Hi, all, I know I have not been around all that much (it sucks not having internet!)
I though today was a perfect day to play with the VIC 20 for the first time, so I got out the 1702 monitor and hooked up the old beast, for I just got a in few carts for it and found out , its dead!
It appears the VIC chip has given up the ghost for all I get is garbage on the screen. I though I would let it "warm up" but it seems just to have worsen the out put. I thought I had a spare kicking around, but I can't seem to locate one now.
Oh well, anyone have a spare VIC chip or unit they want to get rid of 
All is not shot though, I am digging around now for a C64 power supply, I have 2 C64-C's to test out.

So, it's the deep heart of winter here in Canada. The past week, we sit at minus -20 C weather, snowing every day! last weekend we got a dump of 29 cm and today we are expecting another 17 cm or so.
I walk to and from work every night. It's only 4 blocks, but the last 2 nights it has been below -30 with the wind chill.
I snapped a few pictures of the snow plow fleet that has been running 24/7 for the last few weeks trying to keep the roads clear. yes those are piles of snow from when the bobcat cleared our parking lot.
This is actually pretty typical for this time of year temperature wise, but it seems we have had a bunch more snow than usual.
and people wonder why I want to move to California.

I got a new toy last weekend and have been on it all this weekend. It aint no 128D, but it will keep me busy for now.. It is just stock, but the interesting thing is that it has the original 2.xx Roms and softkicks into 3.1( I know that might not be exciting to the older users, but to me it is pretty darn impressive) there are more pictures and such on my blog site.
The darn thing weighs a TON!
This weekend, I ditched the 1084S monitor and proceded to use a KVM switch to share the VGA monitor with my A1200, I will be networking the 2 together also and using the T as a server.
One Holy Grail found 2 too go (a 128D and an A4000T)

ok, here is one for you guys.                                                                           Saturday Score!
too make a long story -short, because I due have a tendency to ramble.Saturdays some of the AMICUE guys meet for coffee. Today, one of them gave me a big box of knowledge!
I had show the NCS 2065T kit and he was cleaning out his storage area,and knew I was getting into Electronics so , in the box was the following:
HeathKit ET3100 Electronic Design Experimenter
HeathKit ET3200 Digital Design Experimenter
And about 6 related HeathKit courses centred around those 2 kits
The nice thing is that all these kits Look about 98% complete, and even have the part bins labelled for each Course. As you know the worst thing about getting "hand me down" kits like this, is all the parts were usually lost years ago.
Not only are all the courses in almost mint shape, the even come with the original records (yes, I said records) for the audio lectures.These records were those old thin floppy mylar sheets (i have to find aturn table and convert them to MP3's).
These courses of course will have to wait.
He did not buy the ET3400 which of course was the computer trainer unfortunately.
The trainers are a bit dusty and have BNC connectors that are not shown on the original photos below, but everything else is in excellent condition.

Brace yourselves, this will be a bit long.
The kit is made by Gord Clink of APATCO Technologies. There is a forum for you there and Gord is always on hand to answer any questions and help in any way.
I got in my NCS 2056T Kit today. For those that do not know, the NCS kit is a complete 6502 Computer kit that is assembled from scratch,loosely based on Commodore Computers.
It comes with everything you need for a "Basic" computer, a 65C02 CPU@2 Mhz, 8K ROM, 32 K RAM, PS/2 keyboard interface and LCD screen.
At first, I was a bit leery of ordering this kit, At $180, it seemed a bit pricey for a kit. I was wrong. It comes with 3 manuals. Each is not just a photocopied sheet, but a nicely printed and bound manual. The technical manual if filled, not only with all the information on the6502, but a nice chunk of Commodore history (including the Amiga) and the history of MOS Tech up until 2004, and of course the Western Design Center. I will be posting a complete thread, but here are some (crappy) photos from my camera. It also comes with 3 EEproms for the ROM, 1blank, so you can burn your own, one already burned with a basic 37 line program, and 1for the LCD display.

The first thing you have to do is "assemble" the terminals on the breadboard for the power supply. This is straight forward, but there is step by step instructions. It also comes with 5 little rubber feet. At first the feet look like they snap on to the nuts on the bottom of the terminal, but they are too small. There is no mention of them in the manual, so I just space them on the bottom of the bread board. I just want to take a moment and say 2 things: first this breadboard is mounted on a good steel plate, therefore if you wanted to, you can mount this into a nice case after and use it as a regular machine.
Second, this kit is from Canada, so the power supply is 120W. I am sure it will be no problem to get a power adaptor for Europe, as all it is,is just a small wall wort with the end cut off and the wires striped.Gord has even soldered the tips, so no fraying will occur on the power cord.

Some gripes on the components (not Gord's fault) the silk-screening on the IC's is very faint. My old eyes need a good light and magnifying glass to see what they are. What happened to the good old days, when they used florescent paint and you could see at least the logo's a mile away, in the dark. (I remember AMD, you could see the logo so clearly,sometimes the logo looked bigger than the chip it was on).

I still have yet to actually get it in, but last night I won an auctionI am very excited about. One of my last acquisitions for my Commodore collection. (I still am looking for a CBM II), but I won for relativelycheap a Commodore PC-10. Other than the aforementioned CBM-II, I now havea representation of almost all the Computers Commodore made in the 80's.[/font][/b][/color]Now, other than small bits and pieces, I am on the hunt for a nice CBM II, a C116, and a 128 D. In a perfect world I could get a C900 and aC65, but we all know that the chances of that are slim to none.      [/font][/b]

Hi, all, I was just wondering if anybody knew the status of TPUG? I sent an order in for their store a week ago and have not heard back. I am wondering if anyone is still answering the e-mail.

Ok, so I am not sure if this is in the right topic, but Monday, I am suppose to be getting in a CBM 8032 with a CBM 8250 Dual floppy drive. One issue is the floppy drive is missing the cable, I have hunted down on other threads looking for the right cable, and I see that I can order one from the torronto user group.
Does anyone have any Thoughts on this machine, I will post pictures if it does indeed come in, I used just a 4016 back in the day, so I am not all that familiar with the 8023, I imagine it looks just like the 4016, but some photos on google show the rounded plastic case.

I saw these photos on A.org of recent (not sure how recent) of MOS technologies. They were confirmed as real. At least the flowers still grow...http://jungle.net/tone/mos/mos.html

Defiantly not mine, but I would give up a body part for it.
[ebay]330387963783[/ebay]

I have been watching a few auctions on games and an in the box Castlevania game went for $305 Can. over the weekend. What's up with that? is it a rare game or just nutty people as usual on Ebay again?[ebay]120505514524[/ebay]

Please for give the complete Nub Questions here or if this is in the wrong topic.
I got in with a bunch of disks, the "Commodore 64 Software Bonus Pack" by CBM. I plan to have a look into the programs when I get my C128 up and running. Is anyone familiar with this software? In theory it should all run fine on the 128, but are any on the programs even worth running?
Whats funny is the manual. It is printed on fine glossy paper, but inside, it looks like a printout from a cheap printer from the time, or banged out of a typewriter.
Some of the utility programs are:
1) C64.Menu
2) Change Disk
3)Copy-All64
4)1541 Disk Backup
5)Dump
6) Load Adress
7) Supermon 64.v1
PET Emulator
9) DOS Wedge

Some Graphics:
1) Color test
2) Character Editor
3) HiRes Loader
4) Sprite Editor
and so on
They all look like simple fare (you should see the "Games" included, But I thought I would ask. I only paid a buck or so for a few disks, and this one kind of looked like maybe it had some potential.

Hi all,
So, I just got my first C128 in (flat). It didn't come with a P/S (That is coming- Thanks Robert ) so, I am going to clean it down tonight and carefully crack it open to clear out the cobwebs.
Any suggestions or anything I am to look for once it's open, before the initial power up?
Also it came with a mouse. The mouse looks like an Amiga "Tank" mouse, is there anyway to tell if this is an "official" C128 mouse (the seller didn't know). I suspect that it is indeed an Amiga mouse for it is the exact same shape size ETC of all my other Amiga mice (I have about 20 in stock) . All the sticker on the bottom says is "Commodore B90 30497 made in Malaysia" which is almost the same as my other Amiga mice, but the number is different.
I am not sure if I can use an Amiga Mouse on a C128. On some other forums , there was discussion, but no one knew for sure (on Amiga forums) maybe you true 128's will know.
-Thanks

Ok, so I have been watching Ebay.ca Daily for a while now. Some interesting auctions and notes for those that care:
There are 2 1551 floppy drives on now from Italy.
There was a keyboard for a Commodore LCD unit last week- it sold for $271 USD
The C116 Unit that was on last week sold for just over $182 Canadian or 113 Euros (again from Italy)
The CMD stuff seems to be way expensive.
The C128's jump all over from just $25 (with 1471 and boxed) to $65. A few are asking $150(BIN)

A 1540 floppy popped up on fleabay for $750 BIN. I know these are rare but is it worth $750 USD?

Hi all any one got any extra copy of the C128 system disks, and a power supply (preferably in Canada or the US-Postage considerations) PM me with price and such (Ebay show 2 PS, both about $40 -shipped, I know someone can do much better)

Anyone watch those C65 boards on ebay? They went for $921.00 USD. WOW!!!!!

Hi, all,
My name is Glen, and I just found your site!
Not really all that much to say, other than I consider myself a "historian" rather than just a hardware junkie. I love the stories and "behind the scene" stuff on how it came to be. 2 years ago, I ignored the Plus/4, but after reading the actual story behind it and the fight Bil (Herd) had to do to get it out, well, I must say it is a fascinating story.
I am new to the Commodore scene, but I have been involved with the Amiga for a few years now. After I read the Book "On the Edge" I was hooked on Commodore. I was a "Poor" kid, who just grew up with a CoCo, and was really into that for a while (If its still around, my old web site was "www.thecocolounge.com) then I was introduced to the Amiga and run the site/blog  amigalounge.com.
Lately, I have been fascinated with the TED series and built a sub-domain on that.
I am collecting as much as possible, and I am getting a 128 in soon (within the next 2 weeks).
I am also part of AMICUE and hope to actually build a museum for this some day (when I win the Lotto)
I was getting sick of the shanagains over at A.org and wanted a more C= perspective, so here I am. I also lurk over at Amibay.