VIC-20 Presentation

[English Invader]

I am making a presentation of the VIC at my local AS* group next week. I will be using the standard PAL two-prong model with the Mega-Cart and the uIEC.

I will be showing the following:

[/b]Demos:
Robotic Liberation

Games (Early 80s):
City Bomber
Clowns (Paddle Version)
Pacman

Games (Present Day):
Quikman 8K (via uIEC)
Tetris (via MC)
Frogger 07 (via MC)
Ten Ten (via MC)
Go Left (via uIEC)
Night Ninja (via uIEC)
Pillow Fight (via uIEC)

Props:
3 marketing advertisements from the early 80s (2 from the US, 1 from the UK)
Blitz
Blue Star
Carling the Spider (Premium Edition)
Realms of Quest 3 (Premium Edition)
Denial Collection 3

I am open to suggestions if you think there is anything missing.

*AS = Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of Autism)

[Pedro Lambrini]

You should show the paddle version of Clowns. It's a great game to show off the Vic's paddles. If you have any, that is...


Also, I don't know how geeky your presentation is going to be but maybe you should show off some of the 20 line games found here on Denial. You could show the folks printouts with the code and then run the games to let them see some real magic...

Oh, and just because it's my favourite Vic game ever, you should show Robert Hurst's Omega Fury too!

PS: Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[English Invader]

You should show the paddle version of Clowns. It's a great game to show off the Vic's paddles. If you have any, that is...
!

I have paddles, but is it safe to remove the joystick and put them in while the VIC is turned on?

[Vic20-Ian]

Never blown up a Vic or C64 yet that I know of though not good practice it gets done a lot.

[English Invader]

Never blown up a Vic or C64 yet that I know of though not good practice it gets done a lot.

Which is the more harmful? Turning the VIC on and off repeatedly or changing the joystick/paddles while the VIC is turned on?

[Pedro Lambrini]

On and off for sure. I have plugged and unplugged paddles, joysticks, joypads, foot pedals (!) and arcade sticks countless times over the years and never once had a problem.

Switching things on and off a lot is never the best thing for a piece of kit in my experience...

[Boray]

Mu rule is: Joystick or paddles = no problems to unplug or plug in while the computer is on. Other ports = Turn the computer off first.

Think about this: What does a joystick do? It just shorts two of the pins when you move the joystick in a direction. So what can go wrong? And a paddle just places a resistance between two pins. Unplug it and there will be an infinite resistance. Not much can go wrong there either...

[gklinger]

That's the crème de la crème of VIC software right there. Might want to add Frogger '07 to the list of present day (ish) games. It's impressive.

P.S. I hope the props are more than just props. There's some killer stuff there.

[Jeff-20]

I feel very well represented! Wow! This is amazing to imagine my work being shown somewhere in the UK!

I'll warn you: Pillow Fight didn't show well at the ECCC here in Chicago. People just didn't seem to get it at first, or got it and didn't find it very playable for some reason. Some thought it was too hard, some thought it was too easy.

Night of the Ninja is super hard to first-time players, but there's an easy mode. Just press any key on the start screen to switch it on and off. The word "EASY" will show.

[Bacon]

Just press any key on the start screen to switch it on and off. The word "EASY" will show.

I've been looking for the any key for years on every computer keyboard I've come across but I've never found it. Where is it? I'm sure I'm missing something obvious.

[carlsson]

Surely Pacman + Quikman is a bit of a tautology, in particular as the official Pacman port is mediocre at best? I don't have much experience of people with Asperger's so I can't tell what their typical attention span is, but I would suggest Avenger, Omega Race, Gridrunner as classic VIC-20 games. Perhaps those involve too much sound, movement and graphics on screen for your purpose.

I agree on adding Frogger '07 to the list of modern games.

[English Invader]

Surely Pacman + Quikman is a bit of a tautology, in particular as the official Pacman port is mediocre at best?.

My aim is to show what the VIC was like in the early eighties and how modern advances have improved the quality of software. Nothing illustrates this better than Pacman v Quikman.

I shall add Frogger 07 and paddles to the list.

[English Invader]

P.S. I hope the props are more than just props. There's some killer stuff there.

It's not really feasible for me to transport the 1541 and the datasette takes too long to load. I also want to stick to simple games that people can have a quick go on.

The props are there for a bit of context. Blitz is the signature game on the VIC so I thought the tape would go well with City Bomber. The new commercial games must be seen to be believed and the advertisements give people an idea of what the VIC is about.

[carlsson]

Ah, so ingenious of you to show some mediocre old school games and then the best in class of newer productions. It goes to tell the VIC-20 really had a rather lousy selection of games back when it was available for sale, and not until recently people have begun to unravel its glory.

If you sprinkle the presentation with the modern myth that the VIC-20 was a stop-gap computer Commodore produced to fool the competitors while secretly developing the C64 which would amaze the market, your presentation is complete.

[SkydivinGirl]

I hope you'll have someone taking pictures of your presentation that you can share here.

Good luck with everything!

Heather