Hello all! I've recently been looking at Commodore 64 equipment, kind of coming up with a good price point and coming to terms with the myriad of options that this system offers (both official and unofficial). At this point I am still a little overwhelmed. However, before I progress I wanted to sound off and see if this system is truly worth it (for the games as much as for the collecting). I've always been interested in the C64, but have always been a little dubious about getting one (I had a friend go through four bad purchases on ebay alone). Now my curiosity is piqued and I can't help myself looking. However, there are a few additional questions have that I was hoping some of you could answer:
1. C64 or C64c?
2. Will I have problems hooking this thing into my CRT television using an old switcher (similar to what you use for an Atari VCS or O^2)?
3. Will I need to get a joystick?
4. Can I just use tape player to mimic the Data Set?
5. It seems that many of the best games are on floppy. How bad of a fail rate to the 1541 disc drives have? Has anyone bought one from ebay before?
6. Finally, eBay's prices are wildly different, which makes it hard to do a fair market value. What would be a competitive price for a loose C64 with the wires? C64c?
Thanks everyone for your time and help.
Yay! Old school C64 gamer here, I'd love to help.
1. Agreed, if you can find it the 128 is better in most ways (though IMHO not as aesthetically pleasing
) but there are a handful of incompatibilities. The original beige C64 is still my preference, if you can track one down with all of the original cables.
2. You will need the specialized video output cable and old RF switchbox equivalent to play on a CRT. One advantage the 128 has is a direct A/V out for better picture quality.
3. As stated, any a26 type joystick works. I often use Master System/Genesis controllers for mine.
4. Personal preference, but I avoid the magnetic media. I have the tape and disc drives as well as hundreds of floppies, but even under the best of circumstances they are extremely slow and will spontaneously and permanently stop working on occasion (due to the inherent and natural degradation of the magnetic storage format.)
5. Ugh. Stay far, far away from these beasts if you can. I've owned half a dozen and they are notoriously problematic for mechanical failure, overheating, and alignment issues. If you can, track down a 1541-II or 1571. Harder to find and more expensive, but worth the effort if you are into floppy discs.
6. When I see them in the wild they are often cheap, and I've gotten a few for under twenty bucks, or even a few loose ones for free (If I still have any, I'll send them your way, but I think I gave away all the working ones.) If the machine works, is in good shape, and has all the cables, you should find it for $20/$30, at least that's in my area. Haven't seen them in awhile though...
7. There are a ton of hacks for the C64, and one I'm toying with is to slap the entire library onto a more modern hard drive and buy an interface so I have everything I could want sans magnetic media issues. I only began considering this once I realized just how hard it is to track down carts for the C64, and how few of my favorites ever even made it to carts.
Hope that helps! I'll keep an eye out as I go through my boxes o stuff and see what I have left for C64. It's such an excellence machine, and was responsible for getting me into video games.
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