New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

As much as I'd like to think of myself as a Sinclair guy, this evil forum has inspired me to buy anything if its classic (and cheap)

A week ago a friend of mine spotted a bunch of old Commodore machines in a second hand store in Wellsford that were going to be dumped (all with their packing (a couple in original boxes he said, the other too in their styrofoam). He offered to pick them up, and will pop in next week to drop them off and pick up the cash from me...

• C64
• C64c
• Amiga 600 (apparently with extra external drive of some kind)
• Vic 20 + 8K ram cartridge

All for the paltry sum of just $20 - which keeps the wife happy I'm not wasting our bank balance (too much) - unfortunately also not making the wife happy as its also a 'So WHERE exactly are you going to keep that junk?!' moment...

Whether any of them actually work, no idea - he didn't say if they actually had any PSU's with them and from the piccies it doesn't look like it (though he may not have taken photo's of everything - just the machines)

I'll find out later this week when he drops them off. In the meantime, he sent me piccies of them (link below). The 64c looks like the keyboard's been a little unloved, though from the piccy it looks like sellotape that's yellowed with age. More soon, but looks like I am slowly moving from hoarder to tight-walleted Collector...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vlky6ifarwhr2xl/montage_CBM_stash.jpg?dl=0

Evil forums?

Good find! For $20 you can't go wrong. Especially as it contains an Amiga 600!

Yea, space is an issue but hey, these are stackable under stairs and the like.

tezza wrote:Evil forums?

Its because of that devilish whispering in my ear of 'Don't listen to your wife, you know you want those old computers'.

Nice going! most of the 2nd hand shops I know in Auckland would ask (and not get) $200 each for those.
Hopefully they're in good working order. Certainly *looks* like some of them should be.

Cor, I like the wee 600!

Yippeeeee! Got them today... Just the machines and a few small bits, but no PSU's for anything.

The 64c has no box - and yes, the crusty keyboard is indeed just crappy old sellotape - I'll assume a bit of soapy water could probably start to clear that...

There's a Breadbin 64 which is in a VIC 20 sleeve. However someones written 'Craigs C64' on the box, as well as 'with Warrens power unit' (which is crossed out). Its that nice chocolate-brown rather the the cream one I have at home. Its got a little bit of aging around the bottom part and a few very minor scrapes, but it looks to be in very clean condition. Have to say I really prefer the brown case over the cream...

The Amiga 600 was hidden inside a 1571 drive box. Its very cute indeed (and my first *ever* Amiga that I've owned - very exciting). Came with an external 3.5" (its got a sticker that says 'Roctec' on it - if that means anything of importance to anybody here). No PSU - but at some stage its obviously been opened up - the 'do not remove' sticker over the screws on the base are ripped off, and the case near the FDD isn't quite clicked close... This I'll assume will not just need a PSU, but software to test.

Finally the VIC20 (in a VIC sleeve) - looks quite sun damaged (lots of dark orange edging around the case), has that 3K ram cart (not an 8K as I had originally thought I saw in the photos) and the RF box. But doesn't look like its been damaged physically, just cosmetic case issues... Maybe its ok, but who knows...

Overall - everythings got the usual grubby dusty look, however other then the A600's slightly opened case, everything looks like its more external damage/scrapes (possibly 'ok' on the inside)

So - if anybody spots anyone selling cheap working CBM PSU's (C64/VIC/A600) let me know. I guess I'll need to source floppy disks for the A600 as well. Thankfully I see there's already a discussion on the forums here for that...

Here's a few random pic's from the office today...

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-yNJZpBnrutc1R2aGh3WkE5dDg&usp=sharing

Now... How the heck am I going to get all of this home on the bus?!

A600 uses the same power supply as the A500 and A1200 so you should be able to find one pretty readily on TradeMe. I think I have two, but I also have three A500s and an A1200

The A600 may or may not need some floppies to get it going. Given that it's been tampered with... it may or may not have a hard drive in it. The 600 has an IDE controller like the 1200, so chances are high that it's been opened to put a drive in (or take a drive out...). If you do need floppies I'm pretty sure I have Workbench 2.04 floating around in my stash.

Would it be worth building a PSU? I've seen a good handful of sites where people have used 2 - something to provide 5V and a second one for 9V - and wired the 7-pin DIN up to supply the right voltages from each... Looks relatively 'easy' (famous last words and all) - but hey, I'm no expert in electronics so I'd be holding the Commodore's lives in my hands.

There is a guy in the USA who can produce and sell alternate PSU's. That said, there is likely to be an issue with the 110 DC vs 230 AC...

http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/universal_ps/

Anybody here tried to do this?

Seriously if you can collect it from me, I can give you for free either a A600 or A500 PSU for this...
Got given a "pile" (10+) Amiga PSUs not so long along... + multiple external floppy drives, Amiga to 1084 cable/s etc.

kevman3d wrote:Would it be worth building a PSU? I've seen a good handful of sites where people have used 2 - something to provide 5V and a second one for 9V - and wired the 7-pin DIN up to supply the right voltages from each... Looks relatively 'easy' (famous last words and all) - but hey, I'm no expert in electronics so I'd be holding the Commodore's lives in my hands.

There is a guy in the USA who can produce and sell alternate PSU's. That said, there is likely to be an issue with the 110 DC vs 230 AC...

http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/universal_ps/

Anybody here tried to do this?

Those look like alternates for the Commodore 64. Amigas use a weird square plug and more regular voltages. But fear not, there's plenty of 500 power supplies around which are pretty reliable, and are beefier than the standard 600/1200 part.

Radar wrote:Seriously if you can collect it from me, I can give you for free either a A600 or A500 PSU for this...
Got given a "pile" (10+) Amiga PSUs not so long along... + multiple external floppy drives, Amiga to 1084 cable/s etc.

That would be great... Just a thought, would Digital Nationz be an option next weekend (assuming you'll be there at the exhibit that is) as I don't drive - which makes it kinda a bit of a tiki-tour to get out to your place by public transport from my side of Auckland (I recall visiting when mrad organised the retrogamer meetup a few months back). Thought I would ask - not a worry if that's no good.

kevman3d wrote:

Radar wrote:Seriously if you can collect it from me, I can give you for free either a A600 or A500 PSU for this...
Got given a "pile" (10+) Amiga PSUs not so long along... + multiple external floppy drives, Amiga to 1084 cable/s etc.

That would be great... Just a thought, would Digital Nationz be an option next weekend (assuming you'll be there at the exhibit that is) as I don't drive - which makes it kinda a bit of a tiki-tour to get out to your place by public transport from my side of Auckland (I recall visiting when mrad organised the retrogamer meetup a few months back). Thought I would ask - not a worry if that's no good.

Ok will bring a PSU to Digital Nationz for you!

That's awesome - thanks! I'll pop on by and say hello - I'm there both days (foolishly volunteering to do a talk - on 80's game development challenges (ie. explaining to the kids just how good they have it these days)).

Only just got that confirmed today after I thought it was probably all off (so I was relaxing over not having to panic over it) - Now I only have 4 days left to prep up a power point presentation and collect enough eye candy to keep it from being just my monotonous mumbling. Yipes!

Thanks for the PSU Michael... The 600's still at work, but I'll check it out on Monday and hope things work...

BTW, in terms of Digital Nationz, the display was great! Love that there was plenty of space to walk down this year, and a chance for people to stop and play a few games... I have another workshop session to run tomorrow, so I'll probably pop on in for a second (third and fourth) look.