The Commodore SX-64 is back! What, as I showed you in this article, had arrived damaged, destroyed during transport.
The story of my Commodore SX-64
When I received the damaged Commodore SX-64, I must admit, I was very upset. I had ordered the vintage computer on eBay at a fairly fair price. Obviously, speaking of a Commodore SX64, you can not expect to buy it for a few euros. It was a fair price, but quite sustained. The computer, from the photo of the description of the ad, was in excellent condition. Too bad that, during transport, it was damaged.
In the video, I also delved into the issue of insurance. The transport, with which the computer had arrived damaged, was insured! Unfortunately, for a quibble, the insurance did not intervene.
I had the opportunity to confront the seller. We agreed on a solution: I would have found a suitable packaging for this Commodore SX 64, I would have sent it back, he would have repaired it completely at his expense and I would have reorganized the return shipment.
So here is the box I designed, to make sure I transported this heavy vintage computer: a huge box, with another box inside and... with yet another box inside, with the SX64.
All filled with abundant packaging material, so that any blows that the package had suffered could not reach the computer.
In the video, I showed the unboxing of the package. The computer, finally, arrived intact!
Commodore SX-64 test
To test the Commodore SX64, I connected the keyboard of the Commodore 64, with appropriate adapter. The adapter cable plugs under the vintage computer, into the keyboard port on the computer.
On the other side, the adapter has a comb connector to connect the keyboard of the Commodore 64, which can be inserted in only one direction.
The computer started immediately, just powered, without problems. The seller did a great job of repairing.
The game Spy Hunter
To test the floppy disk drive, I loaded the video game Spy Hunter, a game I played when I was a kid.
Before inserting a floppy disk into the drive, check that the magnetic disk does not have mold stains. If the disc is affected by stains, you must avoid inserting it into the drive, because the head could be damaged and contaminate other disks that would be inserted later.
To view the list of floppy disk files, you use the classic commands of 8-bit Commodore computers:
LOAD "$",8 LIST
Next, you load the game with:
LOAD "FILE NAME",8 RUN
After a few tens of seconds of loading (I do not have the Fastload cartridge installed), the game started. Leo and I managed to play: the computer works fine. We tried the joystick, keyboard, audio and video, as well as diskette loading.
All's well that ends well! I'm glad the Commodore SX-64 is back intact, healthy and functional!