You know what is funny? I had not turned on a VIC-20 since about 1985, but as soon as I did, I started remembering some of those darn POKE and PEEK locations! A few of them I needed a little reminder, but as soon as I starting coding again they all just came flooding back!
I never had a VIC. Heck, didn't even get a C64 until a couple of years ago, we were always Sinclair (at least until the Amiga came along). I found this really interesting, and illuminating. Excellent video Doug, thanks for the time and effort you put into this. I look forward to your new VIC series... and yeah, 5 minutes long. ha ha. Good luck with that :-)
Thanks, Rob. I do understand the popularity of the Sinclair in England. My grandfather had an American version called the Timex Sinclair 1000 - that was the early black and white model. I used to chuckle when he would show it to me - the screen went blank every time he entered a character and all I could think of was how awesome my color VIC-20 was. I do know they improved dramatically in the future.
I'm very happy that I stumbled into your channel about a month or so ago. Your content has been of very high quality and very enjoyable to watch. I really like these old Commodore machines. My very first gaming memory was me as a 4 year old playing on our Amiga 500. Unfortunately I missed out on the earlier 8-bit systems, but I have managed to get a hold of both an Amiga 500 and a C64 as an adult and I love them so much! The VIC-20 looks very cool and it gets very overshadowed by the C64, so it's very nice to see people shedding some light on it and show what it could do. That Realms of Quest V game looks amazing! A VIC-20 is without a doubt a must-have on my To Buy list. I also found that development software very interesting. It has been a childhood dream to learn to program games to play on my old computers and consoles, but I could never get into it. I didn't have any access to any books or classes that taught programming so I've been stuck trying to figure it out myself which didn't work at all. That Turborascal software you mentioned might help me take my first baby-steps to fulfilling my dream of programming 8-bit games. Thank you very much for telling me about it! Looking forward to your new 5 kilobyte review series! :D
That is great! I have been impressed with that Turbo Rascal software and how you can use it to create for multiple platforms. Thanks for the kind words, and for sure find some old 8 bit machines. They are a blast!
I grew up on Commodore VIC-20, similar to your story... lots of typing in magazine games, saving to tape, then later to Commodore 1541, and Commodore 64.. those were the good old days... still have them to play with if I ever have some free time..
Very well done video. I grew up on the TI 99 4/a but wish I had the VIC after seeing this. William Shatner was right! I can understand the graphics limitations you were talking about at around the 20 minute mark. You shot the ufo in space invaders and it displayed 100 points. You then fired again and happened to hit the 1 in 100 which turned into a splat graphic and then back to a 1. I can imagine doing some nifty graphics tricks to get a graphical element to look like it's more than it really is.
I enjoyed very much, excellent job! And I'm slowly getting into VIC 20, although I am life long C64 fan. Older brother of C64 is really cute little machine, love it. Wish I had one prior to C64, even those 5K would be whole world for me. I had some Z80 based machine having only 1K of RAM, please imagine that! :D
Weirdly, some essential and fun gameplay can be done in 1K, which is true ode to minimalism. And I talk BASIC here, machine code can give it a bit more with 1K. Say, if I'm not wrong, early games for Atari 2600 occupied only 1-2K of ROM in the package, right? And pricing was sickly sky-high, one of the causes of video game crash. So, obviously, creativity had its way even in such minimalist address space! :D
That Z80 based system offered 2-6 KB. Having only 2KB meant 1K is reserved for video ram and some other system variables. True amount of RAM available for coder was exactly 966 bytes! LOL! :D Even more weird, for the whole decade I use some microprocessor simulator, teaching computer architecture, and it sports only 256 bytes of RAM. Small is beautiful! Here is that Z80 machine ("Galaxy"), something along TRS-80/ZX-80 lines, I guess. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FD6ZJvxF6Yc.html
The Vic-20 was my first computer (I had a VCS before it, but that's a console). I have one right behind me as I type this, with a switchable RAM pack and SD2IEC (which I use on my C64s, too). I've been watching all your videos that I hadn't seen already, and you made me buy a network card for my A1200! It was my A500's 32nd birthday last week, so I got my A1200 a network card. I've just been on the internet with it for the first time since about 2002 (when I got broadband), and I'm currently transferring files to it from my PC. Much faster than the serial link I've been using. Thanks for the vids and getting me back into using my retro computers more than usual.
Happy to help! I have my A1200 and A4000 on the internet and it is quite useful as long as you understand the limitations - and the new iBrowse 2.5 is actually quite nice! Did you get that as your web browser? I also have my Atari VCS sitting right above my VIC-20, and I use it often
@@10MARC I've always used Voyager/Microdot-II/Genesis for web/email/tcp ip. I'll have to give iBrowse a go. I think I have a demo of an older version on it already. My VCS (with SD card reader) is next to my ZX81, Spectrums (another with SD cards), and Playstations. My Commodore computers are all together across from them, though I'm testing my A1200 on my 40" screen (composite to HDMI), but the quality isn't too good compared to my SCART portable TV, which looks great, but flickery in high-res. I'm just starting to watch your Romulator VID now. Sounds interesting.
Dude, this video is the best! The Vic-20 was my first computer too. Got it for my 9th birthday I think. By that time they were pretty cheap. My very first cartridge was Choplifter, and I had to get my dad to put the cartridge in and take it out. Later I bought a Snakman tape from my cousin, and he threw in Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash for free. If I ever come across that tape again, I’ll really have something!
It was a great computer - I learned to program on that little guy! Omega Race and Jupiter Lander were my first games. I can still hear the Jupiter Lander music in my head...
The VIC-20 was awesome for what it cost at that time. Just compare it to anything else when it came to market. For $299 you got a computer with a full stroke keyboard, a joystick/paddle port, dedicated color video hardware, 3 tone generators and a white noise channel, a parallel port, a serial port, a cartridge/expansion port, and built in BASIC. Yeah the C64 is better but it didn’t exist then. ;-)
@@10MARC The Atari and TI computers are also good machines, and even the ZX81 was great considering its price, but the VIC-20 really is special. I have great memories of that machine. I used it to write French language flashcards for studying. I tinkered in Forth and some 6502 machine code. I wrote a video game for it and tried to start my own business. I did actually sell one copy at a local store. Years before I wrote Liberty BASIC my very first attempt at writing an interpreter was on the VIC-20. One very funny story is that the VIC's power brick died, and my boss (who bought me the computer) who was a power supply engineer built me a new one from scratch with a light bulb socket on top. He told me to screw in a 60 watt light bulb and it would act as a surge protector. When the power went up or down the resistance of the bulb would change. As the bulb got dimmer or brighter his circuit used that to control the power. The light glowed with a gentle pulsating orange color, like something from a mad scientist's laboratory. Such memories!
@@CarlGundel what a wonderful story! I love seeing all these great memories of the VIC-20! Keep them coming! I like the TI and the Atari, room I have one of each!
It's obvious what happened to your capture! the 8-Bit awesomeness of the VIC overwhelmed the pathetic 64-bit, multi-core, multi-GHz processor of the PC.
Since the VIC-20 was your first computer ofcourse nostalgia speaks also. However, what you say is 100% true: the VIC-20 is an awesome computer and yes, if you have a VIC-20 at least get yourself the Penultimate cartridge! Now, you have to know that originally I'm a C-64 kid! I got my C-64 in 1985, it was my first computer and I mainly gamed on it. Fast forward to around the year 2000, the time I refurbished PCs and sold them. Back then I acquired a lot of Pentium 75s and 233s, in that same lot was a Commodore VC-20 (German VIC-20). At the time I had no use for the VC-20, but didn't feel like selling it. The poor VC-20 ended up in the attic and basically got forgotten. Being a guy born in the '70s nostalgia kicked in about 4 years ago, started looking up Commodore stuff on the internet and really got interested in the Commodore SX-64. In March 2018 I had my own Commodore SX-64. Anyway, when cleaning up the attic in September 2019, the forgotten VC-20 turned up as well as my old the Arcade joysticks were found. It was just the VC-20, no cables, no PSU. Took it to my desk and it sat there for a couple of weeks; useless. I decided to buy A/V-cables, an aftermarket PSU, a 10" TFT monitor with A/V connection and a cartridge: River Rescue. When everything arrived I hooked up the VC-20... Yes, the little oldtimer still works!!! Played on it, programmed a bit and that little oldtimer grew on me! I've got the utmost respect for the VIC-20! Meanwhile I bought more cartridges, a cartridge expansion slot (mainly for ease), a the Arcade joystick in beige & brown and just recently the recommended and needed Penultimate+ cartridge! I'm sure the SD2IEC will follow someday, but next week I'm expecting the new TheVIC20, which will then be used as main programming machine. So, yes, this C-64 kid is now a HUGE VIC-20 fan!!!
It is amazing how much fun can be had on this little computer! I play games on mine a few times a month, and I enjoy programming on it, too. That is so great that you gave your 35+ year old VIC-20 another shot and ended up loving it!
The VIC was my first computer as well, and the one I learned to program basic on. I also had the machine language monitor cartridge, but never really done any assembly on the VIC. I have done some assembly programs on the Vectrex (Motorola MC68A09) not sure how different this is to the 6502 though. I do keep meaning to do something on the VIC, and now my Vectrex has died, so my planed cartridge release is now dead in the watter! This is an older test version of the game if anyone is interested: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YGgJAQLXH1g.html. So it may be the time to give the VIC a go now! PS. most cartridges are generally 8K, although some (notibly all the Scott Adams stuff) are 16K.
I love my wee VIC. A totally overlooked and underrated machine with a lot of character. So many great games. Jeff Minter's Matrix (Attack of the Mutant Camels in the US) hooked up to a hi-fi is a thing to behold! I look forward to seeing more VIC goodness on your channel. :)
It is amazing how nice some of the VIC-20 games are. They are beautiful in their own way. It is also so great that we have new games coming out for it every year!
Great summary and personal tribute to the Vic. 13:30 - yes. Have always thought that the Vic should have had 8K internal - that 3K hole created so many problems.
Interesting that it has the two pin power but doesn’t have the PET style keyboard. I understand that Commodore was sometimes rather carefree about mixing the old with the new when they put some of their computers together. ;-)
The C16 was certainly meant to replace the VIC-20. Much more powerful and colorful, but still an entry level machine. I own its big brother the Plus/4 and really love it. They fixed almost everything weak about the VIC-20
@@10MARC sorry, what i meant was that they added an Escape key and individual cursor keys on the C16 which is an improvement over the VIC and C64 keyboards. The Plus/4 had a better cursor key layout than the C16 but the keyboard didn't feel as nice to type on.
Fascinating look at a computer I never owned, but envied the neighbour who did at the time, I think was 1983. I had a Sinclair ZX81, so you can imagine my surprise when I was invited over to play on the Vic20.
My Grandfather had a Timex Sinclair 1000 at the same time I had my VIC-20 - THat was the USA version of the ZX81. I still have his computer to this day!
This is quality content, @10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast. My first computer was a Vic-20 so all this info really helps enlighten me and refresh my memory. Being a kid i didnt appreciate this PC as much as i should have. We had a dataset + a few cartridge games: Gorf and Rat Hotel. I was in awe of BASIC programming and pulling out the cartridge while the PC was on. Good times!
My first as well, parents picked it up from flea market in Englishtown NJ. The Restore key did not work right. I never was able to buy the C2N at 10 years old. Later my grandfather gave me a TS1000 with 16K pack he received as a free gift after a timeshare condo promo.
I was also lucky enough to meet Bil Herd in the exhibit hall at VCF East 2019 -- when I told him the VIC was my first computer his reply was, "I'm sorry" -- made me smile. It was little rough running out of RAM at 3K but it did start my IT career.
That simple 10 print 20 goto 10 demo demonstrates the slowness compared to C64. The CPU was the same and the games run nicely so I wonder if the BASIC was just a lot less optimized?
I was holding the CTRL key down to slow the scrolling down. Sorry, I was cheating. At full speed you could not read anything! The VIC-20 BASIC is really fairly fast at printing to the screen. 😂😉
it was all the beginning ! cause my brother in the 80's bought magazines with hundred & hundred code line for programming and after many hours had a animation on screen with glory music, it was the pioneer time, me I was looking at this like a dream, just remember the poke command for change colors ! Magic lol ! , and after I had the virus and by myself bought the Atari set and Amiga and ............. great times.great video, very detailed as usual.
Vic was my second computer. I went with a Coco at first since it was the most affordable at the time and the Vic was not out yet. I wanted an Atari 8 bit but I had to wait a few years.
I've been looking forward to this episode since you mentioned it. And it did not disappoint. I'd forgotten about Choplifter, such a cool came. As mentioned previously this was my first computer, many of my friends had the sinclar Z80 (some the Z81 later) and this machine was far better. Thanks for the resurgence of memories. Must resist the urge to go to FleBay.... I must have misremembered R.I.P. being my first game as i got the machine for christmas 1983 and the game did not come out until 84, oh well guess that's an age thing. I also remember having 3 different RAM expansions, one with a switch on it to select between 3 different memory configurations. Certain games would only work with one particular expansion which was a pain. Different Bank mapping I guess. Ah those Peek and Poke early days, not really knowing what it was I was doing, just following the listing from a magazine. I do vaguely remember a Jeff Minter game I had was my favorite. Unsure of the title maybe Attack of the Mutant Lamas (as he is known to have an affection for them). Cartridge games were hard to come by in the south of England so I only had a few and I don't remember ever seeing a disk drive until the Amstrad CPC 664 came out ( off topic but I started saving for one of them, then the 6128 came out so I shifted my goal, then the Atari ST moved my goal posts until I had actually saved enough money for the Amiga 500 which had just been released)... But the machine that replaced the Vic20 was the Amstrad CPC 464.
Jeff Minter did some brilliant stuff for sure, and most were camel or llama related! Attack of the mutant Camels and Llamatron were two of them. I do find the smooth animation of Choplifter amazing. That took a lot of patience to code! I am thrilled that the episode brought back good memories.
@@DOSv622 Oh I know they still exist. I have about 3 or 4 customers who still insist on using their email. They are not the company they used to be, though!
I had a VIC20 back in the day. I had a neighbor who hated it when I had it on because it interfered with their TV so yea it was great when they moved. I could not at the time afford a disk drive so I stored everything on tape. I don't think I ever had cartridge based software but I did have a VICMODEM where you manually dialed the phone and when you heard a modem answer the phone you would unplug the headset and plug it into the VICMODEM. Back then I would tell people computers without MODEM's were brain dead. I don't quite remember what I did with that VIC20, I may have given it to my nephew I know I never sold it but what I do remember about it is many years of enjoyment. What was more fun back then was all the magazines and I would read them cover to cover and yes I spent many hours typing in programs and changing their code to better suit my needs. The biggest quest back then was getting that to display 40 column to make calling BBS's more enjoyable and then of course 80 column but that was done on other computers. I was never into the games like most although I did play games it just was not my priority the same holds true today. I did read the Compuerer Home Computer Wars back in 1980's I found it interesting and very hard to put down, I may even still have it and will have to look for it.
@@10MARC I need to clear one thing this RF Interference occurred between apartments. This was the only time anyone complained about that VIC20 interfering with their TV. RF interference was a big thing which is why you see so much shielding in the older computers. Today its not so much of a problem.
I usually use an HDMI/Component/composite capture box - I will look up the name when I get home - but the VIC-20 gives me horrible distortion when I use it. It's perfect on my C64 and Amiga, just bad on the VIC. So instead I use a USB capture device designed to copy your VHS and DVD's direct to the PC. It only captures in less than HD resolutions, but I is fine for the VIC-20 screens.
@@10MARC Yeah, I am interested in what USB capture device you have over the other one, although I would be curious about that too. I bet the VIC-20 would look better if you had the S-Video mod done (future video??). I plan to do this if I can get a handle on the instructions I have seen.
This was a long one for sure. One of my longest! My ChickenHead Chronicles series have always been longer, as I usually only do one or maybe two per month.
@@10MARC strange as it may seem. I never owned a Vic 20. Back in the day I had a commodore 16... Vic 20s were no longer on sale in Glasgow back then. The audio on the vic 20 is so vibrant and so capable for such an early machine. It may not have the hardware scrolling etc...but I just love its design and capabilities. I think we're just at the beginning of seeing what the vic 20 is really capable of.
OMG, I just finished watching the rest of your video, I literally found my own copy of VIC Downs on one of my old cassettes a few weeks ago! I typed that in back when I was 13 years old.
@@dangoswick I have been playing with "Vic Downs" and trying to figure out how to get it to work with my 1540 disk. I probably could if I could find the original magazine, as it would explain how it handles the second tape loading routine.
@@10MARC Funny you should ask, because I moved it to a 'disk' device. Not a floppy, but an SD2IEC device. There is a line that defines S$ at the end of the loader program. It's line 340 on mine. My line reads 340 s$="lO"+chr$(34)+"hr"+chr$(34)+",8:"+chr$(131) I wrote this in lower case so that you can see the first 2 characters in quotes are 'L' and 'shift O' which is the abbreviation for the 'LOAD' command. I also renamed the second file of Horse Racer to 'HR'. The overall length of the string must be very short as what they are doing is POKING it right into the keyboard buffer which is not very big. Let me know if this works for you!
@@dangoswick oh that is awesome! When I glanced at mine, I thought it was a poke command at the very end that initiated the tape load. I will look at that line tonight! Thanks a bunch!
