hey retrocomputey nerds: i've been watching a lot of videos about old microcomputers and i've been sort of interested in getting into them. i figured the commodore 64 would be a good entry point for a neophyte like me, so i wanted to ask: what kinds of things should i look for when shopping for a c64 in 2022? peripherals, signs of good condition, etc. also where would be good to look? alternatively, would a different retro computer perhaps be a better fit?
@typhlosion I have an old C64 and media in storage back in Seattle, but I'm not sure if any of it's still even readable... I'd say it'd be worth looking into getting an SD2IEC instead of a regular 1541 floppy disk drive as such
Moreover, there are different revisions out there with different SID chips (6581 vs. 8580), where the latter corrects a voltage bias that was used to generate pseudo-PCM audio, rendering anything that used the trick nigh-inaudible
@elfi @typhlosion I believe the 8580 only appeared in the later version of the C64C (the one with the wedge-shaped redesign to match the C128 and various Amigas). A breadbin (round boi) C64 should be safe as far as getting the 6581.
Whatever C64 you obtain, definitely get or make a newly-made power supply, as the old ones fail in a way which will destroy irreplaceable chips (and OEM ones are also completely unserviceable).
@elfi @typhlosion also honestly unless you have a specific nostalgic affiliation with the C64 I'd say to just skip real hardware and get a TheC64 or run VICE on a Raspi or something. Emulation these days is pretty much spot-on and getting even a good-condition C64 working properly/diagnosed/etc. is a "labor of love," putting it mildly.
Adrian's Digital Basement and Jan Beta are good YouTube channels to watch if you're dead-set about getting a real C64 though.
@typhlosion That said I do get the appeal to real hardware and I regret giving all my Commodore stuff away 25-ish years ago (especially because of the irreplaceable creative stuff I did on it, like the games and music and crappy art I did as a kid). I don't really care about the physical hardware so much but if I could get the floppies back, that'd be amazing. I doubt any of them would be readable anymore anyway though.
@fluffy @typhlosion Yeah, I once considered a Pi400 for that very task myself, but the composite video not being broken out in any fashion was a dealbreaker since my whole plan was to use it with my old Amiga monitor
Maybe if they ever release a revision with the TRRS jack added back in...
@typhlosion Yeah that's a much easier way to get into retrocomputing. If you want the whole "keyboard in a computer" feel get a Pi400, which is just about perfect for that purpose. @elfi