[Robotgroup] OT: On CNN- "Commodore 64 still loved after all these years"

[Vern Graner]

 From this link:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/12/07/c64/index.html

Comes this article:

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By Peggy Mihelich
CNN

(CNN) -- Like a first love or a first car, a first computer can hold a 
special place in people's hearts. For millions of kids who grew up in 
the 1980s, that first computer was the Commodore 64. Twenty-five years 
later, that first brush with computer addiction is as strong as ever.

"There was something magical about the C64," says Andreas Wallstrom of 
Stockholm, Sweden.

He remembers the day he first laid eyes on his machine back in 1984.

"My father brought it home together with a tape deck, a disk drive, a 
printer, and a couple of games...I used to sneak home during lunch to 
play [on it] with my friends."

Wallstrom is the webmaster and designer for C64.com, a Web site 
dedicated to preserving the games, demos, pictures, magazines and 
memories of the Commodore 64.

C64.com visitors are mostly nostalgia seekers -- men in their 30s 
looking to download their favorite childhood games. Emulators let them 
play the games without having a machine. Popular downloads include 
"Boulder Dash," "Ghostbusters," and "The Great Giana Sisters."

"It may have not been the most sophisticated computer, but it did have a 
lot of personality and it was lovable and remains loveable," said Harry 
McCracken, vice president and editor in chief of PC World.

Often overshadowed by the Apple II and Atari 800, the Commodore 64 rose 
to great heights in the 1980s. From 1982-1993, 17 million C64s were 
sold. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the Commodore 64 as the 
best-selling single computer model.

The computer featured 64 kilobytes of memory (a lot for 1982), a huge 
index of games, a sophisticated sound chip, and a relatively 
parent-friendly price -- $595.

On Monday, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, 
will celebrate the C64's 25th anniversary. Computer pioneers will 
reflect on the C64's achievements and contribution to the industry. Jack 
Tramiel, the founder and CEO of Commodore, will attend, along with Apple 
co-founder Steve Wozniak and William C. Lowe, father of the IBM PC.

"It was the right machine for the time," said McCracken. "The Commodore 
64 did a lot to popularize computers." Sold in shopping malls and 
discount stores and not just small computer stores -- the norm for the 
time -- the C64 became many people's gateway into the world of 
computers, said Brian Bagnall, author of "On the edge: The spectacular 
rise and fall of Commodore."

"It was so new," Bagnall said. Users could play many games and also 
learn the programming language of computers -- BASIC.

Jim Park, 39, a software developer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, got his 
start on a C64 in 1984 when he was 16. Park learned to program 
motion-graphics synchronized to dance music and ran a BBS, an electronic 
bulletin board system, the precursor to the Internet. "I really lucked 
out that something so obscure and nerdy has turned into the modern 
business and pop-culture phenomenon that it has," he said.

Wallstrom said it was the simplicity of the C64 that made it so great. 
"You switched it on and it was there, ready for input in a second. 
Programming on the C64 was straightforward because you got to command 
the processor directly. You had full control of the whole 
computer...that is something you don't have with any modern PC."

Still, the C64 had an uneven reputation. It was widely considered 
clunky, its BASIC outdated and graphics weak in comparison to the Apple 
II and Atari 800, according to McCracken. And then there was the quirky 
floppy drive. "It was pitifully slow," Bagnall said. "It was big and 
noisy. It sounded like a Gatling gun when it was trying to load stuff."

The floppy drive took so long to load, the music would play before the 
game did, recalls Rob Kramer, artistic & business director of 
Productiehuis ON, a production company based in the Netherlands. "These 
tunes would get stuck in your head," he said.

In 2006 Kramer came up with the idea of having an orchestra play the 
music from the games. "We found this crazy orchestra that plays on the 
street. It's full of young people in music school. They are in their 20s 
and they'd never played a Commodore 64. For them it was like 'Wow, this 
is great stuff.' "

The 12-piece C64 Orchestra has played at churches, musical venues and 
festivals. The compositions run 4-6 minutes. The crowds are mostly fans 
of the C64. "They really dig it," Kramer said. Photo Watch how 
I-Reporters are using the C64 today »

Kramer described the music as haunted. "There's a lot of tension, and it 
repeats itself. It takes you places where normal classical music 
doesn't." Video Watch as the orchestra plays »

The classical ensemble released a CD in Europe featuring the original 
computer and orchestral versions of "Delta," "Commando," Monty on the 
Run," "International Karate" and more. The CD will be available in the 
United States on January 15.

By 2007 computing standards, the Commodore 64 is a dinosaur. A relic of 
the past, long made obsolete by the march of time. But the C64 isn't 
dead. It's very much alive -- on gaming Web sites, through music and in 
the memories of millions who owned and loved them.

"Computer nostalgia is something that runs pretty deep these days. The 
memories that people have of this machine are incredible," McCracken said.

Twenty-five years ago computers were an individual experience; today 
they are just a commodity, he said.

"I don't think there are many computers today that we use that people 
will be talking about fondly 25 years from now."
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:)

Vern

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