Hello all! :)

[iKarith]

Hi everyone, a few of you might already know me from the TI and Apple // subforums here, or from Facebook groups. I'm Joseph, and I'm an Apple // guy. Except I just realized that I currently own more Commodores than Apple //s, so I ought to say hello. I've got a C64, a C64C, and a C128 (which is presently in another's care until I can collect it and fix its missing F5 key.)

 

I'm fundamentally an Apple guy because I'm legally blind and grew up using an Apple with an Echo. Sure there was speech on the Commodore and most other platforms of the era, but most anything text-based could be made to talk on the Apple without much effort. That's not true of the Commodore or anything else. I could use CRTs in 40 column mode back in the day, but it gave me headaches and was hard in 80 column.

 

Now I use LCDs that are significantly larger screens anyway, which solves that problem twice over. Speech is now more about loving the tech than any kind of need, and so I can play with Commodore where it was more of a novelty than an accessibility tool.

 

No fancy upgrades, though I do own a ZoomFloppy now, with both parallel and IEEE connectors too, nice. Of course those are hardly needed with the 1571, but they're sure tempting options for the 1541 Pyramid Building Block. (Actually the 1571 is not lighter, it's just a lot smaller.)

 

Am interested in a dual SID option to put both 6581 and 8580 into one of my C64s, probably the C64C because I can keep its all-glyphs-on-top keyboard with it that way. I prefer that keyboard. over the older styles with the PETSCII glyphs on the front of the keys.

 

I also do cool stuff with Raspberry Pi. Never got what I'd consider acceptable performance out of vice on it, but I have designs very similar in function to Raspple II (which I've started working on with IvanX for those who know what that does.)

 

Anyway, hi!

[iKarith]

Sorry about the multipost all, the server seemed to have gone away for like 5 minutes, right when I hit the post button. I got timeouts saying the server didn't respond, and then when it went through there were three posts. Whoops.

[Gray Defender]

Hi back to you. I used to own a c128, which back when it came it too me was a breakthrough. Now for Commodore related stuff, I use a C64c, which is a great machine. I am not familiar with zoom floppy but I assume it is something like the C64 Ultimate 2 which is what I have been using.

[iKarith]

ZoomFloppy is more on the order of an X*1541 cable, only it works via USB. It's a useful way to get things on to floppy and off of floppy, but that's about all. (It cannot replace a disk drive, only access one.)

[+cvga]

Hello. I have a Vic-20 and a C-64 hooked up. The same ones I had back in the 80s.

[7800fan]

Vic-20 would have been great for you back in the day. Huge font with only 22x23 character for the whole screen. On a standard 13" monitor or TV, that meant the characters were about half inch tall. Vic-20 were pretty limited compared to other Commodore computers with only 5k internal RAM, expensive RAM upgrades, and no graphic upgrade.

[iKarith]

The world opened to me when I got my first LCD screen. Even with a low resolution on a 21 inch monitor, I got headaches. What your mom used to say about sitting too close to the TV is apparently not true about your eyes, but if you sit as close as I do to a screen, it does give you migraines after awhile. Those old 12" screens, I had to get close enough to feel a tingle on my nose for 80 column.

 

The major issue now is finding LCD screens that are compatible with my old friends which are often not well-behaved in terms of video generation. Back in the day, they didn't have to be. CRTs accepted a lot of "good enough" where the LCDs' video processors tend to be a little more picky. Worse are the machines that want to output RGB since I live in the US. I thought I was doing good to have a line on a 15" LCD that I knew would handle 15kHz RGB with CSYNC, and it indeed will work a treat for the IIgs which doesn't need it because I've got VGA out on that, but without any support for lesser video, it's not really suited to the C128. Back to searching for a Rev A Dell 20" I guess--that model apparently purely coincidentally took 15kHz. Bigger screen, but that's rarely a bad thing.

 

I suppose it's ideal for an Amiga, but Amiga is for rich people. Used to be the A600 might've been a good machine for me to have one. Easy enough to add flash storage to it and it didn't have any upgrades that would drive up the price of the system and would be considered "essential" once you got it. Then one was created, and the cost of the machine more than doubled.

 

Actually, with the exception of my TI-99/4A ($20) and one of my Commodores (basically cost of repair and shipping), I haven't actually paid for the retrocomputers I own. Upgrades sure, the most expensive of which was flash storage for my IIgs. The rest cost me but the promise to give it a good home and use it if I can. I've tried to make good on that.

 

Of course I'm fighting storage limitations with just the machines I've got and I can only set up one of them at a time as is, and my whole income is on the order of US$800/month disability. Employment ... is unlikely, especially in this economy.

[RobertB]

Since you are in the Portland, Oregon area, you have support from the Portland Commodore User Group -

 

http://pdxcug.org

 

Heading for the Pacific Northwest in mid-July,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 -

http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[iKarith]

I do! They're a great bunch, too. Greg's got my C128 still because I haven't had the opportunity to go and collect it from him, and I am a permanent pedestrian so I couldn't carry it home along with the C64, a 1541, and my TI-99/4A which I brought to show people while everyone was getting down with soldering irons and test harnesses and whatnot.

 

Someday I hope to be lugging only a C64C and some flash memory device. Much easier on the back!

[RobertB]

iKarith wrote:

 

> They're a great bunch, too. Greg's got my C128 still because I haven't had the opportunity to go and collect it from him.

 

Ah, if Greg has his PDXCUG.org meeting on Thursday, July 14, I can make it to that one.

 

> Someday I hope to be lugging only a C64C and some flash memory device. Much easier on the back!

 

Heh, you'll have to bring along a small monitor.

 

For your new C64 luggable,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

July 30-31 Commodore Vegas Expo v12 -

http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[iKarith]

iKarith wrote:

 

> They're a great bunch, too. Greg's got my C128 still because I haven't had the opportunity to go and collect it from him.

 

Ah, if Greg has his PDXCUG.org meeting on Thursday, July 14, I can make it to that one.

 

> Someday I hope to be lugging only a C64C and some flash memory device. Much easier on the back!

 

Heh, you'll have to bring along a small monitor.

 

I'm a blind guy. I DON'T DO "small monitor". I've been using a 20" cheap-ass TV that takes composite in the Y channel. Unfortunately unless I can get C split into Pb and Pr (which isn't exactly how that works I know), it's limited to composite. Mitchell Dayton from the FB group's got a 20" Dell monitor with S-Video input, but I need to talk to him about whether it's better to send that on to KFest for me to use there or to Oregon for me to take to KFest.

 

I'm leaving on the 15th for KFest, so I don't know if I'll be there on the 14th or not. If I otherwise do my packing ahead of time, I could do it depending on what hour Mark plans on leaving Portland the next day.