stinkygoat ([info]stinkygoat) wrote,
@ 2007-12-21 00:37:00
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restoration of the ur-vic


This is the ur-Vic in its Welsh expansion unit. This Vic is basically the origin of Llamasoft. The games that began Llamasoft were coded upon this actual Vic.


As part of an ongoing project we are restoring to life some of the many historical systems we have lying around here. The ur-Vic has been pretty much the best behaved so far, rousing from a 25-year-odd slumber without much fuss.

The only thing wrong with it was some hesitancy of key function, which we were sure was due to nothing more than some crufty key contacts.



The top came off and the Vic was pretty clean inside. This Vic dates from before I even started to smoke.



That brown panel at the top contains the keyboard matrix. This was removed and lightly cleaned.



After cleaning the keys work fine again. The ur-Vic is fully functional!



The display looks fine on my old Sony CRT telly thanks to the new composite cable that Giles lashed up.


Now we just have to find some Vic-20 cartridges. I am sure I've a Gridrunner cartridge around here somewhere that someone gave me a while ago }:-).

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[info]tcpip
2007-12-21 03:25 am UTC (link)

Legendary.

A lot of resources here

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[info]dr_memory
2007-12-21 04:42 am UTC (link)
I'm a little confused. The 'murican vic-20 was in a substantially smaller case: it was basically just a keyboard with ports on the back, like the C64. This looks like a cross between a vic and the c128. Was this a euro-market thing?

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[info]shatterstripes
2007-12-21 05:12 am UTC (link)
I'm guessing that the "Welsh expansion unit" is something that was made and sold in Wales. Some kind of aftermarket expansion chassis. With, if I'm reading the photos right, a wooden top (for perching your scavenged TV on?).

My favorite part is the stickers reading 'Llamasoft' that I can barely make out in the photo. Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised if the Young Mr. Minter put those on there long before anyone else had heard the name...

edit: or maybe my favorite part is the realization that none of these casual photos could fit in the memory of the machine, or probably even on one of its tapes. jeez. we've come a long way, haven't we.

Edited at 2007-12-21 05:15 am UTC

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[info]medwaypvb
2007-12-21 01:01 pm UTC (link)
I'm guessing that the stickers are on there as the machine would have been one taken to various computer shows at the time? :-)

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[info]dungeoneer
2007-12-21 06:08 am UTC (link)
Lovely stuff.

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[info]scottcrawford
2007-12-21 06:17 am UTC (link)
Man, a lot of people left the Mouse Trap keypad overlays in their Colecovision controllers.

Good show getting the old girl running again. I wish I'd had the drive to do even some of what you did with my Vic at the time.

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[info]cheshirenoir
2007-12-21 08:22 am UTC (link)
Ah yes, the VIC 20.

It still has a special place in my heart. Not as grand as the C64 (my first computer, complete with a datasette of Gridrunner as one of the first 3 games we got with it) im y memories, but still a special part.

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[info]arron_shutt
2007-12-21 11:26 am UTC (link)
Are you setting up a Llamasoft petting farm centre/historical museum? ;)

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[info]axel000
2007-12-21 02:20 pm UTC (link)
Bizarrely I've never seen a Vic20 in that form factor before, thanks for sharing. My first comp was the C= 64, first game Falcon Patrol, followed by AMC :)

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[info]womanonfire
2007-12-21 04:10 pm UTC (link)
VIC20 <3 so awesome
i remember the many hours me and my sister spent typing instructions in basic to make some space invaders clone games... and the many many hours of debugging that followed... (hey, i was only 8, it was difficult work ;))

if you find cartridges... oh man

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[info]sack_
2007-12-24 01:51 am UTC (link)
light cycles was a LOT easier to code at that age :)

mind you... I'm 26 and I still can't code a breakout that I think feels right compared to the original

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