Awkwardly shaped carts

InfernalKeith · Post by **InfernalKeith** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 1:46 am

I picked up a couple new carts for my collection today, including Amok and Dragonfire. I already had Demon Attack, so I was familiar with Imagic's smaller-than-the-cartridge-port shells, but it was still a minor annoyance to plug it in. Amok, though, almost didn't even fit. I thought for a second it was actually for some other computer, because who would make a Vic 20 game and then put it in a cart shell that you had to practically knock into your cartridge port with a hammer?

(I guess it's not so bad, then, that the game is crap and I probably won't play it much.)

Anyway, does anyone have other examples of weird or ill-fitting Vic carts I can be on the lookout for as I expand my collection?

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 2:15 am

Well, the quite rare OEM titles (Amazing Maze, Alien Sidestep, Bug Crusher and so on) have significantly smaller shells than the general Commodore, HES or other manufacturers' cartridges.

Although the topic is about games, this aspect of it makes me move the thread to the Collecting subforum. A small or ill-fitting shell generally does not affect gameplay.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:37 am

It seems like every Vic is slightly different. The one I had as a kid was extremely tight. I remember pulling for days to remove carts, and thinking very carefully about what cart I wanted to hammer in next because it would likely be in the port for days.
I've also noticed variations in port size from unit to unit. The Vic I am using now seems to fit carts just fine. The megacart slides in and out with the ease of any other console.

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:01 am

The VIC I use most of the time has a very stiff on/off switch. I have to push down really hard when I want to turn my VIC on.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:41 am

Of course if you like to modify your VIC, you should be able to carefully widen the cartridge slot plastic. If you use an external cartridge expander, usually this is not a problem.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 7:09 am

English Invader wrote:The VIC I use most of the time has a very stiff on/off switch. I have to push down really hard when I want to turn my VIC on.

I've also notices this with the two-prong power supply vics. Almost all of them are hard to turn on but easy to turn off. Kinda like Centallica. I prefer the later vics with the 64 type din power supply

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 7:38 am

I find that the sound and picture quality is a lot better on the two-prong VIC.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:19 am

Yeah, my two pin Vic has a stiff power switch too.

As for the carts, I think every publisher had a different shell. It's quite bizarre really... at least the C64 carts have generally a fairly uniform shape and design to them.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:17 am

UMI cartridges are often hard to insert. Sometimes they just fit, and in many cases the fit is so tight that the label begins to scrape off after a few inserts-removals. But it's also true that the cartridge opening varies slightly in size - it seems depending on the time when and the Commodore factory where the particular case was molded.

InfernalKeith · Post by **InfernalKeith** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:17 pm

I just picked up UMI's Cloudburst and Satellites and Meteorites. Both of them have shells so big, I literally had to pry up the corner of my Vic to get them to fit in the cartridge slot. Ridiculous!

I really like Cloudburst, though. Nice twist on the typical invader-from-above game.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:25 pm

I have a few used VIC-20s where a previous owner has taken a file to the cartidge port to widen it. Probably a UMI cartridge owner!