Moses Assembler for the VIC-20

Here are some pics of the Moses Assembler cartridge and its instruction binder. Developed by Century Micro of Sacramento, California, this version of the assembler works with a 65816 plugged into a VIC-20 computer.

Truly,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://videocam.net.au/fcug

In memory of Jack Tramiel

This blog entry is a repost of an entry from my own personal blog at pquirk.com.

Jack Tramiel was a man whom I never met, and yet he was a huge influence in my life. For those who are unaware of who he is, Jack Tramiel is the man who started Commodore Business Machines; the company that made the world’s most popular computer of all time, the Commodore 64. What is remarkable is that Commodore was one of the pioneers of the home computer revolution, right in step with Apple and others, and that this company was started in Toronto, Ontario, Canada – a true Canadian computer company. Consider that the Commodore 64 was the single best selling computer of all time (between 12.7 and 17 million units), it’s clear that Jack Tramiel made a huge impact on the industry and on people’s lives. I wrote this blog post as a reflection on the impact he made in my life.

Commodore legend, Jack Tramiel, has passed away

As Bil Herd told me, "It was a very special night... very rare...", the night of the 25th Anniversary of the Commodore 64 at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California, in 2007. Jack Tramiel, CBM founder, was there, making a rare public appearance. And I always thought that there would be another night with Jack in the future. Jack passed away on Sunday, April 8. In the above photo, Jack (left) autographs the On the Edge book for Bil Herd.

Truly,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://videocam.net.au/fcug

VIC-20 Diagnostic Cart

(photos courtesy of Ray Carlsen)

Yesterday master C= technician Ray Carlsen demonstrated the CBM VIC-20 Diagnostic cartridge on a later VIC-20 board. He connected the special VIC-20 Diagnostic harness to the computer and ran the tests. The photos show some of the test screens. When a keyboard dongle was attached, the cartridge report that the keyboard was bad. With the dongle removed the keyboard was reported as being good. When a C64/128 Diagnostic harness was used with the VIC-20 Diagnostic cart, the tests would run to a certain point and then lock up the computer. In other words, that C64/128 harness was not meant to be used with the VIC-20 Diagnostic cart. Ray has information on the Diagnostic cart at http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcarlsen/cbm/misc/diagcart/vic20%20cart/ He has not yet posted a schematic of the VIC-20 Diagnostic harness nor its user port cartridge.

Truly,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://videocam.net.au/fcug