programmed with an EPROM programmer or field programmed if you have a C64 compatible storage device large enough to hold the content. More expensive EasyFlash 3 have USB support. On the side of memory card drives it ranges from SD2IEC type drives which are limited but inexpensive, via Pi1541 based that require a spare Raspberry Pi and external power, to the higher end 1541 Ultimate (II+) which is around $150 + shipping but offers nearly everything in hardware upgrades you are likely to need.

[airsoftmodels]

thanks for your response. 

 

i want to play the vast array of disk images available on the internet.  and i would rather not have to buy a 1541 disk drive.

 

its currently in the mail to me, so i don't even know if it works, or has the chips installed, if not, i will buy another one.

 

i am pretty familiar with old computers.  a lot of my friends had the c64 back in 1983, but i got the atari 600xl for some reason.

 

i currently own an atari 400, 2600, ti99/4a, coco 3, apple IIc, and now the c64, finally!  

 

[carlsson]

Ok. I hope it was cheap if it is untested and you even mention it might be missing chips. We had a fair share of users in this subforum endlessly trying to repair their newly acquired C64's. So perhaps a known good power supply is the first and only thing you need before you know the status of it. The breadbin models also have a tendency that the PLA chip specifically breaks down. Fortunately there is an array of replacements for that.

[airsoftmodels]

i first saw the commodore 64 in 1982 in oregon.  i immediately fell in love with the idea of personal computers, knew i had to have one.  i was in junior high.  but at almost $600 it was out of my league.  but after moving to california and starting high school in 1983, i met a couple of friends who actually owned C64's.  but during christmas of 1983, after the price dropped to $199, they were sold out in my area.  i actually bought two from kmart, and they were both broken out of the box so i had to return them. 

 

getting desperate, i went to jcpenny where they had two atari xl models 600xl and 800xl, the coleco adam computer, the ti99/4a and the bizzarre mattel aquarius.  but no commodore 64.  so i got the atari 600xl (because it was $169 and the 800XL was out of my budget at $249 if i remember correctly.) and began my journey into computers. 

 

in 1984 upgraded to the apple IIc, which i used through college and beyond.  but always wanted and was intrigued by the commodore 64.  by the way, the atari st and the amiga did nothing for me.  i was not interested in GUIs, and the games were good enough for me on the 8 bits.

 

that brings me to seeing this one a couple days ago on ebay.  it wasn't "cheap" at $100,  but it looked like it really meant something to somebody at some point.  perhaps it was in a school, or in a place of business. or perhaps it belonged to a hacker with short term memory loss.  i don't know the details.  but i knew it was time to jump into the pool and get my feet wet.  thanks for reading.  

[DistantStar001]

Congrats!! Looks to me like you got a good one (in that it looks to have been modded with a bunch of extra goodies).  

 

For a power supply, I suggest looking at Ray Carlson's site (http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/).  He was suggested to me a while back, but at the time, I was determined to make one of my own.  After fiddling with the thing for the past year (and frying two VIC II chips, countless RAM, and a PLA in the process) to get it "right".  The 9v broke. So I ordered one from him a couple of days ago.  

 

As for the PLA, my suggestion is the PLAnkton if you need it.  Since they're pretty much universally compatible with all the various motherboards (except the sort boards of course).  The others that I've tried have timing issues that the PLAnkton simply doesn't have.  You can get them from https://www.polyplay.xyz (along with most of the other major ICs, as well as a bunch of other parts and peripherals for nearly all of the computers you listed).  Another source is https://www.arcadecomponents.com/index.html.  However, their stock can be hit or miss.  Still, when they have it, they usually have the best prices I've seen.

 

For an SD card, I've been using a Pi1541.  It works well, and on its own this is often cheaper than most SD2IEC solutions out there. But you will need a Raspberry Pie to make it work.  And honestly, even with a used one, the cumulative price was about the same as the SD2ICE.  The advantage of the Pi1541 is that it can run disk images require accurate 1541 cycling.  Which is not something that most SD2IECs can't do.  The advantage of the SD2IEC is that they can handle just about any Commodore file format, where the Pi1541 is limited to disk images (D64, D84 if you have the right ROM image) and .prg files.  

 

As for the 1541 itself.  I actually have a couple, and their not as bad as I was lead to believe.  Also SD alternatives don't always offer any faster load times as they usually connect over the same serial lines.  Additionally, it looks as if the computer you posted has a fast loader installed, so that should improve your load times regardless.  [I just like old floppies :-)]

 

The last thing I would suggest is getting a DeadTest cart.  It's been a life saver for me!  If something's wrong, the Dead Test will usually find it.

[cbmeeks]

I absolutely second a modern PSU.  Please don't use the original one as they are notorious for destroying C64's.

[desiv]

Of course, the REAL important question about that computer...

What were they using that for?  Those labels make it look like there were using it for... um...  

Productivity applications???   Word processing or something financial??  OMG!!!! 

(OK, to be fair, an SX64 and FleetSystem 2 got me thru my first 2 years of college...)

 

Great score!

[carlsson]

I believe the Commodore 64 was used in far more small office solutions than we like to credit it for these days, in particular smaller businesses where something like an Apple II or IBM PC was out of the price range for how much use they had of a computer.

[airsoftmodels]

thank you all for the responses.  i really appreciate it.  has anyone heard of / or used the back bit?  i stumbled across it on ebay while searching for c64 carts.

i am in california, so it would be nice to buy from a local "creator"  

[carlsson]

Aha, this one? https://www.backbit.io/

 

There was a discussion about it quite recently:

 

[+OLD CS1]

6 hours ago, carlsson said:

I believe the Commodore 64 was used in far more small office solutions than we like to credit it for these days, in particular smaller businesses where something like an Apple II or IBM PC was out of the price range for how much use they had of a computer.

There were tons of business management and accounting packages for the Commodore 64.  While anecdotal, I knew of several different businesses which ran on the C64, including a pawn shop and a car repair shop.  In fairly recent years I read an article about a hotel still running on the C64.  I would love to have a better list of business run on the 64.

 

Just thinking statistically, being that somewhere between 10 and 17 million were sold, there would have to be some amount of business run by the old gal.  Even just 1% of the lowest estimated sales number would be 100,000.

[RobertB]

On 3/6/2020 at 3:25 PM, airsoftmodels said:

has anyone heard of / or used the back bit?  i stumbled across it on ebay while searching for c64 carts.

i am in california, so it would be nice to buy from a local "creator"  

Evie, the creator of the Backbit cartridge for the C64, C128, and now VIC-20, is located in the San Francisco Bay Area.  :)

 

Writing from Sydney, Australia, at the moment,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

April 25-26 Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - http://www.portcommodore.com/class

[airsoftmodels]

RobertB,

thanks for the reply.  I used to live in the Bay Area myself, in Oakland, and now I am in Southern California.

i ended up buying the back bit this morning.  I see you are a world traveler, and if you are ever in Orange County

maybe we can have a drink and discuss the C64 and the 1980s.

 

[RobertB]

I was in Orange County a few months ago to pick up a Commodore collection!  :)

 

Writing from Sydney, Australia, at the moment,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group - http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network - http://www.portcommodore.com/sccan

April 25-26 Commodore Los Angeles Super Show - http://www.portcommodore.com/class

[theslownorris]

I second on the Ray Carlson PS. I just ordered my 3rd. I have his c64, Amiga, and he just did up a custom for me that can handle a c64, Amiga, 3x1541-II/1581, with two extra outlets for monitor, etc... his stuff is rock solid!