Untested, only £10,000, Rare!!

We've all seen the seriously overpriced eBay/Gumtree/Anywhere-that-sells listings for our beloved retro computer and games systems. For some reason people who don't know anything about them, seem to think because it's old that is it rare and worth a fortune. So they'll slap a silly high price on them. Yeah sure there are a few systems out there that are worth something but I'm talking about the usual suspects.

In my experience it's mainly Commodore computers I deal with. 64's and Amiga's to be exact. I've seen 64's that are untested, have the badge missing and only a tape deck in terrible condition for sale for well over £100!

Here's a list of the usual things to look out for that make me suspect somethings not right. Or to quote Bill & Ted:

• “The light comes on so working” - Just because the light is on doesn’t mean anyones home. There could be no video or audio. It doesn’t mean any of the tape, cartridge or joystick ports work either.

• “Showing only the home screen” - Again this doesn’t mean it’s working properly. It doesn’t mean any of the tape or joystick ports work either. The sound could also be faulty.

• “Worked when I put it in the loft 20 years ago” - The capacitors in C64’s don’t like not being used. Extreme temperature differences in storage also aren’t good for them. Expect swollen or leaking capacitors. Powering them up after many, many years can also further damage them.

• “I don’t have the time to test” - But have time to take pics and write a description for eBay. Which takes considerably longer than plugging in a power supply, video cable, tape deck and joystick. Probably something wrong with it the seller doesn’t want to take responsibility for.

• “I don’t have the correct lead” - A very common excuse and again they’ve probably spotted something wrong, so if you buy it and it arrives broke then they can say “I told you I didn’t have the lead to test”. Check their other items and see what else they’re selling.

• “I don’t have an old tv to test” - My 40” Samsung 3D Smart TV can tune in a C64/Amiga by manually tuning in using the £1 aerial cable I got from Poundland.

• “Rare collectors item” - According to the Guinness Book of Records the Commodore 64 is the highest selling home computer of all time with around 17 million sold. These are not rare. Yes people collect them.

Here's a little list of things I bought over the last few months. All of which added up totals just £110.

So you see they're not all worth hundreds of pounds of your hard earned money. Stop these overpriced seller bell-ends and be patient. You WILL find a bargain at a proper price!!!

Gorgeous Commodore 64 cases

Gorgeous Commodore 64 cases via @XYQOM on Twitter. I love the SX-64 style one (front right if you don't know what that is).

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1X3EARE

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C64SD V3.0 Princess FLC Review & Setup Guide

A few weeks ago I purchased a C64SD V3.0 Princess FLC from www.manosoft.it after reading few reviews and watching a couple of youtube videos.

Quick Review

What is it? It's basically an SD2IEC but it has the option to create your own backups to .tap files and also rewrite them back to tape. You can also load .tap files via the C64SD and it'll load them just like you had an actual cassette in the C2N. This is so cool! No other SD2IEC does this on the market currently. This excited me a lot :) I mean SD2IEC is great for having lots of games but don't you just miss the loading music sometimes? I do.

Why didn't I just get a 1541 Ultimate II? As amazing as those things are, I want to play with my toys now and not have to wait months and months before I get them after I've spent my hard earned cash on it. I had this less than a week after purchase which is good considering it was shipped from Italy to the UK.

This photo is property of www.manosoft.it

Features:

– SD2IEC – 1541 Disk Drive emulation with all functionalities of sd2iec latest firmware

– Compatible with all Commodore models of the classic series (C64 all models,C128,C128D,VIC20,VC20 etc) and 264 series (Plus/4-C16)

– Works on NTSC model too, including tape functions

– Reads TAP files from SDCard into Commodore computer with possibility to set a tape rewind point in realtime

– Writes TAP files from SDCard to Real C2N Datassette (1530,1531 or compatible models) to recreate damaged cassette

– Grabs cassette content using C2N or compatible datassette and creates a .TAP file ( All commodore 8 bit from VIC-20 included onward, TAP Version 1 and 2)

– High precision digital TAP emulation for all TAP functions, no need to setup volume or any parameter

– TAP digital sound monitor

– Full emulation of datassette motor line, no need to guess the pauses while loading, works like a real datassette

– Datassette passthrough connection. Allows to keep datassette connected without having to remove the card from Commodore computer

– Disk Drive daisy chain possibility (card can be connected at the same time as other real disk drives)

– Fully supported by FB (CBM Filebrowser) can read TAP files just selecting them in a menu and pressing Enter key

– Disk functions can be disabled to load protected tape images

– D64 Index Special functions to jump directly to a program in a “program compilation” .TAP file (d64 is created with Tap Manager “section download”)

Out of the box its seems like a pretty decent piece of gear. and the metal casing makes it more solid than a plastic cartridge in my opinion. You can see its really well made. It sits in the 64 real tight and doesn't feel like you need to be too gentle with it.

Besides, it looks shit hot on my custom 64's as well! Haha



Setup Guide

So when you get the C64SD you should head over to Manosoft download page on your computer and grab the Root SD-Card pack and extract that to the root of your SD card. You'll also want to grab the correct pack for your Commodore under the Other Packs tab. I got the C64 one obviously.

Once both extracted to your SD card pop it back into the C64SD and turn on your Commodore.

Now what you want to do is type - LOAD"MENU",8 hit return then type RUN and hit return to load the menu. Or if like me you have JiffyDOS installed you can simply type ^MENU and hit return to load it.



You'll see this screen:



On the MENU screen there are lots of options but for now before we use anything you want to hit the "I" key on your 64 to initialise the SD card for use with the V3.0 Princess. it'll take a sec or two to sort it out then you'll see a screen showing you that its done.



That's it! You're ready to start playing games or whatever you usually get up to on your 64. Press F1 to load the File Browser app and you'll be able to load all the wonderful games you extracted from the package you downloaded via Manosoft.

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