"Another problema is the SD card. Half of the time it just doesn't detect the file system. Sometimes it does." IS not a bug, is a freature to give more realism as loading from a cassette.
Baking is only needed if you solder this in an oven. Baking makes moisture that is dissolved in the caseing come out slowly, so it prevents it from become steam during soldering and popping the case open due to high vapor pressure.
Yes baking is to remove the moisture form parts (if exposed to humidity for to long) before using a solder bath, not solder in a oven. Since he’s using IC inserts and soldering by hand he would never need to worry about. Side note: Baking parts is a slow temperature rising process that takes a few days.
@@jetin335 at my work we only bake when we coat the boards. We have a cart and insulation boards around the cart and use a space heater and we bake for one hour. That hardens the corformal coating. I'm sure all the parts were baked at the build house. I have to test the boards before I coat the boards then after baking. Most people don't bake boards unless they are told to. If I had my way I would require all coated boards and repaired boards to be baked.
@@thisisaloadofbarnacles921 Noelle made the actual in game music. But Anders circled back and made his own songs, I guess just for fun or maybe they'll show up in some future version of the game. They're on YT, search "Attack of the Petscii Robots - Level 3: The Village"
Probably due more to legal rights more than anything. I'm sure a super nerd can reengineer them but they'll probably get their balls sued to the wall by whoever holds the rights
Because current year!!! I seriously doubt the world wide yearly market for VIC chips is even a 1000 units. It just makes no sense unless it were entirely done by volunteers. It would require putting up all the money, up front to get the chips made. Some asshat somewhere owns the right to that chip and will sue the person to try to suck whatever money they can out of that ownership. So this volunteer who has to spend probably many hundreds of hours examining the original chip and then put up thousands of dollars for the run and then has to sell that stock to someone has also painted a target on their back from said copyright troll. Not to mention the fact that the Chinese firm who does the run will STEAL that chip and do a run themselves and flood the market with fakes. Not worth it.
@@tarstarkusz The rights owners (presumably a legal "successor in interest" to Commodore/MOS) could be paid to license production with or without access to historic design materials that might be in their possession. That said, the complete absence of on-chip software in these old chips might make it legal to reconfigure a commercial FPGA to do the job and put the FPGA config in a modern large ROM also containing the historic ROMs and bootstrapping code to provide soft switching of RAM blocks, clock speeds etc.
Hopefully, it would also run on Atari with 64kb of RAM (on video, he uses Atari 130).. and then, if it will be NTSC or PAL version :P But looking forward to it :)
@@Freewareopoly Hopefully 40k so it fits on a fully upgraded Atari 800. Given there's a PET version, it could fit on all Atari systems. Depends on whether the decision was universal compatibility or richer feature set. Then again, it should be possible to choose between versions on load and have the best of both worlds. Not expecting that but it would be a fantastic feature
@@TheJeremyHolloway fully loaded Atari 800 has 3 16k expansion carts. So yeah, I was wrong about 40, but going beyond that means hacking the board with something like the ultimate 1mb module, which I wasn't including
1:14 - I also dislike the sockets without the round notch, but learned that I could just push a dremel into the plastic and create a notch - preferably before soldering it to the board though :)
That thought occurred to me too. But when he held the two next to each other I noticed how much thinner the plastic “cross beam” was so if one were to cut into it (a noticeable notch otherwise why bother?) then you’ll maybe have a weak socket. IDK 🤷♂️ never tried it so maybe I should and report back. No. Too lazy. 😀
There are some keyset profiles where the rows are all the same. That should give you more options, and if you go with SA profile, it'll have a very retro look too.
I'm pretty sure that you can get key caps that mimic the colors of the Vic or i even think you can get new Vic and C64 chips made for modern mechanical keyboards.
@@horusfalcon from what I get this is a single run with no intend for a next one. I think you can get the CAD and Gerber files somewhere and do it yourself tough.
Last time he tried bodge something to work, a rare but worthless IBM prototype blew up and everyone yelled at him for destroying something that was apparently valuable, despite it being worthless. Why do you think 5 of them ended up in boxes and eventually ended up in the warehouse of a long abandoned computer store?
I just want to point out that I notice the upgraded production quality on all fronts. I'm glad to see you made it through that mess over the winter and came out shining at the other end. Keep up the great work!
Few things give me that simple joy of nostalgia and interest as listening to your podcast or watching these videos. Nice job as usual.. Very well done.
@@aprofondir that is true for example the cartridge slot is upwards not to the side however you could do a mod (as it is a kit) and actually make it work
I’m excited! I still have my 800XL. I loved my 800XL. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. Oh and I’m that guy who had a 5200 and thought the controllers were mostly good. But doesn’t this mean that the game will have to be called Attack Of The ATASCII Robots?
I love the new studio layout - that works very well - and the wall coverings look so much better this way. Great job - can't wait to see more videos! And the X16 proto-3 board looks very pro-grade - another project I'm eagerly waiting for!
So glad there’s a new video! This channel has gotten me through the pandemic. Found the channel through a restoration channel when someone mentioned how 8-bit Guy does retrobright…I’m hooked on this channel!
Oh wow, our first computer at home when I was a little kid was the VIC-20. It had the cassette tape drive and we played that Chopper game a lot! Thanks for the nostalgia!
@@71kaye Oh right, Mouse Trap! That was so fun too and who could forget the Space Invaders game! I remember there was a side-scroller game where you're driving a moon vehicle and it was so much fun! I think it was the VIC-20 but there's a chance it was the Commodore 64!
I still have my VIC 20, given to me Christmas 1981 when I was 11! I learnt to programme using it and have worked in IT for 32 years 😀 unfortunately it no longer boots up but I do have another which was booting last time I checked it. I also have a Sinclair ZX81 and Amstrad CPC 464.
I too have my VIC-20. You're just a smidge older than me. Got mine the same year but I was 7. To your point, went on to get an EE and CS degree and have been working in the industry since I was 17. I've also got a Sinclair 1000, a TRS-80 Model IV, and a Mac Plus (with 1 Meg of RAM and a 2400 baud modem... I was the man in high school!!!LOL) and countless machine I built between college and now. Such great times. What's amazing is that my ex wife is just six years younger than me and her coding style (also a CS major) was utterly different from mine. She never had to learn to program in a world of limited memory and everything was OO based by the tie she go to college. We solved the same problem one time many year ago and and he code had to have been five times the size of mine. But I give my VIC-20 (and learning Assembly and cutting my teeth on K&R) all the credit!!!LOL
Dude, this video is great! It really makes one want to get into the hobby. You have so much passion and knowledge, and your way of communicating is fantastic!
You need to write a expanded memory salutation in machine language, why the solderings????? all compatible apps that support expanded mem will support it! Windows is just a shell over DOS, supporting all DOS mem configs.
Read the Intel and AMD software developers manuals. The IBM PC compatibles (x86 and AMD64) have a lot of quirks in the memory maps even in the modern age of UEFI instead of legacy BIOS.
Weird that they did a kit that required an 'unobtainium' chip. I wouldn't mind it as a keyboard only, for feeding an emulator of some soft (VICE etc) rather than using a PC keyboard.
Just wanted to pop in and say that while I've only recently found your channel, I am super happy that you have full captions on this video that is barely 4 hours old. So many videos still rely on auto captions and it is amazingly refreshing to find a channel that defies that. Thank you so much!
David, thank you so much for creating an Atari 8-bit port of your game! I'm excited to see it and possibly purchase it! Any extra Atari 8-bit content is greatly appreciated!
8Bit Guy you are truly the joy of my day. My day always gets a little better when I see you've uploaded a new video. Your videos have gotten better and the new studio is fantastic, keep up the amazing work.
Wow, watching you solder this together brings back memories from the mid-80s when I spent many nights in the ITT Technical Institute lab setting up fellow students' capacitors to charging up and explode in their toolkits. Good times.
Lack of a VIC replacement notwithstanding, I think I'd go in with some bodge wiring to get the S-Video pin out correct, and extend the DIPs to mount them on the case in a suitably cut slot. Hopefully some future case rev will allow that.
My thought just now would be to cut the traces and use jumper wires. Or, if you have the knowledge, you could go grab the layout files from the designers bitbucket and correct the pinning properly.
Really enjoying the new content and your background 'graphic stuck to the wall' is MUCH better now. Excellent work and I look forward to many new and interesting videos, like this one!
There are two solutions to the keyboard. 1 - use a uniform profile such as DSA or XDA. 2 - Use blank keycaps and put stickers on them (or make your own dye sublimated ones). Also for non-uniform keycaps, I'd recommend either the SA or MT3 profile (though I don't know if either of those are available as blanks).
@@khoinguyenphamtrong4637 True, but they would give a more authentic feeling as they pretty much resemble what was on Commodore breadboxes. Especially SA which usually comes in glossy ABS.
Will the ram and charset be expandable. I'd like to be able to define glyphs for greek, cyrillic, and european languages. I'd also like to define up to 65,535 glyphs… Can the glyphs be 16x16 themselves?
It really is surprising how close it is to the original arcade game, especially considering that you're not only stepping down to a slower CPU (the original used a Z-80 running at 3MHz) with less RAM, but going from a vector-graphics display to a bitmapped raster display to boot. Probably one of the best Omega Race ports out there. Someone at Commodore put a *lot* of work into that one...
Wow you're super talented with that iron i could never keep my hands so steady. Nice to see people still appreciate the old Vic 20, or should i say Vic 2020.
keep reading the comments, soon the solder police will show up saying how horrible he is, how he is doing this wrong and that wrong and OMFG he is so lucky he didn't break this part becasue this reason. the pedants never fail to appear when he breaks out his iron.
He's gotten facts about them wrong in at least one previous episode, so you might want to watch a video from someone who actually has a love of and history with the machines, instead.
Thanks Dave for another enjoyable video. Your videos always encourage and inspire me to get into my various computer projects. So thanks for the entertainment and 8-bit education! :)
I'd really like to know the reason for the VIC screen ram changing position. Oversight? Price compromise? Weird logic design and backwards compatibility?
Regarding the X16, ever since you guys added expansion slots I've been curious. Why wasn't VERA moved to a slot? Is it to maintain a form factor that lends itself to making a C64 cartridge? Or is there some underlying issue like communication speed, voltage or something?
Also I believe that the VERA is basically required for the computer to function at this point, as opposed to being a default option one can switch out.
You're not too stupid. You just don't have the opportunity to learn. A few years ago I hadn't programmed a computer since the Vic 20, then I got an arduino. Built a robot kit. Then I got a raspberry Pi. I screwed around with them for a few years mostly making network stuff, routers, TOR routers, an add blocker, a self hosted VPN , self hosted a website, all with directions from the internet ... stuff I thought I wasn't smart enough for. Lately I've gotten interested in INFOSEC. Yesterday I figured out how to get a back door in a new, updated Linux computer using a USB rubberducky. Today I would like to figure out how to do the same thing to a windows computer... now I'm not feeling smart. All you need is the opportunity, raspberry Pis are about $75 . Hack the Box is a freemium model, learn by doing thing. It would suck to do that from a phone but a library or school's computer lab is might be the answer. Good luck. Don't give up. Look, neither one of us is smart enough to design a car from the ground up but we are smart enough to turn the key and go for a drive . We know how to google up how to change the oil or a headlight. Not rocket science but we need to be shown how. It s not a matter of smart. It's a matter of finding the information and getting your hands dirty. Also don't give up when you get shitty directions off the internet. When you get an error just copy and paste that error code into the google box and you'll figure it out. If a fat old hippy living in Northern Canada can figure some of this stuff out so can you.
I feel like the designer really should of consulted users like yourself for help with the dip switch for example. It's kind of a no brainer to have easier access to those switches...
I'm so happy to see so many people using these 8 bits. I spent a lot of hours typing on the VIC20, as many of us did, keying in software from magazines, trying to understand how they worked.. Sadly, I tossed mine out many years ago. Keep up the good work.
Typing in programs on a friends vic 20 was how my computer days started. (in fact I am still looking for one particular program from that time..Star Challenge). So tedious but it led to me owning a timex and c64's and many more. I don't have any of them anymore due to a flood but I have lots of great memories.
1:58 Yikes, that power jack is not going to last, especially if you're using it constantly for turning the system on and off. It's only got the main two pins holding it on. There's holes in the PCB for the sort of jack that has two extra large pins to make it more secure, yet it came with that cheap one? That's nuts.
@@unlokia On one of his other videos (forgot which) someone was complaining about how the power connector was horrible and a USB connector would last longer
The negatives/doublespeak on that moisture card are annoying as $#!%! It may not have mattered, but I think it was actually telling you that you DID need to bake them: "Bake parts if 10% is NOT blue..." {which is true, because it is pink, not blue} "...and 5% is pink." {which it also true}
That's how I read it. It seemed like it was describing two sets of parts, the level 2 parts that didn't need baking (because the first circle was blue, and the level 2A-5A parts that did need baking. Took me a couple reads to get that, though.
My big Brother and I bugged our old man all the time for those gaming consoles back in the early 80's. One Day our father came home with brand new Vic20, Printer and Basic programing book, told us if we wanted to play video games you will have to program your own. My brother and I took our bikes to the book store in search of a more advanced book on Basic if that makes any sense, had to wait for the special order about 10 days. My Dad designed and built a sound proof cabinet for the Printer.
It's so cool to hear your happiness when talking about to start assembling a new kit. :D When you showed the Petscii Robots game on the X16 I let out a "WOOOOW!" Looks amazing!! I'd like to buy one of your C64 versions but alas my drive developed the failure where it spins forever and never reads. That's the only cause I'm not longer using GEOS to this day. Also I saw you're going to publish an Atari version but the machine is a 130XE and I only have a 65XE and no disk drive. Will you ever make SD card versions? It'd be easier for me to get one of those modern SD card readers for the Atari or the C64. Also I smiled when you commented the Vic2020 keyboard feels amazing. I was like "Yeah! r/mk rulez!" Thanks for the episode! Peace.
All versions of the game also include a digital download so that you can put them on SD cards or whatever your drive emulator needs. The 65XE should be able to play the game just fine, but will require a disk drive or some sort of drive emulator.
@@The8BitGuy you could also go cartridge route even though it would be more expensive. Especially if ported to the 5200. AtariAge and Good Deal Games do sell 5200 cartridge games just in case you wanted to partner up...
That moisture card shouldn't be there as it's mostly for SMD parts, moisture sensitive part are only a problem when you reflow slolder them as steam could come off the package and misaligned the chip off his footprint. For a socketed dip chip it's fine....
Oh wow... just watched this. You brought back so many GREAT memories. I too first explored the world of PCs with a VIC-20 purchased from Montgomery Ward circa 1981/ 1982. Best Christmas ever. A few years later I'd graduate to a TRS-80 Model IV. Truly a great beginning... it was a pleasure growing up along side a burgeoning industry like that. We Gen X'ers had it the best and sadly didn't know it.LOL Great video bro.
Yes, it would be a smart marketing plan to release significantly improved versions of his games exclusive to the X16. So if you want to play the best versions you need an X16. Every platform needs its own killer game / app.
I knew that progress for the X16 was chugging along nicely when I was able to try an emulator (I'm on a laptop with non-standard function keys so it's difficult to test)
16:06 YES! YES! THANK YOU!! Will it run on a Atari 400 with 16k, or do you need at least 48k like an 800 has? My 800XL has 256k so I should be good. :D
you could upgrade the Atari 400 to 48K even back in the day. And there's a lot of upgrades for both... even modern ones like the Incognito board... there's plenty of CZcams vids about it.
"Another problema is the SD card. Half of the time it just doesn't detect the file system. Sometimes it does."
IS not a bug, is a freature to give more realism as loading from a cassette.
Need a new type of pencil then to rewind my SD card
Or floppy disc
Might be worth experimenting with sizes and brands some are better than others
or use the "apple excuse": you're typing it too fast
a paperclip might replace the pencil in this case
Baking is only needed if you solder this in an oven. Baking makes moisture that is dissolved in the caseing come out slowly, so it prevents it from become steam during soldering and popping the case open due to high vapor pressure.
Exactly, came to make the same comment and saw yours was already here.
Thank-you for explaining :-)
I solder in a dry sauna, same precaution?
Yes baking is to remove the moisture form parts (if exposed to humidity for to long) before using a solder bath, not solder in a oven.
Since he’s using IC inserts and soldering by hand he would never need to worry about.
Side note: Baking parts is a slow temperature rising process that takes a few days.
@@jetin335 at my work we only bake when we coat the boards. We have a cart and insulation boards around the cart and use a space heater and we bake for one hour. That hardens the corformal coating. I'm sure all the parts were baked at the build house. I have to test the boards before I coat the boards then after baking. Most people don't bake boards unless they are told to. If I had my way I would require all coated boards and repaired boards to be baked.
1:15 The assembly music on this is brilliant. Anders Jensen always makes great music but this particular song is just amazing.
Yes indeed!
I found the song, it's "Attack of the Petscii Robots - Level 3: The Village"
@@MrZedblade That means Anders did not make it, Noelle did!
@@thisisaloadofbarnacles921 Noelle made the actual in game music. But Anders circled back and made his own songs, I guess just for fun or maybe they'll show up in some future version of the game. They're on YT, search "Attack of the Petscii Robots - Level 3: The Village"
@@MrZedblade Oh neat, I didn't know that!
I’m kinda amazed that in 2021, with all the retro market, there’s STILL no replacement for the VIC chip
Probably due more to legal rights more than anything. I'm sure a super nerd can reengineer them but they'll probably get their balls sued to the wall by whoever holds the rights
Probably copyright on the chip itself or software on it.
Even if that's no longer the case there is little incentive to start producing them now.
A person has created a FPGA Vic-2 replacement for the C64. But not for the original VIC yet.
Because current year!!!
I seriously doubt the world wide yearly market for VIC chips is even a 1000 units. It just makes no sense unless it were entirely done by volunteers. It would require putting up all the money, up front to get the chips made.
Some asshat somewhere owns the right to that chip and will sue the person to try to suck whatever money they can out of that ownership. So this volunteer who has to spend probably many hundreds of hours examining the original chip and then put up thousands of dollars for the run and then has to sell that stock to someone has also painted a target on their back from said copyright troll.
Not to mention the fact that the Chinese firm who does the run will STEAL that chip and do a run themselves and flood the market with fakes.
Not worth it.
@@tarstarkusz The rights owners (presumably a legal "successor in interest" to Commodore/MOS) could be paid to license production with or without access to historic design materials that might be in their possession. That said, the complete absence of on-chip software in these old chips might make it legal to reconfigure a commercial FPGA to do the job and put the FPGA config in a modern large ROM also containing the historic ROMs and bootstrapping code to provide soft switching of RAM blocks, clock speeds etc.
"as well as the Atari version."
Sits bolt upright, sprays coffee on screen.
Goes looking for a pre-order button
now we need an nes version 😏
Hopefully, it would also run on Atari with 64kb of RAM (on video, he uses Atari 130).. and then, if it will be NTSC or PAL version :P But looking forward to it :)
@@Freewareopoly Hopefully 40k so it fits on a fully upgraded Atari 800. Given there's a PET version, it could fit on all Atari systems. Depends on whether the decision was universal compatibility or richer feature set.
Then again, it should be possible to choose between versions on load and have the best of both worlds. Not expecting that but it would be a fantastic feature
@@alexmcd378 Why hobble it at 40K when there's plenty of RAM upgrades for the Atari 400 - and the 800 - that'll take it to 64K and beyond?
@@TheJeremyHolloway fully loaded Atari 800 has 3 16k expansion carts. So yeah, I was wrong about 40, but going beyond that means hacking the board with something like the ultimate 1mb module, which I wasn't including
Glad to see I'm not the only one who "watches" (listens) to CZcams while doing tedious tasks.
Same. I'll also have Taylor Swift in the background. It's catchy enough to work as background music but not enough to distract me from my project.
Same. I'm planting soybeans with a tractor right now.
@@Kylefassbinderful I thought it was quite ironic that the song he was listening to was”Delicate”, since he was doing some “delicate” work.
Heh, same. If it wasn’t for CZcams, I don’t think I’d ever do the ironing.
?
1:14 - I also dislike the sockets without the round notch, but learned that I could just push a dremel into the plastic and create a notch - preferably before soldering it to the board though :)
You can also use the iron itself to melt a notch if you don't mind the smell and getting gunk on your tip
You can use a marker pen as well.
That thought occurred to me too. But when he held the two next to each other I noticed how much thinner the plastic “cross beam” was so if one were to cut into it (a noticeable notch otherwise why bother?) then you’ll maybe have a weak socket. IDK 🤷♂️ never tried it so maybe I should and report back. No. Too lazy. 😀
@@nickpalance3622 Or make a notch in the other, thicker side?
red tape might help too ?
There are some keyset profiles where the rows are all the same. That should give you more options, and if you go with SA profile, it'll have a very retro look too.
I'm pretty sure that you can get key caps that mimic the colors of the Vic or i even think you can get new Vic and C64 chips made for modern mechanical keyboards.
I was gonna say this, but you beat me to it. :D
The music is a perfect match. Feels like a montage from Real Genius.
Anders Jensen makes some gooooood stuff
Agreed! It's "Attack of the Petscii Robots - Level 3: The Village" by Anders Jensen, can be found on youtube.
I can't hear montage music without thinking of Team America
Liked for the Real Genius reference.
Since the s-video signals work properly why not cut the incorrect traces and bodge wire it?
This. Seems like a simple enough fix that nobody will see in the end.
@@BastetFurry It's a shame to have to bodge something like this, though. Let's hope they fix in in the next board revision.
@@horusfalcon from what I get this is a single run with no intend for a next one. I think you can get the CAD and Gerber files somewhere and do it yourself tough.
@@horusfalcon Yeah paying money because someone fucked up a board revision instead of just fixing it and sending out the new lot...
Last time he tried bodge something to work, a rare but worthless IBM prototype blew up and everyone yelled at him for destroying something that was apparently valuable, despite it being worthless. Why do you think 5 of them ended up in boxes and eventually ended up in the warehouse of a long abandoned computer store?
I just want to point out that I notice the upgraded production quality on all fronts. I'm glad to see you made it through that mess over the winter and came out shining at the other end. Keep up the great work!
Few things give me that simple joy of nostalgia and interest as listening to your podcast or watching these videos. Nice job as usual.. Very well done.
This kit is great if you have a dead vic-20
Then you can swap motherboards and have an up to date motherboard that will probs last for years
I didn't even think of that!
@@cyberman7348 i don't have any vintage computer
Don't think you can swap motherboards as it's not gonna fit an original case nor support the ports
@@aprofondir that is true for example the cartridge slot is upwards not to the side however you could do a mod (as it is a kit) and actually make it work
@@nidulaperera You must be a Millennial if you think that's "vintage."
PEtsci robots looks amazing on the x16 definitely want to buy one now 😂
@cheese game patreon get early access
Totally
@cheese game magic! No I’m a Patreonmember of the channel hahah
Great to hear you’re working on the Atari 8bit version of your game. Shipping to Germany will probably make it unaffordable though. We‘ll see :)
Doesn’t Anders Jansen do the shipping for Europe?
ATARI !!!
Attack of the ATASCII Robots!
I’m excited! I still have my 800XL. I loved my 800XL. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. Oh and I’m that guy who had a 5200 and thought the controllers were mostly good.
But doesn’t this mean that the game will have to be called Attack Of The ATASCII Robots?
ahhh atari and pong....takes me back
A new video from 8 bit guy is always a good video.
It is amazing to see a Vic-20 with S-video! Thank you for the great video David!
I love the new studio layout - that works very well - and the wall coverings look so much better this way. Great job - can't wait to see more videos! And the X16 proto-3 board looks very pro-grade - another project I'm eagerly waiting for!
So glad there’s a new video! This channel has gotten me through the pandemic. Found the channel through a restoration channel when someone mentioned how 8-bit Guy does retrobright…I’m hooked on this channel!
Oh wow, our first computer at home when I was a little kid was the VIC-20. It had the cassette tape drive and we played that Chopper game a lot! Thanks for the nostalgia!
Same!!!
@@RandomWire107 me too I played mouse trap and the vic version of space invaders to death
@@RandomWire107 Great memories!
@@71kaye Oh right, Mouse Trap! That was so fun too and who could forget the Space Invaders game!
I remember there was a side-scroller game where you're driving a moon vehicle and it was so much fun! I think it was the VIC-20 but there's a chance it was the Commodore 64!
@@ClassicGameSessions yes! had that game too. lunar lander. it didnt get harder so much as impossibly faster. lol
Thanks for the great content man. You hit me in the feels with all this old hardware I used as a kid.
I don't understand a single thing that he explains about circuits but still I love watching 😂👍
Just indian things🤣
I think it's something about computers
@@francistaylor1822 seems like it
Maybe get a personal trainer at your local gym? I hear you can do “circuit training” there. 🤣
@@nickpalance3622 I'll think about it 😂😂
Amazing. I always feel so small and insignificant when watching your videos, yet filled with a great feeling of nostalgia and amazement 😃
I still have my VIC 20, given to me Christmas 1981 when I was 11! I learnt to programme using it and have worked in IT for 32 years 😀 unfortunately it no longer boots up but I do have another which was booting last time I checked it. I also have a Sinclair ZX81 and Amstrad CPC 464.
I too have my VIC-20. You're just a smidge older than me. Got mine the same year but I was 7. To your point, went on to get an EE and CS degree and have been working in the industry since I was 17. I've also got a Sinclair 1000, a TRS-80 Model IV, and a Mac Plus (with 1 Meg of RAM and a 2400 baud modem... I was the man in high school!!!LOL) and countless machine I built between college and now. Such great times. What's amazing is that my ex wife is just six years younger than me and her coding style (also a CS major) was utterly different from mine. She never had to learn to program in a world of limited memory and everything was OO based by the tie she go to college. We solved the same problem one time many year ago and and he code had to have been five times the size of mine. But I give my VIC-20 (and learning Assembly and cutting my teeth on K&R) all the credit!!!LOL
Dude, this video is great! It really makes one want to get into the hobby. You have so much passion and knowledge, and your way of communicating is fantastic!
if everyone that watched this tried to acquire and build this kit, imagine the squeeze it would put on the ebay supply of VIC chips
“One of the few times adding more ram will break compatibility”
*Laughs in Windows 95*
You need to write a expanded memory salutation in machine language, why the solderings?????
all compatible apps that support expanded mem will support it!
Windows is just a shell over DOS, supporting all DOS mem configs.
Read the Intel and AMD software developers manuals.
The IBM PC compatibles (x86 and AMD64) have a lot of quirks in the memory maps even in the modern age of UEFI instead of legacy BIOS.
@@johngangemi1361 i was more talking about the fact that having greater than about a half gig on 95 causes it to fail to boot
@@aidanbrooks771 oh okay.
"Nobody will ever need more than 64 megabytes of RAM." - Bill Gates
Its amazing how far retro recreations have come. BTW Nice soldering, its good to see someone that knows what they are doing!
Awesome new studio, thanks for all the great content over the years!
Weird that they did a kit that required an 'unobtainium' chip.
I wouldn't mind it as a keyboard only, for feeding an emulator of some soft (VICE etc) rather than using a PC keyboard.
Yeah it’s a bit clumsy to make a kit that depends on secondhand parts.
As said in the video, I guess the VIC-I isn't too hard to provide as a FPGA since there aren't any non-deterministic parts to it like the SID.
@@D0Samp Yeah the vic 20 would be infinitely easier to do one of these for than the 64. So many proprietary parts on the 64 and such.
@@maxxdahl6062 SID clones exist, though!
@@TheEmeraldMenOfficial Yeah but darn near everything, the CPU, PLA, CIA, VIC-2, etc are proprietary for the 64. Absolutely love the SID chip.
While I'm not a fan of the vic-20 (I was brought up with a C64 ;) ), I love to see new remakes and spin-offs coming out every now and then
Your new studio is so cool. Really good idea with the little office and additional workspace!
Yt playing in the background so you don't go insane doing the same thing for hours on end. Best tip ever imo.
Just wanted to pop in and say that while I've only recently found your channel, I am super happy that you have full captions on this video that is barely 4 hours old. So many videos still rely on auto captions and it is amazingly refreshing to find a channel that defies that. Thank you so much!
David, thank you so much for creating an Atari 8-bit port of your game! I'm excited to see it and possibly purchase it! Any extra Atari 8-bit content is greatly appreciated!
PETSCII Robots would probably be great to play on things like a Game Boy, yet more potential porting targets
@@TheSulross ....ahem, Atari Lynx.
8Bit Guy you are truly the joy of my day. My day always gets a little better when I see you've uploaded a new video. Your videos have gotten better and the new studio is fantastic, keep up the amazing work.
The new Workspace is absolutely stunning. Great video as always.
Mount the dip switches for memory control on the underside of the board and perforate the case to reach them.
That printed keyboard case is HIDEOUS! great build tho!
Yea. Looks like it could use a bit of sanding.
@@georg6876 it could do with being crushed
Wow, watching you solder this together brings back memories from the mid-80s when I spent many nights in the ITT Technical Institute lab setting up fellow students' capacitors to charging up and explode in their toolkits. Good times.
I enjoy nerding out when I watch your vids, thank you so much for the great content !
Lack of a VIC replacement notwithstanding, I think I'd go in with some bodge wiring to get the S-Video pin out correct, and extend the DIPs to mount them on the case in a suitably cut slot. Hopefully some future case rev will allow that.
That case looks suspiciously 3d-printed.
My thought just now would be to cut the traces and use jumper wires. Or, if you have the knowledge, you could go grab the layout files from the designers bitbucket and correct the pinning properly.
@@Grunchy005 and that's a problem why? it's easier and cheaper to 3d print cases.
You can't just end on that Atari 8-bit bombshell! I've been waiting years for something like this!
Yay another 8BitGuy video! Glad to see your studio finished and a brand new fresh video!
These videos of kit are always fun. I love seeing something new being put together, in order to make it play something that is 40 years old.
Wow the x16 looks amazing! Can't wait for it :D
Ah, your continuity test beeping was the same tone as my battery backup unit and I got startled for a second. Fun video, thanks!
LMAO!
Really enjoying the new content and your background 'graphic stuck to the wall' is MUCH better now.
Excellent work and I look forward to many new and interesting videos, like this one!
Always getting in a good mood when watching your videos. Thanks!
There are two solutions to the keyboard. 1 - use a uniform profile such as DSA or XDA. 2 - Use blank keycaps and put stickers on them (or make your own dye sublimated ones).
Also for non-uniform keycaps, I'd recommend either the SA or MT3 profile (though I don't know if either of those are available as blanks).
The SA and MT3 are pretty expensive so using some knock off dsa can be easier
@@khoinguyenphamtrong4637 True, but they would give a more authentic feeling as they pretty much resemble what was on Commodore breadboxes. Especially SA which usually comes in glossy ABS.
How do make custom dye sublimated keys?
@@daemonspudguy Kinda like that: www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/gu1qmc/diy_how_to_make_custom_dye_sublimated_keycaps/
Will the ram and charset be expandable. I'd like to be able to define glyphs for greek, cyrillic, and european languages. I'd also like to define up to 65,535 glyphs…
Can the glyphs be 16x16 themselves?
a full kanji set. good thats an awful lot of characters...
Get a modern computer you simpleton
Oh gee, @@BrassMtn why didn't WE think of that?? 🤦♂️
@@BrassMtn Wait, you're telling me that The 8-Bit Guy doesn't cover modern 64-bit technology?
are you talking about the X16 or the VIC-20?
excellent camera work. love the close up shots, it's like I was soldering
1:24 I like that you have delicate playing as you are checking all the delicate connections.
Wow. Omega Race on the Vic-20 is a really solid port!
I got no memory of how many hours of my childhood i spend playing omega race on my vic 20
Omega Race is the only VIC-20 cartridge I own.
It really is surprising how close it is to the original arcade game, especially considering that you're not only stepping down to a slower CPU (the original used a Z-80 running at 3MHz) with less RAM, but going from a vector-graphics display to a bitmapped raster display to boot. Probably one of the best Omega Race ports out there. Someone at Commodore put a *lot* of work into that one...
Wow you're super talented with that iron i could never keep my hands so steady. Nice to see people still appreciate the old Vic 20, or should i say Vic 2020.
Vic 20 21st Century edition
keep reading the comments, soon the solder police will show up saying how horrible he is, how he is doing this wrong and that wrong and OMFG he is so lucky he didn't break this part becasue this reason. the pedants never fail to appear when he breaks out his iron.
Or just talented, and tone down the hyperbolic “super super” 🤣
@@TheSulross The Vic-21? :P
You're a busy guy! Love your videos. I appreciate all the time you put into them.
Brilliant video! Can't get enough of them. It's my highlight of the week!
15:55 Hey, I know that guy filming there :-) Cool to see the build here, and great update on the X16!
Please do a video on the Atari computers themselves. They're strange systems alright.
LOVE the Atari 8-bit computers! Very powerful, but veeery quirky.
He's gotten facts about them wrong in at least one previous episode, so you might want to watch a video from someone who actually has a love of and history with the machines, instead.
Atari 8-bit systems aren't quirky or strange. They're very straightforward to understand.
@@RetroDawn were those facts wrong or were they just MORE FACTS??
Thanks Dave for another enjoyable video. Your videos always encourage and inspire me to get into my various computer projects. So thanks for the entertainment and 8-bit education! :)
This was excellent! Loved seeing the step-by-step of each part and chip. There was some ASMR level sounds when you were clicking in those chips lol.
Loved the idea of playing your petscii robots game on my Atari computers looking forward to see the video about that!
You need content, CZcams job too?
Just upload it!
There is one song that is used repeatedly through here and every time it comes on I have flashback of my cell phone ringing about 10 years ago.
4:18 I thought I was the only one loves blue clicky switches. I absolutely love the sound and feels
I always look forward to your new videos. Thanks for another excellent episode.
I'd really like to know the reason for the VIC screen ram changing position. Oversight? Price compromise? Weird logic design and backwards compatibility?
Regarding the X16, ever since you guys added expansion slots I've been curious. Why wasn't VERA moved to a slot? Is it to maintain a form factor that lends itself to making a C64 cartridge? Or is there some underlying issue like communication speed, voltage or something?
I don't speak for the project but I think they wanted it to fit within the ATX IO shield area and be as compact as possible.
Also I believe that the VERA is basically required for the computer to function at this point, as opposed to being a default option one can switch out.
I'm too stupid to build computers but it is really satisfying to watch someone else do it and explain how it works. Great video.
You're not too stupid.
You just don't have the opportunity to learn.
A few years ago I hadn't programmed a computer since the Vic 20, then I got an arduino.
Built a robot kit.
Then I got a raspberry Pi.
I screwed around with them for a few years mostly making network stuff, routers, TOR routers, an add blocker, a self hosted VPN , self hosted a website, all with directions from the internet ... stuff I thought I wasn't smart enough for.
Lately I've gotten interested in INFOSEC.
Yesterday I figured out how to get a back door in a new, updated Linux computer using a USB rubberducky.
Today I would like to figure out how to do the same thing to a windows computer... now I'm not feeling smart.
All you need is the opportunity, raspberry Pis are about $75 .
Hack the Box is a freemium model, learn by doing thing. It would suck to do that from a phone but a library or school's computer lab is might be the answer.
Good luck.
Don't give up.
Look, neither one of us is smart enough to design a car from the ground up but we are smart enough to turn the key and go for a drive . We know how to google up how to change the oil or a headlight. Not rocket science but we need to be shown how. It s not a matter of smart. It's a matter of finding the information and getting your hands dirty. Also don't give up when you get shitty directions off the internet. When you get an error just copy and paste that error code into the google box and you'll figure it out.
If a fat old hippy living in Northern Canada can figure some of this stuff out so can you.
It's great there are still ppl like you keeping old tech alive!
_Building a VIC-20_ : Yeah, seems interesting
_and X16 Update_ : Now this got way more interesting real quick
I feel like the designer really should of consulted users like yourself for help with the dip switch for example. It's kind of a no brainer to have easier access to those switches...
Should *_have_* , my friend. I’m not being cocky and a know it all, I hope you see I’m gently correcting you in good spirits.
It's always such a treat when you upload a new video :)
Hope everything's been well up in Texas!
Cool computer kit!
Also thanks for the news on the Commander X16 and Petscii Robots!
if everyone that watched this tried to acquire and build this kit, imagine the squeeze it would put on the ebay supply of VIC chips
"Why have scalpers gotten so into the VIC-20?"
So I’m skipping basically my chores to watch this amazing video
Kit looks superb nicely built sir i have never owned or used a vic 20 one i missed out on .x16 is looking great nice work .
I'm so happy to see so many people using these 8 bits. I spent a lot of hours typing on the VIC20, as many of us did, keying in software from magazines, trying to understand how they worked.. Sadly, I tossed mine out many years ago.
Keep up the good work.
Typing in programs on a friends vic 20 was how my computer days started. (in fact I am still looking for one particular program from that time..Star Challenge). So tedious but it led to me owning a timex and c64's and many more. I don't have any of them anymore due to a flood but I have lots of great memories.
1:58 Yikes, that power jack is not going to last, especially if you're using it constantly for turning the system on and off. It's only got the main two pins holding it on. There's holes in the PCB for the sort of jack that has two extra large pins to make it more secure, yet it came with that cheap one? That's nuts.
I’m still waiting for some kid to wander along and complain _”But it hasn’t got USB C … fail!!”_ etc 🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@unlokia On one of his other videos (forgot which) someone was complaining about how the power connector was horrible and a USB connector would last longer
The negatives/doublespeak on that moisture card are annoying as $#!%! It may not have mattered, but I think it was actually telling you that you DID need to bake them: "Bake parts if 10% is NOT blue..." {which is true, because it is pink, not blue} "...and 5% is pink." {which it also true}
That's how I read it. It seemed like it was describing two sets of parts, the level 2 parts that didn't need baking (because the first circle was blue, and the level 2A-5A parts that did need baking. Took me a couple reads to get that, though.
I don't collect vintage electronics and I would never try to build a computer like this, but I love watching you work with all this cool stuff.
This is exactly why I watch your channel Dave, great review!!
I'm super excited about Petscii robots for Atari, it'll be the first new Atari game I've bought for a really long time...
you are aware of the AtariAge website, right?
Can't wait for the commander x16
You have no idea how much I enjoy watching your videos
My big Brother and I bugged our old man all the time for those gaming consoles back in the early 80's. One Day our father came home with brand new Vic20, Printer and Basic programing book, told us if we wanted to play video games you will have to program your own. My brother and I took our bikes to the book store in search of a more advanced book on Basic if that makes any sense, had to wait for the special order about 10 days. My Dad designed and built a sound proof cabinet for the Printer.
It's so cool to hear your happiness when talking about to start assembling a new kit. :D
When you showed the Petscii Robots game on the X16 I let out a "WOOOOW!" Looks amazing!! I'd like to buy one of your C64 versions but alas my drive developed the failure where it spins forever and never reads. That's the only cause I'm not longer using GEOS to this day. Also I saw you're going to publish an Atari version but the machine is a 130XE and I only have a 65XE and no disk drive. Will you ever make SD card versions? It'd be easier for me to get one of those modern SD card readers for the Atari or the C64.
Also I smiled when you commented the Vic2020 keyboard feels amazing. I was like "Yeah! r/mk rulez!"
Thanks for the episode! Peace.
All versions of the game also include a digital download so that you can put them on SD cards or whatever your drive emulator needs. The 65XE should be able to play the game just fine, but will require a disk drive or some sort of drive emulator.
@@The8BitGuy you could also go cartridge route even though it would be more expensive. Especially if ported to the 5200. AtariAge and Good Deal Games do sell 5200 cartridge games just in case you wanted to partner up...
its a shame this isn't being sold as a flat pack kit
@@alfa-psi this is why you don't have friends
yeah i wonna buy one.
This ain’t IKEA 😛
@@unlokia would be good though
Love watching these episodes featuring computer builds
Nice!!! I don’t watch all the time but your videos make me so happy!
All those modded vic 20s you saw at that music warehouse need to be saved so they can salvage those chips.
That moisture card shouldn't be there as it's mostly for SMD parts, moisture sensitive part are only a problem when you reflow slolder them as steam could come off the package and misaligned the chip off his footprint. For a socketed dip chip it's fine....
Thanks for the video :) Really interesting to see the Vic 2020 and hear about it's diffences.
Oh wow... just watched this. You brought back so many GREAT memories. I too first explored the world of PCs with a VIC-20 purchased from Montgomery Ward circa 1981/ 1982. Best Christmas ever. A few years later I'd graduate to a TRS-80 Model IV. Truly a great beginning... it was a pleasure growing up along side a burgeoning industry like that. We Gen X'ers had it the best and sadly didn't know it.LOL Great video bro.
Imagine Planet X4 released exclusively for commander x16
Great idea
He should name it planet X16
@@anjalisanjayify ye
evidently PETSCII Robots has been wildly more successful than Planet X so its getting all the retro nerd love
Yes, it would be a smart marketing plan to release significantly improved versions of his games exclusive to the X16. So if you want to play the best versions you need an X16. Every platform needs its own killer game / app.
Never knew that they still made 6502 CPUs!
Technically a 65C02, the modern day CMOS version which isn't entirely drop-in compatible.
The construction/ soldering montage is amazing
Another superb video. Love the new set, David.
I knew that progress for the X16 was chugging along nicely when I was able to try an emulator (I'm on a laptop with non-standard function keys so it's difficult to test)
16:06 YES! YES! THANK YOU!!
Will it run on a Atari 400 with 16k, or do you need at least 48k like an 800 has? My 800XL has 256k so I should be good. :D
you could upgrade the Atari 400 to 48K even back in the day. And there's a lot of upgrades for both... even modern ones like the Incognito board... there's plenty of CZcams vids about it.
@@TheJeremyHolloway I know, I'm just wondering that the system requirements would be, or if it would run on a non-XL/XE Atari in the first place.
The studio looks great now! Great work!
Your videos are really well made and you relax me so much, indeed I am now sleepy. Thanks :)