Topic: C 64

[JASON]

The commodore 64 is, along with the Apple II and the Atari XL computers, the most famous home computer. During its production run from 1982 to 1993 (!) 17 to 22 million (!) of these computers would sell. To put these numbers in perspective, that's more than all the Macintoshes in the world.

The C64 was an up-market version of the VIC-20. A wide range of software packages, games and programming languages was available for this machine which was itself available practically anywhere from a toyshop to a business supplier.

Superficially, the C64 closely resembled the VIC-20. It had the same casing, an identical keyboard configuration and virtually the same interfaces and sockets. But the apparent similarity belies some fundamental differences: a MOS 6510 processor and 64 KB of RAM which was quite unusually large at the time for a model of this price range. The C64 also had the ability to recognise user-established priorities by which 'sprites' (or movable blocks) could move independently of displayed text/graphics, enabling the creation of graphics with up to 8 layers.

Music synthesis was performed by a special sound interface chip. Sound envelope could be controlled on all three voices on a full nine octave of each. It was one of the first computers to offer both a high quality sound chip and graphic resolution with many colors and sprites.

A great range of peripherals was developed for this computer and it can also use several of the Vic 20 peripherals.

TAPE DECK FOR THE GAMES......GREAT.....USED TO TAKE AGES TO LOAD!!

[cammyb]

I still play Manic Miner....I recollect playing it in thr early 80's in a mates house - all the lads gathered round the Speccy and a crate of Schlitz to aid the process! Memories.......

[JASON]

Schlitz ??

WHAT IS THAT?

[Anj]

I had a C64 and used to play this game where you had an aeroplane and had to bomb all the buildings before it crashed.  Can't remember the name of it though.  The C64 is still in my mam's attic!

[cammyb]

Schlitz - along with Erlanger and Old Milwaukee it was part of the first wave of American beers to really make inroads into British culture. "More Than A Feeling" was used by Schlitz IIRC. Miles better than the Budweiser/Millers crap that was to follow.

[Karlos]

Remember the Sinclair ZX80, my dad bought one in kit form, and all you had to do was solder it all together, the year after he got the ZX81, with the memory expansion pack a WHOPPING 16k...wow. Then he got the Atari XL800, a half computer and half console machine, with the huge 5.25" floppy disc drive unit.  You opened the top of this computer and could plug in cartridge games ie Missile Command or a Star Wars type game which I really liked. I learnt BASIC programming on this computer, you just plugged in the BASIC cartridge, where as my dad was into machine code programming (hexidecimal I think) way beyond me. Then he had a Atari ST520, then a Amstrad PC, Macintosh, then Pc's were the way to go.

My first computer was a Vic 20 with cassette drive, waiting for ever for a game to load up, only for it to crash just at the end, and entering programs printed in computer mags in basic only to leave out a comma or  semi colon, oh yes what joy...., then a amstrad 128( unsure of make ) with a 3.5" floppy drive on the right side. Then Amiga 500, what a machine, then went for the Amiga1200 with 2Mb of memory with a clock speed of 12Mhz...oh lordy such power, playing such games as Superfrog, Zool, some alien hunting game, just brill with the lights off and the computer plugged into my stereo...eerie
I still have the Amiga and loads of games all up in the loft, been looking at emulators so I can play all the old games on my pc, but its finding the time, theres not enough hours in the day for me at the moment.  

[andrea]

We had a spectrum-used to take about half a day to load a game,then the interface used to fall out the back,and you would have to start all over again!

[AndyR]

I was always in the minority as I never really liked the C64. It was certainly a very capable machine (The first sampler I ver used was on C64 - I sampled Laura Brannigan - self control!) but for me, the c64 just didn't have that je-ne-sais-pas.

And as for all the fuss made about the SID chip in the C64, well, the yamaha chip in the CPC machines, in the right hands, could sound a damn site better than the SID chip. Case in point - Thing Bounces Back, monty mole games, in fact, any game with Rob Hubbard as musician.

 

[AndyR]

Karlos, the stock Amiga 1200 with 68ec020 ran at 14.32Mhz but agreed, Superfrog (one of the best 2D scrolling platformers ever - those egyptian levels were just perfection) and Zool (1 & 2) were brilliant.

The alien hunter games - was it the Alien Breed series?

Find the time for emulation m8 - get an xbox, chip it, get uaex and tons of games, stick em on the xbox harddrive and play amiga games for hours on end!!!

[Karlos]

Andy yes Alien Breed games were great, mainly due to the fact that the games had speech samples which made it more realistic. SF was brill, I found the ice world really tricky.

About emulation, cant you run the amiga games on a pc? Do you know anyone who has done this ?  When you say chip an Xbox what is involved.

Cheers M8..

I Have the  Amiga Workbench V3.1 discs which are needed .

[AndyR]

WinUAE is a brilliant emulator for the PC although if youv'e never used/forgotten how to use an amiga then it can seem a bit bewildering.

You'll need a copy of a kickstart rom - the actual image of the chip not the workbench discs (1.3 and 3.1 are the one's I use - PM me if you need them)

You can't use amiga floppy discs in a PC. It's not a software problem but a limitation of the PC floppy controller. You have to use images of floppies which you can create on a real amiga or download from the 'net.

You can use Amiga CD's.

If you want to know more then PM me and I'll e-mail you some better details. My first ever website was dedicated to the Amiga and I'm still being asked to resurrect it to this day.

Re XBOX.

You'll have to buy and install a modchip. This can either be a soldered type or an one that uses pogo pins to connect to the xbox motherboard. Either way, you'll have to take an xbox to bits to install it (it's easy though!)

The chip then allows you run homebrew programs like emulators and there are literally tons of 'em around. On my xbox right now i have a snes, megadrive,master system, N64, playstation, GBA, amiga, Atari 2600 and Arcade emulators along with dvd and media players (divx!).

Playing these on a TV using the xbox and it's controller is a far cry from using a PC. It just feels a lot better/more authentic with the xbox.

Again, if you need more info then PM me.

[LISTER]

Schlitz - along with Erlanger and Old Milwaukee it was part of the first wave of American beers to really make inroads into British culture. "More Than A Feeling" was used by Schlitz IIRC. Miles better than the Budweiser/Millers crap that was to follow.

Nice one Cammy. Put quite simply Schlitz was the best tasting imported lager ever, with the coolest advert and the coolest song to go with it. Is it actually sold anywhere now? That and Red Stripe - true blasts from the past.
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[cammyb]

Strange but true; as Best Man, I arranged a stag weekend for my best mate - in Anstruther of all places. On arriving at our hotel and hitting the bar almost instantly, we were delighted to discover that it stocked Schlitz. It didn't by the time we left!

[ads]

Don't you guys find it amazing that, 20 odd years on from the birth of the C64 (which i'm proud to say I still have in the attic along with lots of games!) and we now have some fantastic technology that we so take for granted, such as the internet and world wide web, and super sofisticated high quality graphic games and programes that nowadays we would be lost without?

and those cassettes took forever to load up! )

[cammyb]

I much prefer the old games like Manic miner and Frogger in comparison to the visual treats that we have today. How sad is that?