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

[Eric Lundquist]

My recommended list for descriptions of those glory days:

1) "Pirates of Silicon Valley" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/
Made for tv docudrama telling the sordid tale of Gates, Jobs and Wozniak.

2) "Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder -
http://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316491977/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197051760&sr=8-1
An inside look at the creation of a mini computer.

3) "Cookoo's Egg" by Cliff Stohl -
http://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/0743411463
Tracking a Russian Spy ring for the heck of it.

- Eric



On 12/7/07, Andre Lamothe <ceo at nurve.net> wrote:
>
> Yup, the C64 was very cool, just don't walk across the carpet and touch
> the
> sound port, the SID chips blow out if you breath on them. Nonetheless, the
> late 70's and 80's were the best time in computers hands down. I
> personally
> think internet wrecked computers, it made them so impersonal and people
> don't take time with information anymore, they just consume it way too
> fast.
> We had time to appreciate a new game or app in the 80's. Anyway, that's
> why
> I build these retro gaming systems like the XGamestation and HYDRA to give
> people a little taste of what we used to do in the 80's.
>
> For those interested in retro computing (and may be younger than some of
> us
> that started in the 70's) there are a couple books I HIGHLY recommend that
> you won't be able to put down:
>
> 1. HACKERS - by Steve Levy.
> 2. On the Edge, the spectacular rise and fall of commodore
> 3. "MASTERS of DOOM" - More modern, but still about the 2 guys that
> started
> programming games in the late 70's on their Apple's.
>
> I read all of them cover to cover in a single night (not the same night of
> course), they were that fascinating.
>
> Andre'
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Vern Graner" <vern at txis.com>
> To: "The Robot Group Mailing List" <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
> Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 11:13 AM
> Subject: [Robotgroup] OT: On CNN- "Commodore 64 still loved after all
> theseyears"
>
>
> From this link:
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/12/07/c64/index.html
>
> Comes this article:
>
> -------------------------- CLIP ----------------------------
> 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."
> -------------------------- CLIP ----------------------------
>
> :)
>
> Vern
>
> --
> Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
> Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
> Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
> http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
> Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" (c)VLG
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