5 Nov
1997
5 Nov
'97
6:22 p.m.
On 5 Nov 97 at 10:16, Zane H. Healy wrote:
Tim D. Hotze Wrote:
The Vic20 was a great machine for it's time, at a
price that
allowed a whole generation access to computers.
Actually there were several models ,one off-white and another
beige. Some had a two pin PS connection and later ones the same as
the C64. Even Byte magazine ran a couple of series of hardware hack
upgrades.
There's a bunch of stuff available on the inet. One of the best is
the " Official" Vic20 FAQ by Ward Shrake, a beautiful, one could
almost say, eulogy, more than faq. If one can be found the Vic20
"Programmers Reference Guide" has a full fold-out schematic.
The FAQ and links as well as emulators, can be found at
http://home1.gte.net/salzman
ciao larry
lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com
>Congradulations on getting your VIC-20, and I
would like to know about it's
>specs.
Tim,
I got the VIC dug back up again. So let me see what I can come up with for
specs from the manual. Not much, it's about the most pathetic list of
specs I've seen, so I'll add comments.
Video display is 23 rows x 22 columns
On the back:
Expansion Port (for cartridges)
Most carts were games, some were memory expansion, others were l
languages, or applications software. I had a five slot board that
plugged in here and then allowed you to plug in five cartridges. You
could then select the cartridge you wanted with a rotary switch.
5-pin Video port (For connection to TV)
Serial Port (For special accessories like printer, disk drive, etc.)
Note, this is a 6-pin DIN plug, nothing like a modern serial port. It
is possible to build an X-1541 cable that allows a 1541 drive to be
connected to a PC's parallel port. The VIC can use either a 1540 or a
1541 disk drive. Not sure on printers, I had a funky little plotter
that used miniature ball point pens (4 colour).
Cassette Port (tape cassette goes here)
The VIC and C-64 use a proprietary cassette interface, in order to
connect a casstte drive to it you need one of their two models. It
took
about 5 minutes to load an 8k program.
User Port (for special accessories)
This is a lot like the Cassette Port connector. It could be used for
stuff like a modem or RS-232 connector.
Right side:
Game Port (For Joystick and other game control devices)
On/Off switch
Power Cord Socket
The keyboard is the same as the C-64, the colours are different with the
case being a whitish colour.
Zane