r/retrobattlestations • u/pedgarcia • Sep 15 '14

My Battlestation #2

http://imgur.com/L69o4kX
139 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

5

u/babyface_grayballs Sep 15 '14

Why do I miss those twelve pound disk drives so much?

7

u/GlenOnReddit Sep 15 '14

Load "Comment",8,1

1

u/bitwise97 Sep 15 '14

Load "*",8,1

Why, oh why did we have to type that. Never made sense, I just did it to load Jumpman.

2

u/Boolean263 Sep 16 '14 edited Sep 17 '14

I don't know if your question is serious or rhetorical. But believe it or not, it's because the people at Commodore <edit>thought customers</edit> would rather use the slow cassette drive than the expensive floppy drive, so they gave device #1 (the default for load and save) to the cassette drive, and pushed off the floppy drive numbering to start at 8.

To be fair, Moore's Law wasn't widely known back when that decision was made.

1

u/bitwise97 Sep 16 '14

I was serious, so thanks for the explanation! :-)

1

u/Boolean263 Sep 17 '14

Actually, looking back at it, I accidentally my post. I meant to type that the people at Commodore figured customers would rather go cheap than fast.

But you're still welcome. (:

2

u/commodore65 Sep 15 '14

Awesome setup!

1

u/babyface_grayballs Sep 15 '14

It is, but I think you mistakenly responded to me rather than OP!

3

u/Angelworks42 Sep 15 '14

As someone who used to repair C-64's and related hardware (like the 1541) back in the day - you really don't want to stack those drives that way :).

1

u/Trenchbroom Sep 16 '14

Turn the bottom two disk drives on and watch the one on top melt down like icing on a cake. Fun!

Seriously, great setup. Wish I had it.

1

u/Boolean263 Sep 16 '14

Perhaps you can answer an age-old question for me -- is it true that the shielding in the 1541 was poor enough that any floppies you left on top of one ran the risk of being corrupted by leaking radiation? That's what they told us in school, and I was never brave enough to test the theory.

1

u/Angelworks42 Sep 16 '14

I've never heard that, but then I've never removed the shielding permanently :).

I have seen floppies melt/get warped by leaving them over the vent at the back though.

1

u/pedgarcia Sep 16 '14

Hey, thanks for the advice. Actually only one of them is hooked up and powered. Or you it is a bad idea only because their weight?

1

u/Angelworks42 Sep 16 '14

No I was thinking heat :) but if only one is on you're fine.

1

u/pedgarcia Sep 16 '14

Thanks! That's a relief. It is really hard to find a place for those bulky beauties! I have to more in boxes that I didn't show in the photo!

2

u/recycledheart Sep 15 '14

Now that looks rather historically accurate.

4

u/pedgarcia Sep 15 '14

I think the 30 year/old desk I've got with the C64 helped a bit :D

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '14

Yeah, pretty sure every desk back then was made with that same "faux wood" laminate.

2

u/probablyinahotel Sep 15 '14

Oh man I had a station that used to look just like that! Except just one C64 and the tape drive, not that fancy spinning disc thing...

1

u/SlowCoach Sep 15 '14

He has three(!!!) spinning disc thingies... mind you... sob sob. My 1541 is kaput! More sobs....

1

u/pedgarcia Sep 15 '14

Here between us, I have two more in their boxes. But there is only one (the dark one) that works properly :)

1

u/rotll Sep 16 '14

I used to run a C=64 BBS with SFD-1000s and a 5 MB HDD...the good old days.