The Commodore 64 Made a Distinction – The Progressive CIO

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🎹 Music for this put up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV6SF492hNU.

A wonderful factor I realized immediately from certainly one of my favourite tech pundits.

However:

Pricey John,

That is going to sound like an previous man barking throughout his entrance garden at passersby, and it’s exactly that.

I can not argue together with your nostalgia. It’s uniquely yours.

That stated: The Commodore 64 as cheap-feeling and inelegant! Oh my.

I used to be fourteen when the Commodore 64 got here out, and I need to convey — in as temporary a type as I can — why it captured so many hearts in the course of the 8-bit period.

One of the best machines of these days assisted younger whippersnappers like me to program our personal video video games with fantastic colour, sound, and graphics.

Previous to the ’64, I had a VIC-20 (which got here out in 1980).

Even then, I might examine certainly one of my favourite dwelling video video games between the VIC-20 and the Apple II model, and I do know which one I most popular.

I lower my tooth programming and reverse engineering video video games on the VIC-20. However though it might current video games higher than an Apple II, it was significantly restricted for its time: not only for its 22-character large show or its 3.5K of accessible RAM; extra pertinently, it lacked help for sprite graphics, which Atari first delivered to dwelling programmers with the Atari 800 and 400 in 1979 as “Participant-Missile Graphics.” Participant-Missile Graphics had an obtuse implementation that took a whole lot of inventive work to harness. When Commodore launched the ’64, its sprite graphics have been probably the most approachable implementation of sprites at the moment (and actually solely the second implementation), and made for some unbelievable graphical capabilities that have been unparalleled.

(As well as, the 6581 SID chip gave programmers entry to a real digital synthesizer, which enabled us to make all types of neat issues occur, in video games or in any other case.)

The Ataris had help for 256 completely different colours, which was astounding again in that point interval, however they may solely use these colours of their 160×192 decision mode; solely two colours might be displayed of their 320×192 excessive decision mode. Whereas the Commodore 64 solely supported 16 colours, it had the flexibility to make use of all of them always; there was a intelligent means to make use of all of them even in its excessive decision 320×200 mode, which made many video games seem a lot nicer than on the ’64 some other system on the time.

The Apple II of the period (not the IIc or IIgs) had a most 280×192 decision with solely 6 colours, no sprites, and no synthesizer chip. To the younger recreation programmers of my technology, that made it…properly…suck was the phrase. You may make better-looking and better-sounding video games on a Commodore 64 than on some other machine of that period, and that’s what made it so vital to us, and so significantly better than any competing product of the period.

Due to the bizarre mixture of capabilities of that Commodore pc, the world wound up with this extremely fascinating working system as properly.

In fact, this was later ported to the Apple II, however what a factor it was to have this in our little fingers in 1986, and what a marvel of programming it was for its day. There was a lot very fascinating software program made for the Commodore 64, principally because of its capabilities.

Again to “cheap-feeling and inelegant”: Certainly an Apple II felt extra substantial than a Commodore 64? Properly, it was actually heavier, however the keyboard really felt cheaper (and the Bell callout on the G key made it look like a throwback to the PDP-11 terminal I used a couple of years previous to my VIC-20) and plasticky-er. To make issues worse, the unique Apple II didn’t have a curved rake just like the ’64 did, which made it much less preferrred for typing. It did make a greater sound, although.

Right here’s the crux:

Commodore 64 followers have been the unique “Suppose Completely different” crowd. We knew that IBM PCs have been junk. They didn’t even have the Apple II’s 6 colours (they’d 4!…or was it 4…) or enjoyable programming accessibility. That they had no sprites. That they had virtually no sound. They have been no enjoyable, in any respect. And so they nonetheless aren’t. 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 lovable, 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 cause for that.

Then the Amiga got here out, proving that we have been proper to adore Commodore.

I do not know if this could add to your perspective on the ’64, however I hope it does. It was a lovable machine, in the exact same means the Mac grew to become two lengthy years later.

(And sure, I purchased a Commodore 64 Final: BASIC Beige.)