Commodore 64 Makes a Comeback

PCWorld ^ | 07/14/03 | David Legard

[bedolido]

Popular computers, games from the 1980s will be relaunched.

Tulip Computers, which owns the Commodore brand name, plans to relaunch the brand to take advantage in an upsurge of interest in the obsolete Commodore 64 (C64) computer and its 1980s-era games, the company said in a statement Friday.

Tulip estimates that there are still 6 million Commodore users, who can choose from a range of 6,000 games which were developed for the system.

Tulip is working with Ironstone Partners, which will handle all sales of Commodore 64-related products worldwide and take over the main C64 Web portal. Enthusiasts have made over 10 million game downloads, the site owners have said.

Unauthorized use of the Commodore name by other organizations will be stopped, Tulip said in the statement.

Playing Games Even if the Commodore 64 hardware is obsolete, enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PCs, Apple Macintoshes, and now PocketPC-based PDAs to enable original Commodore games to run on those systems.

Commodore was one of the pioneers of the PC industry, entering the market in 1977 with its 8-bit PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). The C64 was launched in 1982, followed a few years later by the Amiga.

Slowly, the crucial graphics edge that these systems enjoyed was eroded by successive improvements in Microsoft's Windows OS, and Commodore went into liquidation in 1994. Tulip, based in Amersfoort, Netherlands, bought the Commodore brand name and other assets in 1997.

[chilepepper]

True Story:

Back in 1983 or so I bought my dad a "portable" Radio Shack computer (about the size of small, thickish but narrow book) w/ about 4k of memory and built in basic. this machine used some 4 bit japanese microprocessor. so, to have have fun i programmed it to make random music (!) lots of fun with only 4k !!! so, i wander off to texas, then to chile.

scene changes to 1993.

i discover my dad was never interested in computers and had after a month or so given this radio shack portable to my sister, who used it as a calculator for a while then put it away in the drawer.

since she didn't use it either, i asked her to give it back to me and she was happy to oblige.

so, i turn on the device, and hit run -- and my silly music generator program starts to run!

and this with the original batteries i had bought in 1983 or 1984!!!! i was stunned.

i wrote a keyboard chord program for this beast and still use it occasionally (doing bit graphics on the narrow LCD display ;)

[bedolido]

My church bought a Datapoint computer in the early 80's and asked me to write a payroll system. Being a mainframe programmer they thought I could do it. When I saw the thing and the manuals I had to laugh. I had to call Datapoint to find out where the "On" switch was.

After several months of writing code (language called Databus) I finished the system. They used my payroll system for several years until they switched to PC's.

For my work, they gave us one year tuition for all four of our kids at their Christian school.

[reagan_fanatic]

Sure brings back the memories!
My first computer was a Timex Sinclair 1000 that I paid $99.95 for at the local Venture dept. store. I also bought the optional expansion pack which gave it a whopping 64K RAM!
I remember when I got my first VIC-20...it seemed light years ahaed of the Timex.
I spent hours typing code into it from the PC magazines.

Sure do miss those days.

[billbears]

Still have my Tandy TRS-80 CoCo somewhere around here....

[RightWhale]

My VIC-20 manuals are still on the shelf, although I don't know if the VIC-20 itself still works. It was fast with graphics, but excellent with sound.

[djf]

I still have the floppy around, it's so faded, I couldn't even scan it.

IBM
Personal Computer
Computer Language Series
DOS
Version 1.1 Copyright IBM corporation 1981,1982

[dfwgator]

I remember thinking, 64k of memory?!? That's more memory than we'll ever need.

[Wright is right!]

"Back in 1983 or so I bought my dad a "portable" Radio Shack computer (about the size of small, thickish but narrow book) w/ about 4k of memory and built in basic."

I was working at KVIL FM in Dallas at the time, and we needed a way to come up with totally random phone numbers for the Peoples' Choice phone calls we made offering cash to listeners. I bought one of those same boxes, programmed it with all the local exchanges, made it pick an exchange at random and then generate 4 random digits, and - just for fun, also programmed in some audible beeps, blooks - stuff that would "sound like a computer." I then machined a piece of blank 19" rack panel so that it had a window you could see the display thru - and a "start" button, which pressed the "enter" key on the box. Had to add a small speaker so you could hear the "doodledoodledoodle" beeping.

KVIL used that thing for a great number of years to make up random phone numbers.

Michael

[dfwgator]

The thing I remembered about my C-64 is that occasionally the power supply would overheat and cause the machine to freeze. So I concocted a solution, I surrounded the transformer with an ice pack, worked like a charm.

[hattend]

"M.U.L.E." for the C64 was one of the best computer games ever.

Holy cow...I LOVED that game. Thanks for reminding me.

[bedolido]

So I concocted a solution, I surrounded the transformer with an ice pack, worked like a charm.

LOL... I remember those kinda decisions...

[CyberCowboy777]

Growing up we had a Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga, Atari 400 and 800 (we also had the Intelivision, not really a 'PC' though)

My 10th birthday was celebrated with a Commodore 64.

Hellcat ACE was my favorite game, loaded from cassette tape.

[meowmeow]

Computers of our youth ping...

[Paleo Conservative]

I still have the floppy around, it's so faded, I couldn't even scan it.

IBM
Personal Computer
Computer Language Series
DOS
Version 1.1 Copyright IBM corporation 1981,1982

You might not even have a computer left that can read it. Windows NT based operating systems like Windows 2000 or Windows XP can't even recognize 8-sector floppy disks. I ran into that problem a couple of years ago when I archived all my old software onto a CD-ROM. I had to dig up a 486 running DOS just to read those disks.

[KillTime]

I have 2 Amiga 500s I play with occasionally. I need to get an emulator for my PC.

Interesting fact: The Apollo Programs Command and LEM vehicals onboard computers used the same computing power that one finds in commodores.

[CathyRyan]

I remember some of the old program lanugages...Fortran, basic, RPG, JCL, Cobol, Pascal, and PL1. I loved PL1 and now no one even knows what it is. *sigh*

[bedolido]

JCL and COBOL are still in wide use for mainframe programming. I use them all the time. I used to use fortran and assembler years ago. Never programmed in RPG or PL1. Fun to remember the good ol' days.

[CathyRyan]

languages

[CathyRyan]

I forgot assembler. I may have forgotten it because after 2 classes that required programming in it I developed a nervous tick. LOL

[bedolido]

I forgot assembler. I may have forgotten it because after 2 classes that required programming in it I developed a nervous tick. LOL

I used to work for First Interstate Bank (now Wells Fargo, I think). Years ago I wrote an IMS Assembler program for the Time Deposit System. The tellers used telephones to enter the transactions. A "WaveTek" computer would translaste it into machine language and my program would update the IMS database with the transaction.

Those were the Fun days of programming.