He had a portable color screen Commodore for work? Yeah I think you might be confusing this with an early IBM portable which looked the same. All the first "laptops" looked like this. But unless your dads job was gaming its highly unlikely he had this one
@@anonymousguy1188 You do know that there was business software available for the Commodore SX-64? Here's some of the advertising for it. www.pinterest.ie/pin/83035186866647740/ th-cam.com/video/5PygDf6E94o/w-d-xo.html
@@anonymousguy1188 It seems hard to believe these days, now that we've seen what IBM compatibles grew into. But at one time the business market was fragmented between different computer systems, much more than now. Commodore did actually have some of that market, especially in '84.
Actually, I just LOVE when someone films an old monitor/TV while playing a retro game. All those wavy lines, unclear picture, imagination of how much better it looks in person. I don't know why, but it looks so amateurishly brilliant. I even follow couple Instagram accounts, who post stuff like that.
As a kid I carried my C64 to the shops swapped it for one of these second hand, and paid extra £60 . But then I had to call my dad for a lift home cause my new portable was 10 X as heavy as my original lol.
Great deal, back in 2001 we cleaned out an old office building that had been vacant for years and there was about 5 of these computers in storage amongst many other types. We tossed all of them into a 40 yard rubbish bin destined for the local landfill... We didn’t think these had any value as we were very uneducated in the field of classic computers... I do regret tossing them in retrospect...
@@nickpavloff8977 You should take a look at "The C64". Looks, feels and acts like a full size Commodore 64 but has USB ports to plug modern controllers and USB drives which you put your disk images on. Also has VIC20 mode (the C64's predecessor) and 64 games built in to get you started. retrogames.biz/thec64
Didn't the standard C=64 in the US come with the spiral-bound reference manual? In Europe it shipped with a manual very similar to what you showed. Also, the cartridge slot on the SX-64 wasn't for games; it was for business software. There are cartridges with spreadsheet or word processing software and several extension to BASIC for programmers. Not to mention the custom solutions some companies created.
Yes, the VIC20 and the C64 both came with the huge spiral bound manuals that had BASIC programming lessons included. Thus beginning the transformation of a ten-year-old me into a total nerd for life!
I never owned the C64 but I did have a manual in my possession acquired from my mothers previous job in Chicago. We moved to Florida and she had some things, like this manual, that never made it back to the office she worked in. For the first few months of living in Florida's scorching Sun I stayed inside and we didn't have TV, but I had books and read everything in the house at the time including the entire encyclopedia Britannica set and Webster dictionary, and then I stumbled upon this manual. I fell in love with it even though I didn't have a computer to do any of this stuff with. I read it front to back over and over just fascinated in my 11 yr old self. Then one day my mother comes home with x86 ibm clone with Dos. My mother showed me the spreadsheet software which was Lotus 123 that she used for work, and the Typing tutor game, and how to navigate the disks from the command line. So browsing the files on my own I stumbled upon QuickBasic for Dos and I remembered what I read from the manual I had read about nine moths before. From that point on I started using the manuals info to make my own programs in QB and eventually my own games. So, the manual was invaluable to me even though I never owned a C64 because of the great amount of knowledge and detail that went into this manual.
What, people don't have Commodore 64s these days? I have two! More hilarious bits: one of the reasons the 1541 disk drive is so huge is that it has a very sophisticated controller. (...an understatement.) Dedicated processor and dedicated RAM just to handle the disk access so the main CPU doesn't need to. Yes, this is for EACH drive unit. Imagine if all of your USB sticks came with a top-of-the-line CPU. Also, C64 does not support RGB output, but it has Luma/Chroma output. What kids these days call "S-Video". Favourite games on C64? Umm... Basically all of the ones with "Ninja" in the title. (Even if they didn't put "Ninja" in TMNT over here.) Also liked the fighting games like Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, International Karate and The Way of the Exploding Fist. Edit: oh and thanks for showing the Airborne Ranger title screen! Probably the first stealth game I ever played. Really loved MicroProse games.
You are absolutely right about the controller being also built into the drive. However this also made them quite expensive, almost half the price of a c64 itself, if I recall it correctly. The Apple II used cpu-based io for that, so you could get 3rd party drives at a much lower price (how times have changed, eh apple? ;) )
There were some urban legends on how games like Seven Cities of Gold used the floppy CPU for extra calculation - indeed legends, considered floppy is tied via serial cable
I inherited my dad's collection of C64-C128's.... among them an SX64. As a kid we each had our own C64 to play with. My fondest game memories are playing SWIV, Airborne Ranger, Zak Mckracken, Space Crusade, Neuromancer and the Creatures series (Clyde Radcliffe Exterminates All The Unfriendly Repulsive Earth-ridden Slime - Torture trouble & Mayhem in Monsterland ).
I love the SX-64! My dad bought one when it first came out with GeOS. It was too complicated for him to understand so after that it became my gaming machine. Spent tons of hours laying in front of this tiny screen with my binder full of shared (read: pirated) games. It still functions perfectly after all these years. One of my fave games is Mission Impossible.
Regarding the cartridge slot (6:40) it wasn't only used for games. There were special graphics printer interfaces, rs232, eprom programmers or RAM extensions available (well, and final cartridge of course ;) ) So it did make sense to have that slot even for business reasons.
There's a reason the disk drive is so huge. The C64 didn't actually have any floppy disk controllers or such inside so the disk drive has all the internals and its own CPU needed to make the C64 communicate with the drive. It's almost like a separate computer.
Back in 1984 if it weren't for competitors, and their stupid plan to add a 2nd floppy, it would have sold as many computers as the 128. This was top of the line when it came out.
Plays every game. There's a few that expect the dark blue background to be there, and use white text you can't see, but a simple POKE 53281,6 before running it would remedy that. Other than the difference in colors and intro, the SX-64 Kernal also has all the code for tape removed, as the SX-64 has no tape port. This means, any games on tape won't work. But today, you can get most everything on D64 and use a SD2IEC adapter, just make sure you specify using the USER PORT for power instead on the TAPE PORT when buying an SD2IEC for an SX-64.
Omg, we cleaned out an old office building back in 2001 and there was around 5 of these that we tossed away. Back then I had no idea of the history of this particular computer.... what a shame...
I love this series and you showing and talking about vintage computers and games. Please do more of this, if you don't mind, versus mostly console oriented videos. Thank you, and great job!!
The TRS-80 and the Commodore 64 were the first 2 computers that I wrote games for when I was a kid. The Commodore 64 also came out with a manual that showed a map of all of the memory locations, what they controlled, and how inputting different variables into said locations would affect their function. I think it included an ASCII table as well. Love the video!
Back then, your free “Games with Gold” and “PlayStation Plus” games were listed as code in monthly magazines and took two or three days to program yourself!
I had the C64 and 1702 monitor for six months BEFORE getting a 1541 Drive. I used to spend hours typing the games from the magazines in, then trying to find and fix all my errors, play it for an hour, only to have to turn it off and lose EVERYTHING! One of the happiest days in my life was when I received the 1541 for my birthday.
Favorite Comodore 64 games. Adventure Construction set, Autoduel , Elite, Spy Vs Spy, Temple of Apshi, The Bards Tale, Winter Games, Gunship, Wishbringer, Sorcerer, Cutthroats,Bruce Lee, Karateka, Kung Fu The Legend Continues, Donkey Kong, Skyfox, Champions Of Krynn, Secret Of the Silver Blades,Death Knights Of Krynn, The Queen Of Darkness, Ghostbusters.
There are still new games being created for commodore computers. Sams Journey, Galencia, the 8bit guy's Planet X2 even Super Mario Brothers, and much more.
I actually HAD one of those back in the day... It was hard on the eyes, but very cool that it had great compatibility with the 5 1/4 disks and the special copy protection on some of those games... Rather enjoyable actually...
I used to have a Commodore 64 when I was a kid. It was the system that first introduced me to video games. My favorite game on the system was Track & Field, but I also loved H.E.R.O., Hardball, Choplifter, Ghostbusters, The Three Stooges, Tapper, Yie Ar Kung Fu, & Karate Champ.
I went with my cousin and uncle in the 80's to buy one of these at Gemco. My brother and I made them buy a game with it to test it out (I think is was Pitstop 2). It was really cool and worked great. I wish they still had it, but when I asked him, he said he had no idea where it is. Then he send me his C64 and 1541, so I did get a prize out of asking.
A couple years ago a veteran computer programmer visited my computer science class and showed one of these. It didn't boot but it was still fascinating as hell to look at
I'm a HUGE Commodore 64 fan and this video made me very happy! Heck my C64C is plugged into my CRT and I play it a lot, especially now with so many new and high quality games being released for it all the time both physically and in digital form. Jason, I'd absolutely love to see a video on new Commodore 64 games, anything from Sam's Journey and Steel Ranger to Yoomp 64, Run Demon Run, Neutron and all the other really cool games that came out these past few years many of which got physical releases on cartridge or floppy disks. These games really push the system to its limits and then some, just look at how amazing both Sam's Journey and Steel Ranger look and sound, Yoomp 64 too, it's mind blowing.
mine sat in a storage unit for almost 10 YEARS. it was in the original box and all the disks were packed neatly. still works great and i have it set up in my home office. the speech unit still works, fast load cartridge, etc. i still have my 300 baud modem but haven't tested it...BBS that i know of are no longer around
Seeing all this old electronics for computers makes me laugh.... My dad had a friend that would bootleg games.... I remember doing the game prompt... A:/Loadrunner enter /Run or however it was I forget... We had 2 different Comadore 64s
I remember loading a disk...eating lunch...watching TMNT...then playing Bruce Lee for 8 minutes and going on about the day! Thanks for the refresh of my memory!
Awesome Jason, pleased to see you looking at stuff that you don't usually cover on your channel. Have a C64 Breadbin, C64c & a C128 (128D as it is the flat desktop one) and love these machines and use them often. Also have a few Amiga which is another awesome machine. Tapes were the norm here as the C2N was usually bundled with it regardless of where you bought it. Tape loading can be time consuming coming in at around 5 minutes per single load game but you also have multi load where a level is loaded in at a time. Thankfully the tape loading is nowhere near as bad or slow as the Atari 8 Bit line of home computers where it can take 15 minutes to load in Mercenary! Please more content about how the UK & Europe did their thing while you guys had the NES etc
The commodore 64 in general is my favorite system because it's a great 80's gaming system but you can do so much more with it. Endless enjoyment. Certainly a great system for learning to program on, and a lot of fun to do. Also you can get a wifi modem for it cheap! There are tones of BBS systems that are still online today and you access them over telnet.
Aaargh - Europe didn´t get stuck with tapes, stop generalizing ;) The UK was all about tapes (mostly because of the ZX), but the rest of us quickly moved on to discs.
Yes. Disks were very popular in Europe. They never really caught on in the UK until the 16 bit (Amiga) era. I think I was one of the few C64 owners in the UK that actually had a 1541. I live in Canada now, and everyone I talked to tells me that cassette decks fell out of favour in North America around 1983ish
As a kid I remember it from the Commodore shop in my home town. Yes, Commdore shop! That 1 guy had a small shop and would only sell Commodores. He used the SX-64 to create and print invoices, write and print mail, and some of his accounting / stock management. I was in awe of that machine.
Saying it has held its value is a bit of a stretch. Also, it's doubtful many of the original owners ever sold these devices for anywhere near $500, unless you are just a strange individual who keeps his electronics for 30 years waiting for the market to trend upward.
The 1902 monitor. When I was a kid and I wanted to get an NES in my bedroom, I had a black and white TV that I hated. I was thrilled that I could play games in my own room, BUT I loved when I could hook it up to the TV in the living room instead. Eventually 1994 came around and my family got a new computer, the Commodore was getting picked apart and put into the attic. That's when I realized I could hook up the composite cables and use it with my NES!!! :D I used that monitor exclusively until I went off to college - it got me through the NES, SNES, and N64 eras all by itself. I loved that thing!
I'd love old school fuses on new hardware, no more RMA if it fries because it's integrated into the deepest darkest corner of the guts and coupled with a CPS2-battery on a planned obsolescence circuit, just switch it out and done. People buy broken equipment and switch the fuse and done, best I saw was a €50 synth-sampler that was brought back to life with one switch and its value then went up to €2500+
Love this video! I bought mine with the advance from writing a book called "Getting Graphic on the Commodore 64". I took it on a long trip to Canada and most of the customs and other inspectors kept referring to it as an oscilloscope.
In a world of fun and fantasy, and ever changing views And computer terminology, Commodore is news. Are you keeping up with the Commodore? ‘Cause the Commodore’s keeping up with you. Are you keeping up with the Commodore? ‘Cause the Commodore’s keeping up with you.
The SX-64 looks really cool. I got rid of my last C64 years ago but I miss having one. My favorite game, hands down, is Mail Order Monsters. The battles I used to have with one of my friends...that game is epic. :)
I graduated from a California high school in 1985, and my parents got me one of those SX-64s. I don't know what they paid for it, but I guarantee it wasn't $1,000. I loved it. I had started with the VIC-20 and the family TV, with no data set, so I had to retype the games from magazines every time. Soon, I got a tape player and then moved to the 64 with a floppy disk (I was walking in tall cotton). Then, for graduation, I received the SX-64, which I used for a couple of years before moving to the Amiga 500. But, like I said, I loved it. Being portable was so cool; I took it all over California, and even to Oklahoma to see my grandparent. The old 1541 floppies were notorious for not liking to be moved, but the drive on the SX-64 was solid, as was the case. I saw one that had been flung off a desk when someone kicked the cord, and it was still on and running. I can't remember what happened to it; I think I gave it to a friend when I got the Amiga. Even today, its styling holds up. It is a wonderful-looking computer, so much better than the Kay-pro or some of the other "portables" of that time. I would love to have one just to set on a shelf for nostalgia, I could put it next to my Amiga 2500 (that's setting in a closet right now)
I owned one and took it to an electronics repair place, with a schematic in hand, for a modification. I had them solder a wire and a few resistors onto the video board, enabling me to connect the internal monitor of the SX-64 to an RCA output from a cable box. Allowed me to turn it into a portable TV when I was in residence at school and didn't yet have an external monitor. Very nice clear image on the 5 inch screen.
Commodore 64 computers do not run RGB! S-Video and Composite or RF only.. The commodore 64 list of software is roughly 25.000 titles, in Europe and the United States.
Nice vid! Yep, commodore had a good idea going, thinking that since the Commodore 64 was extremely popular, and there were many work programs for it, they thought they had a winner. However, what killed this computer is that Commodore did not include IBM compatibility in this machine, and since the workforce used IBM computers and software, it meant you had to buy your own copy of the software used at work (if you find a Commodore port of it!) Most office workers ended up buying a Tandy 1000 for the house, which was the same price, and was PC/PC XT (IBM) compatible. So instead of lugging a computer and software, they could simply borrow the relavant IBM floppy discs from work, and use it in their Tandy. I also have a T-1000 from 1984.
Compared to a home computer, this was very expensive. However, this was actually one of the cheapest Business computers you could get at the time. An Apple 2 for example, was roughly $2,300, and an IBM would run you $2,600 +. The closet thing in price point to this was Radio Shack's "Tandy 1000" , which sold for $995 in 1984. While Not portable, it could use IBM software, and was cheap enough that one could buy this for the home as well.
Heh, I knew a guy in high school who had one of these in his dorm. I didn't know how much they cost, but I had to assume the answer was "a lot." I like that the colors of the operating system have been shifted over to what the VIC-20 used. The legend lives on!
I remember helping my dad haul this around to computer gatherings and going to expos. I was quite young, so my favorite games were Barbie, Dream House, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Super Mario Bros., and DuckTales: The Quest For Gold.
12:25 - awwww, peek & poke.... the sense of growing access to increasing power at consumers' fingertips starting with 2-D arrays then "mind-blown" with 3-D arrays and array-array programming. The feels.
@thecouchtripper even Bigger gamers used the FINAL cratridge with all the extra's like screen dumping , sprite dumping , machine code monitor and more beside fast loading tape and disk games .. and the option to make a bootable memory dump of the current game .. those were the days
Yep, pretty much all C64 commands had a shortcut like this... you could use it to your advantage when programming in BASIC. Each line of Commodore BASIC could only have a maximum of 80 characters, or two lines on a 40 character screen. If you used shortcuts you could cram a lot more commands onto a single line... the funny thing was that when you listed the program it expanded all those shortcuts into their full form so those single lines could show up as much longer than 80 characters! Commodore BASIC was definitely a shit programming language, you needed to be very familiar with the POKE command and the functions of individual memory locations to get anything useful to happen with sound and graphics... but man, you learned so much about how computers worked by doing things this way. And it really primed you for learning Assembly Language. I learned so much from my C64 back in the day, and I thought I was just "having fun" :)
This was a great portable system with versatility to be a home system as well. The floppy-con drift was unacceptable IMO and Commodore really needed to address it.
One of my old friends had a little b/w tv set that looked just like that. Screen size and location and everything. It had little handles on the sides of the face.
I grew up on the Atari. First the 2600 then in later years moved onto the 800 then to the 1040st. But later I had friends with the commodore and Amiga where I learned to appreciate its versatility, much like the Atari's did.
Nice of you to shout out a small TH-camr like doug demuro at the end there. He actually started to become a little popular lately. He was able to buy a used Ford a few years ago, and more recently he was able to buy a used Porsche so he's starting to make it in the TH-cam world. Maybe one day he will be able to get a new car if he gets more popular!
I had one of these, my uncle gave to me as I was such a fan of this thing. The unfortunate thing is that my parents sold it from under me after I left for the military. Was sooo upset and disappointed. I wept a bit. 😭
Yep. I have had my original Commodore 64 computer since the early 80's. And it still works. I have it hooked up to a 13" Sony Triniton TV and it looks fantastic! My favorites on it are Star Wars Arcade, Buck Rogers, Test Drive, Jumpman, Triad, Racing Destruction Set, Pole Position, Shamus, Blueprint, Pitstop, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Q-Bert, Double Dragon and so many others. As I have tons of disks and a handful of cartridges. I am actually currently waiting for the original Castlevania to show up that I got on Ebay. I so can't wait for that! Cool video man! Oh, and also I am looking forward to meeting you and many others August 10th here in Phoenix, Arizona for the Game On Expo! See you there man! \,,/
My friend's dad had one of these in his office back in the day and I used to love playing on it. Even when I had my own C128D, I just loved that compact little machine with a tiny color tv. Good times man.
My dad bought one for me in high school. I remember playing games and typing stories on it. Loved it. Still have it, but I haven't tried to boot it up in years.
Usually, when a keyboard gets sticky, it just needs to be thoroughly cleaned. Of course; there could always be another problem behind the stickiness of a keyboard as well. Since to thoroughly clean a keyboard requires to open the keyboard up, one may as well look for any damage to the keyboard while one has the keyboard opened and fix anything that needs to be fixed.
My SX-64 keyboard had similar issues until I took it apart and cleaned it up. When you press on the keys, they come into contact with a rubber membrane that has carbon pads on the bottom of it, which then hits a circuit board and completes the circuit so that the computer registers the keypress. Just by cleaning that circuit board with some isopropyl alcohol, the keyboard should be back to working as normal. It's easy enough to do, as long as you're gentle getting everything apart.
Cool video MJR! My go to C64 games when I was a kid in the 80’s and 90’s were: Barbarian, Impossible Mission, Zorro, Raid Over Moscow and Aztec Challenge. If you haven’t tried these games, give them a playthrough... you won’t be disappointed.
A guy from Europe (Germany) here. No, we *didn't* use Datasetten a lot. I had one, but only two or three games on there. While having tons of games on Diskette.
The C64 was massively popular in Germany (Commodore had a manufacturing plant in West Germany, churning out C64s & Amigas) and as the floppy drive was so expensive and the cassette so slow, they had loads of productivity software on cartridge - word processors & so on). In fact, it wasn't unusual to find a C64 with a multi-cartridge adapter board, which allowed for three or four carts to be plugged in at once, and you just selected the one you wanted with a switch when you switched on the computer. So, for the executive on the go, it was probably useful to have the cart slot on the SX64 for that reason.
I recently moved into a new house the previous owners left SO much stuff on the property including one of these in really good condition along with a VHS tape on how to operate it.
I had one when I was in the Navy. It was fantastic, and it was so popular. I loved Lords of Conquest, Elite, The D&D games as well as Reach for the Stars, which is a simplified Masters of Orion.
My dad had one of these for work when I was a kid. I remember he use to complain how heavy it was for being "portable". Great video MJR. Rock on!
Unicorn Diarrhea = M & M's?
@@NeonKnight83 IRS more likely! xd
He had a portable color screen Commodore for work? Yeah I think you might be confusing this with an early IBM portable which looked the same. All the first "laptops" looked like this. But unless your dads job was gaming its highly unlikely he had this one
@@anonymousguy1188 You do know that there was business software available for the Commodore SX-64? Here's some of the advertising for it.
www.pinterest.ie/pin/83035186866647740/
th-cam.com/video/5PygDf6E94o/w-d-xo.html
@@anonymousguy1188 It seems hard to believe these days, now that we've seen what IBM compatibles grew into. But at one time the business market was fragmented between different computer systems, much more than now. Commodore did actually have some of that market, especially in '84.
In the UK in the 1980s, video game magazines would always have half-a-dozen or so pages at the back containing the code for an entire video game
Rhys Peregrine it was the same in the US, too!
In Netherlands they just played it over the radio. You record to tape and put to computer. First downloads?
They existed in the US/Canada too
Compute!'s Gazette and Ahoy were American magazines. Plus they also had a disk magazine called Loadstar.
@Ras Krishna haha sadly yes
@@Forwardbias83 this service also became the precursor to quantum link which eventually became American Online.
To be honest, this is a nice piece of industrial design.
I’d say it’s competitive even with Apple’s designs from the era.
Actually, I just LOVE when someone films an old monitor/TV while playing a retro game. All those wavy lines, unclear picture, imagination of how much better it looks in person. I don't know why, but it looks so amateurishly brilliant. I even follow couple Instagram accounts, who post stuff like that.
I love it too. It ads charm and loads of nostalgia.
I picked up one of these at a garage sale earlier this year. It works great and came with Hero. :)
i paid $50 for mine !
As a kid I carried my C64 to the shops swapped it for one of these second hand, and paid extra £60 .
But then I had to call my dad for a lift home cause my new portable was 10 X as heavy as my original lol.
Great deal, back in 2001 we cleaned out an old office building that had been vacant for years and there was about 5 of these computers in storage amongst many other types. We tossed all of them into a 40 yard rubbish bin destined for the local landfill... We didn’t think these had any value as we were very uneducated in the field of classic computers... I do regret tossing them in retrospect...
Check eBay first
A new MetalJesus video always brightens the day.
True
PS2: I have 1,850 games
C64: Hold my beer
C64: Hold my disk drive
Over 20k games ? And if they made an everdrive it could probably fit on 1 cart today. I’m curious to know if there’s an emulator.
Windows: Don't hold your breath
F/OSS: Ok boomer, vice-emu.sourceforge.net/
@@nickpavloff8977 You should take a look at "The C64". Looks, feels and acts like a full size Commodore 64 but has USB ports to plug modern controllers and USB drives which you put your disk images on. Also has VIC20 mode (the C64's predecessor) and 64 games built in to get you started.
retrogames.biz/thec64
Holy shit. I never thought that you'd reference doug demuro in your channel. You guys are both some of my fave youtubers. Keep it up mjr.
Next Hoovie is gonna show us the cheapest computer he bought in America soon
Yo i love doug de muro. can you tell me the time stamp he referenced him at?
@@penguinpurist1696 13:36 have a nice day ok
@@penguinpurist1696 Very end of the video after hes completely done reviewing.
@@gaupau yeah i never watch the very end
Didn't the standard C=64 in the US come with the spiral-bound reference manual? In Europe it shipped with a manual very similar to what you showed.
Also, the cartridge slot on the SX-64 wasn't for games; it was for business software. There are cartridges with spreadsheet or word processing software and several extension to BASIC for programmers. Not to mention the custom solutions some companies created.
Yes, the VIC20 and the C64 both came with the huge spiral bound manuals that had BASIC programming lessons included. Thus beginning the transformation of a ten-year-old me into a total nerd for life!
@@crowningchristopher8273 Me too :) It's probably the book I value most!
Christopher T.
Plus you could also buy a separate "Programmer's Reference Guide" for each of them, which goes into more advanced BASIC programming
I never owned the C64 but I did have a manual in my possession acquired from my mothers previous job in Chicago. We moved to Florida and she had some things, like this manual, that never made it back to the office she worked in. For the first few months of living in Florida's scorching Sun I stayed inside and we didn't have TV, but I had books and read everything in the house at the time including the entire encyclopedia Britannica set and Webster dictionary, and then I stumbled upon this manual. I fell in love with it even though I didn't have a computer to do any of this stuff with. I read it front to back over and over just fascinated in my 11 yr old self. Then one day my mother comes home with x86 ibm clone with Dos. My mother showed me the spreadsheet software which was Lotus 123 that she used for work, and the Typing tutor game, and how to navigate the disks from the command line. So browsing the files on my own I stumbled upon QuickBasic for Dos and I remembered what I read from the manual I had read about nine moths before. From that point on I started using the manuals info to make my own programs in QB and eventually my own games. So, the manual was invaluable to me even though I never owned a C64 because of the great amount of knowledge and detail that went into this manual.
@@scottbreon9448 And the "Programmer's Reference Guide" wasn't just limited to BASIC.
What, people don't have Commodore 64s these days? I have two!
More hilarious bits: one of the reasons the 1541 disk drive is so huge is that it has a very sophisticated controller. (...an understatement.) Dedicated processor and dedicated RAM just to handle the disk access so the main CPU doesn't need to. Yes, this is for EACH drive unit. Imagine if all of your USB sticks came with a top-of-the-line CPU.
Also, C64 does not support RGB output, but it has Luma/Chroma output. What kids these days call "S-Video".
Favourite games on C64? Umm... Basically all of the ones with "Ninja" in the title. (Even if they didn't put "Ninja" in TMNT over here.) Also liked the fighting games like Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, International Karate and The Way of the Exploding Fist.
Edit: oh and thanks for showing the Airborne Ranger title screen! Probably the first stealth game I ever played. Really loved MicroProse games.
You are absolutely right about the controller being also built into the drive. However this also made them quite expensive, almost half the price of a c64 itself, if I recall it correctly. The Apple II used cpu-based io for that, so you could get 3rd party drives at a much lower price (how times have changed, eh apple? ;) )
There were some urban legends on how games like Seven Cities of Gold used the floppy CPU for extra calculation - indeed legends, considered floppy is tied via serial cable
Only two? Lightweight.
I inherited my dad's collection of C64-C128's.... among them an SX64. As a kid we each had our own C64 to play with. My fondest game memories are playing SWIV, Airborne Ranger, Zak Mckracken, Space Crusade, Neuromancer and the Creatures series (Clyde Radcliffe Exterminates All The Unfriendly Repulsive Earth-ridden Slime - Torture trouble & Mayhem in Monsterland ).
I love the SX-64! My dad bought one when it first came out with GeOS. It was too complicated for him to understand so after that it became my gaming machine. Spent tons of hours laying in front of this tiny screen with my binder full of shared (read: pirated) games. It still functions perfectly after all these years. One of my fave games is Mission Impossible.
Regarding the cartridge slot (6:40) it wasn't only used for games. There were special graphics printer interfaces, rs232, eprom programmers or RAM extensions available (well, and final cartridge of course ;) ) So it did make sense to have that slot even for business reasons.
I didn't even know about that thing. That's just amazing to be honest. It would have blown my mind back then with a color display and "portable".
There's a reason the disk drive is so huge. The C64 didn't actually have any floppy disk controllers or such inside so the disk drive has all the internals and its own CPU needed to make the C64 communicate with the drive. It's almost like a separate computer.
For $1000 that Commodore better play the games for me!
you can just do that on twitch
@@EduardoDanielFerreira Or TAS
Back in 1984 if it weren't for competitors, and their stupid plan to add a 2nd floppy, it would have sold as many computers as the 128. This was top of the line when it came out.
Plays every game. There's a few that expect the dark blue background to be there, and use white text you can't see, but a simple POKE 53281,6 before running it would remedy that. Other than the difference in colors and intro, the SX-64 Kernal also has all the code for tape removed, as the SX-64 has no tape port. This means, any games on tape won't work. But today, you can get most everything on D64 and use a SD2IEC adapter, just make sure you specify using the USER PORT for power instead on the TAPE PORT when buying an SD2IEC for an SX-64.
Omg, we cleaned out an old office building back in 2001 and there was around 5 of these that we tossed away. Back then I had no idea of the history of this particular computer.... what a shame...
I love this series and you showing and talking about vintage computers and games. Please do more of this, if you don't mind, versus mostly console oriented videos. Thank you, and great job!!
Thanks for this great video! I saw several of these at VCFMW, but I only in passing, so I didn't inquire what they were.
Pfft...inflation...the PS5 can be preordered for $1000!
BAWAHAHAHAHAHA!
@@MetalJesusRocks No its Real mine already PreOrdered XD it should be on its way by now XD !
I preordered my 360, and ONE, and now I have the 45 Degrees on order.
I thought that little secret panel was going to be an ashtray. Lol.
@@pinfarmer no reason you couldn't mod it with a vape pen accessory.
The TRS-80 and the Commodore 64 were the first 2 computers that I wrote games for when I was a kid. The Commodore 64 also came out with a manual that showed a map of all of the memory locations, what they controlled, and how inputting different variables into said locations would affect their function. I think it included an ASCII table as well. Love the video!
Back then, your free “Games with Gold” and “PlayStation Plus” games were listed as code in monthly magazines and took two or three days to program yourself!
I had the C64 and 1702 monitor for six months BEFORE getting a 1541 Drive. I used to spend hours typing the games from the magazines in, then trying to find and fix all my errors, play it for an hour, only to have to turn it off and lose EVERYTHING! One of the happiest days in my life was when I received the 1541 for my birthday.
Unless you had the floppy disk versions of those magazines. LOL
In Germany we had Magazines with floppys that contained freeware games.
Favorite Comodore 64 games. Adventure Construction set, Autoduel , Elite, Spy Vs Spy, Temple of Apshi, The Bards Tale, Winter Games, Gunship, Wishbringer, Sorcerer, Cutthroats,Bruce Lee, Karateka, Kung Fu The Legend Continues, Donkey Kong, Skyfox, Champions Of Krynn, Secret Of the Silver Blades,Death Knights Of Krynn, The Queen Of Darkness, Ghostbusters.
There are still new games being created for commodore computers. Sams Journey, Galencia, the 8bit guy's Planet X2 even Super Mario Brothers, and much more.
Sam's Journey is awesome, but personally my favorite recent release is Steel Ranger
I actually HAD one of those back in the day... It was hard on the eyes, but very cool that it had great compatibility with the 5 1/4 disks and the special copy protection on some of those games... Rather enjoyable actually...
Would love to see you do a C64 buying guide with the 8 bit guy!
or LGR :)
@@scottbreon9448 or perifractic
Techmoan has one!
Good video 👍
I keep looking out for an SX-64 to buy, getting scarce now.
"can you imagin" is MJR"s "back in my day." lol keep on rockiin \m/
I used to have a Commodore 64 when I was a kid. It was the system that first introduced me to video games. My favorite game on the system was Track & Field, but I also loved H.E.R.O., Hardball, Choplifter, Ghostbusters, The Three Stooges, Tapper, Yie Ar Kung Fu, & Karate Champ.
Glad my blood pressure was A ok as a kid, Karate Champ would give me a heart attack if i replayed it now, at my age xd
Good content as always! Thanks for filling me with more knowledge, Mr. Jesus.
You're always bigging up Jesus Mr Noah.
I went with my cousin and uncle in the 80's to buy one of these at Gemco. My brother and I made them buy a game with it to test it out (I think is was Pitstop 2). It was really cool and worked great. I wish they still had it, but when I asked him, he said he had no idea where it is. Then he send me his C64 and 1541, so I did get a prize out of asking.
A couple years ago a veteran computer programmer visited my computer science class and showed one of these. It didn't boot but it was still fascinating as hell to look at
I'm a HUGE Commodore 64 fan and this video made me very happy! Heck my C64C is plugged into my CRT and I play it a lot, especially now with so many new and high quality games being released for it all the time both physically and in digital form. Jason, I'd absolutely love to see a video on new Commodore 64 games, anything from Sam's Journey and Steel Ranger to Yoomp 64, Run Demon Run, Neutron and all the other really cool games that came out these past few years many of which got physical releases on cartridge or floppy disks. These games really push the system to its limits and then some, just look at how amazing both Sam's Journey and Steel Ranger look and sound, Yoomp 64 too, it's mind blowing.
Time to remind my dad that our Executive 64 better still be in his basement. If it goes missing... 🤯
mine sat in a storage unit for almost 10 YEARS. it was in the original box and all the disks were packed neatly. still works great and i have it set up in my home office. the speech unit still works, fast load cartridge, etc. i still have my 300 baud modem but haven't tested it...BBS that i know of are no longer around
Awesome video! Three of my favorite TH-camrs all doing retro computer related stuff this weekend. LGR, Phil, and you! Simply fantastic!
Seeing all this old electronics for computers makes me laugh.... My dad had a friend that would bootleg games.... I remember doing the game prompt... A:/Loadrunner enter /Run or however it was I forget... We had 2 different Comadore 64s
I remember loading a disk...eating lunch...watching TMNT...then playing Bruce Lee for 8 minutes and going on about the day! Thanks for the refresh of my memory!
Bruce Lee on the C64 was amazing. I played it A LOT in 1985.
Hey im subbed to doug too!! I love him poking fun at some cars for thier quirks they have and yeah they are quite funny too
Awesome Jason, pleased to see you looking at stuff that you don't usually cover on your channel. Have a C64 Breadbin, C64c & a C128 (128D as it is the flat desktop one) and love these machines and use them often. Also have a few Amiga which is another awesome machine. Tapes were the norm here as the C2N was usually bundled with it regardless of where you bought it. Tape loading can be time consuming coming in at around 5 minutes per single load game but you also have multi load where a level is loaded in at a time. Thankfully the tape loading is nowhere near as bad or slow as the Atari 8 Bit line of home computers where it can take 15 minutes to load in Mercenary!
Please more content about how the UK & Europe did their thing while you guys had the NES etc
I am so glad I found your channel! You're so much fun to watch! Plus I love your Opeth shirts!
yeah and its lovely with the positivity in the vids, if only TV had similar programs like this(thank god for YT i guess)
The commodore 64 in general is my favorite system because it's a great 80's gaming system but you can do so much more with it. Endless enjoyment.
Certainly a great system for learning to program on, and a lot of fun to do.
Also you can get a wifi modem for it cheap! There are tones of BBS systems that are still online today and you access them over telnet.
Aaargh - Europe didn´t get stuck with tapes, stop generalizing ;) The UK was all about tapes (mostly because of the ZX), but the rest of us quickly moved on to discs.
Yes. Disks were very popular in Europe. They never really caught on in the UK until the 16 bit (Amiga) era. I think I was one of the few C64 owners in the UK that actually had a 1541. I live in Canada now, and everyone I talked to tells me that cassette decks fell out of favour in North America around 1983ish
As a kid I remember it from the Commodore shop in my home town. Yes, Commdore shop! That 1 guy had a small shop and would only sell Commodores.
He used the SX-64 to create and print invoices, write and print mail, and some of his accounting / stock management.
I was in awe of that machine.
$1000 in 1984 is ~$2465 in 2019 for reference.
Saying it has held its value is a bit of a stretch. Also, it's doubtful many of the original owners ever sold these devices for anywhere near $500, unless you are just a strange individual who keeps his electronics for 30 years waiting for the market to trend upward.
The fluctuation of imaginary value.....you're a sham......
The 1902 monitor. When I was a kid and I wanted to get an NES in my bedroom, I had a black and white TV that I hated. I was thrilled that I could play games in my own room, BUT I loved when I could hook it up to the TV in the living room instead. Eventually 1994 came around and my family got a new computer, the Commodore was getting picked apart and put into the attic. That's when I realized I could hook up the composite cables and use it with my NES!!! :D I used that monitor exclusively until I went off to college - it got me through the NES, SNES, and N64 eras all by itself. I loved that thing!
"It's Hilarious"© MetalJesusRocks2019
I'd love old school fuses on new hardware, no more RMA if it fries because it's integrated into the deepest darkest corner of the guts and coupled with a CPS2-battery on a planned obsolescence circuit, just switch it out and done. People buy broken equipment and switch the fuse and done, best I saw was a €50 synth-sampler that was brought back to life with one switch and its value then went up to €2500+
Finally back to the old content welcome back metal Jesus
Love this video! I bought mine with the advance from writing a book called "Getting Graphic on the Commodore 64". I took it on a long trip to Canada and most of the customs and other inspectors kept referring to it as an oscilloscope.
In a world of fun and fantasy, and ever changing views
And computer terminology, Commodore is news.
Are you keeping up with the Commodore?
‘Cause the Commodore’s keeping up with you.
Are you keeping up with the Commodore?
‘Cause the Commodore’s keeping up with you.
The SX-64 looks really cool. I got rid of my last C64 years ago but I miss having one. My favorite game, hands down, is Mail Order Monsters. The battles I used to have with one of my friends...that game is epic. :)
Did you ever defeat the almighty Sluggo? 😉
i love the old school design, full of gimmicks and extra stuffs ^^
It's quite impressive. A portable color TV at the time was very expensive. My father had a white and black one at the time that looked like a camera.
"Features and quirks"
Doug DeMuro: Hey, wait a minute!
EDIT: Haha, just got to the end. So you did get that from him.
Big, big fan!
MetalJesusRocks I love cars, so I watch his Channel as well
I graduated from a California high school in 1985, and my parents got me one of those SX-64s. I don't know what they paid for it, but I guarantee it wasn't $1,000. I loved it. I had started with the VIC-20 and the family TV, with no data set, so I had to retype the games from magazines every time. Soon, I got a tape player and then moved to the 64 with a floppy disk (I was walking in tall cotton). Then, for graduation, I received the SX-64, which I used for a couple of years before moving to the Amiga 500. But, like I said, I loved it. Being portable was so cool; I took it all over California, and even to Oklahoma to see my grandparent. The old 1541 floppies were notorious for not liking to be moved, but the drive on the SX-64 was solid, as was the case. I saw one that had been flung off a desk when someone kicked the cord, and it was still on and running. I can't remember what happened to it; I think I gave it to a friend when I got the Amiga. Even today, its styling holds up. It is a wonderful-looking computer, so much better than the Kay-pro or some of the other "portables" of that time. I would love to have one just to set on a shelf for nostalgia, I could put it next to my Amiga 2500 (that's setting in a closet right now)
I showed an original Gameboy and games to my now 14yr old niece she was like what is this I laughed and laughed
I owned one and took it to an electronics repair place, with a schematic in hand, for a modification. I had them solder a wire and a few resistors onto the video board, enabling me to connect the internal monitor of the SX-64 to an RCA output from a cable box. Allowed me to turn it into a portable TV when I was in residence at school and didn't yet have an external monitor. Very nice clear image on the 5 inch screen.
Beach Head 2, 7 Cities of Gold and Forbidden Forest (best music)
I still have a 64 and Forbidden Forest still gives me the creeps. 35 years later....
10:33 What was the game he was playing with the red monster truck? I played it all the time as a kid and can’t remember the name!!
*I'm coming over*
Bring beer ;)
"The keyboard gets sticky" - Metal Jesus, 2019
#Giggity ;)
Now I must find one of these vintage "portables" for road trips in my vintage Lincoln!
Commodore 64 computers do not run RGB! S-Video and Composite or RF only.. The commodore 64 list of software is roughly 25.000 titles, in Europe and the United States.
Nice vid! Yep, commodore had a good idea going, thinking that since the Commodore 64 was extremely popular, and there were many work programs for it, they thought they had a winner.
However, what killed this computer is that Commodore did not include IBM compatibility in this machine, and since the workforce used IBM computers and software, it meant you had to buy your own copy of the software used at work (if you find a Commodore port of it!) Most office workers ended up buying a Tandy 1000 for the house, which was the same price, and was PC/PC XT (IBM) compatible. So instead of lugging a computer and software, they could simply borrow the relavant IBM floppy discs from work, and use it in their Tandy. I also have a T-1000 from 1984.
$1000 in 1984 is approximately $2470 in 2019. That is a hefty price tag right there.
Still not that much compared to PCs of the time, I think my dad spent like $3k+ on a 386 and 1x CD ROM for us so we could play Dos games lol
Could almost buy a new car for the same price back in 1984
Compared to a home computer, this was very expensive. However, this was actually one of the cheapest Business computers you could get at the time. An Apple 2 for example, was roughly $2,300, and an IBM would run you $2,600 +. The closet thing in price point to this was Radio Shack's "Tandy 1000" , which sold for $995 in 1984. While Not portable, it could use IBM software, and was cheap enough that one could buy this for the home as well.
Heh, I knew a guy in high school who had one of these in his dorm. I didn't know how much they cost, but I had to assume the answer was "a lot."
I like that the colors of the operating system have been shifted over to what the VIC-20 used. The legend lives on!
Yep, it was intentional as well. The colors were inverted from the standard C-64, as it was much easier to read the text on it's 5" screen.
Well after this video it's gonna be worth 1000$ again....
Sweet...time to put mine up for sale. Except I don't wanna sell it.
@@bmwolgas Just wait until you do or need to. There's always a foolish collector willing to pay thousands.
I remember helping my dad haul this around to computer gatherings and going to expos. I was quite young, so my favorite games were Barbie, Dream House, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Super Mario Bros., and DuckTales: The Quest For Gold.
Metal Jesus Mocks should be a channel where you excoriate bad video game systems aimed at screwing consumers. Hire me.
thecouchtripper imagine taking this joke literally
Lost how many times I got screwed
@thecouchtripper r/whooosh
11:22 Actually, it's either S-Video or Composite. The C128 had an RGB-i out, but that was for a secondary video chip that wasn't used very much.
This was the first "nintendo switch"...
12:25 - awwww, peek & poke.... the sense of growing access to increasing power at consumers' fingertips starting with 2-D arrays then "mind-blown" with 3-D arrays and array-array programming. The feels.
pbbt, REAL old-school gamers didn't type "load", we typed L-shift-O ;)
@thecouchtripper even Bigger gamers used the FINAL cratridge with all the extra's like screen dumping , sprite dumping , machine code monitor and more beside fast loading tape and disk games .. and the option to make a bootable memory dump of the current game .. those were the days
Yep, pretty much all C64 commands had a shortcut like this... you could use it to your advantage when programming in BASIC.
Each line of Commodore BASIC could only have a maximum of 80 characters, or two lines on a 40 character screen. If you used shortcuts you could cram a lot more commands onto a single line... the funny thing was that when you listed the program it expanded all those shortcuts into their full form so those single lines could show up as much longer than 80 characters!
Commodore BASIC was definitely a shit programming language, you needed to be very familiar with the POKE command and the functions of individual memory locations to get anything useful to happen with sound and graphics... but man, you learned so much about how computers worked by doing things this way. And it really primed you for learning Assembly Language. I learned so much from my C64 back in the day, and I thought I was just "having fun" :)
JiffyDOS F-keys ftw.
J symbol shift p p enter
@@simonebernacchia5724 Shift + Run/Stop for us tape users :)
This was a great portable system with versatility to be a home system as well. The floppy-con drift was unacceptable IMO and Commodore really needed to address it.
$1,000 bad console challenge 😆 awesome video sir!
As a floppy accelerator you can get Jiffydos replacement roms, it's the best of all the speeder systems.
I remember having my FastLoad cartridge back in the day. How did those carts work?
One of my old friends had a little b/w tv set that looked just like that. Screen size and location and everything. It had little handles on the sides of the face.
Justin Reed you can plug consoles with RF into those things.
those tv setting knobs really brought me back to my childhood with our old tube tv.
If you're going to mention quirks and features you need to start the video with "THIS, is Commodore SX-64."
And then we all get to pile comments on like 'Metal Jesus is the type of guy who....' :)
I grew up on the Atari. First the 2600 then in later years moved onto the 800 then to the 1040st. But later I had friends with the commodore and Amiga where I learned to appreciate its versatility, much like the Atari's did.
My wife sometimes complains about me inserting my 'controller' in the wrong 'port'......silly me.
Whoa! #Giggity ;)
Nice of you to shout out a small TH-camr like doug demuro at the end there. He actually started to become a little popular lately. He was able to buy a used Ford a few years ago, and more recently he was able to buy a used Porsche so he's starting to make it in the TH-cam world. Maybe one day he will be able to get a new car if he gets more popular!
Love that dude's videos! 😍
Who esle would like to see EON make an HDMI adapter for the Commodore 64 next? 😂
Is really nothing special.
The video out on those was actually S-video in a proprietary cable.
I had one of these, my uncle gave to me as I was such a fan of this thing. The unfortunate thing is that my parents sold it from under me after I left for the military. Was sooo upset and disappointed. I wept a bit. 😭
Where's the weekend category rating Metal Doug ?
Yep. I have had my original Commodore 64 computer since the early 80's. And it still works. I have it hooked up to a 13" Sony Triniton TV and it looks fantastic! My favorites on it are Star Wars Arcade, Buck Rogers, Test Drive, Jumpman, Triad, Racing Destruction Set, Pole Position, Shamus, Blueprint, Pitstop, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Q-Bert, Double Dragon and so many others. As I have tons of disks and a handful of cartridges. I am actually currently waiting for the original Castlevania to show up that I got on Ebay. I so can't wait for that! Cool video man!
Oh, and also I am looking forward to meeting you and many others August 10th here in Phoenix, Arizona for the Game On Expo! See you there man! \,,/
hoarders, you need to buy this in 2019!
My friend's dad had one of these in his office back in the day and I used to love playing on it. Even when I had my own C128D, I just loved that compact little machine with a tiny color tv. Good times man.
Everything you described as being “hilarious” in this video, really isn’t.
I lost it at the fuse... what's wrong with having an external fuse on a modern laptop? I would love one. It can be an old big fuse, I wouldn't care.
Your comment is hilarious!
My dad bought one for me in high school. I remember playing games and typing stories on it. Loved it. Still have it, but I haven't tried to boot it up in years.
But can it run Crysis?
Jonathan Ferrer yes it can.
They must have had to sit as close to the screen as we do today on our smartphones just seems a little more portable today 😂 thumbs up on your vids 👍
Usually, when a keyboard gets sticky, it just needs to be thoroughly cleaned. Of course; there could always be another problem behind the stickiness of a keyboard as well. Since to thoroughly clean a keyboard requires to open the keyboard up, one may as well look for any damage to the keyboard while one has the keyboard opened and fix anything that needs to be fixed.
My SX-64 keyboard had similar issues until I took it apart and cleaned it up. When you press on the keys, they come into contact with a rubber membrane that has carbon pads on the bottom of it, which then hits a circuit board and completes the circuit so that the computer registers the keypress. Just by cleaning that circuit board with some isopropyl alcohol, the keyboard should be back to working as normal. It's easy enough to do, as long as you're gentle getting everything apart.
Cool video MJR! My go to C64 games when I was a kid in the 80’s and 90’s were: Barbarian, Impossible Mission, Zorro, Raid Over Moscow and Aztec Challenge. If you haven’t tried these games, give them a playthrough... you won’t be disappointed.
A guy from Europe (Germany) here. No, we *didn't* use Datasetten a lot. I had one, but only two or three games on there. While having tons of games on Diskette.
The C64 was massively popular in Germany (Commodore had a manufacturing plant in West Germany, churning out C64s & Amigas) and as the floppy drive was so expensive and the cassette so slow, they had loads of productivity software on cartridge - word processors & so on). In fact, it wasn't unusual to find a C64 with a multi-cartridge adapter board, which allowed for three or four carts to be plugged in at once, and you just selected the one you wanted with a switch when you switched on the computer. So, for the executive on the go, it was probably useful to have the cart slot on the SX64 for that reason.
I recently moved into a new house the previous owners left SO much stuff on the property including one of these in really good condition along with a VHS tape on how to operate it.
I had one when I was in the Navy. It was fantastic, and it was so popular. I loved Lords of Conquest, Elite, The D&D games as well as Reach for the Stars, which is a simplified Masters of Orion.
This is my childhood age 3+ .. I still have it upstairs in the original box. Lots of fond memories.