First impressions of the Vic-20 and the Super Disk Drive

Dive into the past with my latest discovery - the Vic 20 Super Disk Drive, a rare gem in the world of vintage computing! In this video, we're taking a close look at one of the most elusive accessories for the Commodore Vic-20. The Super Disk Drive, designed to expand the capabilities of the Vic-20, remains a fascinating piece of computing history. We will do a quick intro and see if it works!
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Special thanks to Mark Jozaitis and Bobby Walker!
Super disk Drive info:
www.amigalove....
Rudy's Retro Intel:
/ rudysretrointe
You can enable subtitles for easier understanding, in other languages, KZbin has pretty accurate auto translation, I recommend it. (enable close captions, then select settings / subtitles / auto translate / select language)
8bittees, the best retro wear! - www.8bittees.com/
#Vic20 #SuperDiskDrive #VintageComputing #RetroTech #TechHistory
Vic-20
Super Disk Drive
Vintage computing
Commodore Vic-20
Retro computing
Floppy drive emulator
Vic-20 accessories
Commodore 64
Tech history
Computer history
Retro tech
Vintage tech
Collectible tech
Computing nostalgia
1980s computers

[@k001daddy]

You have taken your first steps into a larger world!

[@ARCJavMaster]

Excited, never gave Commodore the credit it deserved, now I'm humbly learning.

[@bobby50371]

I'm glad the drive will give you another opportunity to learn a new platform. I gave up on Commodore a while back, and this was the last thing on my shelf. Happy to help get this to you my friend.

[@ARCJavMaster]

Thank you very much, this will be a great start on my Commodore journey!

[@tropicalretro]

Nice. Commodore computers never got to Brazil. Recently I’ve been messing around with a TRS-80 Color clone. But my heart lies with the Apple II!

[@JamiesHackShack]

Nice seeing you tinker with the vic20. Good on Rudy for helping. He rocks! Let me know if you need a controller donation. I can probably round one up to send :-) really neat seeing that big drive working. I guess that other port is ieee if it works on the pet too. Thanks!

[@ARCJavMaster]

I plan to get some games and utilities to test it more, thanks for your offer!

[@AmigaLove]

The round serial ports on the back work directly with the VIC, C64 and C128. The larger vertical port (IEEE-488) is for PET computers. So, you could use this drive with literally all of the Commodore 8-bit computers. But, it uses its own DOS. So some games might not be compatible. It's fantastic for your own data disks, public domain, copying, etc. (and some games will work, too)

[@ARCJavMaster]

Thanks for the comment. Need to understand why it is 10, and what's the difference between the top and bottom ports.

[@MacEffects88]

@@ARCJavMaster I wonder if the extra serial port isn’t a daisy chain option like the Apple II.

[@ARCJavMaster]

Hope somebody can clarify that…

[@RudysRetroIntel]

Thanks for the shout-out, and I'm glad to help. Contact me if you want to do more with it.

[@ARCJavMaster]

You are my savior, was completely lost and your advice worked!

[@mcgee227]

I had the Vic-20 when it came out.

[@ARCJavMaster]

Nifty machine, getting to know and love it!

[@JVHShack]

If only someone could clone that drive...

[@ARCJavMaster]

Eyeing out Joe...

[@richardwaters9284]

just a quick note load "$",10 loads the directory into memory. to run a program yoiu would do LOAD "programname",10 and then type run.

[@ARCJavMaster]

Sounds right, but does not show me which programs are loaded, hence can’t do load “program name” to run it…

[@richardwaters9284]

after you loaded the directory from the red diskette you did a "list". it looks like the name of the first program on the disk is "Menu c-64". I am not sure of the dash so you could do LOAD "MENU C*",10 and let the wild card figure that out or just do LOAD "*', 10. That tells it to load the first program on the disk. Only issue may be that from the directory listing it looks like that may be a disk of commodore 64 programs, which may not work on a vic 20. Then type RUN

[@massmike11]

Need to change the address of the drive to 8. A lot of software expects it to be there.

[@ARCJavMaster]

How? Couldn’t find any info on that.

[@richardwaters9284]

looks like youtube squashed an earlier comment. check the internet archives. It has the manual. there is a jumper block inside where the drive number can be set. someone might have messed with that.

[@ARCJavMaster]

@@richardwaters9284Wow! amazing information, will have to make an update video and mention your help! Thanks!

[@RetroTechy]

since you hate Apple computers now can I have those pesky wastes of space ?

[@ARCJavMaster]

No waste for you!! 😜😄