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Found vic 20, trying to get it working

That's awesome!

For loading from the cartridge, power off, plug the cart in, then power on. Carts add memory at the A000 memory address, which is the first place the VIC-20 looks for code on power on.
 
Ok, I'll try that.

What are some "must haves" now that I have a known working system? Can I hook up to a pc and transfer/run images? And what do I need for cables? My Only other experience with this is with my apple ii c and adt pro.
 
Since you have a Datasette, the simplest way to transfer programs (and data) is by writing a K7 with the PC and a "normal" K7 recorder. Put the K7 in the Datasette and away you go.

There are other, more complicated ways to avoid using the K7 as a transfer medium, but that's the easiest thing to do, in my opinion, especially if you don't have a disk drive or other media.

I'd say for a must-have, get a 1540 (preferably) or a much cheaper, more available 1541. Just make sure you put the 1541 in 1540 mode or you'll be experiencing that same dreadful slowness C64 users get.

Then, build yourself a parallel-port to IEC cable and connect the 1540/1541 to your PC (may actually need a 1541 for this, I have no idea!) and you can write disks directly from the PC.
 
In my experience, I doubt you'll find them useful.

But maybe you will, I suppose it depends what you want to do.
 
There are some fun things you can do with ram expansions. I'm on mobile right now, so I don't have the link handy, but there's a pretty cheap 32k expansion board you can build.

Once you have that, you can build our buy an XE1541 cable and use 64HDD on another computer, which allows you to load rom images into that A000 memory bank. Boom, now you can play any game that's been ripped from a cartridge (which is most of them)

You'll probably want to pick up a joystick. Atari joysticks work as-is (I'm actually using one from an Atari Flashback console).

I'll post some good links tomorrow.
 
I tried 2 cartridges, when I turned it on, it went right to the basic screen. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Did a little looking on eBay, I see what looks like 2 versions on the 1541. Any particular version that's better than the other?

Also where is a good spot for disk images?

Thank you all so much for all the help.
 
Interesting, not sure what's going on with the cartridges not loading. To be honest, I've never put a physical cartridge in mine (Dad didn't buy any when we bought the system in '84 (side-note, that made this computer mine and mine alone, since my siblings couldn't be bothered to hand-type any programs :D ), and I haven't bought any since pulling it out of storage). But from what I know of the VIC-20's memory map and startup routines, that should be all you have to do.

The cart has a ROM chip in it, which hooks up to BLK5 ($A000) in the VIC's memory map. The KERNAL ROM chip (marked 901486-06 on top) looks at $A000 to see if there's bootable code there. If so, it loads whatever is there. If not, it passes control over to the BASIC ROM chip (marked 901486-01). Maybe something wrong with the cartridge slot, or the cartridges themselves?

As for ROM and disk images, Zimmers.net has what you need: http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/vic20/index.html

I mentioned the XE1541 cable and 64HDD, so here's more info about those:

XE1541 cable you can build or buy (there are other places to buy the cable, too)
64HDD software

The basic idea is you load the 64HDD program onto another machine running DOS (I use FreeDOS) that has a parallel port. Hook the XE1541 up to the computer, then up to the same port you connect a disk drive to on the VIC-20. You can then load ROM and disk images by using the standard LOAD"PROGRAM",8,1 commands. Let me know if you need help on that.

Before you do that, of course, you need to expand your VIC. In unexpanded form, you can still load some ROM and disk images, of course, but a limited set. Generally speaking, anything that came on a cartridge wouldn't be able to load, as you don't have enough free RAM. There are quite a few ways to do this (from buying a RAM expander cart either new or original, or building your own). I went the "build your own" route, and followed these instructions for an "internal" expansion: ftp://www.zimmers.net/pub/cbm/documents/projects/memory/vic20/32kB.html

Basically you assemble and wire the parts on a board, then solder wires from the board to the cartridge port (on the underside of the mainboard). Works perfectly.

Other links I've found useful:
VIC-20 FAQ
Information on the VIC-20 ports
Manuals for various things
The CBM section from Zimmers.net ftp, which has links out to plenty of other things
A whole bunch of books that have been scanned
The C64 wiki has a lot of info that's applicable to the VIC-20, such as this screen about how to use the LOAD command

I probably have a couple dozen other links around here, but that should be enough to overwhelm you. :D
 
The cartridge port and cartridge connectors need to be cleaned. They are oxidized.

Any 1541 will work, but either get one that is known working with a cable, or buy a cable (or two!) when you buy the drive.
 
I'm guessing some isporopl alcohol and q tips will do the trick?

I have a drive, cable, disks, and expansion all on the way. Looking forward to seeing what this thing will do!
 
Yes, but auto-parts-store contact cleaner will work better. Spray it generously onto the cartridge pins (but not into the computer), and with the power off, insert and remove the cartridge a bunch of times.
 
madMatador78 said:
I also noticed that my Datasette isn't a commodore, has anyone ever seen that brand? Maxtron I think it is.
Click to expand...

I haven't but a friend back in the day had one that looked identical to it except that it had the Commodore Plus/4/C-16 color scheme on it. It was definitely something other than Maxtron IIRC. I imagine there were quite a few knock off datasette manufacturers.
 
I do have a knockoff one somewhere. I have no idea what brand it is though. I don't remember much what it looks like other than it may be half the size of a Datasette.

I have some third-party disk drives, too. They really put the 1541 to shame. I should dig them out and use them, why the heck don't I?
 
Yeah I figured it didnt hurt anything. It seems to work ok, or as well as one of those things worked. lol. This is my first cassette machine. Thats an adventure loading stuff off cassette.
 
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