RickR

We should def do an "Enduro" challenge in the future!

I *feel* this.

Oh man, I'm glad you posted this. It's so dang close to my main NUC desktop. I haven't gamed a bunch on this thing, but everything I have tried has run smoothly. I'm actually surprised that the Intel Arc A730 has a slightly higher score than the 3050TI. Given a margin of error, I'm sure they are actually about the same. Hopefully your return goes smoothly, as it's no good to have a high end laptop you don't trust.

EVERYTHING there looks nice! I really like the authentic looks of those mini arcade cabinets.

Get your entry in by the 16th! @sramirez2008, thank you so much for posting this here, as I definitely would have missed it otherwise. AtariAge is awesome and I got there often, but I tend to miss these type of things somehow.

I did the update last night. Dang it, only 8GB of free space for me. I added an 8GB USB drive and moved BPM Boy over to that. BOOM. The Atari50 update worked with no issues.

I have a 2 port 5200, but no Decathlon cart. I also do not own Pitfall, Mountain King, or K-Razy Shootout. 😞 I do have a AtariMax cart though. I can try those games on that at some point.

OK, I spent about an hour with it yesterday and I made a tiny bit of progress. First step was identifying all of the chips, which I did. The biggest shock was that it has no SID! Although there is a spot to solder one in. This fact really dented my enthusiasm for this project. What good is a C64 with no SID chip??? Anyway, I'm almost 90% sure that it's the power supply that is bad. The bad part is that it isn't a standard connector, so I can't try a standard C64 adapter. I'll do a little more research here and get better test measurements from this supply after 30 seconds. But given the lack of SID, I think I may start looking for a local buyer. This computer is rare, and the board without SID makes it even more rare.

I have one listed for sale on craigslist, and the picture looks very similar!

I think you are right on the thermal part. There is not disk drive connected, and Commodore computers don't auto connect to anything. On real C64's, the power supplies go bad because they filled them with resin. Some components would overheat because of that, causing overvolt situations. Well the good news with this model is that the power supply has no resin. I will check those voltages, but I'd guess it is not that. It can't be the fuse, as the computer would shut down if that was failing due to heat. It may be a bad chip. SID chip perhaps? I have the day off work tomorrow, and I may spend an hour or so with this project.

A voltmeter and an EE degree 🙂 No, there isn't enough time to type even a simple program, as the keyboard is pretty stiff and slow. I haven't timed it, it is approx 30 seconds, but probably less. Turning the computer off, then on again gets another 30 seconds. The computer simply freezes.

I think it's a no brainer to release any of the games they still own licenses for with POKEY sound. Something like "Impossible Mission" with the speech added. Any of the arcade ports with different/good sound.

And after a day of drying time, I fired it up. Still the same. It works, but freezes up after about 30 seconds. I'm glad I didn't break it at least. Next steps are some diagnosis steps. Start with the power adapter and the voltage regulators.

Here are a few before/after shots of the interior cleaning. It was dirty to the point of being gross. This dust would not blow off, it needed to be scrubbed off. I did it gently, with water and dishsoap applied with a washcloth and soft toothbrush.

Jolly Snowflakes

I have a brand new SNES controller that I haven't even opened yet in anticipation of this challenge!

My wrist still hurts from getting that score (I'm not kidding, Aspercreme and a wrist brace!) My wife asked why I was trying so hard. "This is MY game". 🙂 Mayor Greenween usually kicks my butt at it.

1080p is still widely used. 4K hasn't become the standard at all. My PC uses a 27" monitor that is still 1920 * 1080. This is why I was very comfortable downgrading my video card, as the Intel Arc 730 can do 1080p in most games and that is good enough for me. Green screen monitors ARE very easy on the eyes -- you are correct there. I remember a few years ago, I got a really nice composite amber monitor that I sold because I didn't have space to store it. That is one thing that I very much regret selling, as you just cannot find them anymore. The PET restoration is being documented in a separate thread in the Commodore topic, so I hope you'll follow along there. I am very much looking forward to seeing some C64 classics on a greenscreen monitor.

Great deal, thank you for posting. Is there anything here you would recommend? I don't know any of these games.

I have a similar situation for Atari 8-bit computers. Several ways to load ROMS, with each iteration making the older stuff obsolete. I consider them "backups" in case the newest one ever goes bad.

You let us know what you think. Apocalypse Now is very intense! And DWW is very long!

And using the 8-bit Guy video above, I was able to figure out how to open the case. It flips open like a car bonnet! Not mentioned in his video -- there are two screws on the side that have to come out before it will flip. Easy enough. The inside is very dirty. There is some hair and a thick layer of dust covering everything. Next step is to vacuum and spray with compressed air, but I think it's going to take more soapy water and washcloth action to get the dust off.