What is your C64?
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
I never had a C64 but I have an amusing story about them. At my first job out of school we did a lot of rather interesting projects. We also did some weird ones. One of them was for a large manufacturer of batteries. They made a system in-house that monitored the growth of the cells in a deposition furnace. The system used a very early CCD array (essentially a DRAM chip with the cover removed) as a digital camera and a program written in BASIC to examine the image from the camera and decide when the cell was had grown enough. Our part of the system was procurement and assembly of some things. The amusing part of all of this is the system ran on a Commodore 64. Our purchasing agent looked "all over" for a source and finally went down to the local K-Mart and bought 98 Commodore 64s. I think it took three trips to get them all to the shop. I thought the whole thing was hilarious, especially the part about getting them at K-mart. That was the one and only I remember ever buying anything at K-mart for a project in my entire career.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Nostalgia can be a tricky thing. My first computer was a C64, which my dad got me on Christmas of 83, I believe, which would've made me 11. That, and the tape drive. All I could do during that first year was type in my own programs (or from magazines) and save them to cassette, or play cartridge-based games. The next Christmas, I got the floppy drive - so despite it being notoriously slow, given I had gotten used to a tape drive for a year, I thought that was a huge improvement. The following Christmas, I got a printer. In hindsight, given what each device sold for, even back then, I really have to appreciate this amounted to *a lot* of money my dad set aside to get me these one Christmas after another. I then bought myself the C64C, so my folks gave the original one (just the computer) to a couple of friends of theirs, for their kid. Later I got myself the C128. I genuinely have no idea what happened to those computers...sometimes I wish I still had them. I remember doing a lot of high school work with GEOS. The Amiga was always out of my reach, price-wise, but Commodore advertised it rather heavily in the magazines I read, so I did have a bit of envy. It's probably just as well I didn't know anyone who had one. Having a bit of a hard time with English technical manuals during my teen years, while I did learn a lot of Basic, I never learned assembly, so PEEKs and POKEs meant nothing for me except for a few items I had come to learn by heart. About 2 years ago, thanks to Amazon shipping internationally, I bought the C64 Mini (look it up) when it was still only available in Europe...had I waited a few more months, when it finally showed up in the US and Canada, I could've paid a lot less for it. But, I don't really regret it. While it's okay for some games, the moment you need to use the keyboard, you're at a real disadvantage - you either have to use an onscreen keyboard that you can only control through the USB joystick, or hook up a USB keyboard (and my hub somehow doesn't work with it). The company that makes it will be releasing a full-size version at the end of the year (with a functional keyboard, this time around), and I have to admit I'm rather intrigued... Emulators on a PC don't do it for me. Archive.org has a ton of old magazines, and I actually remember some covers from a few of them. While they're interesting enough for a quick read here and there, just for nostalgia's sake, I can't imagine myself sitting down and start typing in some of the sample listings. So what was
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Dick Smith in Australia put out a "Super 80" computer which was basically a Radio Shack TRS-80 model II knock off, but at less than half the price. Briefly owned one, smashed it to bits with a hammer (most fun I ever had with it) when I moved onto... a Beeb (BBC Micro) with ISO Pascal ROM because BASIC was for weenies that couldn't write proper programs. (It was a real "structured language!") after that briefly an "IBM-PC clone" - 8086, that was a real CPU with the huge 10MB HDD and 3.5" floppy (I mean 5MB just didn't cut it and 5 1/4 FDDs were just too, well, too floppy - not that they had anything on the flex of an 8".) onto a celeron 386 (XP, multi tasking), i5 4650 (FreeBSD - Unix then win7 for doing work), and now i5-8400 (linux because let's face it, win10 sucks and is a waste on a modern CPU)
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Ah, those fantastic Atari days, you can relive them with: Atari Dev Studio :-\
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The first computer I owned wasn't until after I left university, and had enough disposable income (after beer charges, natch) to be able to buy what I wanted when I wanted it. Amstrad PC1640 (the twin floppy version), which I immediately upgraded with a Hardcard: a HDD and controller on a big long PC slot card. 32MB that I thought was amazing, even with an access speed measured in furlongs per fortnight compared to modern stuff.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Mine was a spectrum 128k with some games coming in cassette (I remember "Panic in the orient express") I suppose I am one of the "youngsters" over here
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I have an almost identical story Paul
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
I think back now, and it had a seek time of what? 45ms? And I thought it was quick! And it was, compared to floppies. Ah ... "Kings Quest" in glowing EGA! Start generating a fractal, and go down the pub to let it finish. Play a game with no "save" and stick the KB in a drawer to keep the cat off it while I was at work! Them was the days!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Mine was a "Junior" computer. A 1979 or so clone of the KIM1, available as a self assembly kit from an DIY electronics magazine called "Elektuur" ( "Elektor Labs" these days ). 1K of RAM, 1K of ROM, a HEX keyboard 6 digit 7 segment display and no storage. No compiler, no assembler: simply type in the actual hex codes for the 6502 assembly instructions one by one and start the program. Mind you: in the end you do get to know how a processor works. The main reason why I ended up in embedded control systems.
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
I was in the Sinclair camp owning a ZX Spectrum 48k in 1983. I wrote my first useful application on the Spectrum - a database. Okay so it could only save 12 records... but it had CRUD functionality!
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
My C64 is the C128. Although I must admit that I spent about 90% of the time in C64 mode, mostly not for programming or making music or demos but for playing games. I knew a little C64 Basic already when I got the machine and appreciated the extended syntax of C128 Basic very much. Unfortunately, extended syntax at the same CPU speed means slower execution, so I finally turned back to C64 Basic and also learned a little assembler for the time-critical stuff like copying a whole screen full of characters from an offscreen buffer to the display. The two things I liked most about the C64 were its sound capabilities (SID chip forever!! ;-)) and the way you could glean much more potential from the machine than its obvious capabilities. You could do real magic if you knew all the not-so-well-documented tricks like certain memory addresses, interrupt, raster interrupt or the 4th audio voice, which could be used for playing sampled stuff like digital drums. It was a world with very narrow boundaries that could be vastly extended, that's what was so cool about it for me. Unfortunately, I was born a few years to late, bc once I had become really good on the C64, everybody else had switched to Amiga already.
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I think back now, and it had a seek time of what? 45ms? And I thought it was quick! And it was, compared to floppies. Ah ... "Kings Quest" in glowing EGA! Start generating a fractal, and go down the pub to let it finish. Play a game with no "save" and stick the KB in a drawer to keep the cat off it while I was at work! Them was the days!
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I had one of these [oric computers - Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=oric+computers&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=WNekp5Q37puH3M%253A%252C\_q31qEB9CL5CxM%252C%252Fm%252F0j24zr8&vet=1&usg=AI4\_-kRYQsKx9ut6KGitRTf6jGYxx\_b39A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiixcmj0uPjAhWNQEEAHVPsB98Q\_B0wE3oECAkQAw&biw=1231&bih=688#imgrc=ReCgAdB0Y4tXHM:&vet=1)
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
My "C64", that is the first computer I had, was some Windows 95 machine built by a local electronics store. I learned programming later, staring with some HTML (which is programming in a rather loose sense of that word), then PHP, then Delphi and later low-level stuff like C and ASM. Both I learned after learning C# in the meanwhile.
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
My first comp was (Sinclair) ZX81 with 1Kb of ram, upgraded with 16K module :) After that it was ZX Spectrum 48K with total of 48 Kb J. Thanks to very specific feature of Spectrum (most of his basic was one byte commands, not byte per letter) I was able to make some very fancy programs like (not so simple) FEM (Finite elements method) calculation... My First PC-like comp was IBM IT (not AT) that has numeric coprocessor :) (wow !)
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Hi, I was born in 1970 in Eastgermany (GDR) In my childhood and youth I dreamed from a C64 but we could not get one. :sigh: My dad has me give a Z1013. It was a one platine computer with a east germany Z80 clone - a U880 from Robotron. I loved him! In a computer circle "Station junger Techniker" we had other devices. A KC87 and a KC85/3 always with the U880. I loved playing "Digger" on it! I'm always excited from the Z80. He has shaped my understanding of how the computer works.
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My first machine was a Commodore 16 (Black & Grey) had it for a few years then upgraded(?) to a C64. The C16 was interesting as it had pretty much the same inputs as the C64 just different shaped plugs! The user port of that go me into Hardware where I am today! :cool:
My first computer was a ZX Spectrum 128K +2A, with the +2A meaning some games just didn't work because of the architecture; as opposed to those games that just didn't load for reasons, and those games that did work for 10 minutes then crashed hard. My favourite games on that platform were the Dizzy series. Good times. ;)
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Despite starting out on my school's HP2000 time-share access in 1975 I managed, by judicious borrowing and sharing of friends' machines, to avoid actually buying my own machine until the early 90s! But over that period I had access to: ETI Triton (8080) Nascom II (Z80) Kim1 (6502) UK101 (6502 and suspiciously similar to the Ohio Superboard) Apple ][ (6502) BBC B (6502) Spectrum (Z80) then, through work a Phillips luggable 8080 running CP/M, a couple of amstrads, and a PC-AT before buying my own 486DX system in about 90/91. I think I might have had access to a late model Atari ST series somewhere along that line, too, with the GUI front end, and a PET at college (as well as mini's). Over that period I wrote BASIC, various assembler (including han assembling some stuff to opcodes) Pascal and eventually C code.
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
the c64, around 1984 and i still have it firstly into games: Boulderdash, Elite, Blue Max, Space Rogue... then i started noticing intros in front of the games. just a message and rolling colors, The Yak Society. silent colored logos, Dynamic Duo. silent scrolls like Triad, silent sprites Ikari... at first it was the visual effects that got my attention, but when the music came i got hooked. Maniacs of Noise and Vibrants. the intro scene: Ikari, Hotline, Dominators, North East Importers, Triad, Fairlight and then came the demo scene. who are those guys? i wanna be like them: Cenzor Design, Crest, Bonzai, Flash Inc, F4CG... we still have that from the early 80's. the demo scene. here's greeting from a recent demo party X'2018 [Rewind / TempesT Commodore 64 X'2018 file demo UTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT0qBbod1BY) [Unboxed / Bonzai Commodore 64 X'2018 mega demo UTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tastYp8J8Cs)
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
I'm not sure. A lot of year have passed. But I remember a ZX81 with 1K attached to a TV where I've learn to develop in basic and assembler. And also the Casio PB 100. A sophisticated programmable calculator. I'm not sure which one come first. But I really start to be involved in computer software developing with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K. I still have one in my showcase completed with microdrives. Sinclair ZX Spectrum+[^] This is the plus version with an hard keyboard. Unfortunately I've lost the original one in some moving house
Saluti Emanuele
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Mine was a Vic20, with a whopping 5K of RAM, of which 3.5K was available to program with (the rest being for BASIC/Kernal in the Zero Page and for the screen). It had a decent keyboard, lots of ports to be expanded (thankfully 16K RAM expansions were common, but expensive) and it was immediate - at the READY prompt to start to do anything you wanted...usually loading a tape but the wait time was not too bad for 3.5K programs ;) I'm just finishing a new Vic20 game in machine code right now called Vic Nibbler. Should have a version out at the weekend. Reliving the 80's! Find out more on: https://www.facebook.com/Hewco64[^] or https://hewco.uk
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In the late 70s and early 80s (that is 1970s/1980s) there was a big rush in the home computer market, that concludes in our time with computers everywhere... I had some discussions about that time and was wondering... * Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64? I wasn't aware of it then (no other experience), but what is most amazing while looking back is the total control, the work without any mediator between you and the computer, between the software and the hardware (which was of course a source some interesting smell/smoke/noise)... I could sit down after-school and within a few seconds was in the computer, hacking it away... What is your experience?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
My C64 was a C64...:-) The original one, not the flat new models. It was in 1984. When we look at the computers of this era we cannot find the answers to these questions just by looking at the computer itself. It is all about the technical things around at that time. There was, compared to today, simply NO technology all around us. We need to remember: In our family, we even didn't had a telephone at home. We had one TV with only few channels. High tech was a Tape Recorder with multiple speed and a Super 8 camera. Just new were cassette recorders. The best was a video game named Pong - wow! We could ACTIVELY change the contents of the TV screen! And then came the C64. Multicolor, electronic sound like we just heard from Jean Michele Jarre, arcade games which we saw only in fancy American films or maybe in a game hall. Everything at home! And best of all - we could sit down and program that thing, so it does what WE want. And to get out everything possible you of course need a lot to learn like assembly or the system of pokes and peeks or the different memory layers and so on - but at the end we could say: Yeah, I know the complete machine, every bit, and I can get everything out of it. And there were a lot genius programmers who even got a lot more out of it like we saw in genius cracker demos and so on. That was real science fiction at home, we were heroes (=nerds..freaks.."guys with special interests"...:-) ) in the eyes of all who didn't own one or just started with it. Today? We have Gigabytes of OS where no one really knows what it does and where a lifetime is not enough to learn all about it. Software and hardware changes so fast that only very specialists knows about small parts of all of this. Only few people (even such which are programmers of any kind) just want to know HOW it works, what a bit is, why the computer can count only from 0 to 1 and not more. Every minute a new "free" app appears, whose main purpose is to feed more of our data to the creator, nobody has even enough time to learn about the pure funcionality of even a small part of these apps - and only few people wants to know more about the internal function because technology is ALL around us. So the complete "spirit" of that time in the 80s is gone, nobody is impressed today if you were able to program a cool application on your computer or mobile. There is no exploratory spirit anymore, if you don't have somethin
