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Greed, Zealotry, and the Commodore 64

jira writes "On the occasion of the Commodore 64's rebirth as an Atom-equipped nettop, the Guardian's Jon Blyth remembers what the original Commodore 64 taught him. Among other things: 'But look at it, all brown, ugly and lovely. It taught me so much. The Commodore 64 taught me about zealotry. After upgrading from the inferior ZX Spectrum, I would try to convince the Sinclair loyalists to follow me. I would invite them to my house, and let them see that with just eight colors and a monophonic sound chip, their lives lacked true depth. My evangelism quickly faded into impatience. So, I can now see why American Baptists get so miffy about atheists — it's horrible dealing with people who don't realize how much better you are.'"

5 of 645 comments (clear)

  1. monophonic sound chip? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    there is no ZX spectrum with a "monophonic sound chip"

    the original 16 and 48k machines have no sound chip, the sound is software driven by toggling an I/O bit.
    the 128k machines use the AY which is 3 channel

    so there! :p

  2. Re:The best C64 programs were 1 line long. by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Informative

    The best C64 programs were zero lines long. They tossed the Commodore ROM in the trash, thereby freeing-up all 64 k of memory, and loaded directly from the 1541 (or 71) disk drive.

    "64k should be enough for anybody." With GEOS you can turn your 64k machine into a clone of the original Mac (with WYSIWYG word processing, a trashcan, and everything). My church pastor did all his newsletters on the Commodore=64. And it doesn't cost $4000. More like $400. With music and color! ;-)

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  3. Re:Yeah can't figure the appeal of the Sinclair by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Informative

    If I didn't have a Commodore, I would sooner have an 8-bit Atari or Apple instead, not a Sinclair.

    I'm sure most Spectrum owners would too, considering that those machines were, AFAIR, around three times the price.

    The Spectrum was the cheapest computer that could play half-decent games, and its popularity became self-supporting as it lead more game developers to make games for it.

  4. Re:Goes both ways... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Informative

    “A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.”

    ...and thanked God for her lunch?

  5. Mind your sects... by louks · · Score: 3, Informative

    Be careful how you use the term "American Baptists". The American Baptist Churches of the USA are a fairly liberal and ecumenical bunch that believe in religious freedom (and humility) better than Richard Stallman believes in software freedom (and humility).

    There are other baptists sects in America that are considered stricter groups and might be more likely to fit your stereotype, so beware how you capitalize "American".

    Sure we believe in God, and I won't deny there are some zealots among our ranks, but as a denomination, we believe in autonomy, and the members certainly cannot be categorized the way it's being used here.

    www.abc-usa.org ...if you're interested.