Commodore 64's for sale ... BRAND NEW !!

[SteveAndBelle]

Yes, you read correctly ... I've got some Commodore 64's for sale and they're brand new ... yes, brand new !!

I recently purchased a box of C64 DTV's from the UK to play around with and give to my friends and family and I have a few left over (mainly becasue I had to buy a minimum quantity to get them shipped at a reasonable price) so I'm selling them off for cost (including the shipping costs from the UK) plus only 5% to cover my eBay selling costs.

What is a C64 DTV ? Well, it's a fully blown Commodore 64 built into a retro styled joystick powered by 4 x AA batteries and connects to your TV's AV sockets. It even includes 30 built-in instant loading games to boot !

If you're handy with a soldering iron you can do some very simple 'hacks' to add a couple of sockets to allow the unit to be controlled by a full size keyboard and also allow you to add original Commodore 64 bits and pieces like disk drives etc. so you can drag out that massive box of pirated 5.25" floppies and give them a go. I did this to an old C64 last year and much to my belief most of the floppies still worked perfectly ... and that's after being stored in the top of a cupboard in temperatures ranging from about 2-55 degrees for the last 15+ years !

For more info on how to 'relive your childhood' do a search on eBay for 'DTV' to find my auction. I've got the starting price at $69.00 as this is all I really want for them however knowing that they're very difficult to get out here plus the popularity of them overseas (with stores selling out of them within hours of their release in the US & UK late 2004) I think (& hope) that amount may rise. I've only got a few (3 minimum, 6 maximum) to sell and I'm not planning to get any more so if you're keen please be quick & make sure you're on the ball on the last day of the auction OK ... especially the last 20 seconds or so !

Seeya & good luck if you're keen,

Steve.

[oges]

brand new C64, always thought Qld was 20 years behind :D :rolleyes:

[Gumby]

I don't know what happened to mine. I remember getting it, adding a wiz bang floppy disk drive which replaced the cassette tape :D :D (remember waiting 30 minutes for a game to load via that tape? :(
I used to get a series of beginner books from the newsagents, which taught you how to do programming in basic. I went through that, wrote a couple of programs and went from there. Geez, that seems sooooo long ago :eek: but it was the start most of us got into computing. They were some machine. :o

[SteveAndBelle]

Yeah, QLD is a bit behind ... but we've grown up a heck of a lot in the last 5 years or so. We're just about to explode up here with over a million people arriving in the next 10 - 15 years. We're about to get our first ever 'la-di-da' shopping complex in town which will include shops such as Tiffany & Co. and many other high-end shops seen elsewhere around the world. We're also about to get our first major tunnel roadway which will stretch 60 km's across town at about 60m under the surface.

In the next 10 years this place is going to be rediculous ! Property values will keep on rising (thank goodness I bought a few years ago, I simply couldn't afford to buy now) and the roads will get more and more crowded because the PT system is so crappy.

If you're a tradesperson Brisbane would be a good place to come if you want a steady income for the next 20 years that's for sure. So much construction going on it's amazing.

Anyhoo, apart from all this the C64 is still only a new computer here ;)

[Tankstand]

but it was the start most of us got into computing. They were some machine. :o

Gumby, I "Advanced" to the C64 after learning basic on a tandy mc10 with the 8Mb expansion pack!

[ozwinner]

I learnt basic on the c64 too.....

Wrote a couple of programs, and even sold quet a few around the Ballarat area where we was living at the time.
I couldnt see the computer thing lasting, so I gave up writeing.....:( :p :D
If not true end.
goto 25
if true bare your bum :o

Al :D

[SteveAndBelle]

Well, this is what the C64 looks like nowadays ... see attached pic. This is what I'm currently selling on eBay with a starting price of $69.00. Inside the joystick you can find three tiny chips covered in resin and combined they are the Commodore 64 plus the 30 included games.

Amazing.

Steve.

[Gumby]

Gumby, I "Advanced" to the C64 after learning basic on a tandy mc10 with the 8Mb expansion pack!

You Bill Gates clone you............ :D :D :D :D

[gemi_babe]

Our first PC was an Amstrad

LMAO

I remember writing my own short games on that thing. It seemed so easy back then, now I wouldn't have a clue! :(

[SteveAndBelle]

Now all they need to release is an Amiga 500 in a similar package ... I could die a happy man then ... probably from a terrible accident involving a Triton Circular Saw in one hand and a Metabo Rotary Hammer Drill in the other ;)

Ahhh, bliss !

Steve.

[Landseka]

In a cupboard somewhere in the house I still have our first pc, an Atari 400. :o It got modded by the fitting of a "real" keyboard to replace the original horrid membrane keyboard. We also pensioned off the cassete tape drive and bought a disk drive, what an improvement in loading speed. The drive was about as big as a shoebox and ran 5 1/4 disks.

We laugh about it now, but at the time it was a very powerful machine.

Regards

Neil

[SteveAndBelle]

I can actually beat you all (I think).

My Dad bought one of the first commercially available 'games' machines in the 70's in the form of the Hanimex 666s (pic below). Apart from the strange 'satanic' model number the device was pretty good (for it's day) with the ability to select either tennis, squash, soccer or 'practice'. It even allowed two players via means of a small 'paddle' controller that unclipped from the side with a wire connection. The games were all basically exactly the same as each other because they were based around the 'amazing' graphics & sounds of the era consisting of white lines for borders and movable bars for 'players' on a black background plus two beep noises for different effects.

The best thing is that because my Dad's a hoarder he kept it all these years and I managed to get my sticky little hands on it about 5 years ago ... still in its box with instructions and all !! Amazingly I took it out of its box, plugged it into the TV and bingo I was playing 'pong' for hours and hours (after a quick clean of the controllers potentiometer). I bet you wont be able to do that with computers these days :)

Steve.

[Kev Y.]

AAHHH all this talk about C64's... is anyone out there young enought to remember the sinclare Z80?

the first one I owned had an amazing 16k memory.... as well as an add on themal printer.

[Gumby]

I can actually beat you all (I think).

My Dad bought one of the first commercially available 'games' machines in the 70's in the form of the Hanimex 666s (pic below). Steve.

Not quite steve, I had one of those and only chucked it out last year when it turned up stuffed away in a cupboard. It wasn't the same model as yours and I can't remember the brand but it had a black plastic console and 2 controllers which sat in slots on the side and were detachable. I also remember when Space Invaders first came out. We thought it was incredible and went to the pubs to play on those coffee table type consoles they used. When you consider what they do now, like playing Counter Strike on the internet against people in different countries, it's mind boggling. Makes you wonder what it will be like when we are all sitting in old peoples homes, playing shoot 'em up games against Martians !! :eek: :eek:

[Driver]

AAHHH all this talk about C64's... is anyone out there young enought to remember the sinclare Z80?

the first one I owned had an amazing 16k memory.... as well as an add on themal printer.

That's the machine I used to teach myself computing - I remember it with great affection. The Sinclair Spectrum Z80. It was a little black box (with the add-on thermal printer). You connected it up to a TV and a cassette recorder and proceeded to learn Sinclair Basic so you could program it.

I was based in the Middle East when I bought mine - very early 80s. I wrote a couple of cost estimating programs on it and sent them back to head office in England. The company's chief estimator immediately became the reincarnation of Ned Ludd and his mates. Wouldn't speak to me the next time I was in England on leave. Reckoned I was just trying to do him out of a job.

You could buy software for the Z80. I had a good version of Scrabble and an early but very workable CAD program.

I've still got the Spectrum Z80 in a box somewhere. I'll bet it would still work. Maybe I'll dig it out and give it a go. Ah memories!

Col

[SteveAndBelle]

Not quite steve, I had one of those and only chucked it out last year when it turned up stuffed away in a cupboard. It wasn't the same model as yours and I can't remember the brand but it had a black plastic console and 2 controllers which sat in slots on the side and were detachable. :eek: :eek:
Gumby, wasn't that a machine of the very early 80's ??

I was only 5 years old in 1980 so I could also be full of crap too ;)

Steve.

[Gumby]

No, definitely 70's. I remember being amazed that you could play ping-pong on the TV. :eek: I think it was around $80 which would have been fairly expensive then. I think the Commodore 64 was around 83-84, but I could be wrong.

[SteveAndBelle]

Yep, the C64 was released in Australia in 1983 from memory (hey, I'm gettin' old now) but the Vic 20 was out for a few years before it.


Just did a quick Google search (because I'm a dork and I've got nothing else to do at work on a Friday afternoon) and found that the Vic20 was released in 1980 and the C64 was released in late 1982. Goto http://www.commodore.ca/products/vic20/commodore_vic-20.htm if you could be bothered.

I do remember the price tho ... the C64 Family Pack RRP'd for $399.00 and the Amiga pack RRP'd for $899.00 but dropped as time went by.

Gees, that's a lot considering you can buy brand new PC's (without monitor but with warranty) for $349 these days ! Ouch !!

Steve.

[Iain]

My 1st was a Mac 560K with the optional 800K external floppy drive, B&W monitor and dot matrix printer with tractor feed, cost about $4500 when I bought it.
Also taught me about backup when I lost 4000 words of a 5000 essay for uni I was doing when we had a power failure.
Was powered up with 3.5" floppys and memory was the same.
I also remember the Amstrad with their own weird little 3.25" (I think) floppy.
Had several Macs since this and now have a hybrid PC made for me by a friend who is a systems anylyst, running pentium 4, 480gig HD and 1 gig RAM, a couple of years ago this would have seemed impossible.
I also used to have a Sheen ping pong game, came out about the same time as the pubs had them in the bar at 20c a time, this one plugged into the TV and made the silly 'plock' noise as the ball bounced of the wall.
Sold by Target for about $20 from memory.

[Kev Y.]

Also taught me about backup when I lost 4000 words of a 5000 essay .

THAT explains a lot.. after all these years you still hav'nt made up for those lost words :D :D ;)

[Gumby]

I also used to have a Sheen ping pong game, came out about the same time as the pubs had them in the bar at 20c a time, this one plugged into the TV and made the silly 'plock' noise as the ball bounced of the wall.
Sold by Target for about $20 from memory.

That's the one I couldn't remember the name of. Sheen , yeah what a machine !
:)

[oges]

We had a Texas Instruments machine and a VIC 20 before progressing to the Commodore 64. Atleast back in those days you didnt have to worry if you had a fast enough processor, or memory or graphics card to run the latest games.

[kiwigeo]

Tickering away here at work on an HP 41.....have had it since 1986 and its only on its second set of batteries.