Commodore 64 turns 30

11 posts / 0 new

Wed, 2012-08-01 11:16

Catchfire

Quote:
It is 30 years since the Commodore 64 went on sale to the public.

The machine was hugely successful for its time, helping to encourage personal computing, popularise video games and pioneer homemade computer-created music.

The $595 (£399) device took its name from its US maker, Commodore International, and the fact it had 64 kilobytes of RAM memory.

The firm noted that made it substantially cheaper than other personal computers on the market offered by IBM, Apple and Atari.

Commodore highlighted the fact that since it had designed and manufactured its own chips it had been able keep costs down - and the advantage helped it become the best-selling model in North America.

In Europe it faced competition from two cheaper eight-bit rivals released over the previous year: the BBC Micro and Sinclair Spectrum.

The Commodore's ability to display 16 colours, smoothly scroll graphics and play back music through its superior SID (sound interface device) chip - even while loading programs off tape - helped win over fans, but it did not become the market leader until the late 1980s.

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Wed, 2012-08-01 15:49

infracaninophile $infracaninophile's picture$

Wow, does that ever bring back fond memories. I'd love to find a way to play some of the old C-64 games again -- I especially liked Blue Max and Paperboy.

My IBM Intellistation is far more powerful, but not any more fun!

Wed, 2012-08-01 16:00

Catchfire

My two favourite games: Summer Games and Lemonade Stand!

Wed, 2012-08-01 16:45

Fidel

Never owned one. I was distracted by "other things" then. I think the high school might have had one, but I never enrolled in electronics courses then. Oh well, and just look what I missed out on.

Canada's first microcomputer was the MCM/70 in 1973.

And then there was the BBC Microcomputer (U.K.) in 1981.

Wed, 2012-08-01 17:16

Maysie

Catchfire wrote:

My two favourite games: Summer Games and Lemonade Stand!

How can you possibly be old enough to remember Lemonade Stand? I played it in 79 and 80 when I was 12 and 13. Man, I loved Lemonade Stand. I went bankrupt a lot though. I could never find that perfect balance between advertising and product.

"When I was growing up we had text on a screen and our imaginations, none of those fancy graphics. Hmph. Kids these days."

Wed, 2012-08-01 17:31

Unionist

You people are soooo modern with your fancy shmancy C64 and stuff.

My first computer was the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81]Sinclair ZX81[/url], which I bought for (I believe) $40.00 on Avenue Road during a visit to Toronto (only shop in Canada which sold them, can't recall the name), plus a 64K plug-in for POWER. God I loved that machine. I still have it.

ETA: By the way, the Wikipedia article is full of s**t. It says 1981 - but that's maybe when Timex bought out Sinclair, a Scottish firm, and re-branded it the Timex-Sinclair ZX81. I bought my baby in 1979.

Someone tell me how to edit Wikipedia articles please? Can I do it on my Sinclair?

Wed, 2012-08-01 17:54

Maysie

I wasn't allowed to go to the store by myself in 1981. Also, my paper route job wasn't that lucrative to allow me to make such a purchase.

Wed, 2012-08-01 18:03

Catchfire

Unionist wrote:
Someone tell me how to edit Wikipedia articles please? Can I do it on my Sinclair?

I think I have the Sinclair tape for wikipedia, but it requires a lot of postage to reach the internet. I'd mail it to you, but maybe it will be easier to broadcast it on the radio and you can record it home.

Wed, 2012-08-01 18:10

Boom Boom

I had used computers in other places before the 1990s, but the first computer I brought as my own was an IBM Ambra in 1990. It was crap, needed a techie on call to keep it running.

Fri, 2012-08-03 03:07

#10

radiorahim radiorahim's picture

I had a Commodore VIC-20 (20K RAM) that I bought used in the 1980's. The computer I bought with a package of digital radio gear so that I could decode radio teletype (RTTY) signals on the high frequency radio bands. It allowed me to read news from various international press agencies.

I have a relative who operates a farm and he ran some farm related software on his Commodore C-64 well into the 2000's.

As for emulating these old computer operating systems so that you can play your late 20th century computer games? GNU/Linux is your friend.

Here's one article that shows you how to setup a couple of the emulators. Aside from this there's support for Atari, Sega Genesis, old Nintendo stuff, Radio Shack TRS-80's, Amiga, and yes even Sinclair.

Fri, 2012-08-03 10:54

#11

Lou Arab

Unionist wrote:

You people are soooo modern with your fancy shmancy C64 and stuff.

My first computer was the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81]Sinclair ZX81[/url], which I bought for (I believe) $40.00 on Avenue Road during a visit to Toronto (only shop in Canada which sold them, can't recall the name), plus a 64K plug-in for POWER. God I loved that machine. I still have it.

I didn't have the patience to save up enough money for a Commidor 64 or an Atari, so I bought one of these with my paper route money.

I learned a valuable lesson - put things on credit.