Denial

Hi I picked up my first ever Vic 20 last week and having some fun learning how it works. Fortunately it all worked apart from a broken RF cable which I replaced with a brand new RGB cable.

I have picked up a couple of little games for it on cassette - Arcadia and Bewitched - both early releases by Imagine.

Arcadia loads perfectly, but I'm having a strange problem with Bewitched. After loading the initial part it asks me if I want music. After I've responded it then proceeds to waiting for the cassette to restart to continue loading the main part of the game. However the cassette does not restart. It appears the cassette drive locks while it's asking me if I want music, but doesn't automatically restart the cassette drive to load the main game. I've watched a YouTube video of it loading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3ovbkYHA5E so I can see what it's meant to do, but I'm stumped how to get it to continue playing the tape!

Sorry if it's a dumb noob question - I'm really scratching my head!

Welcome to the forum and the world of the Vic.

I'd start by cleaning the tape heads and moving the cassette away from the TV if that doesn't work it could be the tape itself or even your Vic. Unless you have access to other hardware it's difficult to determine the issue.

To enjoy the Vic-20 without hassle I would recommend getting an SD2IEC device as your first priority so you can download games from the internet to try closely followed by a PenUltimate+ cartridge to open yourself up to more choice.

btw, the Vic doesn't support RGB, your cable will be transferring a composite signal.

edit: Another thing I've just thought of, are you sure that the 'Y' (or 'N' if you selected that) key is working?

From memory I think Bewitched uses a fastloader. They are far more sensitive to tape errors than the standard CBM format.

Thanks both. I'll try re-cleaning the cassette drive heads this evening, move the cassette deck away from other electronics and check/clean the connectors in back of the Vic 20. Y and N keys are working okay.

@beamrider thanks for correcting me on the RGB cable.. yes it's a DIN to RCA yellow/red/white cable and gives me a much better output than rf. I'm still getting a little bit of fuzz though, not sure of that's because it's a rf conversion or something else like a capacitor. Incidentally do most users tend to recap their Vic 20 as a matter of routine? It's pretty standard for Sinclairs but seems rarer for Acorn users.

I've seen some of the very interesting Vic 20 diagnostic cards on eBay - they look nice indeed but a bit expensive for me at the minute. I've also seen the SD card readers, which I use with several of my other old machines. I may look a this for my Vic 20, though it's nice to enjoy real tapes for a while first

loftcat wrote:[...] I'm still getting a little bit of fuzz though, [...]

You should check out the plethora of threads regarding a S-Video mod on the VIC-20 here in Denial.

I've got Bewitched to work! One important thing I didn't mention was I had a Simplex Data 16k memory pack plugged in, it hadn't occurred to me it could affect a cassette drive motor control! Removing the memory expansion allowed the game to load fully. I've now read that having too much ram can stop games working properly, so one for me to watch out for in my Vic 20 journey!

Interestingly the ram pack has dip switches so I can set it to 3, 8 or 16k. Sadly though you have to remove the cartridge to change the dip switch, so for 3k you might as well leave it unplugged

Mike wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 1:45 pm

loftcat wrote:[...] I'm still getting a little bit of fuzz though, [...]

You should check out the plethora of threads regarding a S-Video mod on the VIC-20 here in Denial.

I will do that, maybe a future mini project for me. The picture quality is acceptable but there's room for improvement.

loftcat wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 4:35 pm I've got Bewitched to work! One important thing I didn't mention was I had a Simplex Data 16k memory pack plugged in, it hadn't occurred to me it could affect a cassette drive motor control! Removing the memory expansion allowed the game to load fully. I've now read that having too much ram can stop games working properly, so one for me to watch out for in my Vic 20 journey!

Interestingly the ram pack has dip switches so I can set it to 3, 8 or 16k. Sadly though you have to remove the cartridge to change the dip switch, so for 3k you might as well leave it unplugged

What you have discovered is that bewitched doesn't work with 16K memory plugged in. Not because of the cassette drive motor control per se, but it is simply crashing the Vic, meaning that the code to turn on the motor never runs. Reason for this is that the Vic-20 memory map changes according to the installed memory and so the code will be expecting a different environment than it finds.

This is actually quite normal for unexpanded games. Incidentally, I just checked and Arcadia does work, so there's inconsistency from the same software vendor. It is possible to program around it but most developers didn't bother.

Adrian

Ah I see, so all to do with changes in the memory map. I do find all these vintage computer idiosyncrasies interesting!

loftcat wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 4:36 pm

Mike wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 1:45 pm

loftcat wrote:[...] I'm still getting a little bit of fuzz though, [...]

You should check out the plethora of threads regarding a S-Video mod on the VIC-20 here in Denial.

I will do that, maybe a future mini project for me. The picture quality is acceptable but there's room for improvement.

I actually prefer the Vic-20 display a bit warm and fuzzy given how low-res it is. S-video seems a bit too clinical and not as I remember. A bit like how I think 78 records sound better on a Dansette or Crossley than a high-end hi-fi that exposes all of their shortcomings.

You really found the words to describe what also is my thought about S-Video (I'm using CRT emulation in VICE, too).