Troubleshooting C64C that won't power on

[iscariot]

I got a C64C as part of a retro lot recently.  Plugged it in and threw the power switch.  Nothing happens.  No power light.  I tried the PSU, and I'm getting 9V ac and 5.17v DC.  Opened the case and the fuse looks good.  What is the next place I should check?

[+OLD CS1]

IIRC, the LED is directly driven by the +5V from the power supply.  If it is not lighting, either the switch is bad or your power supply is bad.

 

Actually, let me amend that.  The 5V line could be shorted somewhere on the board.  Check the 5V line voltage in-circuit.  Check for continuity between the 5V line on the board and ground.

[iscariot]

Well, got it working--took it over to a friend's house that has more experience than me with this.  Tested all the right places and it looks like it was the switch of all things.  Hit it with some contact cleaner and now it works like a charm.  I've got a bunch of floppies as well.  I know it's doubtful, but is there a list of games that are lost/missing?  There's 30+ floppies there.

[carlsson]

I believe nearly everything known to have been released, is archived. Have a look at Gamebase 64 in case you come across something you suspect may be unique. They have a forum dedicated to the site as well, in case you have something you want to discuss in detail, like hacks of a game so you can't identify it.

 

There is Games That Weren't 64 which mostly is about prototypes that are known to have been worked on but never released.

 

Btw, a few webshops are selling new power switches which match the old ones. It is fairly common for it to stop working, and contact cleaner might only be a temporary solution.

[iscariot]

19 hours ago, carlsson said:

I believe nearly everything known to have been released, is archived. Have a look at Gamebase 64 in case you come across something you suspect may be unique. They have a forum dedicated to the site as well, in case you have something you want to discuss in detail, like hacks of a game so you can't identify it.

 

There is Games That Weren't 64 which mostly is about prototypes that are known to have been worked on but never released.

 

Btw, a few webshops are selling new power switches which match the old ones. It is fairly common for it to stop working, and contact cleaner might only be a temporary solution.

I'll look into a replacement switch.  After a cleaning it seems to not be mushy anymore so that's good at least.  

[zylon]

On 12/31/2022 at 8:11 AM, iscariot said:

Well, got it working--took it over to a friend's house that has more experience than me with this.  Tested all the right places and it looks like it was the switch of all things.  Hit it with some contact cleaner and now it works like a charm.  I've got a bunch of floppies as well.  I know it's doubtful, but is there a list of games that are lost/missing?  There's 30+ floppies there.

I have two that I keep getting pestered to give d64 files of for posterity/preservation, but no way to do so. Night Driver, and Galaxian Artillery.

[nick3092]

51 minutes ago, iscariot said:

I'll look into a replacement switch.  After a cleaning it seems to not be mushy anymore so that's good at least.  

Look into a modern replacement PSU too. C64 PSUs are known to jump high on the 5vdc line and cook multiple chips. Most people will say "when, not if" it goes high. 

[+OLD CS1]

5 hours ago, zylon said:

I have two that I keep getting pestered to give d64 files of for posterity/preservation, but no way to do so. Night Driver, and Galaxian Artillery.

A lot of us, me included, could make disk images of those for you.  Hit me up if you want me to give it a go.  If you are not comfortable with shipping them to me, we can meet up at the VCF-SE in Atlanta later this year.

[carlsson]

Galaxian Artillery has a placeholder entry in GB64.

 

There are a few different Night Driver games: a cartridge from Handic, Sweden that seems to have been a grey import (thus not officially from Commodore, despite what the site says) of the MAX game Road Race, and German speaking port of Suzuki's original PET game Night Drive which clearly was the basis for the VIC-20 game Road Race, ported to MAX and then further to C64 as mentioned. Perhaps the game Zylon has is a completely different one?

 

I believe we discussed Night Driver before, and came to the conclusion it was an Atari license. Thus Commodore circumvented Atari once more (see Pac-Man, Galaxian, joysticks etc) by making a clone with a different name (Road Race) but for some reason weren't eager to put it out on the C64 in the west, from what I can tell. Perhaps they thought it didn't fully meet standards or were afraid that Atari would hit once more.

Edited January 1 by carlsson

[zylon]

45 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Galaxian Artillery has a placeholder entry in GB64.

 

There are a few different Night Driver games: a cartridge from Handic, Sweden that seems to have been a grey import (thus not officially from Commodore, despite what the site says) of the MAX game Road Race, and German speaking port of Suzuki's original PET game Night Drive which clearly was the basis for the VIC-20 game Road Race, ported to MAX and then further to C64 as mentioned. Perhaps the game Zylon has is a completely different one?

 

I believe we discussed Night Driver before, and came to the conclusion it was an Atari license. Thus Commodore circumvented Atari once more (see Pac-Man, Galaxian, joysticks etc) by making a clone with a different name (Road Race) but for some reason weren't eager to put it out on the C64 in the west, from what I can tell. Perhaps they thought it didn't fully meet standards or were afraid that Atari would hit once more.

I have this one.  

I believe those were the folks who kept asking me about that game, Galaxian Artillery. Apparently, in a search, I was the only one attached to mention of it, at the time.

Edited January 1 by zylon

[zylon]

2 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

A lot of us, me included, could make disk images of those for you.  Hit me up if you want me to give it a go.  If you are not comfortable with shipping them to me, we can meet up at the VCF-SE in Atlanta later this year.

I had postal idiots fold a misprinted def leppard pyromania lp in half, to stuff in the mailbox... Those disks all seem to copy well, or did.

[carlsson]

Yup, that is the MAX game Road Race, name altered to Night Driver by someone. Perhaps Commodore did it after all, chickened out about publishing it and offered it to 2nd party resellers to release? At least that version is well archived, I used to play it under that title back in the 1980's as well.

[zylon]

2 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Yup, that is the MAX game Road Race, name altered to Night Driver by someone. Perhaps Commodore did it after all, chickened out about publishing it and offered it to 2nd party resellers to release? At least that version is well archived, I used to play it under that title back in the 1980's as well.

I'd gotten it on a compilation/collection disk, that I traded some firecrackers for. I've got the Mario Bros too, which is really good.

[carlsson]

Well, it is an example for the OP how games may seem unheard of before you look around. Surely there are obscure C64 games not archived and sometimes not even accounted for to have existed, both home made/user group stuff and very small commercial software houses but it doesn't happen too often that in a collection of ~30 floppy disks or tapes, you find some unheard of gems.

[zylon]

1 minute ago, carlsson said:

Well, it is an example for the OP how games may seem unheard of before you look around. Surely there are obscure C64 games not archived and sometimes not even accounted for to have existed, both home made/user group stuff and very small commercial software houses but it doesn't happen too often that in a collection of ~30 floppy disks or tapes, you find some unheard of gems.

I don't have any easily found pics of Galaxian Artillery, but I might just go load it up. I still have a working 1541 and couple C64c consoles. My original Galaxian Artillery disk was bought new by me, at small store "L&S Discount", in later mid 80s. We used to get our gaming stuff there.

[zylon]

Still works like a champ.

[zylon]

31 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Well, it is an example for the OP how games may seem unheard of before you look around. Surely there are obscure C64 games not archived and sometimes not even accounted for to have existed, both home made/user group stuff and very small commercial software houses but it doesn't happen too often that in a collection of ~30 floppy disks or tapes, you find some unheard of gems.

Another factor is how many "titles" were released, one way or another, regardless of amount of actual properties. No listing is really complete on C64. For how much stuff I actually have, having one unique game is possible. Having two, would be a stretch, imho

Edited January 1 by zylon

[carlsson]

Off-topic, but it seems you and me have matching sets of screwdrivers!

[zylon]

22 minutes ago, carlsson said:

Off-topic, but it seems you and me have matching sets of screwdrivers!

Required for playing Atari 5200, lol. I was running some heavy 5200 Battlezone play last night. Those old Stanley drivers work great on my controllers, and my antique rifles. Still good at this oddball game.

Edited January 2 by zylon