Denial

Hi all,
I recently purchased a few brand new, never-opened VIC-20 games on eBay which I have now been enjoying. Among them was Attack of the Mutant Camels, which strangely didn't work even though I had just removed it from the original shrink wrap! It only produced a garbage screen with graphics from the game. Scrubbing the contacts with isopropyl alcohol had no effect.
Only when I opened up the cartridge did I see the problem: two 'dry' joints with little to no solder! Applying fresh solder to these fixed the problem immediately and the game appears to work perfectly now
I'm guessing this was fairly uncommon back in the day, but does anyone have a similar experience?
I also found it a little bit odd that the EPROM chips in this cartridge had no labels over their windows. Was this another mistake or were they relying on the cartridge housing to keep the UV light out to prevent erasure of the data?

FriedOrange79 wrote:I'm guessing this was fairly uncommon back in the day, but does anyone have a similar experience?

As i said in the past, back in the early 80s, Commodore computers (and their related products) had a failure rate that would put any modern company out of business in an instant.

I also found it a little bit odd that the EPROM chips in this cartridge had no labels over their windows. Was this another mistake or were they relying on the cartridge housing to keep the UV light out to prevent erasure of the data?

It was pretty much expected back then that the VIC-20 and all it's related products would be discontinued only 2 years after it's introduction. In fact it lasted on the market from 1981 until 1985 and that was considered a sort of miracle.

Interesting. People did get quite worked up about the Xbox 360 'red ring of death' a while ago. I suppose we should be thankful that so much of this equipment has lasted almost 40 years for us to enjoy today!

The fact that you could open the cart up and fix it yourself shows the difference in both technology and the overall culture from then and now. Try opening up a PS4 and fixing something on it.

I miss those days. And while I admit the graphics/audio of modern computers and consoles are amazing, I simply don't get excited about them. I literally cannot tell the difference between a "mega texel" and a "giga texel"...or whatever these kids call them nowadays. If I wanted to watch a damn movie I'd put a tape in the VCR!! Now get off my lawn!

LOL

But seriously, it's almost 40 years later and, if you wanted, you could make your own cart and put your own game on it. I wonder if my son will be able to burn his own Blu-ray discs for his XBox One 40 years from now.

cbmeeks wrote:The fact that you could open the cart up and fix it yourself shows the difference in both technology and the overall culture from then and now. Try opening up a PS4 and fixing something on it.

I miss those days. And while I admit the graphics/audio of modern computers and consoles are amazing, I simply don't get excited about them. I literally cannot tell the difference between a "mega texel" and a "giga texel"...or whatever these kids call them nowadays. If I wanted to watch a damn movie I'd put a tape in the VCR!! Now get off my lawn!

LOL

But seriously, it's almost 40 years later and, if you wanted, you could make your own cart and put your own game on it. I wonder if my son will be able to burn his own Blu-ray discs for his XBox One 40 years from now.

That's why I love the vic so much. It was designed so that the common person could not only program on it burns repair and mod it as well. Especially the 2 prong with all socketed chips... a beautiful thing.

To the point of graphics, I feel that a lot of modern games focus to much on graphics and not on gameplay. I can sit and stare at the water or trees for hours but try to play the game and I feel bored.

Cover the eprom window!
It's true that sunlight need years for damage the bytes,
but I destroyed an eprom (it will be un-reprogrammable!) taking a macro with my camera..... WITH FLASH!!!!!!
The UV inside the flash light destroyed my EPROM!