• 2020-03-17 Update: I found another reference to The Byte House in a magazine called Micro (about the 6502 and 6809). They listed a VIC-20 game called “Mojave Desert Adventure” by Dennis McCormack. Then, in an earlier search, there was an excerpt from VIC-NIC called “Ask Dennis.” Now I have a second name to try to track down in hopes of finding this old newsletter.
• 2021-10-13: http://www.vic20listings.freeolamail.com/mag_cpowplay.html
• 2024-02-02: Someone e-mailed me today saying they had the first issues and that my Eggs program appears in issue #6. I am hopeful they can provide scans of these issues so we can get them uploaded/archived somewhere. I’ll share details when I have them.
• 2024-02-012: Article posted! (Also check for follow-ups as I fixed an issue with the joystick code.)

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My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. When I first received it (thanks, dad!), I stayed up all night going through the manual learning how to program it. In my short time with the VIC (I got a Radio Shack CoCo 1 about a year later), I wrote many simple games. Recently, I found a box of old VIC-20 cassettes that have these programs, and I have been trying to import them to run on an emulator.

This makes me want to find another aspect of my first computer. I had a program published in a newsletter called VIC-NIC NEWS. I cannot find my physical copy of it (but may still have it somewhere, since I still have all my old Compute’s Gazette VIC-20 magazines). I’ve done some searching for it over the years (and when I search now, I tend to find myself searching for it or talking about it).

Can anyone help me track down VIC-NIC NEWS? My game was a simple “catch the falling object” game called Eggs. I’d really like to see it again.

Online searches revealed issues of a magazine called Commander. I found this excerpt:

THE VIC-NIC NEWS , bi-monthly, $6 per year from The Byte House.

8 page newsletter consisting of several brief listings, a page of reviews, a crossword puzzle, some ads, a question column, and errata. A decent price from friendly folks, but what is a VIC-NIC?

-Commander Magazine / Also The Midnite June-July 1983 Page 50

As well as a listing under User Groups – New Hampshire:

TBH VIC·NIC CLUB
PO Box 981
Salem, NH 03079
Contact – J. Newman
Publication – VIC-NIC NEWS
Interests – VIC-20 Exclusively

-Commander Magazine (Issue 08, July 1983, Page 121 / Issue 8, Page 89)

I have had no luck tracking down J. Newman. (I also wonder if this might be a female, since I often see women go by an initial in publications and online. Anyone know who J. is?)

Any help?

UPDATE

Tada!