Re: For new users - make a post or say hello
Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2023 8:23 am
Welcome neighbors from Germany!
As a pre-teen in the beginning of the 1980s, my Dad wouldn't splurge on a home videogame console. Too expensive for a box that would just make an already "husky" boy sit around in the house even more than normal. But when I saw that the local K-Mart was promoting the Vic 20, a real computer, for only $88! I showed my parents the newspaper ad, they discussed it, and Dad and I went to go pick up the machine. He saw they also had a "Commodore 64" on sale for $249 and asked, would you rather get this one? That seemed like a lot of money, and I was happy just to be getting the Vic, so I said, nah, the $88 one is fine.
Eventually the Vic 20 was indeed upgraded to a tape drive, then a floppy drive, then to a C64, then an Amiga 1000, and then a 2000HD, and a 3000, until finally the writing was on the wall and I've been in Windows-land ever since.
But recently I found a Facebook Marketplace ad selling a couple of Vic-20s. One works well, the other has a video issue but works outside of that. Grabbed a Penultimate+ 2 cart, a SD card drive, a video cable, and a joystick, and downloaded a bunch of books. I guess this is one way to be 13 again! Amazed what you folks out there are making for my first computer these days. Tetris was a fun surprise, for sure. Can't wait to dig into more fun stuff.
-Joe
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