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From: rknop@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Robert Andrew Knop)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Rumour I heard the other day,,,
Message-ID: <1991Jan22.233952.23224@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 22 Jan 91 23:39:52 GMT
References: <7018.279c2b26@cc.newcastle.edu.au> <4084@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 40

mford@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Mark Ford) writes:

>I seem to remember seeing such a thing.  It was a Commodore 64 with a white
>case, and the dark color keys like the latter C64's have.  I think the
>Vic-20's have light color keys if I remember right.  Then Commdore went with
>the grey colored equipment, only to return to white with the C64c and C128,
>1571, 1581, etc. etc.  I believe the 1541 started out in a white case as well.

I've got an old C64 from way back when they used to cost ~$300 or even more
(I bought it from a friend for $20 during one break a few years ago when
my 128 was 500 miles away from me).  It is very early, the logo is somewhat
different, the font that is used on the keys on the keyboard is different-
but it is, sure enough, grey.

The Vic-20 had very dark brown keys- even darker than the 64's, if I remember
correctly.  I had one of these guys 8 or so years ago.  (I've climed the
Commodore ladder- I even started with a Pet that we rented one summer when
I was in Jr. High!).  Also, I think the Vics where whiter than the current
128's and 64c's, which are a sort of creamy off-white.  The original 1541's
were also white, and those were the guys that *really* had problems with
misalignment.  The "second-run" 1541's matched the 64's color, but still
had the push-pop door instead of the lever found on current drives.

On a related topics: Vic-20's in the movies!!

In at least two movies where they needed computer keyboards to look technical
and impressive, I've seen Vic-20's.  The first was Airplane II, where there
are three or four of them lined up with a bank of ground personnell types.  The
second was in The Philadelphia Experiment, where there was this big huge
workstation screen with a Vic-20 keyboard below it, in top-secret high-tech
military base.

Has anybody seen Vics on the silver screen anywhere else?

(If anyone remembers the TV show "Manimal," which ran about 6 episodes, I
seem to remember in the Pilot episode that the hero had a C64 in his house
somewhere.)

-Rob
rknop@tybalt.caltech.edu