D-L-K@cup.portal.com (Patrick Andreas Maher) (05/06/91)
I have SX-64's for sale. The price is 275.00 each. They are in fine working condition. If interested, please give me a call at 801-465-3978. Thanks....
XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET (05/07/91)
I tried to post direct to Patrick, but kept getting bounced; I hope that this doesn't sound like a flame. Grapevine Group Inc. is selling SX-64's for around $175. They have about 75-100 units in variuos states of repair. Working models in good shape cost $129.00 w/o keyboard. NEW keyboards are $42.95. Spare keyborad cables are $16.95. They do not list prices for non-working units, but will sell them to those of you who may need parts or wish to noodle with them. Remember, the SX-64 is a C64 in a box - including a 5 inch color SONY monitor and an internal 1541 disk drive. To the best of my knowledge, it is 100% C64/64C compatible. They were considered "portable" and are the size Kaypro used to call "transportable." Neat little units! Patrick, this was not meant to undercut you, but to inform folks of the market value. (BTW - a friend of mine just bought one locally for under $100!) Kirk xwuu@purccvm
wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Bill Brown) (05/08/91)
In article <91127.091846XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET> XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET writes: > ... >Remember, the SX-64 is a C64 in a box - including a 5 inch color SONY >monitor and an internal 1541 disk drive. To the best of my knowledge, it >is 100% C64/64C compatible. They were considered "portable" and are the >size Kaypro used to call "transportable." Neat little units! There must be some differences - "Hess Forth" (cartrige) doesn't work in my sx - it just "hangs solid". I've never figured out why. This probably isn't exactly an earthshaking problem for most people but it is a difference. Disclaimer: These opinions are my own and have | nothing to do with the official policy or the | -bill management of L.B.L, who probably couldn't | wlbrown@lbl.gov care less about employees who play with trains. |
root@zswamp.uucp (Geoffrey Welsh) (05/08/91)
In a letter to All, Bill Brown (wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov ) wrote: >In article <91127.091846XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET> >XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET writes: >To the best of my knowledge, it is 100% C64/64C compatible. >There must be some differences - "Hess Forth" (cartrige) >doesn't work in my sx - it just "hangs solid". I've never >figured out why. Bizarre! As far as I know, the only difference between a Kernal 3 C64 and the SX-64 is a change to make the RUN key (that's SHIFT-RUN/STOP) load from the disk drive in stead of the cassette port (which the SX doesn't have). On the other hand, I have recently been reminded that there is a great physical difference that might prevent some cartridges from inserting properly. If that were the case here, you'd probably know... -- Geoffrey Welsh - Operator, Izot's Swamp BBS (FidoNet 1:221/171) root@zswamp.uucp or ..uunet!watmath!xenitec!zswamp!root 602-66 Mooregate Crescent, Kitchener, ON, N2M 5E6 Canada (519)741-9553 "He who claims to know everything can't possibly know much" -me
wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Bill Brown) (05/09/91)
In article <31.28280204@zswamp.uucp> root@zswamp.uucp (Geoffrey Welsh) writes: >In a letter to All, Bill Brown (wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov ) wrote: > > >In article <91127.091846XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET> > >XWUU@PURCCVM.BITNET writes: >>To the best of my knowledge, it is 100% C64/64C compatible. > > >There must be some differences - "Hess Forth" (cartrige) > >doesn't work in my sx - it just "hangs solid". I've never > >figured out why. > > Bizarre! As far as I know, the only difference between a Kernal 3 C64 and >the SX-64 is a change to make the RUN key (that's SHIFT-RUN/STOP) load from >the disk drive in stead of the cassette port (which the SX doesn't have). The cartrige seemed to plug in ok - no mechanical problems that I could find. I tried all the other (game) cartriges in the house and all worked fine. Another person suggests that it could be a timing problem, due to the length of the cable to the cartrige port. I sort of doubt it - I'd expect a lot of other things to break too. Also, with a clock speed of around 1 MHz I'd expect no problem. The 6502 family is fairly easy to hook things up to. At some show or other I talked to the people from MVP about the problem, since Hess-forth is essentially fig forth with a few C= hacks added. They could shed no light on the problem, but they eventually came up with the home phone number of the individual who did the port of fig forth to the '64. I called him at home and he did eventually admit to having done the work. As best as I can recall, he said that he was aware of the problem as he had tried the cartrige in an an "sx" when they first came out. It didn't work for him but the issue was not persued. A couple of things I tried: Just in case there was a difference in the PAL, I swapped with the PAL from a "standard" '64. No change. I thought about swapping ROMs, but it seems to me there was a problem - I think the ROMs are different types - not the same number of pins. (It's been several years since I did all this.) I tried to figure out the address where things "hung" by `scoping the address lines, but that was a dead end. I don't remember what I found, but it didn't help. I recall trying to compare the published entry points in the '64 ROM to what was really in the "SX" ROM, but I didn't find anything. I think everything seemed to match. Anyway, that's about all I can remember. At this point it's probably not important, and there's probably no way out. Just another "feature." Disclaimer: These opinions are my own and have | nothing to do with the official policy or the | -bill management of L.B.L, who probably couldn't | wlbrown@lbl.gov care less about employees who play with trains. |
andy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Andrew Hackard) (05/09/91)
In article <31.28280204@zswamp.uucp> root@zswamp.uucp (Geoffrey Welsh) writes: >In a letter to All, Bill Brown (wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov ) wrote: > >>There must be some differences - "Hess Forth" (cartrige) >>doesn't work in my sx - it just "hangs solid". I've never >>figured out why. > > Bizarre! As far as I know, the only difference between a Kernal 3 C64 and >the SX-64 is a change to make the RUN key (that's SHIFT-RUN/STOP) load from >the disk drive in stead of the cassette port (which the SX doesn't have). I don't remember if the SX defaults to disk or not (if not, it would be very annoying). I do remember that the screen colors were different; blue on blue didn't show up too well on the little monitor, apparently. I don't know if the HesForth cartridge would be screwed up by the Kernal mods or not. I have a suspiscion, though, that it isn't hanging, just changing the text color to something which shows up fine on blue, but doesn't on the white (I think) background of the SX. I could easily be wrong, though, since I have neither an SX nor a HesForth cartridge to test. --Andrew
D-L-K@cup.portal.com (Patrick Andreas Maher) (05/11/91)
Yes, I did call Grapevine and they were selling them for $120.00 but they had sold all of them very fast. You don't expect a good thing to last very long do you?