My love for 8-Bit gaming & retro games stems from my first computer/video game console, the Commodore Vic-20. Growing up I never had a Nintendo. Instead Christmas 1989 I was given a used Vic-20. It was hopelessly out of date by the time I received it. However it was unique compared to the Nintendo, I could write my own software. Learning to code from old library books and magazines became my favorite pastime. By 1992 I packed it up as I had got a new 386DX the previous year. The Vic-20 was rarely used. I had moved on to GW-Basic and MS-Qbasic.
The years went by and I found someone selling the "Mega Cart" on the Vic-20 denial forum. I bought it but never had a chance to try it out. The Mega Cart has a huge amount of software and ram expanders in one cart. In the past week I have decided to hook-up my old Vic in the basement. Surprisingly it still works! No major issues. Most of my tapes still load, however it appears some of them don't load correctly anymore. I was however able to save to a new tape and reload the program!
I had a great time re-living the past, unboxing and plugging everything back together. It would appear that at my mothers I had also saved books and reference materials of the day. Doing some light reading while watching my new born daughter has inspired me to create some new software. You see when I was young I still recall the last program I was writing for the Vic. It was a text based menu system that had several built in options, including a memo pad, a petscii draw program, a small game and a keyboard. All the things I wanted the vic to do at that age. The problem was I only had an 8k ram expander. The program wound up getting the "Out of Memory Error?". I always regretted being unable to finish it.
Now with the "Mega Cart" I can upgrade my Vic with an extra 35k! Yes I realize how small that is by today's standards but I came up with a unique idea for a piece of software that has yet to be done by a Vic-20. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I hope this time I won't run out of ram! I am looking to set a goal of two months to finish. I will post the results to steemit upon completion.
The Beginnings of New Software as seen from a 52" Screen....
Even through my software won't need sound I really wanted to add some to the intro.... Just because! Hopefully I can keep it unless I run out of ram!
As a kid I never thought I would have this much ram!
P.S. The "Mega Cart" is no longer available how ever there are other such projects posted on the Denial Forum:
http://sleepingelephant.com/denial/
I never had the chance to play or use the Commodore. I came up during the time when Nintendo was just edging out the Atari. Great read and story.
Thanks. If you ever find an old Commodore at a yard sale pick it up. It's never to late to play with 8-bit tech.
:-)