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Are there many.... ANY SX-64 owners here?

Also, to say there's only one piece of software that does something, with a library as big as the C64's is a little short-sighted. Don't forget how much of that software is probably lost to history.

It's almost certain that if one program for the C64 did something, another one did exactly the same thing, maybe better.
 
Eudimorphodon said:
Wouldn't mind a citation on that.
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As related by Charles S. in Stockton, California, who used to work for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in the 1980's. Though Lawrence Livermore is owned by the University of California, it is also a quasi-governmental facility (in other words, lots of top secret stuff gets developed there). Also he related how C64's were used in Georgia at the Marine Logistics Base in Albany.
I remember attending government surplus auctions back in the 90's that included pallets of early computers and there were all sorts of goofy things to be found in the mix. Alongside less-crazy items like Apple IIIs, IBM Displaywriters, etc. I specifically recall Atari 400/800s, at least one Tandy Color Computer, a Mindset PC... for all I know they may have dumped some Commodores at some point.
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Correct. He said that when Lawrence Livermore and the MLB were finished with the C64s (hundreds of them), they were loaded onto pallets to be dumped to other departments.

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
 
KC9UDX said:
It's almost certain that if one program for the C64 did something, another one did exactly the same thing, maybe better.
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Heh, since I have production model #001 of the C64 Genlock (well, Jeri Ellsworth still is borrowing it) and no others were produced (to the best of my knowledge), I've never seen any other genlocking software for the C64. :)

Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm
 
RobertB said:
Heh, since I have production model #001 of the C64 Genlock (well, Jeri Ellsworth still is borrowing it) and no others were produced (to the best of my knowledge), I've never seen any other genlocking software for the C64. :)
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's why I said almost. :tellme:

For every piece of productivity software sold during the heydays of the C64, there was at least one very similar competing product. :cool:
 
Just to answer the original topic question, I took a picture of me hard at work today.
SX64 at work.jpg
I should have included something in the picture to prove it though, I guess. That picture could easily have been taken 25 years ago.
 
RobertB said:
As related by Charles S. in Stockton, California, who used to work for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in the 1980's. Though Lawrence Livermore is owned by the University of California, it is also a quasi-governmental facility (in other words, lots of top secret stuff gets developed there). Also he related how C64's were used in Georgia at the Marine Logistics Base in Albany.
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Any specifics about what they were using them for? I imagine in a place like Lawrence Livermore it was more along the lines of process control/lab data acquisition than for word processing and accounts receivable.
 
From FEB-1987 to MAY-1987, I spent 13 Weeks at Beautiful Fort Benning, Georgia, courtesy of the United States Army's Infantry School..

In an effort to increase Marksmanship, with the M16A1 Rifle, that did not require Live Ammunition and a Firing Range, they had developed some simulators with a Rifle Mockup, a TV and a C64 with a Cartridge. Basically a Pop-Up Target Game, that looked just about like what the real Pop-up Targets did, on the Real Firing Range.

The Rifle had a Light Gun mounted in the Barrel and when you saw the Target Pop-up, you sighted in the Rifle on the Target and Pulled the Trigger, which Triggered the C64 to determine the Light Gun Position on the Screen, and see if the Target was Poped-Up or not in that position, and give you a Hit or a Miss.

It seemed pretty basic, it still looked like a C64 with a cartridge and an M16A1 Rifle wired to it and connected to a portable color TV, but it was a Simple but very Practical training tool...

Personally, I did fine with it, but I had Practiced many times before joining the Army, with my .22 Caliber Long Rifle, and didn't really need that much training.. I qualified 37 out of 40, giving me an Expert rating.

MarkO
 
MarkO_ said:
From FEB-1987 to MAY-1987, I spent 13 Weeks at Beautiful Fort Benning, Georgia...
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If this forum software had a "like" button I'd totally click it for this one. The idea of an M16A1 converted to a light gun and connected to a Commodore 64 is just priceless.
 
I'm not specifically sure about the military use of sx-64s but I think like most government agencies, companies would happily donate some equipment to show off it's potential and hope for a contract of orders to follow. I don't have any Commodore military gear. I do have Zenith and Compaq Portables that were from the military. I'm sure they were a nice way to save money vs IBM when trying to budget. Obviously IBM was there as well.

I said the same thing though with the SX-64. Awesome little system although I've mostly demo'd off the graphics and sound. I wouldn't want to work on it in a text editor for any longer than I'd have to though. But you could also connect the sx-64 to an external monitor so perhaps that would be a redeemable display.
 
I have an SX-64 that I actually got for free from a Craigslist listing. The guy's wife had listed a regular Commodore 64 for sale for $10 on Craigslist, and when I e-mailed the guy about it, he said he had just intended to throw it out, so I could have it for free. He also had a bunch of other (mostly broken) vintage computer stuff that he let me load up and take off with, and an SX-64 was in the lot. It was really dirty, but I wiped the dirt off and when I plugged it in, it worked without any issues. I was pretty happy with the outcome there.
 
Well... One sort of final update on my Ebay situation...

Got my FULL refund and Seller keeps his (my) money as the whole thing was taken care of by the Global Priority Insurance. So even though that insurance cost was quite expensive, it sure worked out well and they settled my dispute with 2 hours of my filing it, which still completely blows me away.

So I get an SX64 that needs a lot of TLC for ZERO cost. Most of it cleans up quite well and the cable is in great shape. The only problem part is the keyboard really. Oh, Im only getting a blank white screen on powerup on the CRT. Im going to assume the shock in transit did some other stuff, but at least the CRT has a nice uniform glow to it as opposed to being shattered! ;)

Maybe Im going to have to save this "project" for TPUG group repair night?

:)
 
CanadaPhil said:
Well... One sort of final update on my Ebay situation...

Got my FULL refund and Seller keeps his (my) money as the whole thing was taken care of by the Global Priority Insurance. So even though that insurance cost was quite expensive, it sure worked out well and they settled my dispute with 2 hours of my filing it, which still completely blows me away.

So I get an SX64 that needs a lot of TLC for ZERO cost. Most of it cleans up quite well and the cable is in great shape. The only problem part is the keyboard really. Oh, Im only getting a blank white screen on powerup on the CRT. Im going to assume the shock in transit did some other stuff, but at least the CRT has a nice uniform glow to it as opposed to being shattered! ;)

Maybe Im going to have to save this "project" for TPUG group repair night?

:)
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Well, not the best conclusion, but not bad. I'm sure a pristine SX-64 is more desirable, but at least you've got some pieces/parts out of the deal. You might try an external video cable on the thing and see if it's just the monitor that's at fault. Does the disk drive light turn on when you power it up?
 
At least you didn't lose any money on the deal. Shipping an SX is no simple task for sure!

I've got four SX-64s. Three of them are working (two with a couple minor issues) and one of them is used for parts. I even have three original keyboard cables! I want to fix the two with issues then I'll probably put one in my office at work. The PET 8032 I had in my office brought lots of comments. I'm interested to hear what everyone thinks of my portable. :)

Heather
 
I don't think I like this Ebay policy. It potentially allows an unscrupulous buyer to claim damage and then potentially keep the item for free. I'm by no means saying that's what you did, CanadaPhil, I could see you were uneasy about it yourself. It just seems like selling on Ebay gets to be a worse deal all the time.

In other news, I too own 2 SX-64s. They both work. One has a bunch of ugly switches on the front, and the other is nearly perfect. Blue handle caps missing, of course.

UPDATE: I must have sold the one with the ugly switches. After I posted that last, I had to go look at my "backup" SX that I never use. It turns out it's completely clean, and blue caps are present! Oh, and both keyboard latches too! Awesome. The one I keep out and use has missing caps and 1 broken keyboard latch, so I had it in my head that the other one was worse. Nice to know that this wasn't the case!
 
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KevinO said:
I don't think I like this Ebay policy. It potentially allows an unscrupulous buyer to claim damage and then potentially keep the item for free. I'm by no means saying that's what you did, CanadaPhil, I could see you were uneasy about it yourself. It just seems like selling on Ebay gets to be a worse deal all the time.
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I very much agree. I think it also allows (and I wonder if it happened in this case, though I hope not!) for a seller to intentionally package something in a way that it will get damaged in shipping, in order to hide some other defect.
 
Dunno, that would be a heck of a trick. You know how that works, if you actually TRIED to get something broken in shipping, it would never happen! I'm lucky enough to work for a company that ships refurbished computer gear. They have expertise at making custom foamed boxes. If something gets damaged, it's absolutely the shipping company's fault.
 
I havent replied from my early morning post as I became pre-occupied with the very sad breaking news of today up here.

To add some additional info, I believe that my claim was aided by the fact that I have been on Ebay for 15 years with a perfect rating history and also sold several 1,000's worth of items myself in problem free transactions. So I think I was given the benefit of the doubt... not to mention providing several hirez photos of the box prior to opening and the opened contents sure must help!

And to clarify, Ebays Global Priority Shipping fees and insurance were a fortune ( over $70 added to the price of the item which itself was only $129!)

I was just surprised there was no requirement to send it back to Ebays shipping hub... But they probably chock this up to a cost of doing business as their new GPS scheme must be raking in additional billions for them.

It would be hard to explain for people who are not familiar with it, but many US sellers are not even aware they were enrolled in this program which allows Ebay to market their items to International buyers, with Ebay acting as the shipper, customs broker and Duty/Tax collector... And there is only 1 acceptable shipper in this program (Pitney Bowes!) which Ebay just so happened to PURCHASE last year... is it getting clear now? oh... and of course all the transactions go though guess who--PAYPAL!.. So this is essentially an organized racket as Ebay has their fee collecting hands in the cookie jar 4 times over and above just the sellers listing & final value fees itself!!

Honestly I don't even know how this is strictly legal?

PS... I have an idea for the keyboard.. Once I glue all the shards back together, i was thinking of wrapping the upper grey piece in question with 3M adhesive sheet in a "carbon fibre look" to mask the crack lines and then add a custom Commodore logo/decal of some sort. That is probably hard to visualize, but I will post some pics if I ever get around to it.
 
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KevinO said:
Dunno, that would be a heck of a trick. You know how that works, if you actually TRIED to get something broken in shipping, it would never happen! I'm lucky enough to work for a company that ships refurbished computer gear. They have expertise at making custom foamed boxes. If something gets damaged, it's absolutely the shipping company's fault.
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Ever see the box a 25" CRT (just the tube) ships in? :)
 
Hi All,

I have Three SX-64 systems; out of the three one has a blank screen when I turn it on. Someone said that it could be a bad chip? Haven’t had the times to check yet.

Bobby
 
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