Commodore VIC-20 Tribute Page

Plus, new PET/CBM web content!!

by

Rick Melick

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Last Update: May 20, 2013

     This information has lived many places on the Interweb since the mid-1990s. It started at http://steel.indiana.edu/~rmelick/vic1.html and http://php.indiana.edu/~rmelick/vic1.html, when I was a Computer Science student; http://www.geocities.com/rmelick/new_page_2.htm (now http://www.geocities.ws/rmelick/new_page_2.htm), when I was poor; http://rickmelick.org/vic/Site/Welcome.html, after GeoCities shut down and before I became so cheap; and now I'm re-creating some of it here on http://www.geocities.ws/cbm/ (you are reading it), as well as http://rick-melick.blogspot.com, after taking some "me time" in 2012 to prepare for the end of the world. Anyhoo, long story short, thank goodness for search engines!

     Are you interested in computer history? Join the irregular regulars Earl Evans, David Greelish, and Carrington Vanston, plus surprise guests, in the show where everything old is news again. Gather 'round a virtual table where today's talk is about yesterday's computers. Get the skinny from the world of vintage computer hobbyists, collectors, enthusiasts, and old school geeks. They cover modern day vintage tech events, new developments for old hardware, the revival of retro tech, the best of 8 bit culture, and take many strolls down memory lane. Head on over to http://rcrpodcast.com and explore podcasts, review show notes and be informed of upcoming episodes. You'll be glad you did!

128

• SpeedScript 128+ (PRG File.) - The final edition of SpeedScript. It is for the 80-column C=128. Patched it myself. Read Compute! Gazette September 1989 for compleat details. Here is the timeline:

  SpeedScript 128, Oct 87.
  SpeedScript 128 Date and Time Stamper, Nov 87.
  SpeedScript Justified, Jan 88.
  Turbo SpeedScript, Feb 88.
  SpeedCheck 128, Sept 88.
  SpeedScript 128 Plus, Sept 89.
  SpeedScript Easy Cursor, Nov 89.

• Wheels 128 - Wheels is a defunct operating system for the Commodore 128 home computers partially based on, and an upgrade from, GEOS 128 v2. It is generally backwards compatible and gave new abilities to the 128, including the ability to open several, movable, resizeable windows on the desktop. At the core of the Wheels OS was the new Dashboard and Toolbox. The Dashboard was the name for the new desktop environment which made using the 128 similar to using modern Mac or Windows operating systems with icons and a menu bar. The Toolbox was the replacement for the GEOS Configure app. Wheels required at least a 128 KB RAM Expansion Unit to operate. It also supported hardware that standard GEOS and the standard KERNAL couldn't handle, including Creative Micro Designs HD hard drives (up to 4 GB), high-density FD-2000/FD-4000 floppy disk drives (up to 3.2 MB), RAMLink with expanded RAM addressing (up to 16 MB), and SuperCPU 20 MHz accelerator with SuperRAM up to 16 MB.

  You can simulate a CMD hard drive using a µIEC or sd2iec card drive using fakehd.bin. It contains just the minimum amount of data to be accepted as a CMD HD by the Wheels 128 drive autodetection code. Many thanks to Ingo Korb and the sd2iec developers. Assuming you are using JiffyDOS and you have placed fakehd.bin in your root directory:

  @XR:FAKEHD.BIN
  @XW
  

  You now need a bootable DNP hard drive image. (DNP images are CMD hard disk drive images that can be mounted on an SD card using µIEC and fakehd.bin ROM.) One has been created for you. Many thanks to RBM for making it and sharing! The following binaries are all included on the hard disk image:
  • Wheels 128 updated to v4.4
  • Geoshell build in
  • Geowrite 128
  • Geocalc 128
  • Geofile 128
  • Geospell 128
  Assuming you are using JiffyDOS and you have placed the bootable DNP hard drive image in your root directory:

  @CD:WHEELS128.DNP
  BOOT
  

P/M

Bringing up CP/M on a C128: The C128 basically started with the Z80 as the active CPU. The computer would check to see if there was a CP/M boot disk in the drive. If not, the Z80 would be disabled and 8502 took over.

• Control µIEC in CP/M - Someone recently asked if anyone was using CP/M on a DNP image. Based on what I can tell, using the real CMD HDD with CP/M is limited to something called Commodore disk emulation. Therefore, CMD released a CP/M utility called SPORT.COM.

  SP0RT.COM allows you to send Commodore-style DOS commands to any
  serial port device. SPORT is issued as a command with up to three
  command parameters. These parameters are assigned values for the device
  number, secondary address and command. If issued without any parameters,
  SPORT will present a help screen. Here is the syntax:

  SPORT [/Ddv] [/Ssa] [/C'command']
  		
  		where:   dv = the device number, in hex, of the target drive (8 = 8)
  		         sa = the secondary address, in hex, of the command channel (15 = f)
  		    command = the command string (be sure to enclose the string within 'single quotes')
  		

  SPORT works in a manner similar to most DOS wedges.

  Using CBM-Command, I put the cmd_cpm_utils.d64 disk image on a real floppy. I then booted CP/M as usual from a disk image in µIEC. Once booted, I changed to drives B> in my case - where my SPORT.COM utility was located on floppy disk. The real point here is to get off your boot disk image in drive A> while we're sending commands to the µIEC hardware.

  To move out of the CP/M boot disk image in drive A>:

  sport /d8 /sf /c'cd_'

  Note: _ is created using the "back arrow key" [<-] on the C128 keyboard (upper left-hand side).
  Once you execute the command you should get and OK back. You can try to do a 'dir' on drive A> but it will fail, because CP/M can't understand the format of the SD card's root directory. Next, in my case, to move back into the CP/M disk image on drive A>:

  sport /d8 /sf /c'cd:cpm*'

  Note: My CP/M boot disk image file name starts with cpm* in the root directory of my SD card.
  Now you can mount drive A> and do the 'dir' and it works.

  What does all this mean, you ask? It means that if one were organized and had various CP/M disks in the root directory of their SD card they could move in and out of those disk images using SPORT.COM from within CP/M. This is about the same behavior as if one were using a real CMD HDD from within CP/M, and the reason CMD released the SPORT.COM utility along with the hard disk drives.

64

     The Commodore 64 was an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, and during it's lifetime (between 1982 and 1994), sales totaled close to 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were developed for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office applications, and games. The C64 made an impressive debut at the 1982 Winter Consumer Electronics Show, as recalled by Production Engineer David A. Ziembicki: All we saw at our booth were Atari people with their mouths dropping open, saying, 'How can you do that for $595?'.

Getting to C64 mode on a C128: If the C= key was being held down on boot or the user typed, "GO64," the C128 would shift to C64 mode. With few exceptions it was 100% compatible. Compatibility was a difficult lesson that Commodore learned from the PET-VIC-C64-TED days, but finally got it right in the end with the C128.

• Data20 Programs (Disk image) - A disk image of Data20 Display Manager 80-column programs for C64 and VIC, including the hard to find, "Plan Manager," (called 64CALC) a spreadsheet program, as well as, "Word Manager," (called 64WP) for the Commodore 64.

  Plan Manager Instruction Manual - in the process of being uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive. - DONE!

  Word Manager Instruction Manual from bytemaniacos.com. Uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive. (An older 1982 version has been obtained and is here now!)

• CIE IEEE-488 Cartridge (Disk image.) - Drivers for the C64 IEEE-488 cartridge from MSD. Typed in from the manual. Schematics.
• MusicMate Keyboard (Disk image.) - Drivers for the Sequential Circuits MusicMate Model 970 keyboard. I saw one of these on display at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California and just had to have it. One shows up on eBay maybe every 6 to 12 months or so. Plug the keyboard into Port #2.
• Computer Place Numeric Keypad (Document) - Instruction sheet and box cover for the hard-wired numeric keypad from Computer Place.
• Cardco Cardkey 1 Numeric Keypad (Disk image.) - Drivers for the keypad for C64 and VIC. Restored by Fredric Blåholtz and myself in 2011. Documentation Here. If you have the Atari CX85 numeric keypad, the Cardco driver will work for it, too. Just try this example keymap configuration file. (Sequential file.) I did not test the CX85 config file on a C64 though. I only tested it on a VIC-20. Notes on the CX85 version: NO=*, DELETE=/, YES=RETURN.

  I didn't have a C64 at the time I was working on restoring the VIC-20 version, so I figured maybe the best thing I could do for my C64 friends is to post a WAV file of the C64 side of the tape (no modifications) and let the experts hack away at it. This was Side One (the VIC stuff was on Side Two). Sound Recorder was set to record at PCM 44.100 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo, and I was using a first-generation C2N for the playback to Windows. This is the same configuration I used to eventually get kbasic-vic.prg posted online earlier. Tape length was roughly two minutes. e5frog (Fredric Blåholtz) picked it up from Lemon64, and worked all night on the repair. He got it! He found it looks pretty much like the VIC-20 version. "The first row of DATA is the same and then it starts to differ on some bytes," he said.

• Cardco Cardriter Light Pen (Disk image.) - Software / example drivers for the light pen. Restored from cassette. Documentation Here. To the best of my knowledge this manual/disk is not available anywhere else online today. Scanned and uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive.
• Smoothtalker 64 for PPP Speakeasy-C (Document) - See the disk image below for a copy of the Smoothtalker 64 program...

  PPP Speakeasy-C Software: 1. Talking Print 64 for Speakeasy 2. Smoothtalker 64 3. Phoneme Editor/T, Phoneme Speak/T, Phoneme Editor/D, Phoneme Speak/D Extended Vocal Chord for Speakeasy 4. A rumored game (a space shooter) from Aztec Software Ltd that used the Speakeasy for speech and some sound effects. (Is this list complete?)

  Stefan Uhlmann contacted me on May 15, 2013 to report that he had #1, #2 and #3 of the software programs mentioned above and would begin working on restoring them from tape. On May 20, 2013 the conversion was completed and these programs are now available as a disk image. Many thanks to Stefan for restoring these untra rare programs!!

  Hi Rick, attached the disk image with the files from the tapes:
  
  	1. Talking Print 64 for Speakeasy
  	
  	SIDE A
  	- TALKING PRINT 64
  	- WORDS (this is a dictionary that could be read and rewritten with the above program)
  	
  	SIDE B
  	same as A (I loaded it, but a binary compare with the PC didn’t find any differences)
  	
  	2. Smoothtalker 64 for Speakeasy
  	
  	SIDE A
  	- SMOOTHTALKER 64
  	- WORDS (I was not able to load it, but I guess it’s the same as above)
  	
  	SIDE B
  	empty
  	
  	3. Phoneme Editor/T, Phoneme Speak/T, Phoneme Editor/D, Phoneme Speak/D, Extended Vocal Chord for Speakeasy
  	
  	SIDE A
  	- PHONEME EDIT/T64
  	- PHONEME SPK/T64
  	
  	SIDE B
  	- PHONEME EDIT/D64
  	- PHONEME SPK/D64
  	
  Have fun,
  Stefan
  

  About: PERSONAL PERIPHERAL PRODUCTS, INC. was formed on April 14, 1983 in Illinois by RONALD J TAYLOR. RICHARD SCHWARZBACH was the president of the company. The PPP Speakeasy-C was also sold through Protecto Enterprizes as a Voice Synthesizer under their brand name.

• RUN Magazine's 'Magic' column - This was probably one of the earliest forms of crowdsourcing, and RUN Magazine had about 300K subscribers at its peak. These are valuable materials for nearly all Commodore computers, not just the C64. Christopher Ryan has created a complete archive of the tips and tricks contained in every issue of RUN. The 'Magic' column, compiled by Louis F. Sander, debuted in the first issue (January 1984) and spanned the entire lifetime of the publication. Even more legendary was the Special Issue at the end of the year, with over 100 never before published tips and tricks from the previous year. RUN Magazine would pay you up to $50.00 for sending in a tip or trick they used. Louis Sander later published a book called, "Tips & Tricks for Commodore Computers," based on the column of the same name from Commodore Magazine between the years 1986 to 1988. All of these resources should not be missed, which is why I'm calling them out here. Finally, don't miss the 2012 book, "10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10", which considers the phenomenon of creative computing and the way computer programs exist in culture. It is also available as a free PDF download from the book's web site.
• Whatever Happened to the Tramiels? (Document) - Jack Tramiel left Commodore in 1984 after the success of the C64. He went on to buy Atari's computer division and ran it with his sons. Commodore would be bankrupt and out of business by 1994. Jack Tramiel was able to attend the 25th anniversary of the C64 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California on December 10, 2007. He died on Sunday, April 8, 2012.

  "...He destroyed me. ...He destroyed my family. ...He did all kinds of terrible things, but he gave me a chance to do something that nobody else would. ...I can remember that and thank him for it." -- Chuck Peddle on Commodore founder Jack Tramiel in, "On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore."

• C=Hacking Index (Document) - An electronic technical publication for the Commodore 8-bit community, by the Commodore 8-bit community. The subject matter covers a broad range of topics including software, hardware, and other areas of interest to technically-minded readers. Articles are contributed on a voluntary basis and represent the cutting edge of Commodore 8-bit technical developments from its most innovative and productive members.

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VI-20

     The VIC-20 introduced millions of people to the fascinating world of personal computing. It holds this high honor primarily because it was the first color computer to break the $300 (U.S. Dollars) price barrier. As the VW Beetle was the people's car, the Commodore VIC-20 was a computer for the people. Indeed, it was, "The Friendly Computer."

          

• The Rick Melick Interviews (Document) - I conducted these interviews in late 1996 / early 1997 when the very first VIC-20 emulators started showing up on the Internet. I wanted to begin learning some HTML but didn't have many ideas for original content. The world-wide-web was still ramping up in those days and there wasn't anything online of this type, so I made the decision to do it. I have a lot of respect for engineers in general and passion for the VIC-20 in particular, so it was great fun to contact these guys and get a thoughtful reply from them in return. Today they are scanned and uploaded to Scribd as one file (48 pages). Names below link to the original archived interviews, and those in bold have been mentioned in more recent blog entries from January 2013. They are...

  

  • Andy Finkel -- See also, System-Sellers: Omega Race (VIC-20)
  • Bill Seiler -- See also, The 6560 odyssey...
  • Boris van Schooten -- See also, Turning Japanese...
  • Corey Ostman
  • Jeff Minter -- See also, System-Sellers: Matrix (VIC-20); The Programmer Behind Gridrunner And Attack of the Mutant Camels (Reproduced from Compute! GAZETTE August 1983); Halcyon Days interview with Jeff Minter
  • Jim Butterfield (1936-2007) -- See also, The VIC gets JiffyDOS'd... ; Meet Jim Butterfield (Reproduced from Compute! Sept 1982)
  • Jimmy Huey -- See also, The Programmer Behind Galactic Blitz, Sidewinder, And Swarm! (Reproduced from Compute! GAZETTE July 1983)
  • John Feagans -- See also, The VIC gets JiffyDOS'd... ; The 6560 odyssey...
  • Michael Tomczyk -- See also, Benutzefreundlichkeit: Nüfekop; Turning Japanese...; VORC: What was Japan for Commodore?; Commodore Legends: Michael Tomczyk – Part I, Part II. If you're interested in more VIC-20 history you could read pages 3-10 of, "Compute!'s First Book of VIC;" or, "Home Computer Wars," also by Michael Tomczyk. He recently gave a presentation in Rome containing some rare photos!
  • Neil Harris
  • Paul Higginbottom
  • Tom Griner -- See also, System-Sellers: Matrix (VIC-20); Halcyon Days interview with Tom Griner
  • ...and more!

• The Ward Shrake Interviews - Peter Fokos ("Alien Blitz," "Cloudburst" and "Spiders of Mars"); Thomas Giguere ("Outworld" and "Alien Blitz") and Ron Wanttaja ("IFR Flight Simulator").
• The Jim Lawless Interviews - Don French ("French Silk Assembler"); Tom Zimmer ("Forth").
• "Commodore: A Company on the Edge, Second Edition," by Brian Bagnall (December 15, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0973864966 | ISBN-13: 978-0973864960)

  Filled with first-hand accounts of ambition, greed, and inspired engineering, this history of the personal computer revolution takes readers inside the cutthroat world of Commodore. Before Apple, IBM, or Dell, Commodore was the first computer manufacturer to market its machines to the public, selling an estimated 22 million Commodore 64s. Those halcyon days were tumultuous, however, owing to the expectations and unsparing tactics of founder Jack Tramiel. Engineers and managers with the company between 1976 and 1994 share their memories of the groundbreaking moments, soaring business highs, and stunning employee turnover that came with being on top in the early days of the microcomputer industry. This updated second edition includes additional interviews and first-hand material from major Commodore figures like marketing guru Kit Spencer, chip designer Bill Mensch, and Commodore co-founder Manfred Kapp. Priced new from $9.89 (Kindle Edition).

• Assteroyd Dodger (Disk image.) - I wrote this game back in 1983. I would have been about 15 years old, so pardon my juvenile humor with the phonetic spelling of asteroid. My high school buddy, Patrick, did the graphics. It is kind of a miracle I still have the code. It spent about 14 years on an old cassette tape in the closet. (long since lost) It then spent another 12 years in PC-VIC's 'PCV' format. I've since resurrected it in D64 format for use on VICE or a real VIC-20. It is an Arcade/Avoid genre game in the style of a downhill skier or cavern runner. Use your joystick to fly through an asteroid field at warp speed. The longer you stay alive the higher your score. Arcade fun for the whole family! In 2010, I re-wrote a minimal version to optimize for speed and memory.
• Tape Ton (PRG File.) - Can you make your 1530/C2N Datasette play audio cassettes through your TV speakers? Why, yes you can! Written by D. Rother, Tape Ton is a little 1K program to listen to music cassettes. Written in ML for unexpanded VIC. Just LOAD and RUN it. Type SYS7424 to activate it. It adds a new keyword to BASIC called "TAPE". Place a music cassette into your datasette, type TAPE, press PLAY and listen to the audio cassette on your monitor's speakers through the VIC-20. Press F7 to quit.
• Othello II (binary file) - Othello II by Craig Bruce is a game you don't see discussed very often and it's a shame, because it is really good! It was written in 1986. It has excellent A.I. and a demo mode. If you have never seen this one before, you should definately check it out.

       

• The 6522 (VIA) Bug (Document.) - Just like your PET friends, Commodore carried the potential for the "CB2 Sound" forward to your VIC-20. This is the sound that is made by sending square waves out of the 6522 IC on some Commodore computers. It is called 'CB2', since that is the name of the pin on the 6522 that outputs the waveform. I won't go into a complete description, except to say that most models of the PET had the capability, and most PET owners used it as the ONLY sound source, since the PETs did not have a sound chip. Although the VIC did have good sound capabilities, by that time Commodore had realized its widespread use and included some information on it in the Commodore VIC-20 Programmer's Reference Guide. What this means is that you can add a 5th sound channel to your VIC-20 for more musical voices and tones. For additional info, reach for your nearest Programmer's Reference Guide (PDF|TXT) and start reading from page 232.
• Speed Script v3.2 (Disk image.) - The VIC-20 version of SpeedScript 3.0 appeared in the April 1985 issue of COMPUTE!. Corrections for several minor bugs were published in the May 1985 "COMPUTE!" column. With these enhancements, the title on the screen indicates version 3.1 (same version as the book). Further corrections-most notably a fix for an underlining bug-appeared in the article "SpeedScript 3.0 Revisited" in the December 1985 issue of COMPUTE!; these enhancements changed the version number on the screen to 3.2. This is on Mega-Cart now, but I didn't have one then. I typed all of the patches and revisions in manually. All versions of the SpeedScript 3.x family work the same, so you can use the book as the manual or this handy document.
• Cardco Cardkey Numeric Keypad (Disk image.) - Drivers for the CK/1 keypad for C64 and VIC. Documentation Here. Bits restored by Fredric Blåholtz and myself in 2011. Totally not needed if you also have the extremely rare CK/A board as shown to the right. If you have the Atari CX85 numeric keypad, the Cardco driver will work for it, too. Just try this example keymap configuration file. (Sequential file.) Notes on the CX85 version: NO=*, DELETE=/, YES=RETURN.

  To get this working I bought a "new" CK/1 from an old Commodore dealer (not cheap). Even though the cassette had never been used, bit-rot had set in. Nothing would load without a load error. I eventually had to bring the program into my PC as a WAV file from cassette, double the volume, play it back to my VIC-20 through a Cassadapt interface and have the potentiometer set exactly right to trigger whatever signal was too weak on the original cassette. Took me all night of tinkering and about 40 tries. The good people at Cardco only recorded it once on the cassette. (Two copies front and back might have been a nice gesture.) I didn't think it was recoverable. As far as I know it is not available anywhere else online today.

  

  If you are using MLX and the driver isn't working, change the following line in MLX from:

  101 POKE788,52:REM DISABLE RUN/STOP

  to:

  101 SYS(the number you found in K Basic): REM ENABLE CK/1

  To redefine one of the keys as a comma, list Lines 7010 to 7050 of the K Basic program and change the desired key to a comma.

  About:
       Cardco was started in 1982 by Ed Lippert and Breck Ricketts out of a garage in Kansas with four employees. Breck designed almost all of the products and Ed was the energetic salesman. I think all of the Cardco products have a certain character or charm. Innovative, yet unrefined / cost-reduced... maybe just a step or two above home-brew. They had really great documentation though. We all remember how the company flooded our magazines with advertising - much of it in full color and occupying some prime real estate. Well, the company grew too quickly and lacked the necessary maturity. For example, on Tuesday, February 19, 1985, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for Cardco by Breck. The USPTO had given the Cardco trademark a serial number of 73522548. But, by November, the federal status of this trademark filing was ABANDONED-FAILURE TO RESPOND OR LATE RESPONSE. The business finally collapsed in 1989 after only seven years. Manufacturing rights were sold off and the founders went on to pursue other business ventures.

• Cardco Cardriter Light Pen (Disk image.) - Software / example drivers for the light pen. Restored from cassette. Documentation Here. To the best of my knowledge this manual/disk is not available anywhere else online today. Scanned and uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive.

  A light pen is a pen-shaped input device which connects to a compatible computer (such as the VIC-20). The device contains a light sensor which, when pointed at a cathode ray tube screen, generates a signal each time the electron beam raster passes by the spot the pen is pointing at. The VIC chip accepts this signal, generates the X and Y coordinates in a pair of registers, and, if desired, causes an interrupt to the CPU every time new coordinates are reported. It is difficult to find a light pen that still works today. Plus, you need an old TV with a picture tube (not an LCD). The first light pen was called a "light gun" and in 1952 it was part of the Whirlwind Project at MIT. Subsequent devices were used to hone in on suspicious blips on the CRT in the U.S. air defense system (research the Whirlwind and SAGE systems). The light pen became moderately popular during the early 1980s. Since the current version of the game show Jeopardy! began in 1984, contestants have used a light pen to write down their wagers and responses for the Final Jeopardy! round.

  Despite the ease and availability of this technology, it was rarely used, owing mainly to lack of precision. First of all, the X coordinate is "rounded off" to even pixels (or more precisely; the reported X coordinate is an integer representing half of the actual horizontal position). Second, problems with noise, non-ohmic properties of the involved cables etc. causes a lot of "jitter" (several pixels) on the reported X coordinate, even if the pen is held completely still over a specific point on the screen. The light pen also requires the entire screen image to be quite bright, to ensure a significant "spike" in the amount of light received as the beam passes by the pen's tip. Any dark graphics causes the aiming point to "slip off" the dark areas, catching a nearby brighter spot on the screen instead. These limitation make the light pen system unsuitable for "precision work", such as drawing things or pointing to menus on the screen, leaving only "non-precision" shooting games as a target application for this technology.

• Cardco Cardboard/6 (Document.) - The most valuable feature of the Cardboard/6 is its ability to switch select memory address lines on a per slot basis. Scanned and uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive.

  The long ribbon cable that connects this adapter to your computer is liable to pick up electrical interference that prevents some cartridges (including Quick Brown Fox) from working reliably. Products from Precision Technology are also suspect. The only way to fix Cardco's 6-Slot Adapter is to wrap the ribbon cable in aluminum foil to screen out the interference. Be sure that the aluminum foil doesn't contact any other metal surface, such as the edge connector or the circuit board. This may expose you to a shock hazard and damage your equipment.

• Cardco Cardboard/3s - The most valuable feature of the Cardboard/3s is its ability to switch select memory address lines on a per slot basis. DIP-switch settings:

  				Dip 1: Slot 1, block 5
  				Dip 2: Slot 1, block 3
  				Dip 3: Slot 2, block 5
  				Dip 4: Slot 2, block 3
  				Dip 5: Slot 3, block 5
  				Dip 6: Slot 3, block 3
  				Dip 7: Blocks 1 & 2 for all 3 slots
  				

• Cardco Cardram 16 (Document) - 16K Memory Expansion Cartridge for the VIC-20 instructions and DIP-switch settings.
• Cardco Cardware C01 (Document) - "WRITE NOW!," cartridge instructions. SYS41000 to start.
• Cardco Cardette 1 - No documentation, but still worth a mention. Absolutely the best way to transfer TAP files converted to WAV using your Mac/PC sound card and a program like Audacity. I use TAPWAV v2.5 to handle the conversion from TAP to WAV. I set my computer's volume to about 75-80% in Audacity, but your experience may differ. I've owned many various C2N/1530 substitutes, including DC2N, but I must admit that I'm most impressed with this old classic. Pick it up on eBay the next time you see one! I also recommend grounding the cassette switch pin (F-6), so VIC doesn't keep asking you to press buttons on the datasette unit. Pin A-1 is ground on the cassette port. I don't recall any VIC-20 games that required the cassette switches to be off to RUN, but there may have been some C64 ones. Correct me if I'm wrong.
• Quick Brown Fox (Document) - word processor cartridge instructions; includes start-up SYS locations and information on using with Data 20's 40/80 column cards (see below). To start, type SYS24576 and press RETURN. The message with (0, 4, 8)? will appear. On an unexpanded VIC-2O, type 0. If you are usinga Data 20 or Quantum Data board, type 4 for a 40-character text display or 8 for an 80-character display. Use SYS32549 to start after special configuration settings (see instructions).
• Commodore VIC-1110 (Document) - 8K Memory Expansion Cartridge for the VIC-20 instructions and DIP-switch settings.
• Jason-Ranheim Promenade C1 Files (Directory) - PROMOS v1 for the Commodore VIC-20 and related documents. Version 1 may be out there but it is hard to find. For example, I'm having trouble reaching Andrew Wiskow's site now. You will need it for the VIC-20. Documentation is over on Mike Naberezny's site. For an example procedure of burning ROMs with a VIC, please read these step-by-step instructions.

  About:
       The Jason-Ranheim Company (San Jose / Auburn) was a company which made specialized boards for the Commodore and advertised in all the Commodore magazines of the 1980's and 1990's. JR sold a variety of eprom related products for the VIC-20 circa 1983, and produced the Promenade C1 EPROM programmer. The Promenade C1 has been cloned by several people and is seen by many as the eprommer standard in the USA.

       In September, 2011, Judy Ranheim, widow of John Ranheim of the Jason Ranheim Company, contacted Robert Bernardo's user group. Judy wanted to give the remainders of the company to the user group, and Robert visited her house and packed his car with loads of goods from her. The FCUG members were be able to pick out what they wanted at the following users group meeting.

• Protecto Enterprizes / PPP Speakeasy-C Files (Directory) - Show off your Votrax-based (SC-01-A) voice synthesizer with these simple, sample programs and related documents. "Shut your face," I found somewhere else, but, "VIC Tongues," is an original creation of mine. You can now listen to Mr. T say, "I pity the fool!" (mp3), a program by Larry Cameron.

  Some comments on VIC Tongues: Sending random phonemes to the Votrax can give VIC his own language. You can listen for hidden messages amongst his endless babble. Is it inspired? If you are lonely he can be that loyal companion who never shuts up!

  Code:

  					220 PRINT"{CLR}{RVS ON}VIC TONGUES"
  					230 A%=RND(1)*63
  					250 POKE38912,A%
  					260 IFPEEK(38912)<128THEN260
  					270 GOTO230
  				

  The Protecto Enterprizes VIC-20 Voice Synthesizer is actually a 1983 Personal Peripheral Products (PPP) Speakeasy. As far as I can tell this information is not available anywhere else online today. Speakeasy is a voice synthesizer designed to allow voice to be added to adventure and cartridge games on the VIC-20. It comes in a cartridge that plugs into the VIC's expansion port. These models are self-amplified, requiring only an external speaker be connected to the RCA phono jack in the rear. The synthesizer can be programmed from BASIC or machine language by POKE-ing to only one address. The package includes an editor that allows the user to append, insert, and delete phonemes in strings to create phrases and sentences. The 256 phoneme buffer can be stored on tape or disk. The Speakeasy cartridge, including the editor tape, originally sold for $79. An optional Speaker Box and C64 Adapter were also available. There are two existing programs online that work with this unit:

  1. Phoneme Editor.t.prg
  2. Phoneme Speak.t.prg

  HELP!! -- There is some missing software out there for BLK5 = $A000-$BFFF that adds command(s) to BASIC: Smoothtalker. Also missing are Gametalker and Terminaltalker. If you have one or more of these programs then please contact me at "rmelick650 at google dot com" so I can host them here for everyone to enjoy.

  These manuals were added 3/6/2011. Thank you Paul D. for the find! I've scanned and uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive.
  1. Speakeasy Installation and Operations Manual v1.2.
  2. Speakeasy Phoneme Editor Operating Instructions v1.

            

  All the Votrax speech synthesizers owe their existence to the discrete speech synthesizer design created in 1970 by Richard T. Gagnon. In 1980, Votrax designed and manufactured an integrated circuit speech synthesizer called the SC-01/SC-01-A. This IC proved very popular in the third party market and was produced until at least 1984. Several ICs populate the SPEAKEASY-C board:

  Votrax sc-O1-a p8143 5107c Speech Synthesizer (US Patent 4,433,210)
  NSC 130c lm 386n-1 Low Voltage Audio Power Amplifier
  NSC p227 dm7406n Hex Inverting Buffers with High Voltage Open-Collector Outputs
  Mitsubishi m74ls75p811900 4-BIT D LATCH (temporary storage)
  Mitsubishi m74ls27p812200 TRIPLE 3-INPUT NOR GATE

  BYTE magazine published an article (Features, Feb. 1981, page 164) about the SC-01 by two Votrax Employees, and here is its phonetic speech dictionary.

  The Protecto / Speakeasy expects decimal values (0 to 63) for the phonemes to be poked into 38912 ($9800). So, you need to update the Table 1 in the dictionary and number each line in decimal from 0 to 63. It is already in order. Just start at the first line "00 EH3 59 jacket" and number from each line from 0 to 63. The table continues on to the following page. You will use the decimal number to POKE instead of the hex number printed in the left column as the, "Phoneme Code." You can then say any word from pages 5-22 in the back of that dictionary by making the hex-to-decimal substitution for the phoneme codes shown in Table 1. For example:

  "Shut your face."

  Example phoneme programming sequence:
  3E, 11, 32, 31, 2A, 3E, 29, 34, 34, 2B, 3E, 1D, 06, 21, 29, 1F, 3E

  Protecto / Speakeasy ("POKE 38912") Sequence:
  62, 17, 50, 49, 42, 62, 41, 52, 52, 43, 62, 29, 06, 33, 41, 31, 62

  Code:

  				 LOAD address $1001
  				
  				 220 PRINT"{DOWN}{RVSON}SPEAKING"
  				 230 FORJ=1TO17:READA
  				 250 POKE38912,A
  				 260 IFPEEK(38912)<128THEN260
  				 270 NEXTJ
  				 280 POKE38912,63
  				 300 DATA62,17,50,49,42,62,41,52,52,43,62,29,6,33,41,31,62
  				

  About:
       Originally Protecto Enterprizes started with a computer called the Interact and then the ATF, followed by the VIC-20 and C64. They decided what they wanted to do is offer the consumer somebody they can talk to. It worked so well that Commodore used to refer people to Protecto Enterprizes from their own customer support lines. All of their sales people knew the equipment, they knew the product, and they knew what what was being sold. Protecto Enterprizes gained a pretty good reputation along those lines. When the VIC-20 first came out Protecto Enterprizes was working out of the basement of John Schelley's house (president and co-founder). They soon bought a location and quadrupled office space & phone lines, and doubled warehouse space as well. The company strategy was to focus on customer service. They had many, many repeat customers. A second part of the strategy was fast shipping and service (the only computer company in the United States where you could do impulse buying by phone at the time). The final part of the strategy was a fifteen-day, "free trial" policy. No matter what, you could always send stuff back and get a full refund within forty-eight hours. Repair work was handled by just shipping out another new unit -- for free if in warranty or charging a small fee if out of warranty. They sometimes doubled the warranty to 180 days. • LOWEST PRICES • 15 DAY FREE TRIAL • 90 DAY FREE REPLACEMENT WARRANTY • BEST SERVICE IN U.S.A. • ONE DAY EXPRESS MAIL • OVER 500 PROGRAMS • FREE CATALOGS -- Protecto Enterprizes ("We Love Our Customers"), Barrington, Illinois.

• Data-20 Files (Directory) - 80-column word processor and mail merge software for Data-20 Video Pak 80 / 16k VideoPak and related documents. There were at least two versions of the Data 20 hardware for VIC-20 that I can tell. As far as I know this information is not available anywhere else online today.

  Data 20 16K "Video Pak" w/ Power Supply (1982) seems to be a first generation of the 40/80 column card products. It used a Synertek 6545 video controller. Power supply was 9V AC output (same as VIC), so a two prong VIC-20 power supply could be adapted by connecting leads to the bottom side of pins 1 and 3. A number of people have reported owning 64k Video Paks, so they were definitely not vaporware. Notes on the Word Manager software: vwp and vwp+ are basically the same, but vwp+ requires slightly more memory. There is also some mail merge software. I know I found them somewhere else from Brent Santin, but the documentation was a lot harder (had to locate a 16K Video Pak and scan them myself).

  Data20 Programs (Disk image) - A disk image of Data20 programs for VIC and C64, including the hard to find, "Plan Manager," (called CALC) a spreadsheet program.

  Plan Manager Instruction Manual - in the process of being uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive. - DONE!

  Word Manager Instruction Manual from bytemaniacos.com. Uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive. (An older 1982 version has been obtained and is here now!)

  Word Manager Feature Key Definitions:

  			F1 SELEXT FUNCTION
  			
  			KEY 		SHIFT / NON-SHIFT
  			--- 		-----------------
  			1 		SAVE / LOAD
  			2 		CENTER / PRINT
  			3 		CHANGE PRINTER / CHANGE STORAGE
  			4 		BLOCK MOVE / BLOCK COPY
  			5 		REPLACE / SEARCH
  			6 		REPEAT OFF / REPEAT ON
  			7 		UNDERLINE OFF / UNDERLINE ON
  			8 		MERGE FILE NAME / SET MERGE
  			9 		REMOVE DOCUMENT / CLEAR DOCUMENT
  			0 		SET FORMAT
  			+ 		LEFT JUSTIFY / GOTO NEXT PAGE
  			- 		READ DIRECTORY / GOTO PREVIOUS PAGE
  			LBS 		FORMAT DISK / EXIT TO BASIC
  			CLRHOME 	DELETE LINE / TOP OF PAGE
  			INSTDEL 	INSERT TEXT / DELETE CHARACTER
  			CRSR UP/DN	MOVE TO START OF DOCUMENT / MOVE TO END OF DOCUMENT
  				
  			

  Data 20 Video Pak Instruction Manual. Scanned and uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive.

  Video Pak Function Key Definitions:

  			F1 = UPPER CASE
  			F2 = LOWER CASE
  			F3 = ERASE TO END OF LINE
  			F4 = ERASE TO END OF SCREEN
  			F6 = PRINT SCREEN [must OPEN127,4 first], or OPEN127,4:PRINT#127,CHR$(139):CLOSE127
  			F8 = TERMINAL ON|OFF [must open127,2,2,CHR$(8) first] 
  			

  Video Pak firmware resides in BLK 5, however adding another 3K + 8K in BLK 3 can give you max 31K bytes free for Basic!! How?

  SYS 45059 : POKE 642,4 : SYS 58232

  Unplugging the Video Pak power adapter also disables the 16K expander, so you can leave it in and still use your Mega-Cart or other similar products. The Video Pak is also compatible with the Speakeasy Voice Synthesizer; Cardco CK/1 Numeric Keypad and JiffyDOS (function keys do not work, and disk directories must be loaded & listed). Software research is still ongoing, but here is an example of how to use the Programmer's Aid cartridge (function keys do work):

  SYS 28681 : SYS 45059 : NEW

  Display Manager (a.k.a., Protecto 40/80) seems to be the second version of the Data 20 video hardware. It is a smaller board, more refined and requires no external power supply. It optionally shipped with 8K RAM which could be configured in BLK1 or BLK3. The manual mentions the firmware ROM at $A000. As far as I can tell it functions exactly the same was as the ROM in the earlier Video Pak adapter card from 1982. I found it easier to pop that ROM out so it doesn't conflict with my RAM pack also in BLK5, and just use the auto-start cartridge image whenever I want to use 40 or 80-columns. This configuration also allows me to use the RAM starting at $B000, though I'm still testing what benefits this could provide me. They put some screen RAM there! :-(

  About:
       Data 20 Corporation was incorporated in California on May 26, 1982. The company was located south of Long Beach in Laguna Hills. Data 20 employed approximately twelve people. The company was founded by husband and wife team Edward and Jan Sempliner along with William J. Schlanger. The Sempliners contributed $30,000 as the initial capital of Data 20. Mr. Sempliner was a director, president, and a thirty percent owner of Data 20. In October, 1983, Sempliner had a nervous breakdown and resigned from Data 20.
       Mr. Schlanger was 22 years old at the time and named director and vice-president of engineering. As vice-president of engineering of Data 20, Mr. Schlanger handled all of the engineering design and development for Data 20, and all of the production purchasing for Data 20. He hired and supervised the five engineers and technicians working for Data 20. He also hired his brother, Steven.
       Steven Schlanger was hired as a salesman by his brother. In October, 1983, when Sempliner resigned, Steven was named a director and vice-president of sales and marketing of Data 20. As vice-president of marketing for Data 20, he was responsible for selling the products of Data 20. He handled customer relationships. He supervised two employees who fielded phone calls from Data 20′s customers. He controlled the prices Data 20 charged its customers.
       In January, 1984, William Schlanger hired William White to be president of Data 20. Under White's leadership, Data 20 failed to fully pay its payroll taxes from the last quarter of 1983, all four quarters of 1984, and the first half of 1985. The company also failed to secure meaningful venture capital during this time.
       In May, 1985, William Schlanger resigned from Data 20 when the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. On October 12, 1989, the United States of America recovered $70k from William White in a lawsuit over the whole payroll tax issue. The Schlanger brothers went on to patent an uninterrupted power supply system for Unison Technologies in October, 1988.

• MPI 020 Super Action Memory Expander Board for VIC-20 (Document) - Instruction manual for this cool 3-slot motherboard extension with RAM (up to 35K) and ROM socket.

  

• Dataspan-50 - Five slot, expansion board for Commodore VIC-20

  - 5 slot combination rotary and rocker switch selectable expansion board conveniently covers all switching needs.
  - Combination switches allow total control between computer cartridges and game cartridges.
  - Dataspan-50 allows stacking of memory cartridges up to 29K in BASIC and 40K in machine language.
  - Fully buffered by five hi-tech, low power, integrated circuits that help prevent erratic operation and loss of data common in typical un-buffered expansion boards and isolates the VIC's microprocessor from accidental damage.
  - Highest quality circuit board with gold contacts throughout.
  - Fused to protect the VIC-20's power supply.
  - Master reset button eliminates turning computer off and on.
  - Independent write-protection on two slots.
  - Aluminum side rails.

  HELPFUL USAGE NOTES
  • You can add 5V DC supplemental power to the on-board power socket, but you don't have to. This is optional. RAM cartridges will then retain their contents with the computer OFF. If you do, positive charge to your center post and negative charge around the side, like so: - -(+

    - If you accidentally have the polarity reversed the VIC won't start. Just power down and reverse the polarity.

  • The rotor should be dialed to wherever you have a BLK5 auto-start cartridge image, otherwise turn it to "0" to prevent auto-start on all slots.
  • DIP switches #1 and #2 control the read-write on/off positions of the first two slots respectively. The #3 and #4 switch have no function. The expander will be shipped to you with switches #1 and #2 in the "ON" position, meaning you can write to RAM cartridges in the first and second slots. (The read-write lines are always "ON" for the last three slots.)
  • If you have a 3K RAM cartridge, I recommend placing it in the first slot for maximum configuration options:

    - Rotor 0, all DIP switches OFF = unexpanded VIC
    - Rotor 0, DIP #1 ON = VIC + 3K RAM visible to BASIC (6655 bytes free)
    - Rotor 1, DIP #1 & #2 ON = VIC + 8K to BASIC (11775 bytes free, or more) + 3K for ML

• ftp.funet.fi:/pub/cbm/vic20 (ZIP file) - Just by a fluke or stroke of luck, I managed to grab the VIC-20 archive on August 7, 2001 before it disappeared some time later. Based on the emails I received back in the day, I believe this archive was used to help reconstruct the resource on some other servers since then as well.
• Commodore's Book of Games for the VIC-20 (Document) - A catalog of Commodore software products for the VIC-20 home computer.
  

• Nüfekop for 1982 (Document) - A catalog of Nüfekop products for the VIC-20 home computer. Check out, Nufekop: Images of a classic game company [Paperback].
• German Magazine VC-20 Type-Ins from Tokra - A VC-20 afficionado's gift to us retro-computing enthusiasts!

  	German Magazine VC-20 Type-Ins from Tokra!

• Magazine Indexes & Companion Disks - The Compute! Publications' VIC-20 Index was compiled from various sources by Dan Fandrich, Sami Rautiainen, Michael Heinrichs, Jeno E. Kontros, Jeremy Sieracki, Michael LeRoux, Rick Melick, et alia... Following the Compute!'s GAZETTE VIC-20 index below, I list the (Re-) RUN Magazine VIC-20 Index containing all of the titles published in the first three issues of Re-RUN. The magazine dropped disk/cassette publishing for the VIC-20 after that.

  Compute! Magazine VIC-20

  Compute!'s GAZETTE VIC-20

  Jan 1982 (*** disk image for all 1982 issues ***) - TINYMON1: A Simple Monitor For The VIC - VIC Color Tips - VIC Memory Map Above Page Zero - ZAP!! (game) Feb 1982 - Extended VIC-20 Input Devices: Paddles And The Keyboard - Alphabetizer (sort) - An Easy Way To Relocate VIC Programs On Other Commodore Computers - Timekeeping Mar 1982 - Word Hunt (game) - Large Alphabet For The VIC - Machine Language:Loops & Quality - More VIC Maps - Starfight 3 (game) Apr 1982 - Using The VIC-20 Game Paddles - Machine Language: Jump To It! - Browsing The VIC Chip - Renumber VIC-20 BASIC Lines The Easy Way May 1982 - Modem Driver Module (MDM-1) - The Joystick Connection: Meteor Maze - Amortize - Machine Language: First Steps - Putting The Squeeze On Your VIC: Getting Most Of 5k Jun 1982 - VIC/PET BASIC Program Transfers - Using Atari Joysticks With Your VIC - Machine Language: First Steps - VICs Perpetual Calendar - BASIC Program Merges: PET And VIC Jul 1982 - Gold Rush! (game) - Answer Selection With Joysticks - Machine Language: First Steps - Multidigit Addition - VIC Super Expander Memory Map Aug 1982 - Machine Language: Shreds And Patches - Vic Key - VIC Communications: The RS-232 interface - VIC Curiosities - A Light Pen For Under $10 Sep 1982 - Machine Language - $20 VIC Digitizer - On-The-Spot Commodore Disk Fixes - VIC Sticks - Vic Pause - A Vic Bug Oct 1982 - Superchase (game) - Mathman (game/educational) - Machine Language - PIXELATOR - The ViC Keyboard Redefined - VIC Joystick And Keyboard Routine - VIC Ringer(signals 80th position on a line is reached) Nov 1982 - UXB (game) - VIC Harmony (game/music) - Rainbow Clock - Machine Language: Serial Communications - From VIC-20 To Mainframe - VIC Micromon - Programming VIC's Function Keys - VIC Plotting Dec 1982 - VIC And PET PILOT Interpreter - Understanding VIC High Resolution Graphics - Machine Language: Hexed - A Universal Program Lister - VIC Block SAVE And LOAD - Tiny Aid For VIC-20 - VIC File Clerk - Checkbook - Flashing Prompt For VIC And PET Jan 1983 (*** disk image for all 1983 issues ***) - VIC Sound Generator - Juggler (game) - Thunderbirds (game) - Machine Language: Speed Demon - All About Commodore's WAIT Instruction - Copy Vic Disk Files - WAITing On The VIC-20 And Commodore 64 - Perfect Commodore INPUT's - VIC Super Expander Graphics - VIC Pencil - VIC Personal Accountant Feb 1983 - A Day At The Races (game) - Copy Cat (game) - Writing Effective Educational Programs - Machine Language: The New 6500 Chips - Writing Effective Educational Programs - Vic Searcher - Creating Graphics on the Expanded Vic - Bi-Directional Vic Scrolling - UFO Pilot: VIC Custom Characters For Game Graphics Mar 1983 - Closeout! (game) - Boggler (game) - Fighter Aces - Add A Second VIC Joystick - Machine Language: Numeric Input, Part 1 - Musical Scales On The VIC (music/sounds) - Automatic Commodore Program Selector (Disk Menu) - A Commodore Gotcha (commodore error) - BASIC Trace For The VIC - The Confusing Catalog (Disk Menu) - Automatic VIC Appending - VIC Tracing Disassembler - Friendly VIC Inputs Apr 1983 - Typing Teacher (game/educational) - Machine Language: Numeric Input, Part 2 - Dr. Video (adds 4 new screen editing functions) - Center The VIC Screen - VICword (redifines keys) - Programming Characters On An Expanded VIC-20 - Magic Commodore BASIC - VIC Automatic BASIC - Commodore Structure-BAStC - HEXEDIT:A BASIC Hex Editor For The VIC - Major & Minor: VIC Music Theory (music/sound) May 1983 - Deflector (game) - Crosswords (game) - Machine Language: Numeric Output, Part 1 - Programming Multicolor Characters On The VIC - VIC Kaleidoscope - PET/CBM POP - Bootmaker For VIC, PET, And 64 - VICSTATION: A "Paperless Office" - VIC File Case - Visiting The VIC-20 Video part 1 - Versatile Data Acquisition With VIC(IRQ) Jun 1983 - Astrostorm (game) - The Hawkmen Of Dindrin (game) - Bee Trap (game) - Memory Trainer (game) - Machine Language: Numeric Output, Part 2 - Data Searcher - VIC, 64, And PET Supermon Questions And Answers - Slow List On The VIC-20 (Timing) - Easy VIC Machine Language Saves (moving BASIC) - UnNEW For The VIC - Machine Language Saver - VIC Contractor (memory expansion) - VIC Power Spirals (graphics/super expander) - Visiting The VIC-20 Video part 2 - Minefield (game) Jul 1983 - Techniques For Writing Your Own Adventure Game - Goblin (game) - Speedski (game) - Time Bomb (game) - Machine Language: Numeric Output, Part 3 - How To Make Backup Disks For VIC And 64 - How The VIC/64 Serial Bus Works - VIC MUSICIAN - All About The Commodore USR Command - Commodore Programmer's Alarm Clock - Visiting The VIC-20 Video part 3 (graphics) - Vic Bitmapping (graphics) Aug 1983 - Dragon (game) - First Math (game/educational) - Clues (game) - Machine Language: Bagel Break, part 1 - Neat Numbers On The VIC (justifying numbers) - Relocating VIC Loads - VIC And 64 Escape Key - VIC-20/64 Translations: Reading The Keyboard - Input Functions On The VIC - Visiting The VIC-20 Video, Part 4 (graphics) - VICplot (graphics) - VIC Display Messages Sep 1983 - Caves Of Ice (game) - Diamond Drop (game) - Mystery Spell (game) - Dots (game) - Machine Language: Bagel Break, Part 2 - VIC Pilot (programming Language/graphics) - Ultrasort For Commodore (sort) - Relative Files ForVIC-20 And Commodore 64, Part 1 Oct 1983 - Dragonmaster (game) - Moving Maze (game) - Mosaic Puzzle (game) - Spelling Quiz (game/educational) - Machine Language: Bagel Break, Part 3 - Merging BASIC Programs From Commodore Disk - Spiralizer (super expander/graphics) - Commodore EXEC - Invisible Disk Directory For VIC And 64 - High Speed Mazer - Commodore DOS Wedges: An Overview - Protector For VIC-2O (disabling commands) - VIC Scaling Bar Graphs Nov 1983 - Goodbye Charlie (game) - Crazy Climber (game) - Alpha Blast (game) - Pathway (game) - U-boat (game) - Machine Language: Debugging - Commodore Files For Beginners, Part 1 - Modem Save And Download For The VIC-20 - The Commodore Character Set - Using The VIC/64 Function Keys - VIC/64 Tape Aids - Variable Lister - PEEK And PRINT For The VIC-20 Dec 1983 - Calorie Cop - Paycheck Analysis - Utility Bill Audit - Gas Mileage - Machine Language: Hopping Around - List And Scroll For The VIC And 64 - Commodore Files For Beginners, Part 2 - Art Museum (screen saver) - Disk Explorer For Commodore (disk utility) - Son Of Lister For VIC And 64 - Comparing Commodore Machine Language Programs - ViC/64 Clock Jan 1984 (*** disk image for all 1984 issues ***) - Demons Of Osiris (game) - Colorbot (game) - Machine Language: Factors: A ML Factoring Program Part 1 - All About Commodore Chaining - The Mozart Machine (sound/music) - Commodore Files For Beginners, Part 3 Feb 1984 - Circus (game) - Quatrainment (game) - Gotcha! (game) - Machine Language: ML Factors, Part 2 - Commodore 3-D Drawing Master (graphics) - Speedy BASIC For VIC & 64 - 64Key & VICKey - Commodore Files For Beginners, Part 4 Mar 1984 - The Automatic Proofreader - Roader (game) - Barrier Battle (game) - Machine Language: Factors: A ML Factoring Program Part 3 - Relational Operations - Sound Shaper (sounds) - Commodore Floating Subroutines - Commodore Filetracker - Random Music (music/sound) Apr 1984 - Securities Analysis - Worm Of Bemer (game) - Machine Language; A Program Critique, Part 1 - 1540/1541 Disk Housekeeping - Variable Lister - Qwik load/Save For VIC & 64 - VIC/64 Screen print - Commodore Disk Datamaker - Super Directory May 1984 - Machine Language: A Program Critique, Part 2 - Pentominos: A Puzzle-Solving Program - VIC/64 Memdata - Commodore Word Wizard Jun 1984 - Pests (game) - Olympiad (game) - Machine Language: A Program Critique, Part 3 - Commodore Information Handyman - VIC & 64 TRACE - Garbage Collection On Commodore Computers, Part 1 Jul 1984 - Statistics For Nonstatisticians - Bunny Hop (game) - Machine Language: Decimal Mode, Part 1 Aug 1984 - Devastator (game) - Jackpot (game) - Machine Language: Decimal Mode, Part 2 - ML Tracer - Hi-Res VIC Drawing (graphics) Sep 1984 - The Tester - Missile Math (game/educational) - Lightsaver (game) - Machine Language: Math And Tables - Lightning Sort (sort) - Commodore Autoboot - Commodore Disk Pattern Matching, Part 1 - Tiny MLX: ML Entry Program For Unexpanded ViC-20 - MLX: Machine Language Entry Program For ViC-20 Oct 1984 - Canyon Runner (game) - Horse Racing (game) - The Number Game (game) - Machine Language: Same Game, Different Players - All About The Status Register, Part 1 Nov 1984 - Reflection (game) - Spiders (game) - Machine Language: Stack Tricks - Update On COMAL: A SuperBASIC - All About The Status Register, Part 2 - Commodore Potpourri - FOR-NEXT Loop Etiquette Dec 1984 - Things In The Dark (game) - Chess (game) - Machine Language: A Simple Sort - VIC Music Maker (sound/music) Commodore stops VIC-20 production @ ~2.5M units. Jan 1985 (*** disk image for first ten 1985 issues ***) - Paratrooper (game) - Rescue Of Blondell (game) - Machine Language: Multiplication, Part 1 - TurboTape: High-Speed Tape Utility For C64 And VIC-20 Feb 1985 - Machine Language: Multiplication, Part 2 - Acrobat (game) - Plus/Term For VIC & 64 (modem) - How TurboTape Works Mar 1985 - Space Caverns (game) - Machine Language: Retrospective - Threading Disassembler Apr 1985 - Mindbusters (game) - TurboDisk: High-Speed Disk Loader for 64 & Expanded VIC - SpeedScript 3.0: All ML Word Processor for Expanded VIC - Commodore File Protector May 1985 - Home Financial Calculator - Dynamic Function Keys for VIC & 64 Jun 1985 - Webster Dines Out (game) - BASIC File Editor for Commodore Jul 1985 - Softball Statistics (database) - Fast Filer (database) - Commodore Recruncher - Moving Memory with ROM for 64 and VIC-20 Aug 1985 - Using the Commodore USR Function Sep 1985 - Word Search - Commodore Bootstrapping - Jump Search (sort) Oct 1985 - The Witching Hour (game) - Save-with-Replace: Debugged at Last, Part 1 - Dynamic Keyboard for Commodore Machines, Part 1 Nov 1985 (*** disk image for next three issues issues ***) - Puzzler (game) - Commodore Dynamic Keyboard, Part 2 - Sove-with-Replace: Debugged at Last, Part 2 Dec 1985 - Memo Diary (planner) - SpeedScript 3.0 Revisited - Commodore Program Chaining - Commodore Dynamic Keyboard, Part 3 Jan 1986 - Formatted Printouts for Commodore Feb 1986 - N/A Mar 1986 (*** disk image for next two issues issues ***) - Loading and Linking Commodore Programs, Part 1 - The New Automatic Proofreader Apr 1986 - Loading and Linking Commodore Programs, Part 2 May 1986 (*** disk image for next three issues issues ***) - Loading and Linking Commodore Programs, Part 3 Jun 1986 - Loading and Linking Commodore Programs, Part 4 Jul 1986 - Loading and Linking Commodore Programs, Part 5 Aug 1986 (*** the last disk image ***) - Directory Plus for Commodore THE END

  Jul 1983 (1983-07.d64) - premier issue - Alfabug - Commodore Classics: Quickfind - Fanfare - Graphics w/PRINT - Skydiver & Skydiver (3K) - Snake Escape - Vic Marquee - VIC Timepiece - Word Hunt: A Puzzle Game Aug 1983 (1983-08.d64) - Barney - Cylon Zap (8K) - Global Scan For VIC And 64 - Keyboard - ML: RAMTEST - The Four-Speed Brake - The Viper - VIC/64 Mailing List - Wordspell Sep 1983 (1983-09.d64) - Bouncing Ball - Checkbook Reporter - Defend - Demon Star For VIC And 64 - Disassembler - MiniTerm-20 - Potholes - Rolling Dice - States & Capitals Tutor For VIC & 64 Oct 1983 (1983-10.d64) - Aardvark Attack - Machine Language For Beginners: Improved Paddle Reader Routine - Oil Tycoon - Proofreader - Re-Beep - Saving Money - Speeding Up The VIC - Word Match Nov 1983 (1983-11.d64) - Bake A Cake - Binary Castle - Character Developer - Chicken Little - Connect The Dots - Machine Language For Beginners: The Assembler (8K) - Martian Prisoner - Munchmath - UN-NEW - VIC Super Expander Graphics Dec 1983 (1983-12.d64) - BC: Dog - BC: Merry X-Mas - BLAM! - Bowling Champ - Budget Planner - Disk File Manager - Easy Screen Formatting - Machine Language For Beginners: Safe Places - Power BASIC: Foolproof INPUT For VIC And 64 - Saucer Shooter For VIC-20 - Space Duel - Spelling Bee - The Note Name Game - Thinking - VIC Billboard - VIC Music Writer Jan 1984 (1984-01.d64) - Alpha-Shoot - Canyon Cruiser - Cave-In For VIC-20 - Graph Plotter - Hardhat Climber - Machine Language For Beginners: Addressing - SpeedScript Word Processor For VIC and 64 - Tetracrystals Of Veluria Feb 1984 (1984-02.d64) - Cassette Cataloger - Checkers - Haunted Mansion - Homonym Practice - Machine Language for Beginners: Tapping into BASIC - Multicolor Character Generator for VIC-20 - React - Speed Reader - Typing Derby - VIC Piano Mar 1984 (1984-03.d64) - 1541 Backup (8K) - Averages - Cut-Off!: All Machine Language Game For Commodore 64 and VIC-20 - Dynamic SAVE - Machine Language For Beginners: Double Decker - MLX & Tiny MLX - Poker (3K) - The Inner World Of Computers Part 5: Small Is Beautiful - Tree Tutor For Tots - Trenchfire - VICreations: The Indexer Apr 1984 (1984-04.d64) - French Tutor - Machine Language For Beginners: Talking To A Disk - Making Calendars - Nevets - POWER BASIC: Numeric Keypad - Tankmania: Adding A Second Joystick To The VIC - The Beginner's Corner: Match-Em May 1984 (001MAY84.D64) - Cassette Beeper - Fast Add - Machine Language For Beginners: Mods And Bombs (13K) - Memo Writer - Mind Boggle - Power BASIC: Step Lister - Print Sound For The VIC-20 - Ski Physics - Sound Story - SpeedScript Revisited (13K) - The Beginner's Corner: Teaching Music With Computers Jun 1984 (002JUN84.D64) - 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe - Castle Dungeon - File Copier - Inside Random Numbers - PowerBASIC: One-Touch Keywords - Revenge Of Cyon - Shape Match - Spelling Critter - Tape Data Files - The Beginner's Corner: Planning A Game Program - The Frantic Fisherman - Therapy - Word Scramble Jul 1984 (003JUL84.D64) - Beekeeper - Bonking Barrels - Power BASIC: Color Chart - Robot Math - Space Patrol - The Beginner's Corner: Quilt Squares Aug 1984 (004AUG84.D64) - Balloon Blitz (8K) - Disk Purge - Error Trapping - Power BASIC: String Search - Sno-Cat - The Beginner's Corner: Using A Printer Sep 1984 (005SEP84.D64) - Animating The VIC - Beginner's Corner: A Simplified Inventory - Disk Tricks - Learning To Count - Mystery At Marple Manor - Power BASIC: Screen Headliner - SpeedScript Customizer - Treasure Hunt Oct 1984 (006OCT84.D64) - Cabby - Power BASIC: Hi-Res Screen Dump - Teaching Your Computer English - The Tomb - VIC Music Tutor - VICreations: Simulating Hi-Res Animation- Part 2 - Vocab Builder Nov 1984 (007NOV84.D64) - Bagdad - Budgeteer - Descent To Kaylon - Function Key - GAZETTE Telecommunications Software Part 1: C/G Term (16K) - Jump - Machine Language For Beginners: Assembler (8K) & Memory Display (8K) - Power BASIC: Slowpoke Dec 1984 (008DEC84.D64) - 3-D Labyrinth - Auto Line - Cassette Index - Cosmic Combat - Disk/Tape Backup (8K) - Letter Attack - Machine Language for Beginners: Customizing - Power BASIC: Time Clock - Word Guess Commodore stops VIC-20 production @ ~2.5M units. Jan 1985 (009JAN85.D64) - Chomper - Disk Merge - Kablam! - Magazine Indexer - Power BASIC: Stop And Go - Trap 'Em - VIC Math Dungeon - VIC Magic Draw (8K) Feb 1985 (010FEB85.D64) - Address File - Cypher - Line Number Cross Reference - Name That Note - Power BASIC: Color Swap & VIC Inverter - The Forbidden Crypt (8K) - VIC Quiz Generator Mar 1985 (011MAR85.D64) - Alpha Anxiety - AVAIL - Digger - Disk Directory Sort - Heat Seeker - Machine Language For Beginners: Memory - Power BASIC: Quick Character Transfer Apr 1985 (012APR85.D64) - Pool - Apple Hunt - Astro-PANIC! For the VIC - Number Quest - Machine Language For Beginners: Customizing BASIC - No-Zap: Automatic Program Saver - Horizons - Pudding Mountain Miner May 1985 (1985-05.d64) - Charlemagne's Sword (8K) - Jogger's Log (3K) - PAlien Armada - Power BASIC: Searchlight - Understanding Sorts Jun 1985 (1985-06.d64) - Character Assassination - Machine Language For Beginners: Datamaker - Power BASIC: Tape Program Rescue - Relative Files: Speed And Economy - Screen-40 (8K) - The Freeze Factory Jul 1985 (1985-07.d64) - Power BASIC: Disk Title Changer - Sleuth - TurboDisk (3K+) - TurboTape - TurboTape Generator (8K+) Aug 1985 (1985-08.d64) - Crunch - Hi-Res Toolbox, ReDisk (unexpanded, 8K, 16K) - Machine Language For Beginners: BASIC Version - Space Dock Sep 1985 (1985-09.d64) - Friendly Alien (3K+) - Power BASIC: QuickScan - TinyTerm for the 1650 Automodem Oct 1985 (1985-10.d64) - Atom Shoot - Kaleidoscope - Power BASIC: USR Joystick Reader - The Farm Game (16K+) Nov 1985 (1985-11.d64) - Backgammon - Chicken Catcher - Power BASIC: Screen Customizer Dec 1985 (1985-12.d64) - Banners - Power BASIC: List Pager - Soft Write Protector for Disks - Variable Saver Jan 1986 (1986-01.d64) - Power BASIC: Print Maker - REM Highlighter Feb 1986 (1986-02.d64) - Power BASIC: Blink Mode Mar 1986 (1986-03.d64) - ASCII Teleconverter - VIC Dump Apr 1986 (N/A) - N/A May 1986 (1986-05.d64) - Coder / Decoder - Power BASIC: Blink - Read-A-Tune (8K) - Word Counter Jun 1986 (1986-06.d64) - Predictor Jul 1986 (N/A) - N/A Aug 1986 (1986-08.d64) - Boldface - Kaleidoscope Revisited Sep 1986 (1986-09.d64) - Power BASIC: Sound Off THE END (Re-) RUN Magazine VIC-20 Re-Run: January to June, 1984 (Side A | Side B) - premier issue - Dskovic - Kngdm - Functkey - Dbase/3K - Vicasso - Doodl/3K - Serp/3K and Serpent Module - Baha1000 and Baha Module - Caves and Caves Module - Funkey Re-Run: July to December, 1984 (disk image) - 20Filter (3K) - 20Squeezer (8K) - 20Expander - Multicolor (3K) - Screen Relocator1 (8K) - Ponies - Space - Spacemod - President (3K) - 20Touchdown (3K) - Nimbots (8K) - Friend (3K) Commodore stops VIC-20 production @ ~2.5M units. Re-Run: Spring Edition, 1985 (disk image) - Screen - Jackets - Scrambler - Canyon - Canyonmod - Color - Bombs - Bombsmod - Trapped - Zxylon - Zxylonmod - Maze THE END

PET/BM

(keyboard image from absoluteastronomy.com)

• My Personal Electronic Transactor (Blog) - Check out my entry from Jamuary 2013 for additional information and links to other PET accessories and products.
• HUH Petunia (Disk image.) - 8-bit DAC drivers for Commodore PET circa 1978. Restored from cassette. Documentation Here
  The disk image also includes Visible Music Monitor by Dr. Frank Levinson c1980. VMM does *not* require the 8-bit DAC drivers to be loaded first. Documentation Here
• HUH Pet Beeper (Document.) - In addition to the Pedunia, HUH also made a hardware Beeper for Commodore PET circa 1978. The interface was used to monitor program loads from cassette. The interface can be used with all non-TED Commodore 8-bits, from the 2001-8 through C128. To use it with a TED computer (untested), you would need an adapter for sure. This one-page document, scanned and uploaded to DLH's Commodore Archive, allows you to make it beep under program control.
• 1981 Commodore Bibliography (Document) - A bibliography of Commodore related articles published in 1981 in 'Creative Computing', 'Kilobaud Microcumputing' and 'COMPUTE!'.
• Creative Computing Magazine Archive (Document Archive.org) - Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, Creative Computing covered the whole spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically oriented BYTE. The magazine was founded by David H. Ahl, who sold it to Ziff-Davis in the early 1980s, but remained as Editor-in-Chief. Featured writers included Robert Swirsky, David Lubar, and John J. Anderson. The magazine regularly included BASIC source code for utility programs and games, which users could manually enter into their home computers. At the end of its run, Creative Computing was attempting to refocus on business computing (as was the trend in most computer magazines of the time), but was not successful at this and ultimately ceased publication. TRIVIA: Ted Nelson, known for the invention of hypertext, was briefly the editor. The April, 1980 issue of Creative Computing contained clever parodies of all of the major computer magazines of the time. This collection of Creative Computing scans was organized and conducted by Kevin Savetz.

  There are six main sites online that together make up a complete reference library of vintage material for all Commodore computers:

  • DLH's Commodore Archive
  • Internet Archive > Ebook and Texts Archive > The Computer Magazine Archives
  • The Classic Computer Magazine Archive
  • atariarchives.org (Books, information, and software for Atari and other classic computers.)
  • commodore.ca (Products, History, Galleries, Manuals, Links, Forums and more.)
  • replacementdocs.com (mostly game manuals - various systems)

ommodore Deathbed Vigil (video)

• "The Deathbed Vigil and Other Tales of Digital Angst" - Dave Haynie's documentary of the last days of Commodore in 1994. It consists of a 20 minute tour of the nearly bare West Chester, PA plant and the people that remained in it days before the liquidation began. It progresses to the "Last Layoff Party" at a nearby bar, where scores of Commodorians had hung out for years. It progresses to the Deathbed Vigil Party at Randell Jesup's house, where loads of stories pour out about the good and bad old days. It culminates in the ultimate act of condemnation: the spray painting upon the Commodore speed bumps of the people they blamed for the collapse of the once-mighty computer company.

  Part I	Part II