Some sites offer games in a compressed format, that saves disk space and network bandwidth.
On the other hand, you might find some compressed files on the net. They can be used without any additional preparation. Most games for the VIC-20 are stored as plain *.PRG files without any compression, as the files tend to be very small (a few KByte) and compression does not really pay off for such tiny files. Otherwise there is a good chance that you will end up with a file that looks fine at first glance but is internally corrupted and unusable. If you are using a webbrowser such as Safari, Firefox, iCab or Opera press the option key when clicking on the link of a game. If you are using a FTP program for downloading make sure it is switched to binary mode. VIC-20 games are always stored in binary, never in text (ASCII) files. Here are some hints, that will seem trivial to experienced internet users and are meant to help newbies avoid the most frequent errors. If you can't find a file here, you will probably not find it anywhere. - The most complete collection of VIC-20 software.
If you are looking for VIC-20 software on the internet, you might want to look at the following sites: While there are lots of CD-ROMs for almost every other 8-bit machine there are currently no CD-ROMs dedicated to the VIC-20 that I know of. Intellectual Property Rights can be found at 3.1 Games on CD-ROM Use it at your own risk - You have been warned!Ī detailed study on emulators and the problems that they pose in relation to
In other words, the collection mentioned below consists primarily of pirated software. All others have, up to now, just chosen not to take any action against copyright infringements (but may of course revoke this decision at any time). Only few authors (such as the great Jeff Minter) have actively decided to release their (once commercial) work into public domain. Even old software, that is no longer sold, is still intellectual property of its author and protected by copyright laws. The fact that the VIC-20 is no longer produced, and hardly any new software is available for it, does not mean that the old commercial software has in general become public domain. Please be aware of the copyright problems attached to VIC-20 games. You can visit one of the VIC-20 archives on the Internet or copy it from your old collection of 5.25" disks. There are two ways to get VIC-20 software for use with Power20.