Commodore 64 30-in-1 on sale at KB Toys for 10 dollars

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

Pointless. Why bother when you could just as well get a actual C64 and a disk drive for it off of eBay? It would probably be cheaper than wasting the money to adapt a disk drive and keyboard to a toy.

 

With this attitude you'll never reach the next higher level of geekdom.

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Jamcat]

No, geekdom is wanting to see somebody make a adapter to play actual Atari 2600 games on a Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance system.

[jsoper]

I'm planning two or maybe three modifications to my DTV:

snip snip  

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

I also read that s-video was possible if you're interested in that. Picked up one today (Thurs Jan 27). Still $10 but marked as $15.

[dgo]

ScooterB23 did me a huge favor by picking up one of these recently and mailing it to me at cost -- thanks bro!

 

I was and am a huge Commodore fan, so I've been dying to get my hands on one of these joysticks. Without giving a complete review, I'll just add these comments.

 

@joystick quality: I don't really see the problem here. I'd rate it as good, but not great. As a kid growing up with a Commodore 64, all I ever had was crappy hand-me-down Atari sticks anyway, all of which were missing the black rubber piece. I guess when I think of Commodore, I think of cheap joysticks anyway. This didn't really bother me.  

 

@game selection: A little odd. There were some good games, but some of the choices were downright odd (specifically the Californa Games/World Games events). I would have rather seen BMX from California Games than all the other events they provided. My second fav from CG was Hackey Sack. It's liked they picked the three lamest events and used those. :/ Paradroid alone makes the stick worth the price of admission for me, with Uridium being a close second. Good times.

 

Actually, BMX amongst others is on it.

 

Boot to DOS (tip7 @ http://jledger.proboards19.com/index.cgi?b...num=1104435234) and do a listing with

 

LOAD "$",1

LIST

[SteveW]

That link seems to be down. So, what can I do to boot into DOS on the C64 DTV?

[Flack]

That link seems to be down. So, what can I do to boot into DOS on the C64 DTV?

 

Just remove the trailing ")"

 

http://jledger.proboards19.com/index.cgi?b...&num=1104435234

[Rob Mitchell]

I also read that s-video was possible if you're interested in that.  Picked up one today (Thurs Jan 27).  Still $10 but marked as $15.

 

I read that too! The sale at KB ends today (Jan 31st).

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[Slickone]

This is actually emulating the original hardware of course (though it does have the original C64 Basic ROM), so are the games just like they were originally, unlike the Flashback?

 

Also, they should make it where you can power it with A/C.

[+FujiSkunk]

This is actually emulating the original hardware of course (though it does have the original C64 Basic ROM), so are the games just like they were originally, unlike the Flashback?

 

Essentially, yes. Some game code has been modified so that input that used to require the keyboard can now be entered with the joystick and/or the function keys. As far actual game play goes, however, there's no difference.

 

Also, they should make it where you can power it with A/C.

 

They should have, but it seems standard practice to make these game sticks without a power jack, oddly enough. The good news is, you can use rechargables; the difference in voltage doesn't seem to hurt the unit. The more enterprising can hack together a battery pack that has an AC plug also.

[Slickone]

I assume they aren't $10 anymore?

 

Someone reply back here if you see these go back on sale.

[The Eidolon]

For what it's worth, I happened to be in a KB Toys in Boston and

they were all selling for $15.

 

--The Eidolon

[NovaXpress]

I'm still upset with one glaring inaccuracy. When I start up a game it doesn't say something along the lines of:

CRACKED BY THE SOUTHSIDE D00DZ

 

I've never had that experience playing a C64 game before.

[Slickone]

Heh. In scrolling or bouncing letters:

 

"Cracked by Eaglesoft. Greetz to:"

 

 

Also there's no Restore key to forcibly hit. Why the heck did we do that anyway? It's not like the keys were pressure sensitive.

[MacbthPSW]

Heh.   In scrolling or bouncing letters:

"Cracked by Eaglesoft.  Greetz to:"

Damned if you do, damned if you don't Tulip took all sorts of flack for *including* the intros in the games they were selling downloads of on their site. Then they remove them for the DTV, and people still complain

 

Also there's no Restore key to forcibly hit.  Why the heck did we do that anyway?  It's not like the keys were pressure sensitive.  

Actually, the Restore key did need to be hit harder, by design.

[Slickone]

Also there's no Restore key to forcibly hit.  Why the heck did we do that anyway?  It's not like the keys were pressure sensitive.  

Actually, the Restore key did need to be hit harder, by design.

How/why? You're telling me the Restore key was a different, pressure sensitive key, than the others? That's hard to believe.

[MacbthPSW]

How/why?  You're telling me the Restore key was a different, pressure sensitive key, than the others?

Yup, that's what I'm telling you There's a capacitor attached to that key. Some people have replaced it with a different valued one, so it's easier to trigger - some info here: http://www.ffd2.com/fridge/discovery/issue3.gz

 

Why did C= make the Restore key harder to hit? Probably because it's a very unique key on the keyboard - it's not directly readable by the C64 (at least it's certainly not readable the way all the other keys are), instead it causes an NMI (non-maskable interrupt), and you might not want to trigger that accidentally? That was probably the thinking, anyway.

[n8littlefield]

My KB actually had a C64 30-in-1 in their 75% sled this weekend. I didn't pick it up - I had just bought a Genesis and thought my wife would likely kill me if I brought another gaming device into the house - but it was marked $15, so it would have been...let's see....carry the 12...integrate the pi...about $3.75 - so you may want to check KB...

[Slickone]

I thought our KB in the mall was gone for good, but I just found out it reopened recently. I had my mom go by there to check on it since she goes there often and she wants it for my nephew and cousins to play when they come over to her house (and I wanna play it!), but they had none, and the guy/kid knew of no such sale they had on them. I thought someone in this thread said they were on sale until Jan 31st. The person also told her that someone came in last week and bought 10 of them.

[The MilkMan]

I picked one up today at KB. Sold for 14.99+tax=16.02.

Not 10bucks, but still pretty cool. And hacks/tips/easter eggs...wow, thats cool. I don't think the other plug-in-play sticks or the Flashback do that, do they? And with all these little mods (keyboard/drive etc.) that outta keep my electronic tinkering wonderment occupied for a while.

[Slickone]

Had to check two different KB's, but we picked one up for $15, expecting $10.

 

The joystick on mine is pure crap. Have the time, trying to press up or down gets you sideways. Jumpman is almost impossible, as is World Karate pretty much. Did I get a bad one or is everyone's like this?

 

Also there are no game docs are there?

[Flojomojo]

Had to check two different KB's, but we picked one up for $15, expecting $10.  

 

The joystick on mine is pure crap.   Have the time, trying to press up or down gets you sideways.  Jumpman is almost impossible, as is World Karate pretty much.   Did I get a bad one or is everyone's like this?

 

Also there are no game docs are there?

Did you get a store return or something? There's a big manual for it inside the packaging.

[Slickone]

Sorry it does seem to have one. I thought a friend said it didn't.

 

Can anyone tell me if they have the same problem with the joystick? I'm trying to decide whether to exchange it or return it for a refund.

[The MilkMan]

Sorry it does seem to have one.  I thought a friend said it didn't.

 

Can anyone tell me if they have the same problem with the joystick?  I'm trying to decide whether to exchange it or return it for a refund.

 

Exchange it. Crude, and a bit on the crap side yeah, I mean it's no SlikStik. It shouldn't give you that much trouble. I have had no problems. Then again, I make pretty deliberate momements. It seem responds less than adequate when you you try to jam in different directions.

I think it just is a matter of getting used to this inferior controller. I have not had any difficulty playing any of the games, including JumpMan. That is the one I've been playing most, and it's been accurate for me. Most of the fault is mine...lack of practice!

And yes, it comes with a folded up instructions. Brief game decriptions, and how-to-play.

[MacbthPSW]

I've got 4 of these sticks, and one of them has quite crappy controls, and yeah, it makes Jumpman Jr. in particular very frustrating. Get an exchange if you can, but there's also a reasonably easy fix you can do with a screwdriver. Just take it apart, and loosen the screw that holds the 4-fingered white plastic thing in place enough so there's a bit of give, then put it back together. It'll work a lot better.

[Slickone]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try the fix suggestion first. That sounds like it might work, since the stick does feel too 'tight'. The problem is there's not enough 'space' between horizontal and vertical movements. Trying to move vertical, and you don't have the stick pressed at exactly horitontal (ie. a very, very slight movement towards up/diagonal direction), and you get vertical movement. Which seems strange considering this is a 4 way stick and not an 8 way, isn't it? Seems like there'd be a lot of 'space' there where diagonal should be.