I’m very pleased with my PAL VIC-20 replica, the Vicky-20. It’s almost a year old and the VIC-20 that sits on my desk all the time.

I’ve wanted the absolute best video out of this thing I could muster. This board is fortunately VERY easy to modify.

Connections

Sure, you need an S-Video Cable for this. You can use a 5 Pin DIN to RCA jack from the Amazonies for a few bucks. This works without modification with my RetroTink 2X Pro

I’m a Commodore guy through and through. This isn’t tribalism, it’s what was in my room from 1983 to when I graduated High School in 1993.

After my sorta failed attempt at spending the month of September with my Coco 2, I decided for October to try spending a week at a time with a particularly less familiar computer.

So starting on October 1st, and ending on the 7th, I spent my free time with the Atari Systems that I have.

In the inside baseball realm of vintage computer enthusiasts, a few hashtags have emerged to support one’s favorite retro computers.

The main one in September is #SepTandy

While I’ve had this Tandy Color Computer 2 for many years, I’ve almost never used it. Out of all of my vintage systems, it’s the one I know the least about. I happened to have upgraded the video circuitry on it this year. It can now produce a composite signal. Now the horrible screen colors and marginal text are almost readable.

A few months ago, I stumbled on a project that really caught my attention. Mr. Bernardo Kastrup, aka TheByteAttic finished a video series on a computer he designed and built “by hand.”

It’s an impressive amount of information. Clocking in at more than 12 HOURS.

3 Headed Dog

Like the guardian of the gates of Hades, the board is a three-headed dog because it has 3 main processors. Yes, 3.

I have several items from DIY Chris that we’ll review over the next week including a GAL PLA and flash-able ROM drop in that can hold kernal, character or BASIC ROMs.

First on the list is the RAM tester.

The problem child 128

I have a Commodore 128 which developed a bad RAM issue a few weeks ago. These old computers just sometimes sacrifice a part to the component gods.

Ahh, the quest for a better Vintage computer picture never ends. I’m having fun with it anyway.

Side thought: At what point does a computer cross over from old: no one wants that 2007 Windows tower you built in your basement, to OMG, it’s Vintage, let’s drive up the eBay bids to the stratosphere!!!!

How bad was it?