The 13th meeting of the SEA-CCC turned out to have the largest attendance thus far. Several new members took the plunge, and some folks from the east side even braved the high temps and sticky traffic.
It was a great meet!
We had 2 SX-64’s in the house: one a near-mint boxed specimen, the other a very well loved and well used machine of Kent Sullivan’s.
Kent’s SX-64 had a SID Symphony Stereo Cartridge (which he co-created back in the day) hooked into a small amp and some very solid Realistic speakers. The SID Symphony software proceeded to pump out sounds that, quite frankly, sounded too good to be true. We were all pretty captivated by the demo.
Colin, another new member, brought in his minty C64 his sister won at PaCommEx 2019 last weekend. We were going to plug it into a monitor and see how she looked. We soon learned that Colin’s video port wouldn’t fit any of our cables. Flipping the machine over, the serial number revealed this machine to be a very early breadbin model, the the S/N being in the mere 7,000’s! Thus the video port was a very early 5-pin DIN, more commonly found on the VIC-20. What an incredible collectible to have won in a raffle!
Lucas brought his Atari 800 and a box full of cartridges, which several folks took a hand in playing on his Sony PVM – including 3-player Asteroids! For a machine made in the late 70s, it really is a remarkable piece of hardware. And the games look and sound great!
Member Dan proceeded to write a really fun and colorful BASIC program on one of the SX-64s.
Next, Member Matt brought an updated RF Modulator bypass board (which he has designed by hand) to fit into a modded C128D. The board design looks like it came from the factory, and replaces an earlier prototype breadboard proof of concept. The new board appears to be very, very close to being completed. We’re only seeing one strange video artifact that requires more research. Super exciting progress!
In the side room, Christian and new-member Chris worked on Ivan’s A3000, bringing it closer and closer to full potential.
Finally, we finished off the night watching Dan trying to figure out an intriguing Star Trek game on the SX-64, which looked and sounded pretty cool but the UI was a bit tough to work out (even with the manual present).
All-in-all, a great time at the SEA-CCC! Even though it was blistering hot and the A/C was off, the mood never went down. Good times with great people!