As famous by John Gruber, a reborn Commodore is promoting a “new” Commodore 64. It’s not an emulator, however a re-engineering primarily based on the previous design and trendy programmable electronics.
That is, no query, a enjoyable and funky mission, and I hope it succeeds wildly. However personally, the Commodore 64 holds virtually no nostalgic worth for me. The Commodore 64 — which got here out in 1982, after I was 9 — at all times struck me as cheap-feeling and inelegant. Like utilizing some bizarre pc from the Soviet Union.
Gruber and I had been chatting about this in iMessage final week. My first pc was a Commodore PET—which predated the “compact” Commodores and didn’t supply any coloration graphics—and so Commodore BASIC was the primary programming I ever did.
And like Gruber, I maintain completely no affection for the Commodore 64. Lots of people actually acquired into it, however by then I used to be deep into the Apple II and was by no means going to look again. And, sure, Commodore’s keyboards had been weird—however even 5 minutes typing BASIC right into a C-64 emulator took me again to the times of typing packages from COMPUTE! journal into that PET. Shift-2 for citation marks? It’s completely nutty, however I’ve nonetheless retained muscle reminiscence from again then, someplace.
As Gruber famous on Tuesday, there’s additionally an extremely enjoyable piece by Drew Saur about how a lot he liked the C-64. I extremely recommmend it, although it accommodates a number of statements with which I disagree. Staur writes:
Even then, I may examine certainly one of my favourite house video video games between the VIC-20 and the Apple II model, and I do know which one I most popular.
If you end up strolling down the road within the Eighties and also you see somebody coming who prefers the VIC-20 to the Apple II, cross to the opposite facet of the road. (That stated, the VIC-20 actually was revolutionary. It was by far probably the most reasonably priced house pc anybody had ever seen at that time. It was laughably underpowered… however: it was solely $300! They offered 1,000,000 of ’em.)
Staur continues:
Commodore 64 followers had been the unique “Suppose Completely different” crowd…. Within the total hierarchy of the day, it was Commodore/Atari, then Apple, then IBM. Children of the day — programming youngsters of the day — adored the ’64 as a result of it was a extra considerate and downright enjoyable machine to make use of and to program. We additionally thought it was lovely, well-designed, and fewer “company” than any Apple II or IBM PC. I do know extra individuals who leapt from a Commodore 64 to a Mac than I do who got here from an Apple II. There’s a purpose for that.
That is deranged and ahistorical, and I say that as a “programming child of the day.” Commodore, Atari, and then Apple? And the Apple II was… “company”? Nonsense. The Apple II was the last word counterculture pc. It was made by hippies for hippies. Definitely the individuals who launched me to the Apple II had been hippies. The Commodore, in the meantime, was the product of a man in a go well with and tie.
Anyway, these days are lengthy gone. It’s all water beneath the bridge, irrespective of how a lot this nostalgia journey has resurfaced historical, prehistoric platform animosities. And I like that each single certainly one of these computer systems can run in an internet browser, on just about any machine, at this time.
