Commodore Plus -60 ;)

[Retrofan]

So I recently bought a cheap Commodore plus/4 for 55€. It has some not working keys.

I just want to show it as I've just received it and I've only applied some IPA on the space bar. I think that the keys will need retrobrighting though.





I'm planning to change the caps, wash and retrobright the keys and also to clean the rubber contacts they have. I wish that that will be enough for the keys to work. That is Plan A.

I will post more photos when I make some improvements on it.

Ah... I also have this floppy here:

[Anubis]

That computer keyboard always reminded me more of MSX than Commodore.

Nice find!

[Retrofan]

Thanks. I've received a keys extractor tool or whatever it's called. I will use it to take out the keys instead of my screwdriver, but I'm still expecting to receive a kit of caps that Console5 has made for me... or for you now

I know that retrobrightning keys isn't as easy as any other thing. I will use a 20% volume peroxide solution (instead of 40%) and I hope that the keys won't fade off and that they will look whiter.

I also would like to watch an update of this video that Jan Beta made in october 2017: [ Show youtube player ]

[Retrofan]

Hi:
So today I've finally changed the caps (10):



And I've added a couple of heatsinks:





You've seen how yellowed it was:



So today I've retrobrighted the keyboard. I've dismounted the keyboard but I didn't take out the keys as I think it's better this way so all of the keys were facing upwards for retrobrighting them. I've used a 20% volume peroxide solution with active oxygen for laundry for two days as it was a bit cloudy.





I'll try it tomorrow to see if it works and also the formerly not working keys. I'm very happy with the result so far

[NovaCoder]

This was my first ever Commodore which my dad brought for me when I was a kid (we were too poor to afford a C64).

It was a pretty disappointing experience for me as a kid because every time I went to the local computer shop I'd see all these cool C64 games that were incompatible with my Plus4 and I had to buy the horrible C16 versions

The only decent versions it got were:

[ Show youtube player ]
[ Show youtube player ]


Actually looking at the video of Ace 2 it looks awful nowdays

It use to look much better when I was 16

Mercenary still looks great though

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

This was my first ever Commodore which my dad brought for me when I was a kid (we were too poor to afford a C64...

Both games look great indeed. My family also seemed to be very poor to afford a C64 and there wasn't any C=Plus either. My first computer was a Spectrum 48K as most of my friends here in Spain.

[DDNI]

@Novacoder

Same here, “too poor for 64” was a real thing.

Loved Mercenary on the thing though.
Check out Saboteur, it got an awesome plus/4 version.

[indigolemon]

Same boat here, ended up with the bargain box set sold in the UK (£99.99) which came with enough games to keep me happy for a while. Some were awful, but I really enjoyed:
- Treasure Island
- Fire Ant
- Kikstart
- P.O.D
- Spore

Need to dig mine out again, still to heat-sink it - and see what other games I have lurking too

[DDNI]

Yes! Treasure Island rocked! That tune is still in my head ?

[Retrofan]

Aha

I just hope that Pets Rescue is a success and that more great games are in development.

[ Show youtube player ]

[Retrofan]

I'm seeing that some games are in .prg format only. What's the easiest way to obtain .d64 files?

Edit: Do not answer. The answer is DirMaster. You only have to save it as...

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=98710

[Solo Kazuki]

I'm adding Majesty of Sprites and Majesty of Sprites 2: The Lands of Zador. Also Memento (memory game) is nice.

[carrion]

Hi All
Great thread. C116 was my first computer later replaced by C64 (and then Amigas)
As an author of the title screen for Pets Rescue Im so proud of being part of this amazing project / game.
I'm working (slowly) on a Atari game Laura port to C+4 but it's still long way to go.
Without spoiling too much I was involved in some other game projects as well but I guess the development of them slowed down. No canceled - just postponed, but hey, new things will come for sure.

[Retrofan]

Originally Posted by carrion

Hi All
Great thread. C116 was my first computer later replaced by C64 (and then Amigas)
As an author of the title screen for Pets Rescue Im so proud of being part of this amazing project / game.
I'm working (slowly) on a Atari game Laura port to C+4 but it's still long way to go.
Without spoiling too much I was involved in some other game projects as well but I guess the development of them slowed down. No canceled - just postponed, but hey, new things will come for sure.

Congrats @carrion for helping creating something so great

I've connected my C= Plus/4 and it seems to work right





The keys work. A lot of them didn't seem to work when I clicked on them, but keeping them pressed made them to type, and then clicking every key several times then they started to type right. The more I use the keyboard, the better it works. No idea about how it improves this way. I cleaned the keyboard board with something like "Brasso" for metals, and then I cleaned it very well with IPA. I also applied IPA to the key's rubber contacts and I wiped out the excess with some cotton tips. At least now all of the keys are working, but as I've said I'll have to write some long text for a while till they work perfect.

Can you recommend any 16k program to improve typing/speed?.

Edit: I've seen this recent game, but it plays slowly as far as I can tell: [ Show youtube player ]

[str0m]

"- Treasure Island
- Fire Ant
- Kikstart"

Spent way too much time on them back in the day! My first computer.

Originally Posted by indigolemon

Same boat here, ended up with the bargain box set sold in the UK (£99.99) which came with enough games to keep me happy for a while. Some were awful, but I really enjoyed:
- Treasure Island
- Fire Ant
- Kikstart
- P.O.D
- Spore

Need to dig mine out again, still to heat-sink it - and see what other games I have lurking too

loved Fire Ant ,pld that a lot , also played some f1 game, Pole Position maybe,it was terrible but i thought it was fun.


had a stack of those plain white cover games,like treasure island, never really tried any of them tho.

[Solo Kazuki]

Originally Posted by indigolemon

Same boat here, ended up with the bargain box set sold in the UK (£99.99) which came with enough games to keep me happy for a while. Some were awful, but I really enjoyed:
- Treasure Island
- Fire Ant
- Kikstart
- P.O.D
- Spore

Need to dig mine out again, still to heat-sink it - and see what other games I have lurking too

These are just conversions from C64, looks same or sometimes worse than counterparts. But if You want conversion/clone which looks better than on C64 i propose You Quadrillion - clone of Crillion.

[Solo Kazuki]

Overally, C+4 is rather good hardware, but very underappreciated. There are few games which are made for it (or upgraded C16, etc). My list of top games for C+4 is:

1. Pets Rescue


2.Majesty of Sprites 2: The Lands of Zador


3. Memento


4.Quadrillion


5. Majesty of Sprites

[Retrofan]

Several months ago I bought a 1551 floppy drive, but I didn't have a C16 or Plus4 by then, so I didn't try it.

But now I've got this "new" Plus/4 and I want to try the floppy drive, so this afternoon I've just connected a power cable and I've left it there with the switch OFF while I was making other things.

And... after like twenty minutes I've noticed some rare noise like a "Crack" and then suddenly the floppy drive has started smoking (a lot), so I've disconnected it.

So as I'm telling the switch was Off... (how can it happen then?), and opening the floppy drive after like half an hour I just couldn't see anything burnt and the fuse was ok. Everything was looking right.

So I've emailed Ray Carlsen and he has told me "The only thing connected directly to the AC input ahead of the power switch is the filter inside the AC socket. I'll bet that's what failed."

And he was right. Now the floppy drive is also working right like he suggested ("It very likely burned itself open so if you power up the drive and it works (with no more smoke), it's probably OK to use it. ").

So I wanted to post about this matter because I was thinking what could had happened if I wasn't at home and if that smoke could had become into a fire

Edit: Games updated, but I'm not sure if they will work as I've converted them from .prg to .d64:

And also, about my 1551 floppy drive I have to change the belt as it is Very loose.

[Nightshft]

Originally Posted by Retrofan

... So I wanted to post about this matter because I was thinking what could had happened if I wasn't at home and if that smoke could had become into a fire

Wow, never heard of an AC Filter smoking off. Thanks for the warning!
Seems like its advisable to use a switched plug board.

Back in the days I always found the Plus4 one of Commodores most beautiful machines. Really awesome how you restored/refurbished it!

I restored/tuned some of my C64 Hardware too (multiple 1541, Breadbin, AC6+) but never retrobrighted.