What is your C64?

[Wade Reynolds]

A C64 from 1984. Last year I dug it out of storage along with a 1541 drive. Couldn't find the power supply. It hadn't been used since about 1991. I built a power supply from scratch along with a custom power cable, recapped all electrolytics and tested the 2 voltage regulators out of circuit (and they were bad) - wound up replacing those. After all that, it did not work... at first ... black screen. I was able to troubleshoot it and determined that the PLA was bad. I replaced the PLA (found a pulled chip on fleaBay) and it fired up and worked fine including video, audio, logic. I then restored the 1541 drive (which still had a disk in while in storage all those years) and it too worked including that disk I just mentioned. I had a supply of old 5.25 disks but most did not work but I was able to get about 15% of them to load! I bought a joystick for it and I played some old retro games. Pretty cool to use the old computer that got me started when I was a kid in the 80s.

[sasadler]

My first 'c64' was a home built s100 bus system using a z80 processor with 4K of RAM. There was no programming language, just a monitor program that fit into a 2K ROM (was named Zapple). With the monitor program I could peek/poke memory, dump memory, execute from a specified location and insert break points. I built this system during my last year of college (electrical engineering, 1978). I basically learned the z80 instruction set by the numbers. Over the years, the system grew until it had 64K or RAM, dual 8 in floppy drives (dual density!!) and ran the CP/M OS. I kept the system until I could buy an Amiga. Those were fun days, learning to program with the z80 machine code, designing/building boards for the system (serial port board, votrax based speech board and a driver board for a selectric printer mechanizm).

[RogelioP EX DE HL]

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote:

* Was that really that good? * What was so good (or bad) about it? * Do we have it somewhere today? * What is/was your C64?

"Goodness" fell more in an eye of the beholder scenario. Compatibility between platforms wasn't a mandate so every competitors offering had their own engineering go wild at times. The Commodore line was really good at graphics and sound. Lots of games took advantage of that. Tandy CoCos were not good on graphics and sound as the Commodire but flew circles around many others with its BASIC... add an RTOS (Microware's OS9) and the CoCo blew everybody else on the computing prowess department no contest. Apple was... well, Apple! The Woz in all effect pre-Mac days :cool: Atari was also very good on graphics, somewhat good on sound. A you-can't-lose way to go on the 8 bits machines line. The Atari ST upped the stakes later on but by then everybody was on IBM mode. Texas Instuments TI 99/4A its an oddity but an interesting one, half way in graphics and sound capabilities, not too good on its BASIC and expansion capabilities. Of all these I have a few, still work on them, repair, retrofit and soup up where possible. It's a fun way to deflate from the day to day modern hardware and software woes. I started late on the Commodore, my start was with Tandy's TRS-80 line and the Color Computer series. My latest addition is a replica I assembled of the Jupiter Ace.

[DrWicked]

Atari 400 was my first, too. First program I wrote in BASIC, I ran out of memory. Upgraded to Atari 800 with 48K. I still have that one. Back in the day I would buy old game cartridges and unsolder the ROM and replace it with an EPROM and then burn games from magazines like A.N.A.L.O.G. to the EPROM. The EPROM burner plugged into the joystick ports of the Atari. My first foray into assembly language programming was with the Atari.

[Thom Walla]

RadioShack TRS80 with 16K Ram and a dual Tape drive that was bi-directional so loading and saving files was pretty fast. From there to the Atari 800 where I wrote the first Point of Sale program for my store.

[Peter Adam]

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K. I have liked it very much, learned a lot of things later useful about design and programming. It had very good user's manual, written for teaching programming. It had very strong constraints on music, and using only 2 colors in a 8 x 8 pixel area. These limits inspired creativity, I still hear the music of Galactic Gunners, I still see the loading screen of Asterix and the magic cauldron. Unlike most Spectrum owners I have gone the Windows way. Most lasting experience: I still don't believe in that two seconds are necessarily equal timespans, whatever physicists say.

[K SIS]

In 89-90 My first Computer was PC At 80286 with 1 MB RAM 120 MB hard disk. Which was running DOS 3.3. DBase3 Lotus 123 were working smoothly in that tiny environment.

[fmharr]

My first was a Sinclair ZX 81 with 1K of memory used a standard cassette drive for storage. Upgraded it to 64K and Streaming Tape Drive. Upgraded to C64 -> C128 - Amiga 1000 -> Amgia 500 -> Amiga 2000 -> Amiga 4000 (Still have the A4000 and ZX 81). Currently using MackBook Pro.

Big Brother is watching!

[CodeZombie62]

First computer I had was a VIC 20. I think Commodore used it to test the market. It looked a lot like the C64 but inside it only had 5K of usable RAM and a 22-column screen. I was able to get the VicModem for it which was a strange device. You would have to manually dial the number on the phone then when you heard the carrier tone you had to disconnect the cord from the handset and plug it into the modem. Later I ended up buying a C64.

[johnjohnsch]

Mine was a C64. It was a big improvement to get the disk drive, even if I did have to leave the cover off so I could get the disk spinning by hand. The best thing was a Forth cartridge that I used to write a version of Conway's Life. My favorite programming experience to date.

[destynova]

My C64 was a C64C. I really loved that machine, although we got it very late in the machine's life (around 1990). It was amazing because you were dumped straight into the Basic interpreter within a second or so of flipping the power switch. Even though it was a terrible Basic dialect, it was the beginning of a lifelong journey of learning actual magic. A couple of years later, we got an Atari STFM with 512 kb of RAM -- a pretty nice upgrade. Between that and the 4MB STFM I scored a year or so after that (complete with a disk box chock-full of pirate menudisks), I got a taste of programming in GFA Basic (and the less elegant STOS Basic), 68000 assembly and C. Good times!

[Alexander DiMauro]

My first computer was during that time, too. It was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a. Spent countless hours typing in TI-Basic. They had a magazine, too, with games you could type in line-by-line. They didn’t always work. And there was no reliable way to save them. So you basically just left it on and played as long as you could. Then deleted and started the next game. I didn’t care, it was my first programming experience and I enjoyed it. I also remember doing loops, alternating between a color and black. Yes, I turned that big old monitor into a strobe light! Lol! What do you expect, I was between 10-13 when I had that computer. I had fun hacking away in TI-Basic.

I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone - Bjarne Stroustrup The world is going to laugh at you anyway, might as well crack the 1st joke! My code has no bugs, it runs exactly as it was written.

[BBar2]

Same here. My first was a TI99/4a. Toys-R-Us put it on sale in about 1983. I went first thing in the morning and the line went all they way out into the parking lot behind the store. Although disappointed in my chances of getting a computer I got in line. Turns out it was a line for Cabbage Patch Dolls. Once I figured that out, it was to the front of the line and my home computer programming life began. Dog eared TI Basic book. I knew every page. I created a raster graphics package that reprogrammed the few characters you could define. Eventually got an assembler cartridge. That was great. Next computer - C64 and the joy of raster interrupts.

[Naoto_K]

I did have a "hand-me-down" ZX-81 that I got from someone -- the original owner had bought it as a kit and assembled it. The ZX-81 was definitely an interesting little micro -- particularly interesting was the level of minimalism. The first microcomputer I'd used was the TRS-80 model I back in high school -- had enrolled in the computer programming course the year the school acquired 3 TRS-80s to replace the teletype and dial-up access to a local mainframe (they got the TRS-80s since they could get three of them for the same amount of money that was spent on access to mainframe w/ one teletype terminal. Initially the TRS-80s didn't have diskette, so we had to use audio cassette for storage. Each one was eventually upgraded to diskette configuration in the following years).

[User 13228244]

I started with an Atari 600XL, added the cassette tape drive. (!) Looking back, that was a nightmare device. I still have it, and it still works. I upgraded to an 800XL and added the 1050 floppy disk drive. Still have all of my Atari home computer hardware, and I've kept it up well, and it all still works. I even made the modifications to the 800XL to make it a quarter-meg of ram (for those who remember that) My first experience with assembly language was with these computers, and I even wrote a 'new' high level language and compiler for it. I call it ESE (taken from computer-ese). Started with a compiler in Atari Basic and then after getting the system to work, compiled ESE using itself! How's that for CASE?

[ormonds]

No one has really answered your question "Was that really that good". The answer, without hesitation, is YES! It is hard to describe the joy of doing something which is utterly new and just "getting it". Stretching your mind to do something with such a tiny machine. With the first 8086 machines, getting into assembler and understanding what the computer was actually doing, and how it did it. That's why old codgers regard all this GUI stuff as just bloatware.

[User 10218080]

Bought a C64 for $395 in 1980. First used Basic for programming but got bored -- not really into playing computer games. Bought the C64 programmers guide and a book on microprocessors and learned all about machine/assembly language -- broke copy protection on a few games just for fun. In ~1987 bought an Amiga A2000... great machine at its time. Funny part is, my first degree was in Biology ('82), then went to grad school and did masters in computer sci. Enjoyed programming in '80, and still luv what I do!

[mashford57]

I started with a Signetics 2650 writing my first code, not on a mini computer, in an early version of BASIC to create a tank game in monochrome on a 80x25 text screen directly addressing the the memory with "pokes" and "peeks". The character set had special characters including a tank facing in 8, year that's right, 8 different directions. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal. The microcomputer was home built on breadboard with the backplane wire-wrapped. What a nightmare!

[RandMan7557]

1981 - My first was a VIC 20. 3K of RAM for code after booting. :zzz: Cassette tape drive (no floppies yet). Added a 170K single sided floppy drive and a 16K memory expansion. This started it all. Many hours with the manual figuring it out. I still have this and all the games. Then I graduated to a C64 - still have 3 of these. From there it was an X86, 286, 386, 486, etc. . . . and here I am 38 years later . . ready to retire in a couple of years after a nice career in IT and development.

[William Balthrop]

My first machine was a TI-99/4 that I purchased in '78 for $1,200. I wanted to use it to play games, like those that I played on mainframes or at the arcade. Back then there were no games for the home computer market, so I had to write my own; I had never written a program before. I quickly learned to program in Basic. My first program was called TI-Invaders (a knock off of Space Invaders) and was published to 99'er Magazine's premiere issue. I ended up taking a job at 99'er magazine about a year later as the Sr. Technical Editor. I was responsible for all of the programs and their listings that were published. The magazine became a source for others who wanted to unlock the power of this new technology and eventually became Home Computer Magazine with over a quarter million subscribers. In '86 I co-founded Hyperlink Magazine, which focused on the Macintosh and a new programming tool called Hyper Card that used a new paradigm for application navigation by clicking on links where key words were linked to additional information. No one remembers Hyper card or Hyperlink Magazine, but the hyperlink lives on today.