Apple really got things started in 1977 with the Apple II.
But these were initially geared towards the business sector
and they were still rather costly for the average consumer.
It was up to Commodore
to see the opportunity to bring the computer to the masses
and jumped all over it with their trademark clever marketing.
I mean, was it a business machine?
Was it an education machine?
Was it a games machine?
No, it was all three!
I mean all the kid had to do was slyly convince their parents that it helped you with "your homework"
and it'll help them with their finances
but just leave out the fact that'll it'll play Pac-Man,
and you got yourself a microcomputer.
I mean, and to top it off, William Freaking Shatner
ordered you to get one.
[William Shatner] "It's the wonder computer of the 1980s."
"The Commodore VIC-20."
"Unlike games it has a real computer keyboard."
"With the Commodore VIC-20,"
"the whole family can learn computing at home."
The machine that really put Commodore on the map is the VIC-20.
It wasn't Commodore's first high-production personal computer.
That would be the PET,
which was known as the CBM series outside of the U.S.
But it still was not nearly as successful as the VIC-20,
which was actually the first computer to sell over a million units.
Now, why would I review this relic,
when it's not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you mention classic games collecting?
Well, because while the Commodore 64 was the more memorable
iconic computer of the '80s,
the VIC-20 still deserves a look.
I mean, it's kinda cool,
and William Shatner.
First thing to consider when looking at the VIC-20
are the types of machines that are available.
The initial machine released was the VIC-1001.
But this was only avaiable in Japan
and you're probably not going to run across it anytime soon in America.
Another relatively uncommon one, in the U.S., at least,
is the VC-20,
which was released in Germany,
named VC, instead of VIC,
because VIC apparently sounds like the German F-bomb.
Now in America, there are a few different versions that you'll probably come across on the VIC-20.
One has this bland looking logo.
And there's the one with the little Commodore rainbow on it.
And you have some with some orange function keys,
and some 'em with grayish-brown function keys.
Whatever.
Pretty much, they're all VIC-20s that are relatively common.
And there are a few other minor variations,
such as the VIC-21 and the SuperVIC,
but I don't really care. We'll stick to the basics for this one.
Now I got my VIC-20 for about $30.
That's... three times ten...
Zero.
So I don't have any cash right now.
Make sure you get this kind of power brick.
The 64 one will not work. Different connector.
And you'll also need a video cable of some kind.
There is no built-in RF modulator
so you will need one of these weird boxes.
One part of it plugs into the VIC
and the other plugs into a switch box,
with or without a phono converter.
And you can also use a composite connection with RCA plugs, one for audio and video.
It's a much clearer picture than you'll get with just regular cables or RF or anything like that.
Now if you have a Commodore monitor,
you can use a cable with a chroma and luma output
but I don't have one, so I just use composite.
The VIC just has one joystick port, but mine didn't come with any controllers.
I actually did come across a Commodore joystick at Goodwill,
but Atari 2600 sticks work great
and actually I think they play a whole lot better.
And you can also use Atari paddles
and pretty much anything with a DB9 connector, so...
three-button Genesis controllers and
whatever else you can find. Just try stuff.
This too.
Now, of course, no system is any good without software
and there's plenty of it available and well over 100 games.
Most of them, they're actually pretty cheap.
You can probably get three to five dollars for one.
Individually. But the best deals are if you can find a pack of games.
It can equal out to somewhere around a dollar or two
for a game, if you just keep a lookout for good deals.
Most of the games do come on cartridges,
but you will need a tape or disc drive
in order to use some of the software,
or if you just want to save anything.
Mine came with a C2N Datasette by Commodore.
It is extremely slow, but it has its uses, and we'll get to those.
Now, the various 1541 floppy drives for the Commodore computers,
they also work with the VIC.
Very little software came on any disks, though,
so I'm really not even gonna go into them on this video, at least.
The cartridges really are bigger than they look in photos.
I mean, they're surprisingly close in size to a Super Nintendo cartridge.
They're a serious pain to get into the machine.
But once it's in there, you know it's not going anywhere.
Ever.
It stays.
They load the same way they do in a console.
You simply plug the cartridge in,
power the machine on,
and you're playing games.
Now, tapes are not so simple.
First, they're gonna have to be rewound.
Obviously. And once they are, type "LOAD"
into the VIC, and it will tell you to press Play.
It will simply start loading and it'll go through a few steps on the screen,
but just don't touch anything until it tells you to.
If it says "READY" after loading for a while,
you can type in "RUN" and it should finish the load,
and eventually the program will open
and the tape should stop playing
and you can hit the Stop button.
If you want.
Okay, the VIC is really old, so as far as graphics go,
it's not really capable of any epic 8-bit wonders,
and you're not gonna see Mario on here.
But what it does, it does very well.
Several great arcade conversions are available.
And many of which were made by Atari themselves.
You have games like Pac-Man, which is a far cry from Atari's version.
You have Galaxian,
surprisingly fast, and
Dig Dug, which has some awesome colors for being such an old machine.
They're amazingly well made.
They're of course fun. I mean, they're classics. They're easy to control.
I'm surprised at how well these were done on this thing.
There's also several text adventures on cartridge,
such as the Adventure series,
Pirate Cove and The Count and
just "Adventure"
There's no graphics at all
but they're very engrossing, if you just let your imagination take over!
And as with any machine, plenty of lame and just plain weird titles are all over the place.
Biorhythm Compatibility is one of the odd ones.
You put in some dates and it does stuff.
I'm sure it's useful to someone, but I don't feel like looking into it.
Another interesting one is Kindercomp.
It's actually kinda like Kid Pics. Sort of.
Paint and just type in and stuff.
Which is no Dynamite, which is kind of disappointing.
Of course, you got your math games and your kiddie games
and your WTF games.
And of course, you're playing ripoff games.
This is Avenger.
Blatant Space Invaders clone,
but is actually quite good. It feels a little bit faster.
I recommend grabbing it.
And it's actually probably the most common cartridge, so you don't pay really anything for it.
And then there's Battlezone,
which is like impossible to find, but
there's also Omega Race, which is extremely common.
Both of these games are awesome vector games.
And there's also Tooth Invaders, which I strangely have to admit I enjoy.
It's just weird.
It strangely makes me want to brush my teeth.
Now the VIC-20 is a computer at its heart.
It's not a console, and there's plenty of applications available for it.
You have, uh-- most of 'em are gonna be on tapes
There's word processors, your financial assistance programs,
and organizational stuff and all the junk you probably don't care too much about
so I'm not gonna waste too much time on this video with it.
And now for the final question:
How easy is it to run pirated software--
Backups.
Well, the most accessible way that I've found to do that
is using the Datasette.
Thanks to TAP files, which can be downloaded basically anywhere,
this is possible with a simple program called Audiotap.
You select a TAP file, which is kinda similar to a ROM file for consoles,
and then Audiotap plays it back in the audio format that the Commodore can understand.
All you need is the line-out on your computer with the cable,
a cassette under 30 minutes in length,
and a good old, trusty tape recorder.
Once it's recorded to tape, you can rewind it and use in your Datasette on your VIC-20.
And I also have to mention some of the great emulators for it, such as WinVICE,
which will play anything, really, and you don't have to pay anything.
But there's something, of course, to be said about using the real thing, and all that good stuff.
Okay, so pretty much, what does it all boil down to?
Well, the VIC-20 is pretty much awesome.
It's not exactly the all-encompassing, crazy, iconic computer of the 1980s.
That would be the Commodore 64, I think.
And, um, y'know,
for $30, you can't really complain.
The games were awesome and, um,
William Shatner said it was cool.
So that's good enough for me.
Seven out of ten, if I were to rate it.
And I just did. So, you know,
Why not get it?
Why get it?
If you like old games and stuff, it's worth a look.
...and you can do the Shatner. All day long.
Over and over.
Ding! *frig*