On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, Ruffin Bailey wrote:
> > The Apple //c, which is what Chris has, is actually quite compact.
>
> You should see the portable C=64. Matt's borrowed one (you don't own it,
> do you?), so I won't go into too much detail (maybe he'll expound), and
> it was something to behold. Two 1541 disk drives iirc and two power
> cords?! Terribly small screen, but there's your ultimate 2600
> programming device (minus playtesting, of course)!
You're talking about the SX-64, right? The SX-64 is indeed much more
compact (yes, I own one) than a regular C64 with a 1541 drive and monitor,
but it is still quite bulky and fairly heavy (compared to, say, today's
heaviest laptop computers).
The SX-64 reminds me a lot of the early Compaq "portable" (luggable!) PCs
from the mid '80s, if you know what those looked like. The shape of the
machine is kind of a squat rectangular box -- imagine a mini-tower PC case
turned on its side. The SX-64's keyboard clips on to cover the front face
of the box when it is in carrying mode. When in use, the keyboard
attaches to the underside of the box, and the box's handle forms a stand
to prop up the front of the box to a good viewing level.
When looking at the front face of the machine, the left portion contains
the built in monitor (9"?) and the disk drives are placed on the right
side. You can see pictures of the SX-64 at:
http://www.hut.fi/Misc/cbm/pics/Machines/pics.html (images 38 - 43)
I think the standard issue SX-64s had only one disk drive (that's all mine
has) with the remaining space turned into a little floppy storage
compartment, but the SX-64 pictured at the URL above has two.
I guess the SX-64 could be a good 2600 development platform, but I think
that a modern laptop with a decent emulator and an audio-out port for your
Supercharger would be preferrable.
Paul Hart
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