VIC exhibit at VCF East 2021

[CommodoreZ]

Last weekend was Vintage Computer Festival East XVI, and I decided to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the North American release of the VIC-20.



I approached it from three angles: early VIC, common VIC, and late VIC

• Early was the 1001006 motherboard w/ revised heatsink, gold label, PET keyboard attached to a late 70s TV with an RF modulator, using only cartridges and tapes for loading software. Its backup was a gold label with a CR keyboard and a 324003 motherboard (I cycled them out every few hours to keep them cool).

• Common was a 324003 motherboard, rainbow label, common CR keyboard, using composite, and connected to a VIC-1540. It also sat in a VIC-1020 case, hiding a cartridge or two, running software mostly on cartridge or disk.

• Late was a 250403 motherboard, rainbow label, and in a showing Commodore making parts-bin machines, a PET keyboard again. It was connected to an 1802 monitor with composite, and used an SD2IEC and Penultimate+ cartridge to showcase a late machine running some of the newer toys, and showing off what the VIC is really capable of when pushed. Its backup was my custom "Rally VIC" made up of spare parts.

Other things on display included software (on cartridges and tapes), books, manuals, boxes from all three eras, some advertisements (including William Shatner in reference to the commercials), add-ons like the VICMODEM and 1605 adapter to enable use of the NT C= branded modem, and a phone line simulator to make the modem functional. All three setups switched between various pieces of simple demo software and games to really cover the graphical and sound capabilities of the VIC-20, and really give a good glimpse into the ecosystem.

The next table over was fellow Denial member VintageVolts, also exhibiting VIC-20 equipment, so I was in good company. His approach was to assemble an era-appropriate fully-loaded VIC if money were no object. I don't have a good picture of my own to embed.

Former Commodore employee and "VIC Commando" Michael Tomczyk was in attendance, and briefly had a moment to look at the exhibit before heading to his VIP table to interact with guests and sign stuff for folks. Nice guy. He gave a talk on Saturday afternoon of the show which will probably make its way to youtube within the next month or so.

I had fun putting this exhibit together and demonstrating the charm that makes the VIC-20 my favorite vintage computer.

[ral-clan]

Great exhibit - I see you even have a Commodore phone (which as far as I am aware was only sold in Canada - correct me if I'm wrong - it came with the Canadian version of the VICmodem).

[orion70]

Now THIS is a proper VIC setup

[CommodoreZ]

Great exhibit - I see you even have a Commodore phone (which as far as I am aware was only sold in Canada - correct me if I'm wrong - it came with the Canadian version of the VICmodem).

Correct, it did. It's just a rebadged Northern Telecom phone.



The problem is that the handset can't detach, and the VICMODEM requires you use the handset cord to connect to it. The solution is the VIC-1605 adapter, but I'm not sure how often these were packaged with the VICMODEM + rotary phone bundles.

You have to manually select between the modem and the handset using that small switch on the adapter.