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Commodore 64 turns 30

Posted by samzenpus on from the happy-birthday dept.

will_die writes "The Commodore 64 came out 30 years ago and to celebrate this the BBC went and got two groups of kids to try out an old system, complete with tape drive. It's sure to bring a few grins to people who had one of these old systems. From the article: 'The Commodore's ability to display 16 colours, smoothly scroll graphics and play back music through its superior SID (sound interface device) chip - even while loading programs off tape - helped win over fans, but it did not become the market leader until the late 1980s.'" Last spring a modern version of the C64 was released.

7 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Let's not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's the name on a modern computer, not a modern version of the C64.

  2. LOAD "*",8,1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    or sometimes LOAD "$",8,1

    1. Re:LOAD "*",8,1 by TheCycoONE · · Score: 5, Informative

      iirc LOAD "$", 8 would work better for you. Just ,8 was definitely needed when loading any BASIC programs but ML programs would usually be ,8,1. Also I cut the solder to make my drives 8, 10, 11, and 12. :-)

      http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/LOAD probably has more information than you care for.

    2. Re:LOAD "*",8,1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The added ,1 was a directive to relocate the program into a certain address in memory. Without that, it would be loaded to the default memory location.

      LOAD "*",8,1 meant to load the first thing on the disk (or reload the most recently loaded thing)

      LOAD "$",8 meant to load a directory list from the disk. From there you could decide what you wanted to load. As you mention, if you added the ,1, it would relocate and not work.

      Ah, this is reminding me of the smell of the C64. Who knows what toxins I was inhaling.

  3. Yes it was a market leader by cpu6502 · · Score: 3, Informative

    "it did not become the market leader until the late 1980s."

    According to ars technica's article on computer sales, the C64 was the #1 seller almost immediately (1983, 84, 85, 86). In the late 80s the IBM PC and clones became the #1 seller. I don't know..... maybe things were different in the UK.

    --
    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  4. Re:Game Nostalgia Thread by SydShamino · · Score: 3, Informative

    My work computer right now is named "Archon", as is my cell phone. =P It's one of the names I rotate through machines. I loved that game.

    --
    It doesn't hurt to be nice.
  5. Re:Remarkable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    >Amount of time it took a 6th grader to figure out that POKE 53281,0 turns the screen black: about 5 minutes.

    This only affects the center of screen. You need POKE 53280,0 for the frames.

    I still remembered that after 25 years.