@@mysynthesis Ouch, in one of the 8 Bit Guys' videos, he said that he sometime in the past threw away a Commodore PET 2001 and sold an Apple Lisa for 5$!
@KeyDx7 My high school switched their computer labs from TRS-80s to IBM PS2s in 1987 or so (when I was a student in the Junior High next door), and most of the TRS-80 model 3s and 4s ended up in a dumpster. They had minimal resale value at the time and that was before old computer collecting (or e-waste laws) really existed.
Think of it this way - if nobody had ever thrown out their old computers, the ones that are still around would be a lot less valuable and there wouldn’t be any thrill of finally finding something rare after hunting for years.
I remember seeing these stacked at our local GEMCO department store back in the day... They were marked down to $399 at that point, and the stack never got any smaller. Then one day, I noticed the price had dropped to $299 and about half were gone. Impulsively, I grabbed one of the last ones and used it for a number of years. It's gone now, but unfortunately, the impulses remain...
Wow. Gemco! I just mentioned them in another comment! That's where my mom got my C-64 bundle back in '83. Gemco was great. Got some of my most cherished Lego sets there, lots of Kenner Star Wars stuff, my first cassettes, and my first D&D box set there. Loved that place as a kid.
Thank you VERY MUCH for making this video. I saw the SX-64 on display in a local video rental and computer store when I was in 10th grade in South Houston and had to have one. After cutting many lawns and saving every dime I had enough to purchase one but they were no longer available in most places. My dad called around and we found one left at a computer store at mall in Baytown and we went and I bought it. That SX-64 got me through high school and college (I had a larger color monitor so I could easily type my term papers in Easy Script) and I still have it today. I brought it out of storage a few years ago and found the SID chip had failed which I replaced and it’s working fine with the exception of the keyboard. I didn’t realize you could purchase a new membrane so I’ll be ordering one this week so I can get it in working order and beat my kids at Beach Head and Raid Over Moscow. Thanks again!!
Oh man -- I'm totally jealous. I've wanted one of these when I first saw one in '85 or '86 (don't remember precisely) when I was 15 or 16. The mother of a friend of mine had one -- she used it as a MIDI controller for a band she was in, believe it or not. Always wanted one, but never got the opportunity to get one, and now they're too expensive and rare. Oh well. I'll just have to live vicariously through CZcams videos. 🙂
My goals were a bit less lofty...same age, but after adding devices 8-11 of 1541's (BBS drives and 8 as source and 9-11 as destinations for copying parties) MY goal was a MSD Dual and finally got it! With Fast Hack'Em, you could set the MSD up as a stand alone disk copier and disconnect it. That way, I had a duplicator at my fingertips without loading any programs or disturbing my C64 while I was playing Impossible Mission, Archon or Paradroid!
I had one of these when I was a kid. As a small skinny nerd, I had to lug this thing from a yard sale 2 blocks away from my house. The thing seemed like it weighed as much as I did at the time. If only I had known what I truly had, I would have never thrown it out years later. I do remember being amazed by GeOS and playing International Karate on it.
I love my my Commodore SX-64. I've owned mine since the 1990's and purchased it from a family friend, complete with the original box, accessories, etc.
Brings back good memories of the fun we had with the SX-64 The one I owned back in the day had a strange fault where the screen would flicker badly when displaying light border colours. I took it to a friends TV repair shop in Edniburgh and he had several days of fun trying to fix it. After about a week or so I popped into the shop to see how it was going and he was sat at the counter 'testing' it. The screen was much clearer and no longer had the flickering fault. He had replaced the screen with another that was very slightly smaller but had much better image quality. It took me a few weeks to save up to pay for the repair. Even with the improved screen I decided to sell it after a few months. I told the TV repair man and he said he would put it in his shop window and sell it for me. On returning to the shop couple of weeks later I saw it was still in the window.. But It was displaying some flashy scrolling text advertising his services. I went in to ask if anyone had taken an interest, intending to drop the price if required. I was pleasantly surprised when he said it was sold and handed me the cash. It was used as a display piece in his shop window for a couple of years and made me smile every time I paseed by :-)
There was a guy in our copy circle back in the day who had a DX and his cousin worked at Commodore. Also, his friend had the SX and talk about the ultimate cracking/copying machines, well at least for back then. They would also carry around their own monitors as well. After playing with it all night, another one of the guys in our circle built his own from a double thick brief case. It worked. We affectionately called the two with the portables "The Luggable Twins" because it seemed like they were always lugging their stuff around and let's face it the portable was not very portable at all. I remember someone wanting to convert an Osborne into an SX but not sure it ever happened. Good times!
My dad bought one of these shortly after its release in Germany. The price was, apparently, ridiculous in mainland Europe. For him it was two full months of work, so it put a serious dent in his bank account. Then again, the SX-64 is still there today, and he still keeps it in working condition.
At one time I collected three of these SX-64s. Fixed them all and worked great. I donated them to a fellow collector many years ago. I wished I still had my collection.
As a kid I had two C64’s one donated by a friend and loved them dearly. Never heard of the SX-64 before. So glad you got it up and running again and there are good folks out there still supporting this amazing tech!
just wanna thank you for making these videos on old tech. i was born in the early 2000’s so i missed out on a lot of stuff, but i love learning about how computers and tech worked in the early days of it all & you go so in depth into all the tiny little details, from how many pixels a screen has to what each prong on a plug does, and i just absolutely love it. keep up the fine work my good man!! 💜
I used to practically live in the computer stores back then and I never even saw one. Very cool though. It's great you were able to coax it back to life.
I used to trawl the local Computer stores as a kid too.... Drooling over Commodore PETS, Video Genies, TRS80s, rarities like the wonderfully named "Exidy Sorcerer", Nascoms, Compukits, Apricots, Tangerines, (seems to have been a fruit theme going on - I recall a Pear computer too). Wonder why no one thought to use "Apple" :o]
Talk about a walk down memory lane! Back in the 80s, I had one of the SX-64 monsters. Heavy as hell when you lug it to Uni. But that was the greatest purchase I ever made at the time and it seriously helped me with my studies. Not to mention the odd game here and there. LOL I converted the Operating system to Rolo Dos, which of course, speeds up the disk drive immensely. I also used to code in assembler so it was great to have the "portability". Good times.
A frustrating story: I once met a guy who unearthed a collection of old computers - I bought a CBM 8096SK without a keyboard off him thinking either it would turn up or I'd find another - hah! He offered me a mint SX-64 for £250:00 we found by way of a thank you for my help in going through the collection. But I turned him down because I knew they are worth way more here in the UK and I didn't have the money to give him more. Well, it went on fleaBay for £200:00 - blast! I did design a drop-in replacement 80xxSK keyboard mechanism using modern components, along with the 3D files for a replacement case - I never had the time to make them myself but the 3D files, Eagle CAD files, and Gerber files are on Thingyverse if anyone's interested. The keyboard should be good to go for anyone with a CBM machine that needs a new mechanism. The case I'm less sure about as it's the result of taking measurements from the main case of my computer and eyeballing images on line.
I saved one of these little fellows from the landfill several years ago. Someone next to me hauled it out of his car and I spotted right away it was * something * made by COMMODORE. I asked if he would mind me having a look at it and he said "you can have it if you want it mate" and so it came home in the car with me. All that was wrong with it was the missing keyboard cable but I managed to knock one up out of 25 pin DIN plugs and it worked perfectly!! I gave it to the Bletchley Park Computer Museum and as far as I know, that's where it still is.....
I've recently been through a complete restoration/repair/upgrade of an SX-64 computer that I was gifted back in March 2022. It's been a fun journey which included reverse engineering the I/O board and creating a replica PCB (due to corrosion damage), capacitor replacements, adding a Bwack SKS KERNAL switcher, designing a power/activity LED board for the floppy drive, creating an 8701 based clock replacement PCB for the CPU board, installing an LCD replacement and building a speaker/amplifier for the tunes... oh and I also sent the chassis away to get electroplated in gold zinc! Way too much $$ was spend, but I've got an amazing machine in my retro computer collection! 🙂
I ordered one through the Montgomery Wards catalog, as I was stationed in Japan while in the USAF. It was heavy to carry around. Can't believe that I was satisfied with the little 5" color monitor. Prior to this one, I had the VIC-20 I bought at K-Mart right before I left for Japan in Dec 1982. Bought the C-128 at the BX at Yokota AB, Japan with the RAM expansion card and the CP/M card.
An SX-64 has been on my wishlist for a long time too. My neighbor’s grandson brought one with him on a trip to Iowa and I vividly remember playing Archon on it with him and being amazed.
This was the only 8-bit Commodore machine that I wanted as a kid. Interestingly enough, I did see one at a Children's Palace back in the day. I think that might've been the same trip that we bought a Vectrex on clearance that I still have today.
This is an awesome Commodore for your collection - impressed that they packed a C64 with that little display into that form factor in those days. I always enjoy your retro repair videos and trivia!
Had mine for about 6 or 7 years and a C128D. I think I bought at the right time. As soon as you mentioned it wasn't working I immediately thought the dead test was a waste of time. A common fault being the PCBs coming apart at the connector, I'd always check that first.
Back in the 80's, my friend's dad had one of these. After learning the rarity of these guys, I wish I owned a Delorean with a flux capacitor so I could jump back and get it :).
SX-64 has been one of my favorite ones almost 40 years now, mine is as good as it was in new (partly it is hardly had any use last 30 years) 😂 but it has been a tool to make some C-64 history in Demoscene so I am never gonna sell it! As of many of my C-64's and C-128's too! Great video to see disassembly process!
Awesome, another long time SX-64 owner here! I love my machine too and would never sell it. The Commodore 64 demo scene was huge back in the 1980s and is still going strong in 2022.
I think i saw one of these in a store in Leicester when i was a child, back in the mid to late 80s. As you said, the scarcity , coupled with it being pushed hard as a business machine in stores where it was placed close to other home computers (including a working C64 with games running), perhaps made it a harder sell to those who associated business computing with apple & IBM. Thank you for sharing this & I enjoyed watching the teardown & restoration too 👍
In the 80s I joined a London based start-up firm specializing in designing data logging interfaces for Commodore machines and was fortunate to play with the SX-64 which I thought was an amazing piece of hardware. We sold the SX-64 with custom designed data logging instruments to industries such as health, education & research & development as this could benefit portable data logging devices that you take anywhere with you.
So amazing to see this! What a neat machine and an interesting piece of history! Nice job on the restoration. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates!
Back when these were new my company bought an SX-64 for a client as a deal-sweetener. Until it was shipped off me and a fellow programmer were allowed to play around with it for a couple of months, and we had a lot of fun playing games while we were waiting for our mainframe to run jobs. Happy days. It was using the SX-64 that convinced me I needed a 1541 for my own C64.
I had 2 of these growing up. My dad was into tv, vcr, and computer repair as well as other things. He would frequent a lot of auctions and business closures and got a lot of good deals and he also had colleagues who were in the computer business as well. Anyway, because of all that, we had a lot of electronic stuff around the house. 8yo me had a c64 with a ton of pirated games and had access to a sx64 to take to the babysitter's house to play games. I don't remember much about the lack of graphics of the sx64, but then again, I was 10 or less and grew up in the 80s with all graphics being less than 480p. Thanks for bringing this treasure back to life and taking me back down memory lane!
- You made it beautiful, again! And it now works, too! Great job :) - BTW, in college one of my fellow nerd friends had a Commodore SX-64, and we used it in prototyping a 6-legged walking robot! Fond memories :)
December 17th, 1983 is a little bit before my 7th birthday on the 28th of that month. Congratulations on making me feel first younger, then older, within the span of 3 seconds.
Hi, I'm from Italy. At the computer club where I used to go at the time they had a model that was between a SX-100 and a DS-64: it had black&white monitor, but 2 disk drives and we used it to "F4CG" games, if you know what I mean. Nibbler, 2 disks inserted and 30 sec to wait. ;-) BTW they also had a TurboTrans, a modded 1541 with a 512 Kb hat-board that allowed to grab one full side of a disk in one pass and drop it on the next inserted disk.
Back around 1996 I found one of these at my cousin's house when my aunt asked us to clean out the attic. Of course, by this time both my cousin and I had Packard Bell Legends with internal 56k modems and had been on the web for a couple of years, so we tossed it in the garbage. We felt there was no use for it because of course... you couldn't use mIRC, Yahoo Voice Chat, or ICQ on the thing...right? Around 2014 when I started collecting vintage pcs, I thought back to that moment and thought..."Damn, if only I would have known back then I would have been collecting this stuff two decades later". I often wonder of anyone ever found it and fished it out of the dumpster.
I had an SX-64 with a tv as a monitor and a 2400 baud modem in my dorm room at Towson State University in 1993. I connected with the VMS mainframe using SmartTem which only supported a 40 column screen while the VMS mainframe was based on 80 columns, but it worked.
When I was serving aboard the USS Detroit AOE-4, in the mid to late 80s, I had an SX64. I used it in an office space, on a "shelf" that was also the inner skin of the ship. Due to the electromagnetic field, created by salt water passing the outer skin of the ship, the monitor would go all wonky. Therefore, I had to take it to the ship's ETs to have the monitor degaussed. After that, I stopped using that "shelf" for the SX64. I also "destroyed" a couple of floppies due to the same effect. I really enjoyed having, the SX64. Sadly sometime in the early 90s, the metal in the handle/stand broke. The cable for the keyboard went bad, and I had to use a ribbon cable. When that too broke, I donated my SX64 to a thrift shop.
I love it i still have mine. Needs work i used to run a bbs system on it. I bought it for that use. I had to modify it because the voltage out on the modem port was diffrent than the c64 causing some modems not to work. I added a switch to turn off the monitor since i never really used it on the bbs. I ran my own custom written bbs software
Wow! Brings back memories I did buy one of these at Sears when I in my 20's. A huge improvement over my Sinclair ZX81. I used it to log into a vax remotely from home for work. I think I also used it for other terminal emulation and RS232 communication debugging. My wife made me sell it when I got my first PC DOS clone, a Compuadd with real 20mB hard drive.
The local university library had one with a wonky fdd. You could only check it out for 1 hour and 50 minutes, once a day. That meant you were sat in smoky room with a chair and small table. You were not allowed to play games, the fdd only worked sometimes. I eventually got banned for "gaming the system" by coming with a friend and both of us sharing it over 2 consecutive check out periods and they wouldn't let us bring in an extra chair, so one of us had to stand. That's how I learned BASIC and eventually went on to study CS.
I got an SX-64 new from a computer store back when they first came out for $600. They were using it as a display because the keyboard didn't work. Instead of turning it in under warranty, I tried getting it to work myself. Opening up the keyboard, I found that the pins for the cable connector had been pushed out of the socket. I pushed them back in... she worked beautifully. As an experiment, and because I wanted to be able to move the keyboard farther from the computer, I tried using the ribbon printer cable I had for my Model 100 as a keyboard cable. They're both 25 pin, and, not surprisingly, it worked fine. I can't recall now if the cable lacked the screw tabs most 25 pin connectors had, or if I cut them off to fit into the slot of the SX. Personally, I loved its keyboard. More trivia: a wealthy Barainian friend of mine squeezed the guts of an Amiga 500 into an SX case, and had a working "portable" Amiga.
@@talon262 I believe the root cause of SX 64 failure was having the heat from the CPU, colour CRT, drive and power supply for everything all crammed in one box.
I am another who very much lusted after the SX-64, but not while I was a kid.....I was in my first engineering job, and used a C-64 on my desk in my office to do word processing and run little electronic engineering programs that I had written. Fun fact, my workplace was across the street from Protecto Enterprizes (I believe this is how they spelled it), and I had known founder (? or maybe sales manager ?) Bill Badger since he ran that business from the garage of of a suburban home in Barrington, Illinois (he told me that the business was originally home security products, hence the name, and that he (?) had decided to get into the personal computer sales business). I designed a couple circuit boards for them and also wrote a few educational apps for them as well. [ Some sources say that Protecto was founded by John Scheele, sometimes with no mention of Bill Badger. It has been many years, but I personally don't recall anyone by the name of John Scheele and I know in the early days I went to the house of a person named Bill Badger, and he was the guy who always seemed to be in charge for many years later when they were in the building in the Pepper Road industrial park in Barrington. Maybe Bill ran the place for John, who might have stayed in the background. For those curious folks, you can use Google Maps and navigate to N Pepper Road in Barrington, find the place where the road bends to the west and a small lake is to the east, and you will see two buildings with dark roofs on the west side; Protecto was in the north building of those two. Google identifies the building as having a bath supply company and a print shop. ] "I" had decided to NOT buy an SX-64 because I already had the C-64, did not require portability, REALLY DISLIKED the screen and hated Commodore for even putting out a computer with such poor legibility while having the gall to try peddling it to business executive. But it still bugged me that I had the rat's nest of devices on my desktop (C-64 and its power supply brick, memory extender PCB and various modules plugged into it, modem, the 1541 floppy disk drives, etc; and all their cables. Even though I thought buying an SX-64 would be a waste of money, I liked the all-in-one aspect of it. SOOOOO, I got buy and made my own, sort of. I was handy with making wooden cases for musical instruments, the kinds make from thin plywood and covered with black Naugahyde fabric, so I took the guts out the C-64 and the two disk drives, and figured out how to fit them in as small a box as possible (along with the aforementioned accessories). The front panel layout was just the same as the SX-64, except somewhat larger, more the size of an Osborne 1 portable computer. Everything except the keyboard was in the main case. My expander board with its several expansion connectors poked out through a hole on the right side, to cartridges could be plugged in there, and a selector switch on the front panel 'enabled' certain of those slots to that cartridges intended to be used by themselves could be selected individually although all plugged in at the same time. A recessed metal back panel inlay had an expansion Commodore serial port in case I wanted to connect additional drives (but I used it for my Commodore dot-matrix tractor-feed printer), the User port, and a single IEC C14 power cord socket which allowed all internal devices to be powered from a single external removable power cord. I had a hinged-open keyboard case which folded from and also served to kickstand the front panel of the main case up a few inches. I made my own custom wire connector harnesses to adapt the C-64's keyboard connectors so I could use common DB-25 (as I recall) connectors on the rear of the keyboard case and the front panel of the main case, with a short cable pluggable between them (contrast this with the SX-64's 'unobtainium' keyboard cable). Everything was designed to be undoable, so no original part was modified. This computer sat on my workspace desk for a few years, in daily use, with a monochrome Heathkit video monitor sitting on top. Sometime in the 1986 or 1987 timeframe, I abandoned my Commodore loyalties, sold my two PETs and VIC-20, and their accessories. As for my 'repackaged' C-64 setup, a local teenager who I had been giving music lessons to expressed a desire to own a C-64 and disk drive. He was a budding composer and I 'commissioned' him to write a piece for one of my bands, with payment being a used C-64, disk drive, printer and monitor. I still had a box with the original plastic cases and hardware bits, and reconstituted my portable lashup to its original packaging, and the kid was a happy camper. Just a few years ago, I bought a working SX-64 from a seller at the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest but have done nothing with it.
I had an SX64 back in the day. Bought it used for a bit over $400 (can't remember exactly). This was probably in 1986 or so. Got it for my second year of college, and yes... I did use it for word processing (Fleet System 2) and some programming (UCSD Pascal). Although yeah, it was mostly for games. ;-) Had it for two years before I sold it and got my Amiga 500. The SX64 was perfect for dorm life. Really easy to set up in my dorm room or take it to my friends for some gam... er.. homework... Yeah... Homework... ;-) Still miss that SX64...
I saw a SX-64 in action when I was a kid at a computer fair organized by the Commodore computer club my mom was one of the leaders of. The fair was held in a Teamsters' Union hall and I remember a guy had set up his SX-64 on the bar in the back. Don't remember what he was showing off, just that I thought the SX-64 was cool.
It is such a cool machine. I think I saw this first time referenced on this channel, had NO idea that it existed before. I managed to find a SX-64 in good condition and that is now the crown in my Commodore collection 😀 Look at SX-64 Ultra Reset, a cool expansion that let's you reset the computer, change drive ID and swap rom. Thanks for all your videos.
My dad bought one of these in the 80s and I ended up using it well into the late 90s. LOVED the machine :D At some point it was thrown out, unfortunately... such a shame :(
One of my most favorite you tube channels! I turned 18 in 1981 so this era is very nostalgic for me! My first computer was a Commodore 64 like many of us. I’m currently building an IBM PS/2 DOS system with era appropriate software. Having a blast…
Great episode as always. An SX-64 is also on my wishlist. However, I would probably replace the CRT as there are replacement kits to put an LCD in instead. And yes, that opens the entire CRT vs LCD discussion but it's a nice option to have.
Where to source one? The CRT will eventually fail and would be hard to find I guess unless you have a donor machine. LCD may not be true to its origins, but at least it will still be alive! :)
Well done on restoring this rare machine. If the SwinSIDs are still available, then this seems like a perfect use case for one of them. Maybe that's just me, though. On that note, I remember the yet-unfinished idea with the double-SID over on 8BKeys, and I have to wonder if it would be possible to use the SwinSIDs for that purpose. One day I hope we can see that demonstration finished and even if the SwinSIDs would work in it. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to you and the family!
When I had to refurbish my SX64 keyboard, there were no replacement membranes at the time so I used a No2 pencil to repair the membrane. I just traced the pads with the pencil and it worked! Thanks for letting know a replacement now exists!
I had one of these for a while when living in Maryland. I took it to the SIDfest in Richmond, VA in either 1988 or 1989. I set it up on one of the tables, inserted the StereoSID cartridge in the port, connected portable stereo speakers and played 6 channel music using the StereoSID software. It was a big hit.
What a fun video! I am always impressed with all the ways that things were held together at different times. Clips, slides, screws, this thing has it all. A shame about that screen through.
Loved it. I enjoy all your content but especially the Commodore stuff. It was my first computer back in the 80's and I still have it today. Commodore and all its software will always have a special place in my memories. Thank you for what you do..
We had a friend who was taking courses at the FAA center in Oklahoma City in the 80's. He bought one of these and he was very happy with it. We lost track of Tim when he left OKC to return to the UK for his job. We hope he is doing well.
an SX-64 has been a dream-acquisition of mine ever since I first became aware of it. (After I had sold my C-64 to finance my Amiga, of course) so congrats on getting one, and in such good shape too! Jealous AF like so many others here, but still congrats on your acquistion! May it give you satisfaction, as I look at the empty stretch of desk where one might fit some day....
I just like seeing all this old stuff. Brilliant to re-explore older systems as we never really had enough years to exploit them to their fullest uses/ability.
Great restoration video. Had one of these a few years ago. Nice size and layout. You have lots of patience and skill! Fun to watch you at work. Thanks! ~
I love that you can watch this channel for early '80s computer stuff and then slide right over to LGR for computery things newer than that but still vintage.
Nice to see, that this sx64 got a new precious owner. The difference between the two kernals could be a problem for some software. But in the end a nice little computer. A friend of mine owned one. And i like it. Keep up the good work.
I had two or three SX-64, in about 1984/1985 got them from a Surplus Store in Omaha Nebraska, Maybe on 120th & W.Center Rd. , They where about $300-$350 plus tax. I had several because when plugged in a 1200 baud modem the power supply would burn out. Then go trade for another thinking it was a fluke, same thing would happen - power supply fried. Finally got refund on the last one, and bought a new C-128 & Disk drive from Montgomery Wards. I DID use a Magnavox Color monitor, external Disk Drive, and other accessories with it. The internal Color monitor wasn't too bad, just very small to read, 13" or 14" monitor worked great with it. Don't recall that the keyboard had shifted keys. A FUN accessory I had was the Type & Speak Cartridge, that really freaked out all the family members. Granny was just stumped as to what was going on.
Very Interesting! I have a faint memory of one from elementary school, some years before C64 changed my life..::💚 Always another tendril or thread of electronic history (all history) that escaped my attention; thank you for elaborating this bit (these bits)!
So heres an interesting recent thing i discovered Most keyboards are made of fairly chemical resistant, moderate softening temperature plastic. If you happen to have a dishwasher, you can put keyboard frames in it and set the wash to "delicate" or "low temp" If you have a big strainer or silverware insert for the dishwasher, you can also dishwash the keycaps No need for dishwasher fluid, the water alone will take care of practically anything unless your keyboard is supremely nasty. Take them out, give them all a good rinse to prevent water marks, and then put them by a fan for a while and youve got a keyboard that looks brand new.
One of my childhood friends had one of these and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Even though in retrospect, it was pretty tough playing games on that tiny screen 😂
Отличный канал, я пересмотрел почти всё, очень познавательно. Я хоть английский знаю не очень хорошо, но глядя Ваши ролики почти всё понимаю, удивительно!
I've got one. I bought in the late 80's when I was serving in the Navy. It fit perfectly in one of the storage sections under my rack. I never had many games for it and after I left the Navy it went into the closet. I get it out once in a while just to see if it still works. And it does still work. The tiny screen was a hassle so when I was ashore I used a full sized Commodore monitor. Yup, it still works too.
I’ve been waiting for a repair video on the SX! I bought mine new in high school along with a Smith-Corona printer. It got me through several college papers even with that crazy small screen. I always thought it was quite an amazing little machine. Looking forward to getting it running again!
Had one of these - they were extremely expensive here in Denmark, but I got one for free from Commodore, Denmark, for a game I made for them. To my own regret I ditched it when I got my Amiga.
Nice video and great repair! When I was 11 I saw a C64 for the first time and I was hooked. Back then they were CAD 325 new. I saved for months to buy a used one. I met some friends in the neighbourhood who had them, and one was an SX-64. I though it was the coolest thing ever! Thanks for sharing and congratulations on finding one and getting it running again.
Hey there, semi-regular viewer from Germany here. I remember seeing this machine quite a lot in my childhood: My father was a farmer, and he was regularly visited by a travelling feed, fertilizer and seeds salesman (working for BayWa, for all those who know their german farming suppliers:p ). In lieu of large folders amd catalogues, he usually lugged an SX-64 along when he visited my father on one of his regular sales tours to take in his orders for the quarter. He would present prices and projections over the next few years (usually with coresponding bar graphics for comparison), take in orders and save them to disk directly, and even save info as well as a copy of the current order for my father (we also owned a C64 back home... many farmers in our area did, who were all frequented by that same salesman ;) ) for his own archive. I can totally understand why you wouldn't see this machine at Target or Toys 'R us - its main target audience were these travelling salesmen, especially for people able to hand of data on disk to their customers.
To your comment: The only place I saw these were at user group meetings, and even then the presenter would have a 1701 that faced the audience while he sat and typed in front of the small screen. In that the computer could drive both at once it was a good use-case. Also...haha, yes no C64, or SX64 Visicalc (hmm, it was available on Atari 800) there was Microsoft Multiplan, pretty powerful and yes I have a real copy.
Growing up in Austria, this was my second computer (after a VC-20 - not VIC, but VC over there.) Commodore basically fire-sold their remaining inventory via the German department store/catalog ‘Quelle’ (basically the german Sears of the era) and my dad was able to get one for roughly $550. The one other reason it failed in its intended market niche (imo) is that it really was way too heavy to ever be described as portable. ‘Luggable’ maybe. I forget what it weighed, but it was probably north of 40lbs. The two silver exterior clamshells were quite heavy (solid metal!) and the (massive) power supply at the back end made sure that if you carried it by it’s handle, you got more than a workout. After I went back to the US for college in 1988, my SX-64 stayed with my dad in Austria. He passed away this April and as my relatives were clearing out his things, lo and behold, they found it neatly tucked away in his dresser closet. I was very much tempted to see if it could be shipped over here just for pure nostalgia (I’m pretty sure they all had 110/220v switches, so operation should be fine) but I figure it’ll most likely not survive shipping, no matter how good it’s packaged. I gifted it to one of my cousins, who says he wants to keep it/restore it. I’ve periodically checked eBay for SX-64s over the last 20 years, but every time I came close to buying another, my sense of nostalgia was overcome by the phantom pain in my biceps….
I know I had one of these when I was younger, I can't remember if I found it at a garage sale or thrift store. I can't remember what happened to it, it might still be buried somewhere in my house under a pile of junk, maybe in the back of my closet. I don't remember ever getting rid of it, but my memory is terrible. No idea if it would still work though.
Good luck, Hope you find it! Additionally, the Rom chip is notorious for faliure. Replacements can be bought though. That is really the only major faliure im aware of. That and the floppy drive may need some belts.
I wonder if you could replace that screen with a TFT display. Not easily I'm sure. But without a giant CRT and it's related HV power supply there is room for all sorts of things.
I don’t think that I’ve ever seen or knew that the SX-64 existed. Such a cool machine. Also big thanks to the host for this video. He makes this look easy - which I’m sure it isn’t. Very relaxing to watch after eating a big Thanksgiving meal. Thank you 8bit guy!
7:56 please buy a 3d printer. 3 weeks for a part that takes maybe an hour to print is such a long time. the bambu lab x1 carbon printer is a no fuss, auto leveling, and ai improving printer. its expensive but worth it. you could use it for a bunch of future projects if something breaks and you cant find the part online.
This was my holy grail for years until I got a working one off Craigslist for dirt cheap. It's one of the coolest things I have now, but I've been terrified to disassemble it because I've broken less complicated things while trying to clean them. Thank you for showing this!
I also have one that looks to have the same problems, I got it at least 20 years ago from a garage sale for $40, and of course no keyboard cable, made one from some ribbon cable. I can't wait to pull it out from storage and look inside. Thanks for a great video! Cheers from Australia! I have never seen that diagnostic cartridge before.
Awesome! When I was 17 back in 1987, my local RC car racing club used an SX64 to run our race timing program. It worked great! As I already owned a C64, AND I had a car, I ended up being the custodian of the SX. But, as a scrawny 17 year old, let me tell you, it was most certainly not the most portable of systems. Not idea what happened to that one, but any Scottish viewers out there, I’d love to know if anyone knows where it ended up. 😃
I had one of these in the 80s, used it as a MIDI sequencer. It was fairly reliable on-stage, although the screen was really tough to read in the typical bad lighting situations when our band played.
Great video! I so appreciate computer nerds like you for rescuing vintage computer hardware. I was in college when this came out and already had a C64. I could have used the portability but the cost sank acquiring it. Thanks for making this one workable. First rate channel!
Dave said he never saw one of these for sale. I grew up in western PA, and there was a regional chain call Hills that always had a great computer department. They would have a dozen machines on display that anyone could play with. For a long time my local store had a SX-64 on display. I think the price was down to $599 or so at the time. I spent hours messing with the machine, as it really was a unique system for the time. I miss Hills, as they really helped me get into computers, which is my career. Hills help me become a software engineer.
This dude really is an oldschool uber nerd in the best possible way. He's the real deal lol That's part of the reason I enjoy this channel so much
Dilly Dally
Thanks. Text me on tele gram🔝🔝.....
Dimebag Darrel’s cousin
Is this the gun nutter guy?
I don't think hes a rideshare specialist. Think he just does computer stuff
My biggest regret was sending this to the thrift store 16 years ago. Great video!
oof
Hopefully someone else enjoyed them and kept them...
@@mysynthesis Ouch, in one of the 8 Bit Guys' videos, he said that he sometime in the past threw away a Commodore PET 2001 and sold an Apple Lisa for 5$!
@KeyDx7 My high school switched their computer labs from TRS-80s to IBM PS2s in 1987 or so (when I was a student in the Junior High next door), and most of the TRS-80 model 3s and 4s ended up in a dumpster. They had minimal resale value at the time and that was before old computer collecting (or e-waste laws) really existed.
Think of it this way - if nobody had ever thrown out their old computers, the ones that are still around would be a lot less valuable and there wouldn’t be any thrill of finally finding something rare after hunting for years.
I remember seeing these stacked at our local GEMCO department store back in the day... They were marked down to $399 at that point, and the stack never got any smaller. Then one day, I noticed the price had dropped to $299 and about half were gone. Impulsively, I grabbed one of the last ones and used it for a number of years. It's gone now, but unfortunately, the impulses remain...
Wow. Gemco! I just mentioned them in another comment! That's where my mom got my C-64 bundle back in '83. Gemco was great. Got some of my most cherished Lego sets there, lots of Kenner Star Wars stuff, my first cassettes, and my first D&D box set there. Loved that place as a kid.
Sounds about like how I got one, what city was GEMCO ? what year? about 1985?
@@pablopicaro7649 Mine was in Tucson, AZ for Christmas '83.
Gone????????
Thank you VERY MUCH for making this video. I saw the SX-64 on display in a local video rental and computer store when I was in 10th grade in South Houston and had to have one. After cutting many lawns and saving every dime I had enough to purchase one but they were no longer available in most places. My dad called around and we found one left at a computer store at mall in Baytown and we went and I bought it. That SX-64 got me through high school and college (I had a larger color monitor so I could easily type my term papers in Easy Script) and I still have it today. I brought it out of storage a few years ago and found the SID chip had failed which I replaced and it’s working fine with the exception of the keyboard. I didn’t realize you could purchase a new membrane so I’ll be ordering one this week so I can get it in working order and beat my kids at Beach Head and Raid Over Moscow. Thanks again!!
That's awesome
Oh man -- I'm totally jealous. I've wanted one of these when I first saw one in '85 or '86 (don't remember precisely) when I was 15 or 16. The mother of a friend of mine had one -- she used it as a MIDI controller for a band she was in, believe it or not. Always wanted one, but never got the opportunity to get one, and now they're too expensive and rare. Oh well. I'll just have to live vicariously through CZcams videos. 🙂
My goals were a bit less lofty...same age, but after adding devices 8-11 of 1541's (BBS drives and 8 as source and 9-11 as destinations for copying parties) MY goal was a MSD Dual and finally got it! With Fast Hack'Em, you could set the MSD up as a stand alone disk copier and disconnect it. That way, I had a duplicator at my fingertips without loading any programs or disturbing my C64 while I was playing Impossible Mission, Archon or Paradroid!
this vid was published 15 minutes ago. how is this from 12 hours ago?
@@xanderplayz3446 probably patreon
@@xanderplayz3446 8-Bit Guy’s Patreon supporters get early access to his videos.
@@MrV1NC3N7V3G4 Good game selection, a man of taste ;)
I had one of these when I was a kid. As a small skinny nerd, I had to lug this thing from a yard sale 2 blocks away from my house. The thing seemed like it weighed as much as I did at the time. If only I had known what I truly had, I would have never thrown it out years later. I do remember being amazed by GeOS and playing International Karate on it.
I love my my Commodore SX-64. I've owned mine since the 1990's and purchased it from a family friend, complete with the original box, accessories, etc.
Brings back good memories of the fun we had with the SX-64 The one I owned back in the day had a strange fault where the screen would flicker badly when displaying light border colours. I took it to a friends TV repair shop in Edniburgh and he had several days of fun trying to fix it. After about a week or so I popped into the shop to see how it was going and he was sat at the counter 'testing' it. The screen was much clearer and no longer had the flickering fault. He had replaced the screen with another that was very slightly smaller but had much better image quality. It took me a few weeks to save up to pay for the repair. Even with the improved screen I decided to sell it after a few months. I told the TV repair man and he said he would put it in his shop window and sell it for me. On returning to the shop couple of weeks later I saw it was still in the window.. But It was displaying some flashy scrolling text advertising his services. I went in to ask if anyone had taken an interest, intending to drop the price if required. I was pleasantly surprised when he said it was sold and handed me the cash. It was used as a display piece in his shop window for a couple of years and made me smile every time I paseed by :-)
This is great!
I like that Jensen monitor of yours! 🥸🤪
Great restoration/repair job! 🤘🏼
Jensen monitor, well played sir, well played.
Your music fits the 8-Bit Guy channel so well
I knew you made awesome music but you made your own TV too? 😀
@@BoshkoIgich I must be the only one who loves these channels, but can't stand his music, it's nothing personal, it just does nothing for me.
There was a guy in our copy circle back in the day who had a DX and his cousin worked at Commodore. Also, his friend had the SX and talk about the ultimate cracking/copying machines, well at least for back then. They would also carry around their own monitors as well. After playing with it all night, another one of the guys in our circle built his own from a double thick brief case. It worked. We affectionately called the two with the portables "The Luggable Twins" because it seemed like they were always lugging their stuff around and let's face it the portable was not very portable at all. I remember someone wanting to convert an Osborne into an SX but not sure it ever happened. Good times!
Yeah. A guy in our copy circle had an SX64 and a Lt Kernal 10 MB hard drive!
My dad bought one of these shortly after its release in Germany. The price was, apparently, ridiculous in mainland Europe. For him it was two full months of work, so it put a serious dent in his bank account. Then again, the SX-64 is still there today, and he still keeps it in working condition.
Today Apple can still easily kill 2 months of work money.
At one time I collected three of these SX-64s. Fixed them all and worked great. I donated them to a fellow collector many years ago. I wished I still had my collection.
As a kid I had two C64’s one donated by a friend and loved them dearly. Never heard of the SX-64 before. So glad you got it up and running again and there are good folks out there still supporting this amazing tech!
just wanna thank you for making these videos on old tech. i was born in the early 2000’s so i missed out on a lot of stuff, but i love learning about how computers and tech worked in the early days of it all & you go so in depth into all the tiny little details, from how many pixels a screen has to what each prong on a plug does, and i just absolutely love it. keep up the fine work my good man!! 💜
No worries, because you inherited the spirit of it.
8-bit Guy is a prime example of true retro enthusiasm...
I used to practically live in the computer stores back then and I never even saw one. Very cool though. It's great you were able to coax it back to life.
I used to trawl the local Computer stores as a kid too.... Drooling over Commodore PETS, Video Genies, TRS80s, rarities like the wonderfully named "Exidy Sorcerer", Nascoms, Compukits, Apricots, Tangerines, (seems to have been a fruit theme going on - I recall a Pear computer too). Wonder why no one thought to use "Apple" :o]
Talk about a walk down memory lane!
Back in the 80s, I had one of the SX-64 monsters. Heavy as hell when you lug it to Uni.
But that was the greatest purchase I ever made at the time and it seriously helped me with my studies.
Not to mention the odd game here and there. LOL
I converted the Operating system to Rolo Dos, which of course, speeds up the disk drive immensely.
I also used to code in assembler so it was great to have the "portability".
Good times.
A frustrating story:
I once met a guy who unearthed a collection of old computers - I bought a CBM 8096SK without a keyboard off him thinking either it would turn up or I'd find another - hah! He offered me a mint SX-64 for £250:00 we found by way of a thank you for my help in going through the collection. But I turned him down because I knew they are worth way more here in the UK and I didn't have the money to give him more. Well, it went on fleaBay for £200:00 - blast!
I did design a drop-in replacement 80xxSK keyboard mechanism using modern components, along with the 3D files for a replacement case - I never had the time to make them myself but the 3D files, Eagle CAD files, and Gerber files are on Thingyverse if anyone's interested.
The keyboard should be good to go for anyone with a CBM machine that needs a new mechanism. The case I'm less sure about as it's the result of taking measurements from the main case of my computer and eyeballing images on line.
I saved one of these little fellows from the landfill several years ago. Someone next to me hauled it out of his car and I spotted right away it was * something * made by COMMODORE. I asked if he would mind me having a look at it and he said "you can have it if you want it mate" and so it came home in the car with me. All that was wrong with it was the missing keyboard cable but I managed to knock one up out of 25 pin DIN plugs and it worked perfectly!! I gave it to the Bletchley Park Computer Museum and as far as I know, that's where it still is.....
Thanks. Text me on tele gram🔝🔝.....
Re: Bletchley Park
Where Dr Who took the SX-64 back in time to crack Nazi cyphers. 😊
I've recently been through a complete restoration/repair/upgrade of an SX-64 computer that I was gifted back in March 2022. It's been a fun journey which included reverse engineering the I/O board and creating a replica PCB (due to corrosion damage), capacitor replacements, adding a Bwack SKS KERNAL switcher, designing a power/activity LED board for the floppy drive, creating an 8701 based clock replacement PCB for the CPU board, installing an LCD replacement and building a speaker/amplifier for the tunes... oh and I also sent the chassis away to get electroplated in gold zinc! Way too much $$ was spend, but I've got an amazing machine in my retro computer collection! 🙂
I ordered one through the Montgomery Wards catalog, as I was stationed in Japan while in the USAF. It was heavy to carry around. Can't believe that I was satisfied with the little 5" color monitor. Prior to this one, I had the VIC-20 I bought at K-Mart right before I left for Japan in Dec 1982. Bought the C-128 at the BX at Yokota AB, Japan with the RAM expansion card and the CP/M card.
gód fir y8u
An SX-64 has been on my wishlist for a long time too. My neighbor’s grandson brought one with him on a trip to Iowa and I vividly remember playing Archon on it with him and being amazed.
good fir him
This was the only 8-bit Commodore machine that I wanted as a kid. Interestingly enough, I did see one at a Children's Palace back in the day. I think that might've been the same trip that we bought a Vectrex on clearance that I still have today.
This is an awesome Commodore for your collection - impressed that they packed a C64 with that little display into that form factor in those days. I always enjoy your retro repair videos and trivia!
Had mine for about 6 or 7 years and a C128D. I think I bought at the right time. As soon as you mentioned it wasn't working I immediately thought the dead test was a waste of time. A common fault being the PCBs coming apart at the connector, I'd always check that first.
Back in the 80's, my friend's dad had one of these. After learning the rarity of these guys, I wish I owned a Delorean with a flux capacitor so I could jump back and get it :).
biy one onnanazone
SX-64 has been one of my favorite ones almost 40 years now, mine is as good as it was in new (partly it is hardly had any use last 30 years) 😂 but it has been a tool to make some C-64 history in Demoscene so I am never gonna sell it! As of many of my C-64's and C-128's too! Great video to see disassembly process!
Awesome, another long time SX-64 owner here! I love my machine too and would never sell it. The Commodore 64 demo scene was huge back in the 1980s and is still going strong in 2022.
do u think u might sell it one day if u get bored with it?
I think i saw one of these in a store in Leicester when i was a child, back in the mid to late 80s. As you said, the scarcity , coupled with it being pushed hard as a business machine in stores where it was placed close to other home computers (including a working C64 with games running), perhaps made it a harder sell to those who associated business computing with apple & IBM.
Thank you for sharing this & I enjoyed watching the teardown & restoration too 👍
Leicester - the home of the Mighty "Expality" Corporation!!!! [Also known as W Industries]
In the 80s I joined a London based start-up firm specializing in designing data logging interfaces for Commodore machines and was fortunate to play with the SX-64 which I thought was an amazing piece of hardware. We sold the SX-64 with custom designed data logging instruments to industries such as health, education & research & development as this could benefit portable data logging devices that you take anywhere with you.
So amazing to see this! What a neat machine and an interesting piece of history! Nice job on the restoration. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates!
And a Happy Doctor Who Day in return.
🦃Happy Thanksgiving!🦃
but easy to see why it didn't find a market footing
I adore my SX-64. It’s awesome. One of the keyboard clips is busted as well. It’s ready to go with an Epyx fast loader
Back when these were new my company bought an SX-64 for a client as a deal-sweetener. Until it was shipped off me and a fellow programmer were allowed to play around with it for a couple of months, and we had a lot of fun playing games while we were waiting for our mainframe to run jobs. Happy days. It was using the SX-64 that convinced me I needed a 1541 for my own C64.
I had 2 of these growing up. My dad was into tv, vcr, and computer repair as well as other things. He would frequent a lot of auctions and business closures and got a lot of good deals and he also had colleagues who were in the computer business as well. Anyway, because of all that, we had a lot of electronic stuff around the house. 8yo me had a c64 with a ton of pirated games and had access to a sx64 to take to the babysitter's house to play games. I don't remember much about the lack of graphics of the sx64, but then again, I was 10 or less and grew up in the 80s with all graphics being less than 480p.
Thanks for bringing this treasure back to life and taking me back down memory lane!
It's a beauty. Always wanted one, but they still go for around $1k and it would probably just end up sitting on a shelf.
- You made it beautiful, again! And it now works, too! Great job :)
- BTW, in college one of my fellow nerd friends had a Commodore SX-64, and we used it in prototyping a 6-legged walking robot! Fond memories :)
December 17th, 1983 is a little bit before my 7th birthday on the 28th of that month. Congratulations on making me feel first younger, then older, within the span of 3 seconds.
Hi, I'm from Italy. At the computer club where I used to go at the time they had a model that was between a SX-100 and a DS-64: it had black&white monitor, but 2 disk drives and we used it to "F4CG" games, if you know what I mean. Nibbler, 2 disks inserted and 30 sec to wait. ;-) BTW they also had a TurboTrans, a modded 1541 with a 512 Kb hat-board that allowed to grab one full side of a disk in one pass and drop it on the next inserted disk.
I have one here at home with a Danish keyboard. I love using it and remember a time of wonder :)
Back around 1996 I found one of these at my cousin's house when my aunt asked us to clean out the attic. Of course, by this time both my cousin and I had Packard Bell Legends with internal 56k modems and had been on the web for a couple of years, so we tossed it in the garbage. We felt there was no use for it because of course... you couldn't use mIRC, Yahoo Voice Chat, or ICQ on the thing...right? Around 2014 when I started collecting vintage pcs, I thought back to that moment and thought..."Damn, if only I would have known back then I would have been collecting this stuff two decades later". I often wonder of anyone ever found it and fished it out of the dumpster.
Thanks. Text me on tele gram🔝🔝....
I had an SX-64 with a tv as a monitor and a 2400 baud modem in my dorm room at Towson State University in 1993. I connected with the VMS mainframe using SmartTem which only supported a 40 column screen while the VMS mainframe was based on 80 columns, but it worked.
When I was serving aboard the USS Detroit AOE-4, in the mid to late 80s, I had an SX64. I used it in an office space, on a "shelf" that was also the inner skin of the ship. Due to the electromagnetic field, created by salt water passing the outer skin of the ship, the monitor would go all wonky. Therefore, I had to take it to the ship's ETs to have the monitor degaussed. After that, I stopped using that "shelf" for the SX64. I also "destroyed" a couple of floppies due to the same effect.
I really enjoyed having, the SX64. Sadly sometime in the early 90s, the metal in the handle/stand broke. The cable for the keyboard went bad, and I had to use a ribbon cable. When that too broke, I donated my SX64 to a thrift shop.
I love it i still have mine. Needs work i used to run a bbs system on it. I bought it for that use. I had to modify it because the voltage out on the modem port was diffrent than the c64 causing some modems not to work. I added a switch to turn off the monitor since i never really used it on the bbs. I ran my own custom written bbs software
Wow! Brings back memories I did buy one of these at Sears when I in my 20's. A huge improvement over my Sinclair ZX81. I used it to log into a vax remotely from home for work. I think I also used it for other terminal emulation and RS232 communication debugging. My wife made me sell it when I got my first PC DOS clone, a Compuadd with real 20mB hard drive.
The local university library had one with a wonky fdd. You could only check it out for 1 hour and 50 minutes, once a day. That meant you were sat in smoky room with a chair and small table. You were not allowed to play games, the fdd only worked sometimes. I eventually got banned for "gaming the system" by coming with a friend and both of us sharing it over 2 consecutive check out periods and they wouldn't let us bring in an extra chair, so one of us had to stand. That's how I learned BASIC and eventually went on to study CS.
I got an SX-64 new from a computer store back when they first came out for $600.
They were using it as a display because the keyboard didn't work.
Instead of turning it in under warranty, I tried getting it to work myself.
Opening up the keyboard, I found that the pins for the cable connector had been pushed out of the socket.
I pushed them back in... she worked beautifully.
As an experiment, and because I wanted to be able to move the keyboard farther from the computer, I tried using the ribbon printer cable I had for my Model 100 as a keyboard cable. They're both 25 pin, and, not surprisingly, it worked fine. I can't recall now if the cable lacked the screw tabs most 25 pin connectors had, or if I cut them off to fit into the slot of the SX.
Personally, I loved its keyboard.
More trivia: a wealthy Barainian friend of mine squeezed the guts of an Amiga 500 into an SX case, and had a working "portable" Amiga.
Adapting to an amiga would be a major exercise, as power supply, floppy drive, monitor video in seem to be all completely different
I’m definitely thankful for your channel this Thanksgiving! What a great video on the SX-64!😊
Happy thanksgiving Dave! The Commodore SX-64 is awesome! I love mine and it's one of my favorite Commodore machines next to my childhood C64 breadbin.
Techmoan did an SX64 repair video years ago.
Put heatsinks on the SID and PLA chips...
@@talon262 I believe the root cause of SX 64 failure was having the heat from the CPU, colour CRT, drive and power supply for everything all crammed in one box.
I am another who very much lusted after the SX-64, but not while I was a kid.....I was in my first engineering job, and used a C-64 on my desk in my office to do word processing and run little electronic engineering programs that I had written.
Fun fact, my workplace was across the street from Protecto Enterprizes (I believe this is how they spelled it), and I had known founder (? or maybe sales manager ?) Bill Badger since he ran that business from the garage of of a suburban home in Barrington, Illinois (he told me that the business was originally home security products, hence the name, and that he (?) had decided to get into the personal computer sales business). I designed a couple circuit boards for them and also wrote a few educational apps for them as well.
[ Some sources say that Protecto was founded by John Scheele, sometimes with no mention of Bill Badger. It has been many years, but I personally don't recall anyone by the name of John Scheele and I know in the early days I went to the house of a person named Bill Badger, and he was the guy who always seemed to be in charge for many years later when they were in the building in the Pepper Road industrial park in Barrington. Maybe Bill ran the place for John, who might have stayed in the background. For those curious folks, you can use Google Maps and navigate to N Pepper Road in Barrington, find the place where the road bends to the west and a small lake is to the east, and you will see two buildings with dark roofs on the west side; Protecto was in the north building of those two. Google identifies the building as having a bath supply company and a print shop. ]
"I" had decided to NOT buy an SX-64 because I already had the C-64, did not require portability, REALLY DISLIKED the screen and hated Commodore for even putting out a computer with such poor legibility while having the gall to try peddling it to business executive.
But it still bugged me that I had the rat's nest of devices on my desktop (C-64 and its power supply brick, memory extender PCB and various modules plugged into it, modem, the 1541 floppy disk drives, etc; and all their cables. Even though I thought buying an SX-64 would be a waste of money, I liked the all-in-one aspect of it. SOOOOO, I got buy and made my own, sort of. I was handy with making wooden cases for musical instruments, the kinds make from thin plywood and covered with black Naugahyde fabric, so I took the guts out the C-64 and the two disk drives, and figured out how to fit them in as small a box as possible (along with the aforementioned accessories). The front panel layout was just the same as the SX-64, except somewhat larger, more the size of an Osborne 1 portable computer. Everything except the keyboard was in the main case. My expander board with its several expansion connectors poked out through a hole on the right side, to cartridges could be plugged in there, and a selector switch on the front panel 'enabled' certain of those slots to that cartridges intended to be used by themselves could be selected individually although all plugged in at the same time. A recessed metal back panel inlay had an expansion Commodore serial port in case I wanted to connect additional drives (but I used it for my Commodore dot-matrix tractor-feed printer), the User port, and a single IEC C14 power cord socket which allowed all internal devices to be powered from a single external removable power cord. I had a hinged-open keyboard case which folded from and also served to kickstand the front panel of the main case up a few inches. I made my own custom wire connector harnesses to adapt the C-64's keyboard connectors so I could use common DB-25 (as I recall) connectors on the rear of the keyboard case and the front panel of the main case, with a short cable pluggable between them (contrast this with the SX-64's 'unobtainium' keyboard cable). Everything was designed to be undoable, so no original part was modified.
This computer sat on my workspace desk for a few years, in daily use, with a monochrome Heathkit video monitor sitting on top.
Sometime in the 1986 or 1987 timeframe, I abandoned my Commodore loyalties, sold my two PETs and VIC-20, and their accessories. As for my 'repackaged' C-64 setup, a local teenager who I had been giving music lessons to expressed a desire to own a C-64 and disk drive. He was a budding composer and I 'commissioned' him to write a piece for one of my bands, with payment being a used C-64, disk drive, printer and monitor. I still had a box with the original plastic cases and hardware bits, and reconstituted my portable lashup to its original packaging, and the kid was a happy camper.
Just a few years ago, I bought a working SX-64 from a seller at the Vintage Computer Festival Midwest but have done nothing with it.
I had an SX64 back in the day. Bought it used for a bit over $400 (can't remember exactly). This was probably in 1986 or so. Got it for my second year of college, and yes...
I did use it for word processing (Fleet System 2) and some programming (UCSD Pascal).
Although yeah, it was mostly for games. ;-) Had it for two years before I sold it and got my Amiga 500.
The SX64 was perfect for dorm life. Really easy to set up in my dorm room or take it to my friends for some gam... er.. homework... Yeah... Homework... ;-)
Still miss that SX64...
I saw a SX-64 in action when I was a kid at a computer fair organized by the Commodore computer club my mom was one of the leaders of. The fair was held in a Teamsters' Union hall and I remember a guy had set up his SX-64 on the bar in the back. Don't remember what he was showing off, just that I thought the SX-64 was cool.
It is such a cool machine. I think I saw this first time referenced on this channel, had NO idea that it existed before.
I managed to find a SX-64 in good condition and that is now the crown in my Commodore collection 😀
Look at SX-64 Ultra Reset, a cool expansion that let's you reset the computer, change drive ID and swap rom.
Thanks for all your videos.
My dad bought one of these in the 80s and I ended up using it well into the late 90s. LOVED the machine :D At some point it was thrown out, unfortunately... such a shame :(
One of my most favorite you tube channels! I turned 18 in 1981 so this era is very nostalgic for me! My first computer was a Commodore 64 like many of us. I’m currently building an IBM PS/2 DOS system with era appropriate software. Having a blast…
giud fir yiú
I fondly remember having one of these. It was great for swipe meets, which is actually where I think I bought it.
Great episode as always. An SX-64 is also on my wishlist. However, I would probably replace the CRT as there are replacement kits to put an LCD in instead. And yes, that opens the entire CRT vs LCD discussion but it's a nice option to have.
Where to source one? The CRT will eventually fail and would be hard to find I guess unless you have a donor machine. LCD may not be true to its origins, but at least it will still be alive! :)
@@Webendowed that would also free some space inside, maybe someone could find a way to take advantage of that.
@@michelealessandrini3421 Maybe stuff a battery in there? It will take some finagling with the power supply, but I bet it could be done.
I have 2 of these :) my dad was a Commodore dealer in the 80s.
Yeah I drooled over this here in the UK back in the day - a local store had one I marvelled at the tiny colour screen showing the familiar c64 screen.
Many thanks for another immersive, informative episode. It's always a good day when David posts, and today was no exception.
Well done on restoring this rare machine. If the SwinSIDs are still available, then this seems like a perfect use case for one of them. Maybe that's just me, though. On that note, I remember the yet-unfinished idea with the double-SID over on 8BKeys, and I have to wonder if it would be possible to use the SwinSIDs for that purpose. One day I hope we can see that demonstration finished and even if the SwinSIDs would work in it. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to you and the family!
When I had to refurbish my SX64 keyboard, there were no replacement membranes at the time so I used a No2 pencil to repair the membrane. I just traced the pads with the pencil and it worked! Thanks for letting know a replacement now exists!
I had one of these for a while when living in Maryland. I took it to the SIDfest in Richmond, VA in either 1988 or 1989. I set it up on one of the tables, inserted the StereoSID cartridge in the port, connected portable stereo speakers and played 6 channel music using the StereoSID software. It was a big hit.
What a fun video!
I am always impressed with all the ways that things were held together at different times. Clips, slides, screws, this thing has it all.
A shame about that screen through.
Love your problem solving skills and grit!
Loved it. I enjoy all your content but especially the Commodore stuff. It was my first computer back in the 80's and I still have it today. Commodore and all its software will always have a special place in my memories. Thank you for what you do..
We had a friend who was taking courses at the FAA center in Oklahoma City in the 80's. He bought one of these and he was very happy with it. We lost track of Tim when he left OKC to return to the UK for his job. We hope he is doing well.
an SX-64 has been a dream-acquisition of mine ever since I first became aware of it. (After I had sold my C-64 to finance my Amiga, of course) so congrats on getting one, and in such good shape too! Jealous AF like so many others here, but still congrats on your acquistion! May it give you satisfaction, as I look at the empty stretch of desk where one might fit some day....
I just like seeing all this old stuff. Brilliant to re-explore older systems as we never really had enough years to exploit them to their fullest uses/ability.
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Great restoration video. Had one of these a few years ago. Nice size and layout. You have lots of patience and skill! Fun to watch you at work. Thanks! ~
I love that you can watch this channel for early '80s computer stuff and then slide right over to LGR for computery things newer than that but still vintage.
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Nice to see, that this sx64 got a new precious owner. The difference between the two kernals could be a problem for some software. But in the end a nice little computer. A friend of mine owned one. And i like it. Keep up the good work.
I had two or three SX-64, in about 1984/1985 got them from a Surplus Store in Omaha Nebraska, Maybe on 120th & W.Center Rd. , They where about $300-$350 plus tax. I had several because when plugged in a 1200 baud modem the power supply would burn out. Then go trade for another thinking it was a fluke, same thing would happen - power supply fried. Finally got refund on the last one, and bought a new C-128 & Disk drive from Montgomery Wards. I DID use a Magnavox Color monitor, external Disk Drive, and other accessories with it. The internal Color monitor wasn't too bad, just very small to read, 13" or 14" monitor worked great with it. Don't recall that the keyboard had shifted keys. A FUN accessory I had was the Type & Speak Cartridge, that really freaked out all the family members. Granny was just stumped as to what was going on.
Your videos are always a treat when they come out. Makes my much better and happier. Thank you so much David.
I love your videos, you are such an inspiration.
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Very Interesting! I have a faint memory of one from elementary school, some years before C64 changed my life..::💚
Always another tendril or thread of electronic history (all history) that escaped my attention; thank you for elaborating this bit (these bits)!
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Shout out to big Steve , legend man nice of you to donate such a nice thing
So heres an interesting recent thing i discovered
Most keyboards are made of fairly chemical resistant, moderate softening temperature plastic.
If you happen to have a dishwasher, you can put keyboard frames in it and set the wash to "delicate" or "low temp"
If you have a big strainer or silverware insert for the dishwasher, you can also dishwash the keycaps
No need for dishwasher fluid, the water alone will take care of practically anything unless your keyboard is supremely nasty.
Take them out, give them all a good rinse to prevent water marks, and then put them by a fan for a while and youve got a keyboard that looks brand new.
One of my childhood friends had one of these and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Even though in retrospect, it was pretty tough playing games on that tiny screen 😂
Отличный канал, я пересмотрел почти всё, очень познавательно. Я хоть английский знаю не очень хорошо, но глядя Ваши ролики почти всё понимаю, удивительно!
I've got one. I bought in the late 80's when I was serving in the Navy. It fit perfectly in one of the storage sections under my rack. I never had many games for it and after I left the Navy it went into the closet. I get it out once in a while just to see if it still works. And it does still work. The tiny screen was a hassle so when I was ashore I used a full sized Commodore monitor. Yup, it still works too.
I’ve been waiting for a repair video on the SX! I bought mine new in high school along with a Smith-Corona printer. It got me through several college papers even with that crazy small screen. I always thought it was quite an amazing little machine. Looking forward to getting it running again!
Had one of these - they were extremely expensive here in Denmark, but I got one for free from Commodore, Denmark, for a game I made for them.
To my own regret I ditched it when I got my Amiga.
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And that's actually why most small monitors were in fact monochrome. By the way it looks like your deflection system of CRT need a little adjustment.
Nice video and great repair! When I was 11 I saw a C64 for the first time and I was hooked. Back then they were CAD 325 new. I saved for months to buy a used one. I met some friends in the neighbourhood who had them, and one was an SX-64. I though it was the coolest thing ever! Thanks for sharing and congratulations on finding one and getting it running again.
Hey there, semi-regular viewer from Germany here. I remember seeing this machine quite a lot in my childhood: My father was a farmer, and he was regularly visited by a travelling feed, fertilizer and seeds salesman (working for BayWa, for all those who know their german farming suppliers:p ). In lieu of large folders amd catalogues, he usually lugged an SX-64 along when he visited my father on one of his regular sales tours to take in his orders for the quarter. He would present prices and projections over the next few years (usually with coresponding bar graphics for comparison), take in orders and save them to disk directly, and even save info as well as a copy of the current order for my father (we also owned a C64 back home... many farmers in our area did, who were all frequented by that same salesman ;) ) for his own archive. I can totally understand why you wouldn't see this machine at Target or Toys 'R us - its main target audience were these travelling salesmen, especially for people able to hand of data on disk to their customers.
To your comment: The only place I saw these were at user group meetings, and even then the presenter would have a 1701 that faced the audience while he sat and typed in front of the small screen. In that the computer could drive both at once it was a good use-case.
Also...haha, yes no C64, or SX64 Visicalc (hmm, it was available on Atari 800) there was Microsoft Multiplan, pretty powerful and yes I have a real copy.
The DX-64 did exist. I saw them on display at "Service Merchandise" in Raleigh, a suburb of Memphis.
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North Carolina or Tennessee???
Growing up in Austria, this was my second computer (after a VC-20 - not VIC, but VC over there.) Commodore basically fire-sold their remaining inventory via the German department store/catalog ‘Quelle’ (basically the german Sears of the era) and my dad was able to get one for roughly $550. The one other reason it failed in its intended market niche (imo) is that it really was way too heavy to ever be described as portable. ‘Luggable’ maybe. I forget what it weighed, but it was probably north of 40lbs. The two silver exterior clamshells were quite heavy (solid metal!) and the (massive) power supply at the back end made sure that if you carried it by it’s handle, you got more than a workout.
After I went back to the US for college in 1988, my SX-64 stayed with my dad in Austria. He passed away this April and as my relatives were clearing out his things, lo and behold, they found it neatly tucked away in his dresser closet. I was very much tempted to see if it could be shipped over here just for pure nostalgia (I’m pretty sure they all had 110/220v switches, so operation should be fine) but I figure it’ll most likely not survive shipping, no matter how good it’s packaged. I gifted it to one of my cousins, who says he wants to keep it/restore it.
I’ve periodically checked eBay for SX-64s over the last 20 years, but every time I came close to buying another, my sense of nostalgia was overcome by the phantom pain in my biceps….
I know I had one of these when I was younger, I can't remember if I found it at a garage sale or thrift store. I can't remember what happened to it, it might still be buried somewhere in my house under a pile of junk, maybe in the back of my closet. I don't remember ever getting rid of it, but my memory is terrible. No idea if it would still work though.
That's like losing a gold bar.
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Good luck, Hope you find it! Additionally, the Rom chip is notorious for faliure. Replacements can be bought though. That is really the only major faliure im aware of. That and the floppy drive may need some belts.
I wonder if you could replace that screen with a TFT display. Not easily I'm sure. But without a giant CRT and it's related HV power supply there is room for all sorts of things.
Ofcourse you can and its been done many times you could also put a better crt if u wish
I don’t think that I’ve ever seen or knew that the SX-64 existed. Such a cool machine. Also big thanks to the host for this video. He makes this look easy - which I’m sure it isn’t. Very relaxing to watch after eating a big Thanksgiving meal. Thank you 8bit guy!
I like how it gots a handle like a suitcase 🤣
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First time I saw one, I thought it was a suitcase. That is, Until I went to open it and spotted the Commodore logo!
7:56 please buy a 3d printer. 3 weeks for a part that takes maybe an hour to print is such a long time. the bambu lab x1 carbon printer is a no fuss, auto leveling, and ai improving printer. its expensive but worth it. you could use it for a bunch of future projects if something breaks and you cant find the part online.
I saw the SX-64 for sale in Foley’s in Houston. Foley’s is a department store that was sold to Macy’s.
This was my holy grail for years until I got a working one off Craigslist for dirt cheap. It's one of the coolest things I have now, but I've been terrified to disassemble it because I've broken less complicated things while trying to clean them. Thank you for showing this!
Tetrads looks REALLY slick. Nice work!
I also have one that looks to have the same problems, I got it at least 20 years ago from a garage sale for $40, and of course no keyboard cable, made one from some ribbon cable. I can't wait to pull it out from storage and look inside. Thanks for a great video! Cheers from Australia! I have never seen that diagnostic cartridge before.
Awesome!
When I was 17 back in 1987, my local RC car racing club used an SX64 to run our race timing program.
It worked great!
As I already owned a C64, AND I had a car, I ended up being the custodian of the SX.
But, as a scrawny 17 year old, let me tell you, it was most certainly not the most portable of systems.
Not idea what happened to that one, but any Scottish viewers out there, I’d love to know if anyone knows where it ended up. 😃
I had one of these in the 80s, used it as a MIDI sequencer. It was fairly reliable on-stage, although the screen was really tough to read in the typical bad lighting situations when our band played.
Great video! I so appreciate computer nerds like you for rescuing vintage computer hardware. I was in college when this came out and already had a C64. I could have used the portability but the cost sank acquiring it. Thanks for making this one workable. First rate channel!
The most knowledgeable guy on these computers that I have seen. Thank you, and God bless you for sharing your knowledge with others 🙏
Dave said he never saw one of these for sale. I grew up in western PA, and there was a regional chain call Hills that always had a great computer department. They would have a dozen machines on display that anyone could play with. For a long time my local store had a SX-64 on display. I think the price was down to $599 or so at the time. I spent hours messing with the machine, as it really was a unique system for the time. I miss Hills, as they really helped me get into computers, which is my career. Hills help me become a software engineer.