Odd Commodore peripherals you had bitd

[bluejay]

What are some odd Commodore add ons that you had bitd? What did you use it for and how often? How much did you pay for it?

[bluejay]

Hang on, I didn't mean for this thread to be posted. Sorry.

[bluejay]

This is very odd. It shows up in the little part that shows the latest replied thread but not in the Commodore subforum itself.

[+cvga]

Not odd but I remember buying a cheaper printer and then having to search for an interface that would work with it. By the time I found one and paid for it, I had wished I just bought the more expensive printer.

[Shepherdboy]

Back in the day I used the Paperclip word processor on my 64. I really liked it better than any other one I tried. I bought the Batteries Included BI-80 80 column card for my 64. The only software I had that it worked with was Paperclip. Also it connected inline in the composite output between the 64 and the monitor. I remember it impairing the video quality a bit when 80 column mode wasn’t enabled so I didn’t leave it connected all the time. 
 

I remember it being an expensive peripheral at the time. I think it was about $100 in the mid 80s. Although it greatly enhanced Paperclip, I don’t know that it was worth it in 80s dollars. 
 

I do still have this gem in my collection. 

[motrucker]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:08 AM, Shepherdboy said:

Back in the day I used the Paperclip word processor on my 64. I really liked it better than any other one I tried. I bought the Batteries Included BI-80 80 column card for my 64. The only software I had that it worked with was Paperclip. Also it connected inline in the composite output between the 64 and the monitor. I remember it impairing the video quality a bit when 80 column mode wasn’t enabled so I didn’t leave it connected all the time. 
 

I remember it being an expensive peripheral at the time. I think it was about $100 in the mid 80s. Although it greatly enhanced Paperclip, I don’t know that it was worth it in 80s dollars. 
 

I do still have this gem in my collection. 

I had a B.I. 80 way back when, until I got a C-128 then 80 column mode was finally a dream come true. I never cared for the original PaperClip, but B.I. released a fair to middlin' 128 word processor that ran in 80 columns.

Granted this solution was a bit more expensive, as upgrades go, but it still has some great advantages.

 

[+OLD CS1]

On 11/19/2020 at 12:08 AM, Shepherdboy said:

I do still have this gem in my collection.

Same.  I have a B.I.-80 and wrote a driver to use it into my BBS program.  Not a terrible device, and I think one of only a few 80-column upgrades for the 64.  One of its other claims to fame is it includes a BASIC 4.0 extension in ROM.  Its video pass-through is, indeed, terrible.  I also have one of B.I.'s IEEE-488 interface cards which I have yet to use.  It should allow me to use the SFD-1001 drives I have.

[bluejay]

Surprising how many people have the B.I. 80 really. I would have thought next to no one would have it.

[mozartpc27]

Anybody know how to crack open a Commodore 1670 1200 baud (or 16xx 300 baud) modem by any chance?  Trying to figure out how I can repurpose the case for my "Wi-Fly" modem.

[+OLD CS1]

Yeah.  There are four posts, one in each corner of the case, held together by friction.  You can ease it apart gently a little at a time going around the corners until they are pulled apart enough to separate.

[christo930]

I have a 1581 drive I bought back around 1991 or2. I think it was $149 (Software Hut. I think it's still around).  Right around the same time I found some Commodore BBSes and was able to fill up disks with games that I didn't even know existed. The great Giana Sisters, Pac Mania, a hack of Great Giana Sisters that was made to look like SMB, Frantic Freddie and a bunch of other games.  I had several disks of games I downloaded from Q-Link. I was with them right up until they went down. Unfortunately, they were kept in my basement and became unreadable.

I also had a printer, but it wasn't a Commodore printer. It had the interface built in.  I threw it and a lot of other computer stuff  in the trash about 20 years ago. I wish I hadn't done that.

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, christo930 said:

I had several disks of games I downloaded from Q-Link. I was with them right up until they went down

Sad feels. I was on Q-Link the night it shut down. No fanfare, no mass thank you, just "the system has shut down."  Just f-you for the past ten years, and get on AOL.  Anyway, yeah, I still have several 1581 disks which were modified to work with Q-Link downloads (it was hard-coded for 1541 and used direct accesses to track 18 for the directory.)  Mostly I was downloading as many SIDs as I could over the course of a few months.  Sooooo many files could not be accessed by then as the system was suffering storage problems.

[Arnuphis]

I bought one of these.

 

https://www.pagetable.com/?p=1306

 

A Blue Chip 5.25 FDD for my C64. It was utter s**t. Many games failed to load. It wouldn't even format disks. It would start the format then disappear up its own posterior for 10 minutes with the drive spinning before finally stopping with an error.

 

I sent it back and was refused a refund because I didn't want a replacement. Had to get the Office of Fair Trading involved. Or rather my Dad did as I was a spotty teenager at the time. Got money money back, added some more to the pile and got a 1541-II which worked beautifully. Not sure if I just had a faulty one or if they were all crap.

[+OLD CS1]

6 minutes ago, Arnuphis said:

A Blue Chip 5.25 FDD for my C64. It was utter s**t. Many games failed to load. It wouldn't even format disks. It would start the format then disappear up its own posterior for 10 minutes with the drive spinning before finally stopping with an error.

Friend of mine had a Blue Chip he brought from England.  It was crap.  Would hardly load anything and would take several minutes before returning an error.

[mdivancic]

RAMLink and CMD HD were two of my coolest purchases. I sold the HD (Stupid) but still have the RAMLink. I did end up getting the Rear Admiral clone a couple if years ago to replace it. 

[motrucker]

Blue Chip also made a 1571 clone. It was crap too. Glad I didn't actually pay for that one......

 

[jrhodes]

This "joystick" for C64 is the only oddball peripheral i had.

 

[krslam]

BITD, my C64 setup was pretty basic: C64, 1541, 1701, repurposed Atari joystick, and Star Micronics printer w/ cardco interface.  Now, however, I've got tons of oddball stuff. 

[mozartpc27]

On 12/20/2020 at 10:46 PM, christo930 said:

I have a 1581 drive I bought back around 1991 or2. I think it was $149 (Software Hut. I think it's still around).  Right around the same time I found some Commodore BBSes and was able to fill up disks with games that I didn't even know existed. The great Giana Sisters, Pac Mania, a hack of Great Giana Sisters that was made to look like SMB, Frantic Freddie and a bunch of other games.  I had several disks of games I downloaded from Q-Link. I was with them right up until they went down. Unfortunately, they were kept in my basement and became unreadable.

I also had a printer, but it wasn't a Commodore printer. It had the interface built in.  I threw it and a lot of other computer stuff  in the trash about 20 years ago. I wish I hadn't done that.

Where are you from christo?  I got an MPS 1200 printer for my Commodore 64 for my birthday, I believe, in August of 1994 from the Software Hut, my one and only one purchase of original, new-in-the-box equipment from the time (I came to Commodore late in the game).  I was 16 at the time.  At the time I didn't realize what a big deal the Software Hut was in the world of Commodore.  I am from the northern Philly suburbs.

[BydoEmpire]

Not very odd, but I did have a light pen.  Don't remember the brand.

[motrucker]

Any one else remember The Radar Basic Cartridge? It added about 20Kb to the C-64. It also had a tape fast loader, showing its European heritage.

I bought one at a World of Commodore Show (in Philadelphia Pa., ages back there) from a Software Hut stand.

[krslam]

1 hour ago, motrucker said:

Any one else remember The Radar Basic Cartridge? It added about 20Kb to the C-64. It also had a tape fast loader, showing its European heritage.

I bought one at a World of Commodore Show (in Philadelphia Pa., ages back there) from a Software Hut stand.

Wow,that one rings a bell but a quick google/ebay search turned up nothing.  Got any pictures?

 

[motrucker]

17 minutes ago, krslam said:

Wow,that one rings a bell but a quick google/ebay search turned up nothing.  Got any pictures?

 

I don't. I lost that cartridge in a fire, years ago. It's really hard to find any info on that cartridge too. I also had a S'mores cartridge (Cardco, IIRC) that also added some RAM. I have seen the Radar Basic on ebay once, about ten years ago, but was beat by a "collector". These were all early ways to add some RAM to the C-64.

 

 

[Arnuphis]

On 12/21/2020 at 3:56 PM, OLD CS1 said:

Friend of mine had a Blue Chip he brought from England.  It was crap.  Would hardly load anything and would take several minutes before returning an error.

Thank you! Glad it wasn't just me!

[christo930]

On 12/22/2020 at 8:22 PM, mozartpc27 said:

Where are you from christo?  I got an MPS 1200 printer for my Commodore 64 for my birthday, I believe, in August of 1994 from the Software Hut, my one and only one purchase of original, new-in-the-box equipment from the time (I came to Commodore late in the game).  I was 16 at the time.  At the time I didn't realize what a big deal the Software Hut was in the world of Commodore.  I am from the northern Philly suburbs.

I'm in Philly.  I got my printer from a little computer shop called "Some Hole in the Wall" which was in NE Philly.

WOW, August of 94 for a Commodore printer is LATE.  I somehow ended up getting a Software Hut catalog and it wasn't really that far from what I recall, somewhere around Chester.  They were still around and still selling Amiga 1200s when I bought my 1200, which I ended up getting used on EBAY sometime around 2000.  I think it was a special kit with some included software for $199. But I found a 1200 with an 030, expanded RAM, SCSI and a SCSI CD for slightly less money.  Software Hut was around selling commodore games for a long time. They were big in Amiga though.