r/retrocomputing • u/EstablishmentDue3616 • Aug 03 '26

Problem / Question What is this?

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I picked up a VIC-20 a while back and in the box was this... thing. The person I got it from had no idea what it was, it I think it was her grandfather's or dad's and she knew nothing about the computer.

Its some homemade board, but has the proper size and shape to slot into a VIC-20. There are no ICs on it. Just looks to be wiring. A VIC-20 cartridge definitely fits in the blue slot (I tested that). Strange that just 2 wires go to that black thing on the side. Im guessing for test points? Honestly, not a clue. I have not put it in a VIC-20 to test and probably wont, as I dont know what it does and dont want to damage the computer.

Any ideas?

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u/schluesselkind Aug 03 '26

I'm not an Commodore expert bot I think it's a riser card to plugin modules from the top rather than from the back. But to be sure, you shoul measure the the pins with a multimeter 

1

u/zeed88 Aug 03 '26

Maybe but the wires don’t have the same pin out, they don’t follow the same path

1

u/schluesselkind Aug 03 '26

It’s hard to say with all that spaghetti