Thursday, April 29, 2010

Games Completed

I was thinking back to try and recall which 64 games I had completed back in the day. I know I completed Autoduel. I think I completed Paradroid. For all the hours I put in Ultima IV, I know that was one game I did not complete. Once I get the hardware back online, I am definitely giving Autoduel another whirl.

Space Taxi

It's funny how memories work. While waiting for the parts to make my Commodore 64 come alive, I have been playing a few games via emulator on my Mac. I was browsing through the titles and found "Space Taxi". I loved playing this back in the 80's, but had completely forgotten it. Just seeing the name in the directory caused all the memories of the game to flood back. I loaded it and played for awhile. What a great game.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Power Supply

The power supply I received on ebay was DOA. I'm working with the seller. Ugh. No C64 tonight.

EBay

Over the last few weeks I went on an eBay shopping spree for Commodore parts. I've purchased a mint condition Commodore 64, a 1541 disk drive, and two Atari 2600 style joysticks. My plan is to use an IDE64 to access files via USB to my computer (which I will detail in another post), so the 1541 floppy drive will remain boxed in the garage.

My friend Chad was able to procure a Commodore 1802 monitor from a local Amiga club for $20.

I also purchased an IDE64 to access files via USB to my computer. It also expands the C64 allowing more expansion units, like the RR-NET. This allows network access to the C64 via Ethernet. I purchased the RR-NET last week and it arrived a couple days ago.


I have been unable to get anything to work. I believe I have a faulty power supply from my "mint" condition Commodore from EBay. I had a very bad condition, but working C64 I got a couple years ago and tried it with this power supply and it failed as well. I have another power supply on the way from EBay that should arrive today.


Introduction

As a teenager in the late 80's, I grew up learning about computers on a Commodore 64. My parents didn't have a ton of money, so getting something like a computer was a very big deal for me. I had learned about computers at school on old TRS-80's, but my friend Ray had the Commodore 64 and the robust gaming and the world of BBS's via modem lured me the Commodore way. Thinking back, a huge part of my adolescence was molded by the old Commodore. I have been tinkering around with the 64 via emulation for years now, but I decided as a hobby to resurrect a working Commodore 64 computer system. I wanted to keep a journal of my adventures so that anyone taking this journey might have a resource for where to get parts and how to put one together. I'll also document my progress in bringing back old school gaming by trying to play through some of those old games. I will also try to recall old memories of my old Commodore 64 adventures.