The keyboard serves as a cover for the monitor and drive. Thanks to the sturdy carrying handle, which holds the SX-64 in a comfortable working position when folded down, it was easy to transport.

I bought it second-hand in 1986 and only realized after the purchase that it had been modified: In addition to the usual 64Kb RAM, a 512Kb memory extension was installed. The C64 can only access this memory expansion as a “virtual floppy disk drive”, but it is many times faster than a conventional 5 1/4" floppy.

Because a floppy disk only stores 170Kb, the memory expansion can accommodate 2 floppy disks.TurboTrans was also built into the SX-64. TurboTrans consists of 3 circuit boards, which were built into the C64 and the floppy disk drive.

- TurboTrans can format floppy disks not only with 35 tracks, but with 41, which leads to more storage capacity.
Quote from the manual: “By rapidly increasing the floppy disk capacity from 170Kb to 196Kb...”
Wow, 26Kb more storage capacity!

- In addition, TurboTrans can read disks much faster than usual (normally about 2min.50sec. for 170KB), a complete disk is now read in 21sec. Read and in 20sec. Writing.

So you switched on the C64, loaded the program and data disk into the RAM extension (42 sec.) and could then work super-fast with the RAM disk. In the end, you only had to copy the data disk from the RAM bank to the floppy (20 sec.). The speed advantage at that time was comparable to the difference between an external USB2-HD and a fast internal SSD.

Long story short: I only paid 400.- for the 2 year old SX-64 (new price 3000.-) with TurboTrans (1400.-).

Surprisingly, the SX-64 is still running perfectly even after 40 years. But what about the floppy disks? After 40 years, the magnetic data on 60% of the disks is no longer readable.

After testing various floppy disks with unsuccessful read attempts, I inserted the "Flight Simulator II" disk with shaky hands and typed:
LOAD "*",8,1 <ENTER>
The drive rattled away, these noises were a bit frightening, but somehow familiar...
The screen showed 2:40 LOAD TIME, which gave me a lot of hope, because that's exactly how it was with the flight simulator back then. That was the only program I know that took so long to load.
However, the entire disk must be readable without errors, which would be almost a miracle after all these years...

The miracle happened, the Flusi is running!
So I immediately start a test flight, of course in full color splendor (16 colors), not monochrome, since I have a built-in high-tech tube monitor.

It's amazing how the programmers were able to pack so many graphics and realistic engine sounds onto a small 170KB floppy disk.

The extensive control functions were also remarkable.

Back then, the developers had to deliver a mature and bug-free product. There were no online updates.
The only possibility of an update was with the German version:
The manual was already printed, so they included an additional sheet with bug fixes ;-)

Here are my impressions of the first test flight:

Ready for take-off on the runway. It's amazing how beautifully the cloudless blue sky is rendered.

I climb to 7000 feet at a stable 2FPS, without any noticeable micro-jerks, and admire the deep blue sea.

Here you can watch a short movie of this flight. (5:45 min.)
Have fun.
(Click on the picture to watch the movie.)

I'm going to fly a few more rounds with the Flusi. Take-off and flight work quite well, but hitting the runway (with 2FPS and quite rough keyboard controls) doesn't work so well yet. If I briefly tap the “left” control button once and see the much too strong flight movement 2 frames later, it's almost too late for countersteering...
The only thing that helps is practicing, I could do it back then too!

(Click on the picture to watch the movie.)

Of course I took a flight with the emulator and landed successfully again. (17:16 min.)
(Click on the picture to watch the movie.)

Emulators can be downloaded from the link below.
I chose the German language emulator "Emu64", not because of the German language, but because this emulator reproduces the floppy disk sounds very realistically.
C64-Emulators

The Flight Simulator II can be found under this link:
Flight Simulator II

Under search (Suche) you can also find many expansion disks for Flight Simulator II on this page.
Simply enter “flight” as the search term (Suchbegriff) and then click on start search (Suche starten).