Here I have summaries of all my classic computers, I also have HI-RES images of most of them. I also have pictures of them in various states of disassembly. So, click on the image of the system for more detail and HI-RES snapshots!

Commodore Vic20

My first ever computer. I was 6 years old when I got a Vic20. I don't exactly use it a lot today. It sits in the closet most of the time. I literally rescued this unit from the trash. I was working at a grocery store as a bag-boy when I was 16 and somebody had this in their trunk and they said they were about to chunk it. It isn't exactly in the best of conditions. The case is beaten up and the plastic is melted on top. That was my fault, I was trying desperatly to get some sticky stuff off the top but nothing worked. I tried gasoline. It worked, but took the plastic off too. Guess that good old Commodore plastic wasn't strong enough. The VIC chip flickers sometimes too, especially the screen border. You wouldn't normally expect to see a 1571 drive hooked up to a Vic20, but as I didn't have a vic-1541 I guess it didn't matter. I stuck in an original PacMan cartridge for authenticity. The 1084 monitor is also overkill.

Commodore 64

This was my second computer, probably when I was 8 or 9 years old. This particular one was given to me by an old girlfriend when I was 17 who didn't want it anymore. (Thanks Renee!) I hooked up the 1541 for authenticity. This computer is in excellent condition and even has original box and packing materials. I loaded up one of my favorite old games, M.U.L.E. before taking the picture. Good old planet Irata! Don't have an older 1902 monitor, so the 1084 is displayed here. The C64 was a massive improvement on the Vic20 in every aspect, memory, graphics, sound, etc.

Commodore Plus/4

Good old Plus/4! Too bad it didn't make it very well in the market, it had great potential. Most people who had Plus/4s never saw more than the built-in wordprocessor because software was so rare. Here I am showing the Amiga-Juggler demo that was re-created on the Plus/4 (I think it was ported from the C64 version) As far as I know, this computer had the most colors of all the Commodore 8 bit systems, comming in at 119 different colors! (127 if you include the 8 shades of black! haha) In many ways superior to the C64. I believe at one point there was a black version of the 1541 and monitor to match the Plus/4 and C16, which I don't have. I have a second plus/4 which is non-functional.

Commodore 16

This unit was given to me by an old Commodore store called "Commodore Country" for $10 because they wanted to get rid of it. The 16 was essentially a Plus/4 with only 16K of RAM put inside a Black C64 case. The picture on the screen is a digitzed image of Arnold Schwartzenegger from Total Recall. It is actually a Plus/4 image, but displays on the C16 too. I do not have a power-supply for this one, so I use a packard-bell speaker power supply which uses the same voltage and connector. Works great! Notice in the picture where it is taken apart I have jumper on the fuse because it is blown (was that way when I got it) and I haven't yet replaced it.

Commodore 64c

No collector could be complete without the 64c! This was probably the most popular version of the C64.. Well, at least most people I knew that had one either had one of these or wanted one. It is essentially the same computer as the older 64, only redesigned to look nicer and many of the chips are combined and more reliable. I got this one off of ebay. I have the original box for it too. Normally you'd expect to see a 1541-c or a 1541-II diskdrive, but I don't have either so the 1571 matches good. Some people used 1084 monitors with their 64c, so the monitor matches okay.

Commodore 128D

This is probably the Commodore system I used the most over the years. I did a lot of programming on one of these. This particular one I picked up from somebody I met who sold it for $50. In this image, it is running GEOS 128 in the 80-Column mode. Looks nice on the 1084 monitor. Technically I could hook up the other 1571 too, but nah. I wish I had a mouse. I could plug in my Amiga mouse for looks, but it wouldn't work. Same as the Plus/4, I wish this machine would have gotten more attention from the Software makers. My brother has a standard C128, I might get a picture of it in here somewhere.

Commodore 1541

This was probably the most common diskdrive any commodore user could own. Definatly not the best, but the most common. It was prone to all kinds of problems, notably overheating and head-banging itself out of alignment. This one works fine. I can't even remember where I obtained it. I did permanently change the drive designation on this one to device 9, which now I wish I hadn't. I used to use it in combination with another drive, I think with the 128D. Anyway, maybe someday I'll solder that gap back closed. I don't want to deface it by making a switch like some people do.

Commodore 1571	I bought this at a computer store called "Electronic Discount Sales" in 1996. They were tough to find even then, this one was still in original box. I think I paid $25 for it. It works and looks great. A definate improvement over the old 1541 but I wish they had made the power supply external so the drive could be a little smaller.

Commodore Dataset

Not that having one of these was ever anything to brag about. In fact it was almost an embarrasment if your friends had 1541 diskdrives! I believe Renee gave this to me with the C64. It is pretty sad, this is all I had when I used the Vic20 as my first computer. I hooked it up a few years ago just to remind me how long it took to load and save a program. It doesn't really keep up with a 7200 RPM Ultra-Wide SCSI drive, does it?