27 Nov
2007
27 Nov
'07
11:55 a.m.
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
Not really, though it was more often the case than
not. The major difference
between those new cases and the old was the difference in the way the
keyboard was mounted. The old-style cases had eight screws holding the
keyboard to the top of the case, while the newer ones had the keyboard
mounted to the bottom half, over some metal support brackets. If you had a
new case and wanted that style but wanted to use your old parts otherwise,
you'd need those brackets. And they were different for a couple of different
form factors-- the later boards with higher density were narrower,
front-to-back, than the older ones were.
A lot of us did this sort of conversion later in the game. My primary
C64 is such a mod, sitting here next to me. Even though the board revs
for the earlier C64C were not terribly different, CBM started soldering
the ROMs in, making mods like JiffyDOS and such much harder to do. Now,
of course, I'd just cut the traces, desolder the pin remnants, and
solder in a socket, but this was when I still used my 64 for everything
(even college term papers), and I was less sure I could pull such a
stunt off. So, I transplanted the 64 board into the C, and no one was
the wiser.
Cheap the unit may have been and may be, but I am very hard on stuff,
and this baby has traveled to college and back 5 times, moved to 3
different houses, and not very carefully in any of those moves, either.
Works fine every time I start it up.
The original black brick power supply, OTOH, was cheap and unreliable.
If anyone does consider a 64 or VIC for children, find a 1764
replacement power supply or some aftermarket one.
However, when all the units are on at the desk here (4 of them), the
bricks do keep one's toes nice and toasty. :-o
Jim