#commodore vic 20

Sno-Cat is a 1984 action game for the Commodore VIC-20, written by Andy Keplinger and originally published in Compute!’s Gazette. The player drives a powerful snow tractor down a continuously scrolling slope, avoiding trees while trying to reach the flag at the end of the course.

The controls are deliberately simple, but the vehicle itself creates the difficulty. The Sno-Cat changes gears automatically, beginning at a manageable speed before shifting into increasingly faster gears as the run continues. By the time it reaches top speed, threading the vehicle between the trees becomes considerably more demanding.

A brake provides the only real defence against losing control. Holding it slows the Sno-Cat almost to a standstill, which can be invaluable when a narrow opening appears ahead. There is a trade-off, however: the distance counter stops while braking even though the timer continues, so excessive caution produces a much slower finishing time.

That creates a straightforward risk-and-reward system. Driving flat out is obviously faster, but the automatic increase in speed makes collisions increasingly likely. Braking constantly makes survival easier but defeats much of the purpose of chasing a strong time.

Visually, Sno-Cat is extremely modest. The snowy course consists largely of trees and simple character graphics, but the downward scrolling works effectively and gives the small VIC-20 program a convincing sense of forward movement. The uncluttered presentation also makes it easy to concentrate on the gaps opening ahead. The preserved VIC-20 version specifically uses a small machine-language routine to produce that scrolling effect.

There are no elaborate stages, power-ups or competing vehicles. Everything revolves around surviving the same descent, controlling an increasingly fast machine and reaching the flag in the shortest possible time. That limited scope suits its origins as a magazine type-in rather than a full commercial production.

The escalating speed is what keeps the simple premise from becoming completely trivial. The early part of the run gives plenty of time to react, but the later sections demand much quicker corrections, especially if the brakes are being avoided in pursuit of a better time.

dont exist anymore.

Commodore was responsible for introducing low cost computers to generations of people with it's Vic 20 and C64, and taught countless people with Commodore Pets in classrooms. Now all their assets are just names split between different businesses.

Atari brought gaming home, and some of the first 8 Bit computers as well. Now their name is just a stain on the box of Plug and Play consoles.

Compaq was responsible for the first ever IBM clones, bringing upon the dawn of the modern personal computer and at much cheaper prices than IBM. Now they're a defunct subsidiary of HP.

Tandy was huge in the 8 Bit era, and they popularized a graphics processer that was so much better than any prior graphical solution on MS-DOS computers so much that it became known as Tandy Graphics and Sound, even though it wasnt made by them. Now Radio Shack entirely is gone.

eMachines is pretty much the entire reason computers are mostly cheap now, their aggressive pricing against the market's competition forced the entire industry to cut their prices. Now all they are is a footnote in Apple documentaries about brands that copied the iMac G3.

And like, you'll never have brands like this again. There's no such thing as an "iconic" computer anymore, theyre all reskins of eachother. Commodore had the Vic 20, the C64, the 128, the Amiga, all icons. Atari had the 2600 console and the 400 and 800 computers. Tandy had the TRS 80, Color Computers. Compaq had their portable series. eMachines had the eOne. All icons in their own right, all unique, all special.

I cant think of a tech brand today that anyone would notice was gone. But these. These were special to people. And now theyre gone. Nothing remains.

Here's an early model Commodore VIC-20 Computer that found it's way to the Wisconsin Computer Club. Not sure it works or not yet as of this writing. The early models placed a good chunk of the power supply onto the main board (under the black metal parts) rather than in the external power bricks Commodore employed later. While not super unusual, there are far fewer of these early machines left out there today.

So pretty