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

Fri Dec 7 15:57:41 PST 2007

When the trs-80 came out in 1977, I was about 10, I used to ride my bike to 
radio shack (when it was an actual electronics store) and program it. Of 
course, in those days I had to code in basic and Z80 asm, if you wanted a 
line drawn you had to draw it yourself! Then in 78-79 when the Atari 800 
came out, I thought I had stepped foot on another planet, for years I just 
programmed graphics,  and games and was fascinated by the machine. A work of 
genius that people never really appreciated since the Woz got so much 
attention for the Apple which is cool, but pales in comparison to the 
technological marvel of the Atari 800 customs chips, but Atari being a 
corporation didn't, put "designed by" in the marketing materials. Anyway, we 
used to download games all night beep, beep, beep at 300 baud, then at 2-3am 
it would finish and we would play....then try to copy the techniques in ASM 
ourselves. Its funny, the "display list" concept in the atari, that is, 
programable hardware more or less, these kids that just now are learning 
shader coding "think" the idea is new, when in fact we were programing 
hardware the same way 25 years ago!

Andre'

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marvin Niebuhr" <marvart at msn.com>
To: "The Robot Group Mailing List" <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 5:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] OT: On CNN- "Commodore 64 still loved after 
alltheseyears"

My first was the Vic-20. Unfortunately my mind has not advanced beyond that. 
Hey, I'm just an analog artist trying to survive in a digital world. Marvin
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Vern Graner<mailto:vern at txis.com>
  To: The Robot Group Mailing List<mailto: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<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
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  Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
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obviously don't need
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