VIC-1001!

[carlsson]

Aha. I thought those were titles in Japanese that you both transcribed and translated to English, not that they tried to write English words in Katakana. Maybe I'm not up to date with how things work.

In that case, here are how I would spell those games in Svennis-speak:

1901 Avänjör
1906 Soper Ejlien
1908 Drå Påker
1909 Rod Rejs
1910 Radar Ratt Rejs
1911 Dö Skaj iss Fåling
1912 Mål Attack
1913 Rejd ånn Fårt Noks
1919 Sargån Två Tjess
1920 Pinbål Specktakulär
1924 Åmega Rejs

[Mikam73]

How hard it is find Vic-1001? How rare it is?

Is keyboard only difference to Vic20?

[carlsson]

Different keyboard, different character and Kernel ROMs. The two latter can be rather easily fixed by installing e.g. EPROMs, possibly through adapters, but a correct keyboard (and sticker) is more difficult.

[Mikam73]

Characters at screen are different? Any screenshots of 1001?

[carlsson]

Well, after all it has Japanese writing (Katakana?). As you probably know, the VIC-20 in default configuration doesn't come with a such character set.

You can get a view of the keyboard here:
http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cvic1001.html
http://www.1000bit.net/scheda.asp?id=227

Here is a screenshot:
http://retrocomputing.c3po.it/gallery.php?z=5&p=2

[carlsson]

Did you notice the Rally-X cart in the pic? Now there's a hen's tooth...

Another Japanese VIC-1001 owner, who owns a VIC-1905 (?) Pacman cartridge. Perhaps it is commonly known if Jelly Monsters initially was named Pacman on the Japanese market, to be renamed and later removed from the market? There is a Galaxian (VIC-1902 Star Battle?) too.

http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~k-uehara/computer/vic1001.html

[Jeff-20]

Did you notice that the colour commands are missing under the number keys? By taking advantage of the top row of keys, they really expanded the graphic set (immediately available to the user).

[Jeff-20]

The Galaxian cart is also interesting!

[carlsson]

If the picture only had a bit better resolution, so we could read the number. Admittingly, the VIC-1903 Rally-X is more thrilling than a VIC-1902 Galaxian or VIC-1905 Pacman, since 1903 otherwise is an unused number. As you can see from the latter link, that Japanese owner does have a VIC-1910 Radar Rat Race.

All three of Pac-Man, Galaxian and Rally-X are games by Namco/Midway with the difference that the first two were released in 1979 and Rally-X in 1980. Maybe Namco were more protective towards unauthorized cloning of their most recent title, and in the mean time negotiated a license with Commodore for the other two? Then Commodore changed the graphics to make it Radar Rat Race and simply renamed the other two in an attempt to escape the license claim?

[Mikam73]

Ok. So startup screen looks same but leters look 'funny'.

[Mayhem]

Given 1903 was allocated (catalog wise apparently) to Bridge (which never made it out via Commodore), then having the number on Rally-X is very, very interesting indeed. Someone would have to get the damn thing and plug it in to see if the graphics are cars. And then dump it. I'll probably add it in the non-US section for DP, with a huge proviso on the part number.

And yes Pacman is Jelly Monsters, and Galaxian is Star Battle.

As for the 1001 itself, my one cost 650 Euros or so iirc.

The machine runs dual romanji and katakana character sets, I think I must have gotten the user manual with my 1001 because it shows you how to switch between the two using a certain combination of key presses. Did I mention what they were in another thread here? We'd have to go look

[ral-clan]

Someone would have to get the damn thing and plug it in to see if the graphics are cars. And then dump it.

Doesn't this dump already exist? I have one called Rally-X and another called "Car Race" which is basically Radar Rat Race with cars and oil drums instead of mice and cats.

I always assumed it was a dump of the early version before Bally/Midway forced Commodore to change the graphics.

According the "The Rise and Fall of Commodore", all these early conversions were done in Japan for the initial VIC-1001/VIC-20 release.

[Mayhem]

Hmm don't seem to have them here on my HD, so if you can pass them along...!

[Jeff-20]

Are the colour commands the same (CTRL+[number])? The don't appear on the keys (BLK, WHT...). This seems odd as the "colour computer"'s colour is the highest marketing point in the USA.

[carlsson]

I thought Katakana simply was reached by using Shift and C= keys, but perhaps there is a key combination that switches between graphics and Katakana, just like you normally press Shift + C= to switch between graphics and lower case.