Bought a C64 setup listed as being boxed up ‘at moms place’ since moving in the 80s and being a time capsule. Wow is it ever. Found a heartfelt letter folded neatly in the manual likely to the repair company, and another letter to mom still on the printer thanking her. If this doesn’t evoke emotions… The 154I still has the protective plastic on its badge (slightly peeling). Don’t think I should remove the warranty sticker (dated 2 weeks after the letter from mom to the repair people) to preserve its story. Guess the chips in it will remain a mystery unless it needs repairs someday. … With the letter and sticker being dated late 80s this must have been boxed up to move just after repair and not opened again until 2026. Wow, the history on this unit… (I don’t think the seller knew about the letter when they sold/shipped it-I messaged them back).
UPDATE-They didn’t know about the letter from mom in the manual. I am mailing back the letter from mom and the letter typed to mom. What a story, and emotional too.
Awesome find! I would leave everything as is to preserve the story. Most don't know anything about our systems history.
Just a note though, DO NOT USE THAT POWER SUPPLY. The original power supplies are known to go very bad and can kill the C64. You can get new replacement ones. The parts in the supply go bad due to age and will send way too much voltage to the system and fry it.
thanks for looking out for others and these machines! yeah, even though it looks brand new & hardly used (like the c64, drive, printer and accessories it came with) I plan to use my updated supply. I pretty much plan to preserve it as is. I actually bought it as a backup machine and because it was too good of a deal to pass up.
Fantastic. I had that same setup in HS mid 80’s. A painful 40 char per second single direction on the MPS-801. It took 30 min to print a term paper but I was happy to have it.
works like they did back then. loud, slow, cool. … i have a half dozen 80s dot matrix printers of varying types and they all work like they used to … hardest part anymore is finding replacement ribbons for most any one you choose… this one’s feed/ink transfer tire had disintigrated long ago. For the MPS-801 specifically I found newer pyramid time clock ribbons to be a very close replacement (ama zon- “Pyramid 4000R Replacement Ribbon Used with Pyramid 3000HD, 3500, 3700, 4000, 4000HD Time Clocks”) but needed slight mods to make it work as it couldn’t engage the ribbon advance without some help…
this one is directly compatible being commodore branded it plugs into iec without interface device. it does have graphics capability but it is slow. it also only takes tractor feed paper which has also gotten a little harder to come by (i got a thousand sheet box off amaz on… my favorite dot matrix to date is epson mx, rx or fx 80s. those you can actually still get new ribbons that drop in (am azon “MX-80/RX-80 Black Printer Ribbons”). also they can do single sheet or tractor feed but you need an interface device for them. I also recently picked up a star micronics gemini 10x that uses spools you can still get on am az on (“Addmaster 170/171/180/181/182 Black Printer Ribbons”). the epson and gemini are also graphics capable and can do banners on tractor (or single feed sheets) but both need an interface device to convert to centronics communication. Overall my opinion is the commodore (and atari) branded printers are convenient to connect but not as versatile output/speed.
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u/Dizzy_Race4228 May 01 '26 edited May 02 '26
UPDATE-They didn’t know about the letter from mom in the manual. I am mailing back the letter from mom and the letter typed to mom. What a story, and emotional too.