VC-20 Screen off-center for cartridge games.

GloomyJD · Post by **GloomyJD** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 4:49 pm

I recently acquired a Commodore VC-20, which as far as I am aware is one of the German VIC-20 systems, everything is fine with the system but when I play any of the games on cartridges the screen is "pushed" to the left and slightly up. I figure this is some sort of region/TV system issue? I don't know where the games were brought, but BASIC and hand-typed programs are fine. Can anyone here shed some light on this for me? I didn't get a Datasette or disk-drive, so can't test any games of those formats.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 4:54 pm

Hi, and welcome

Many cartridges were released in one version worldwide. NTSC and PAL Vic20s have different screen location pointers to display the image. A lot of early games allowed you to centre the screen properly using either the joystick or cursor keys before you start. So try that and see if it works.

GloomyJD · Post by **GloomyJD** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:09 pm

Thanks so much for that! Tapping the cursor keys a few times got the image right in the middle of the screen! I just need to grab myself a nice joystick off eBay now, and can enjoy Omega Race in all it's glory

tokra · Post by **tokra** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:22 pm

No reason to buy an old, used joystick from Ebay. New joysticks for retro-computers are still being made. Luckily they nearly all shared the same connector. You can get one here e.g.:

http://www.vesalia.de/e_compproretro.htm

GloomyJD · Post by **GloomyJD** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 5:34 pm

That's really cool! And you're probably right about buying one used

I have loads of retro consoles but unfortunately the only other system I have that uses the same connector is a Sega Mega Drive, and I'd rather not go round replacing chips! I'm going to try and find a floppy drive for this thing too, my dad recons he has one from his (more than likely long-gone) C64 in the loft, so might not need to dish out the cash for one of those

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:45 pm

Yeah, most of the hardware for the C64 will be usable on the Vic20, including the joysticks and disk drives.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:03 pm

tokra wrote:No reason to buy an old, used joystick from Ebay. New joysticks for retro-computers are still being made. Luckily they nearly all shared the same connector. You can get one here e.g.:

http://www.vesalia.de/e_compproretro.htm

Naa! They don't make the Wico sticks anymore! Its the only joysticks for me...

That and the Coleco Gemini joystick which is perfect for left handed people.

Its strange that Coleco would create miserable unwieldy junksticks for their prime time Colecovision but such fantastic controllers for the Atari 2600 clone.

Post by **Jeff-20** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:07 pm

eslapion wrote:Its strange that Coleco would create miserable unwieldy junksticks for their prime time Colecovision but such fantastic controllers for the Atari 2600 clone.

So true! I feel like the Gemini is a very interesting system even as a clone. I wish I hadn't sold mine when slimming down the collection. I'm almost tempted to say the same about the Sears Arcade II. Have you tried the joysticks from that system? It's a similar joystick/paddle combo idea with dual buttons.