wow, that's super cool! I always thought the SX64 was one of the coolest things that I have ever seen, and it was way ahead of its' time. I gotta laugh on the box where it says "business or office"... beacuse, um, that 40 columns sure makes spreadsheets a pain. if someone would like it, I am going to be dis-engaging myself from it - $100.00 plus shipping and it's yours. -----Original Message----- From: "Jim Isbell, W5JAI" <jim.isbell at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 16:25:03 -0500 Subject: Re: Commodore 64, Commodore 64sx enthusiasts?

Could a photograph be taken? I think the Commodore masses would love it. -- ---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Quote for the day: " -------------------------------------------------------

Scott, if you have a copy of c-NET BBS still in existence, or know of where I can get a copy of it to put on line, I would love to put up a telnet-based BBS running it. I can assign an IP address to a serial port and simply use a TTL -> RS232 level shifting circuit to hook up a 1200- baud emulated modem. Then, we've got ourselves a C-net bbs. Anyone ?

jim, just simply pay for the shipping and I'll send you the "99% complete sx64" ... -----Original Message----- From: "plato computer" <computer at officereach.net> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>, "Jim Brain" <brain at jbrain.com> Cc: Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 20:49:15 -0700 Subject: Re: Commodore 64, Commodore 64sx enthusiasts?

On 7/6/05, plato computer <computer at officereach.net> wrote: They sold a cartridge for a reasonable amount ($30? $40?) that hung on the userport fingers that had reasonable level shifters. I used it extensively for machine-to-machine transfers. That made things somewhat expensive, but it also made them standard. I don't know why they chose to go that route with the 2040 dual disk drives, but once they got on that train, they stayed with it all the way to the end. I don't see how they went "wrong" with this, unless you mean that it priced the drives out of most people's hands. This was certainly the case for the PET, where a dual disk drive cost over twice what a 32K computer cost. My first floppy drive was a 1540 - free to me (through my job), but it was $595 on the street, same as a C-64 when it first came out. Now what _was_ a mistake was how slow the serial drives were. True IEEE-488 wasn't a speed demon, but it wasn't awful - 8-bit parallel transfers about as fast as a 1MHz CPU can make them - hard to do better without fast DMA hardware. The problem came about through a series of management decisions (orders not to be held hostage to a cable vendor) and technical problems (the 6522 VIA was supposed to do the serial/parallel conversion but there were problems with the chip), but the end result was one of the slowest mass-storage peripherals on record. With the right chips, though, it would have worked much better. In the case of the C-64, 40 columns makes perfect sense - it was marketed to be attached to a TV, and a TV can't resolve 80 columns. Even when the Amiga came out, it had a 64 column mode (preferences button) for TV use to compliment the 80 column mode for monitor use. I was not involved with Commodore in any way except as a third-party developer for the C-64 in early 1982 (we had S/N S00002007 (with the "lightpen interrupt bug" in the VIC-II chip) that was traded in on S/N S00002345 that I still have). I have done extensive hacking over the years, though. -ethan

LOL, I learned that lesson recently while trying to connect my Apple //c to a 31-inch television. It works for BASIC, but not in AppleWorks, where the manual 40/80 column switch doesn't help. Guess it's time for me to acquire an Apple monitor. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 3:30 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Commodore 64, Commodore 64sx enthusiasts? True... I have much the same moan about certain HP machines where the HPIB port is built-in (or an easy-to-find module), but the RS232 port is almost impossible to find now. Have you ever opened an HP91xx drive box? There's normally a 68B09 inside... Yes, but rememebr that Commodore were going for the home market, and wanted to be able to use a normal TV set as a monitor. I've not found a TV that can legibly display 80 columns if you feed the signal in to the aerial input (composite video inputs were not at all common then). -tony

I've got a complete kit with the original cable, bag and manual, along with the "blue hubs" on the handles. That's pretty much the only way I'll buy them now, and it took me buying three of them in various states of completeness to cobble together a fully original set of equipment. However, I will buy another complete SX-64 kit if I find one. I *am* looking for another SX keyboard (cable nice, but I really want the keyboard -- I can build the cable if needed), so if anyone (the original poster?) is getting rid of one, let me know. -- ---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- No good deed goes unpunished. -- Clare Boothe Luce -------------------------

The glue on the hubs is weak and comes off easily. Also, people pry off the hubs to fix the handle, find out that they were only attached with glue, decide not to bother in case the handle needs to get fixed again, and then lose the hubs. Of the three I've bought and the probably hundred-odd I've run into, maybe 20% still have the hubs on. I just need another keyboard, is all. SX #3 totally lacks one. -- ---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Flat text is just *never* what you want. -- stephen p spackman -------------