Advice please!

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:28 am

Anyone know what a VTE-40 is worth? Does it require additional software? How good is it? I want an 80 column card but this is all I can find.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:52 am

Wow, I'd buy that. It looks like it might a 40 column display board and terminal program combined (sorry I have no hard info to answer your question).

EDIT: I did find this on Jogi's site:

http://vic20.de/html/body_80_zeichen_karten.html

pretty much confirms the display adaptor part...in which case it would be worth at least $30US to me. It's likely to be NTSC too based on the manufacturer's address.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:56 am

I have a 40/80 cartridge for Vic-20. But I seldom use it.

It's output is monchrome (B&W) and 80 column mode on composite video is not great!.

The cart redirects $FFD2 to the CRT controller in the cart and all of the extra code for character postioning, video memory writes in cart, etc slows down the Vic-20 by about 30%.

I suspect the cart you are looking at will perform about the same.

It is a novelty to have 40/80 columns on Vic-20, but not really very practical. You essentially wind up with a PET display at about 70% of PET speed.

I think I paid about $35US for the one I purchased on E(vil)-Bay.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:03 am

It is handy for programming though to be able to see all of your lines in 80 columns. You can use a dual-display (i.e. have all the POKED graphics appear on the colour monitor, and all your text, code, etc. on the 40 column board.)

vic user · Post by **vic user** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:23 am

yeah, i am so happy with the dual display!

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:46 pm

As long as I'm asking for advice, I need a bit more. I've been offered the following stuff:

- 8K and 16K C= RAM expanders
- MSD 24K RAM epander
- Computer Place 4 slot expander
- Vic Rabbit cartridge
- Jupiter Lander
- Home Baby Sitter
- Pirates Cove

I don't really want any of it but if anyone around here does, I'll buy the stuff and pass it along. Follow-up here or send me a PM. If anyone can offer advice as to the value of the various items other than the last four which I looked up in the rarity list, please do.

Thanks guys.

PaulQ · Post by **PaulQ** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:08 pm

I got the 8k expander along with a Vicmodem off of ebay for a buck (reference item #270093597495). I got the Jupiter Lander from the flea market for a couple of bucks. Hope that helps!

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:37 pm

6502dude wrote:It's output is monchrome (B&W) and 80 column mode on composite video is not great!.

I have an 80 column column cart for the 64 and what I can say is you can also plug the monochrome output to the Y channel of a component (Y-Pb-Pr) TV to get a stunning clear image.

The reason you get a blurry picture on composite is because of the color filter.

Many years ago I plugged the monochrome output of that cart to the luma channel of my 1080, leaving the chroma disconnected and I also got a crystal clear image.

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:25 am

eslapion wrote:
6502dude wrote:It's output is monchrome (B&W) and 80 column mode on composite video is not great!.
I have an 80 column column cart for the 64 and what I can say is you can also plug the monochrome output to the Y channel of a component (Y-Pb-Pr) TV to get a stunning clear image.

The reason you get a blurry picture on composite is because of the color filter.

Many years ago I plugged the monochrome output of that cart to the luma channel of my 1080, leaving the chroma disconnected and I also got a crystal clear image.

Thanks for the tip.

I'll give this a try.

ral-clan · Post by **ral-clan** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:58 am

Yeah, like Eslapion, I've tried my 40/80 board on my 1084 monitor using the LUMA signal and it gives a really good picture even in 80 columns. Not quite as sharp as a monochrome monitor, but pretty close.

KilrPilr · Post by **KilrPilr** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:37 pm

gklinger wrote:As long as I'm asking for advice, I need a bit more. I've been offered the following stuff:

- 8K and 16K C= RAM expanders
- MSD 24K RAM epander
- Computer Place 4 slot expander
- Vic Rabbit cartridge
- Jupiter Lander
- Home Baby Sitter
- Pirates Cove

I don't really want any of it but if anyone around here does, I'll buy the stuff and pass it along. Follow-up here or send me a PM. If anyone can offer advice as to the value of the various items other than the last four which I looked up in the rarity list, please do.

Thanks guys.

Hey Golan,
What is the asking price of this stuff? I would want the 8K and 16K C= RAM expanders, MSD 24K RAM epander,Computer Place 4 slot expander & the Vic Rabbit cartridge.