Anyone remember this Commodore scam?

[PaulQ]

I remember, back in 1984 or so, the Vic 20's and Commodore 64's were in identically sized styrofoam containers; the only way to tell the difference between the two was with the thin cardboard sleeve that went over them. People would switch the C-64 sleeve with the Vic 20 sleeve, and effectively buy a Commodore 64 for the price of a Vic 20. Apparently, nobody caught on until some people complained that their Commodore 64 that they just bought turned out to be a Vic 20 and thought the store or Commodore was scamming them. After this, they changed the box design.

[ral-clan]

I had never heard that. Interesting....although I'm pretty sure the styrofoam-with-sleeve packaging was a later design. The early VICs came in an all-cardboard box of the corrugated type. Was there a third box design after this scam you mention?

I'm surprised Commodore didn't shrink-wrap the ends of the sleeve design, or at least use some sort of seal tape. Otherwise, the styrofoam housing the computer could have slid out of the sleeve during shipping.

[PaulQ]

While the Vic remained in the sleeved styrofoam package, the Commodore 64 got new packaging of an all corrugated cardboard box, if memory serves me correctly. They only needed to change one package to stop the scam. I believe stores started taping the sleeves and/or having cashiers double-checking the contents of the boxes while waiting for the new packaging.

[Alan]

I don't remember VICs or C64s ever coming in this type of packaging.
I do remember disk drives being packaged that way.

[MacbthPSW]

I've got both a C-64 and VIC-20 box that are like this. They're very nearly but not quite the same size; the C-64 liner is a little too big to go around the VIC innards, though it's close enough it might be possible (I didn't want to force it).

Here's some pics (over a meg each):
http://psw.ca/images/C64_box.jpg
http://psw.ca/images/VIC_box.jpg

[saundby]

My recall is the same as AlanR's. I still have the original packaging for my fairly early Vic, and it was the same cardboard box as the later C-64 with a lid with ears that slid into pockets on the rest of the box. They were still selling Vics in these when they were being liquidated, since the one I got from a friend who bought his then was packaged in that same box. The date on his system was considerably later than on my own Vic. There were certainly no opportunities to swap systems between packages without serious tampering. It may have been done, but it wasn't common. When the Vics were being blown out, there was tape all over the packages, which often were not in the best condition.

The disk drives came in the styrofoam package with a slipcover, with clear tape over the ends. When both the 1540 and 1541 were on the market at the same time both were priced at $399 (or $395, I've forgotten, but I suppose I could go look at my receipts...) and usually sold for list price. I kept waiting for the 1540s to be discounted as a discontinued item, but it never happened anywhere in California that I was aware of while both were current items.

It may have been different elsewhere, but that's what I saw here.

-Mark G.

[aneurysm]

My family got ours at Toy'R'Us. To buy computers and videogames you take a tag to the check-out line....

Ever heard of the Atari Shuffle? Where people would rub their feet on the carpet and touch a certain screw on the coin mechanism of a Pong machine. They'd get a free play.

[Jeff-20]

With the way the coin mech is set up on early arcades, static might work!

I remember telling an arcade usher that I had put in a coin and got no response. I was lying, but he opened the machine, tried again, and gave me a free game. He knew I was lying. And I felt guilty, but I got a free game. But that game was fun! It was either Alien Syndrome or Gladiator.

I also remember learning about the power switch at the top or back of the machine. I would power down an arcade and reset it to an easier mode. My brother set one to free play. We were bad kids.

[PaulQ]

Reminds me of the time we "Rebelled" with the school library computers. They had the C-64's locked up in a metal case, with only the keyboard and right hand side ports exposed. A 1702 monitor sat on top. They had a bank of 4 of these. Sometimes, between classes, we'd go in and play a few games. We'd turn down the volume so it wouldn't distract anyone. Then the games got banned. We then used them for other stuff, like copying programs. One thing led to another, and basically everyone was banned from using them for anything but "Official" use. They had no idea what they were supposed to use them for, and they'd sit there, blue screen, cursor flashing, all day, nobody allowed to use them for anything, really. We'd then walk by them, shuffle our feet, and zap the joystick port as we passed them. This caused pretty colours to appear on the screen, and the librarian would have a fit, thinking that someone was playing another game. Eventually, enough of these zaps would render the computer completely useless.

[ral-clan]

Apparently, JPPBM has some of these metal cases for the C64 in his stock. I asked him to send me a picture of one so I could see if I would like to buy one but I'm not holding my breath.

[damnstraight]

All three of my vics are in full box with ears and flap. One is never opened early vic, and the other two are later models.

[dragos]

for the non-believers here(or the misinformed)

here is a link to an early vic with the cardboard sleeved box.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VIC-20-Commodore-Bo ... dZViewItem

[MacbthPSW]

for the non-believers here(or the misinformed)

here is a link to an early vic with the cardboard sleeved box.

Did you guys all miss my post from Tuesday? I took the time to take and post photos of my own cardboard sleeved boxes of both C-64 and VIC-20...

Here's the pics (over a meg each):
http://psw.ca/images/C64_box.jpg
http://psw.ca/images/VIC_box.jpg

[ral-clan]

No I saw them. Thanks for posting. I noticed you have the Canadian Olympic C64 box. I was aware of the Olympic VIC box (I have one) but didn't know they'd made a C64 box like this.

[saundby]

Neat, I've never seen that packaging before! There was a C64 in a winged box inside a sleeve once, but it had another box with add-ons shoved in the sleeve with it, the sleeve was about half again as long as the ones you show. It came out many years after the Vic-20 had departed the retail market. In fact, I think it came out about the same time as the C-16.

-Mark