We didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up. Neither of my parents ever finished high school and they worked hard blue collar jobs. They bought me a Commodore 64 in middle school and eventually the 1541 disk drive. I did tell them later in life how much I appreciated everything they did for me. Now however, looking up the prices for those 2 things in today's dollars, I realize just how much they must have sacrificed. My mother must have put them on layaway at KMart. They are both gone now so I can't tell them again how much it mattered to me. I spent over 10 years in IT because of that machine. I never became a programmer but I credit that machine with never being afraid of any computer that was put in front of me. Thanks Mom and Dad.
My entire family was heavily invested in the C64 with at a dozen being used at any given time. My grandfather (a retired electrical engineer) was one of the last "official" C64 repairmen in the US when he died in 2005. Until a couple of years ago, we still had a basement full of parts from cases and chips to complete units of Vic-20s, C-64s, C-128s, etc.
Emdzej telly in the UK is quite decent and I would never give it up.(Writing this as I watch doctor who.)Plus product placement isn't legal on TV. So it doesn't feel like watch advertisement's.
@@McCoy-00 wait he needs an excuse to attack Qbert on the VIC-20? I thought those inexcusable graphics were all the reason he needed. If it was gonna be that bad why did the devs even release.
I will never forget the first time I put "Impossible Mission" into the C64 with my friend and it *_spoke_* to us! I had a ZX Spectrum 48k (can't wait for that video!) before the C64 and we'd never heard a computer do that in our lives- actually _talk!_ *_'Another visitor! Stay a while...STAY FOREVER!!!'_* That sentence will be with me forever! I remember we purposefully got ourselves killed, just so we could hear that and the other dialogue again and again, laughing our heads off. Awesome memories, awesome video. I love this machine.
My dad went in the Hungarian army (light communism at the time, but 1 year military service is a must) and they discovered that one of the Tanks had a C64 based laser/infra aim system. He and his friends learned the basics at home, and they managed to "hack" the machine. They bunched in the vehicle and played day and night, smuggled and exchanged games. I think they are never got caught. EDIT: Just got more insigt from my dad, and sligt corrections. (Thermal guidance was not correct, but almost) The time is the 1992 yugoslav wars, and my dad and his brothers/friends snuck in the neighboring tank unit. This T72 tank was in for the First Responding unit for Hungary. It was closed off for this immediate use, nobody attended them, nobody thougth soliders went to play in the tanks. (communist showbiz preparedness, these kinds of things never kept on well, never serviced, basically gathered rust) They nearly went to war with Yugoslavia, cause yugo warplanes flew in the hungarian airspace. (Probably just sleeazy pilots, not provocation) Slight correction here: the tank was geared up with a laser aim, infrared cameras and special steerable projectiles. You need to take and keep aim by hand, and the rocket stayed on the target. The infrared scope is for the always clear visuals. Yes, we instincivly look down on soviet engineering, but the military had always the better budget opposed the public stuff. I guess it was some kind of soviet-hungarian tech co-op for the time. Hope it helps clear out some questions after a year Hajrá magyarok!
i think that David is the only person that would go through such task of adding some additional content to a previously made video just for the viewers... he seriously cares about us, that's extremely rare these days thank you, David, for this amazing content :)
sometimes i wonder why no one wants to produce real commodore 64's brand new like they did with the fisher price voice recorder only the brand new c64 would include a easy flash cartridge the advantage being it would break down less and possibly be manufactured differently to make it cheaper
congratulation's you are a winner the 8-bit guy will send you retro brightened commodore 64 as your grand prize shortly after you give him your address for shipping purposes
I used to love my C-64. I spent many, many hours programming in basic and assembly. In the days before the internet, we had BBS's. There was no BBS or terminal software for the C-64, so I wrote my own. I called it the "Satellite BBS" and it became quite popular. My BBS software had all the features of the others, plus a "window" layer (written in 6502 assembly) that stayed in one spot on the screen, showing the current or last caller's information, while their activity scrolled behind it. I like to say I invented Windows. It was very configurable. I'm still kicking myself 40 years later for not completing my plan to sell it. When I moved across the country many years later, I ended up giving everything away, including everything I wrote. I always wondered if the guy ever made use of it. Unless you lived back then, you can't imagine the fun we had.
I had the 1200 baud modem for my c-64c, which I used for Q-Link, but I got busted by my parents for running up a huge bill since it was $5 an hour, so I started going on local BBS'es. Radio Shack carried a monthly publication where people listed their BBS'es. I used to love playing Legends of the Red Dragon, and Usurper. Other geeks were into this game called MajorMUD, where they ran scripts which let the computer play the game for them, which I never saw the appeal in. Once AOL started offering unlimited monthly plans that was sort of the end of the scene for most users.
The C64 was my first computer. I learned how to program on it, from the manual and also from magazines. I always appreciated how that early exposure to programming helped me in school by training me to break problems down to their component parts, design solutions to those problems, and troubleshoot solutions that fail. I don't do much programming anymore, but that work ethic I learned way back in '83 as an elementary school student is still a factor in how I approach life's challenges.
I miss type-in programs, too, even when you throw in the typographical errors that would creep in from time to time. It's a bygone era that millions of people miss, which is why there is STILL considerable interest in retro-tech and new hardware and software for those great old systems. There are even new games coming out each year for the Atari 2600! I think people are just getting burned out on state-of-the-art-first-person-shooters-ad-nauseum...
10 PRINT "HAVE ANOTHER DRINK" 20 GOTO 10 That was my life program that ran for a good 10 years, until I finally hit the RUN STOP key and typed NEW. The C64 saved my life.
@@JustWasted3HoursHere I remember a book from the library for Simon's Basic which had a program with lines and lines of DATA with lots of numbers. My bro-in-law and I typed all of it... and it didn't run. As far as we could see we didn't make any mistake. Many hours were lost, hahaha
Thank you for an excellent summary of the C64. My first program was published in 1994 on Loadstar, just in time for the demise of the machine. Loadstar continued until 2007 - and included what is probably the last BASIC extension - DotBASIC Plus - which added about 100 commands to BASIC 2.0, and the resulting program would run on any C64. I would love to see a look at Loadstar, which was and will be forever the longest running disk periodical - achieving 249 issues. (To be honest, during the last years, the word "periodical" is better described as "once in a while." I was the Editor for issues 200 - 249.
Note that not all 64C models have the newer motherboard and SID chip. Those were introduced beginning in 1987, so the first year of production still had the old motherboard and SID chip. And most sold in the USA still had the graphics symbols on the front of the keys. Also Atari fans would argue that the POKEY chip, designed in 1978, could hold its own against the SID chip, especially in terms of sound effects. And the Apple II and TRS-80 could actually do multi-voice sound, although it took up a lot of the CPU's processing power, so it was mostly only used for title screens.
I still haven't heard anything that comes close to the likes of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Turbo Outrun or the NTSC After Burner on the C64 running from the POKEY. The POKEY's a good chip and that extra sound channel helped when it came to generating in-game sound effects, but I don't think it had the musical versatility of the SID. Of course, when we start getting to the demo scene, all bets are off; there's a ZX Spectrum homebrew game, Byte Me, with digital samples on the title screen that sound like they're not that short from the Amiga.
You have to remember that the Atari 8-bit computer series was designed in 1978, so it predates even the VIC-20, and the fact that it was seen as a direct competitor to the C64 -- a four-year-newer machine -- is really quite remarkable. Atari was working on an even better music synthesizer chip that they were going to put in the 65XEM model in 1985 but unfortunately it only made it to the prototype stage when Jack Tramiel canceled it.
The AMY chip definitely was a big loss to the world. Pity that Tramiel never exploited it; sounds like it would have been a great competitor to the Paula and the FM chips around at the time.
Those machines contain the slightly but not extremely rare assy 250466 motherboard. Is more integrated than the mainboards in most breadbins, but still uses the old chipset.
It was nuts. I couldn't believe what I was seeing as a kid back then. I had only seen a GUI on a Mac in an expensive computer store. The kind with a TV projection screen and few customers because it was expensive, so they let me spend mornings on their Macintosh II machine.
I used it to write papers in my junior, maybe beginning senior year of high school, before I got an Amiga 500 as an early graduation gift. Hah, my English teacher would get a little annoyed at me because we had one of those thermal printers with the special paper. I was always handing her "scrolls" instead of flat paper like all the other kids.
Wow, what a trip down memory lane. The 64 was my first computer. I worked a paper route for 2 years to save up enough money to buy it and I was the envy of all my geeky friends. I remember having debate class in grade 10 where my friend and I debated the pros and cons of Apple versus Commodore lol. One thing I'd like to correct. You said most of the peripherals for the Vic 20 were compatible with the C64, but the 1540 disk drive was not. The C64 needed the 1541 which had an extra chip inside to slow the I/O speed for reasons I forget.
Great series Dave. I was never into Commodore machines in the 80s, my dad thought they were toys so we had IBM compatibles. It’s great learning about how Commodore helped shape the home computer revolution!
We had one because they were great for games and learning about computers and because a friend had one because his dad used it for administration for his company. It was much easier to get games for it than it was for an IBM. My dad had an IBM for speculating on the stock market and I always thought the games on it felt rickety. As if they would fall apart if you played too hard or something. The graphics also looked awful and the sound on the C64 was just way better. It took a long time before I appreciated the more powerful machines and even now with the modern day hand held ultralight supercomputers with a wireless telephone and internet connection I still love the C64 to death and I'm very happy that there are so many enthusiasts out there doing absolute magic on those tiny old chips. I mean, you heard that the IBM had 3D graphics and the C64 did not, right. Did you also notice those 3D graphics on the C64 demo's he showed? ;) You missed out bro :p I'm very sorry for you :p
Your dad embodies everything that is wrong with the world. He is the reason Commodore went bankrupt. You were getting a lot of bang per buck in the early 80s with a Commodore 64.
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@@gregorymalchuk272 but their father was also quite on the money since IBM compatibles were the real deal for business applications and went on to dominate the computer industry. So from a "give your children an edge" perspective, he played smart !
That episode made me feel like a kid again, with my noisey modem, homemade, hand knotched double sided disks(crammed with bootlegs) unbalanced diskdrive with the cover loose to tap the insides when one too many coppies made that damn red light spaz. A good part of my childhood was spent sitting down behind that wonderfully clunky keyboard. I'm not sure I ve ever actually ever really gotten back up. Wow what time capsule.
@The SNES Man I bought 2 SID chips from someone that had salvaged around 100 SIDs from non-working C64s. Considering how many C64s was sold (I heard 17 million) I dont think you will run out of SIDs quite yet. If you find a non-working C64, you should strip it of its working parts though, and either keep them or sell them to someone who needs them.
Awesome history lesson, I ran a Wildcat BBS back in the day on my C64 and I loved it! Thanks for sharing this and I hope others find what we already know, that C64 was a big part of computer history!
The Commodore 64 was my first computer which I got on my eighth birthday and is still my favourite machine of all time. Hearing SID soundtracks from The Last Ninja, Turrican, Commando bring back many nostalgic memories. The 64 lives on and I am LOVING Sam's Journey. Thank you for your video :)
@christian harvey i mean theyre right. as cool as modern c64 games are, persona q 2 is way better in pretty much every aspect that the two can be compared
The more I learn about the C64 the more I'm impressed. I never had one myself _but_ I did use a 1702 monitor for years. My parents thought it could only be used for computers so they never suspected that I had a cable box hidden behind it. I would use it to watch TV at night when they went to bed lol. It had a great picture. I remember watching a lot of movies and TV shows on it.
I'm so sad that Commodore went down the tubes. Commodore was my absolute favorite computer company back in the day. Me and my C64 were an unstoppable pair. I miss the days of just being able to turn your computer on, and being able to just.. program the computer to do what you wanted it to do. And the computer actually came with the manuals with the information to show you how to write the programs. Nowadays, you have to purchase a compiler and figure out what language you want to write in from a half dozen programming languages that are each for different things. Things were so much simpler back then. I miss those days.
I agree, today it is so hard to learn programming, too much to learn before you can even see a most simple "Hello World". Back then, you just turned on your C64 and there it was: the blue screen of, no not death but genesis, a minimalistic but friendly "ready." greeted you and invited for hours of creativity and programming. Or games.
I think one of Commodore's mistakes was trying to save it's PET line. The C64 was crippled so as not to do too much damage to PET. But that tactic always bites you in the long run as your competitors won't hold back.
I never had a need to write in assembly. I always just used Basic for everything and it worked out fine for what I needed. I wrote so many damn games and programs for school on that thing. I was a whiz with Basic. I was dimly aware of assembly at the time but never bothered with it. Why bother with some new, more complex language when I was already getting what I wanted out of Basic?
Writing programs in assembly was actually very easy, all you needed was a for read loop and some (a lot) data instructions. And some knowledge of the opcodes. Very easy, very comfortable - well, almost. Probably a pita by today's standards, but fascinating back in the days.
Buy a compiler? Maybe back in the early 1990s, you might. I just use MinGW for my C++ compiling these days. Yeah, still on Windows 7 till Microsoft stops supporting it, then it's off to Linux land.
Thank you for the time you invested in making this "extended edition" video. Although the C64 has a long-time following, it is nice to have resources on RUclips to help introduce people to the system and give a bit of history on not just the system itself but also the era of computing during which it was released. Well done.
These computers were before my time, but this series is the entire reason I have a C64 now. It amazes me what they were able to do with the tech of the time. And the fact that its still a fun computer to use.
I don't know if it is just me, But i love the rustic kind of feeling of firing up an old C64 with a TV. The static makes it just feel right in my opinion.
My mom walks in and says, "Oh wow, a Commodore!! I used to play Pitfall and piano with the snap-on thing." Now I'm looking for Pitfall and the snap-on thing....
Amazing chapter man! C64 was my first computer back in 1986 and I grew up playing a lot with that machine. It brings back very fond memories. I love your channel! Cheers from Uruguay!
One of our favorite computers of all time. Other beinc Commodore Amiga 1200. Damn we miss those times. Btw... still have Commodore VIC-20, Commodore C-64 & Commodore Amiga A1200. All of them work!
i had a vic 20 my first machine i learned to code on, then a 128 then an Amiga 1000. Don't have any of those machines anymore or my software projects but i did find an original c64 breadbin at an antique shop i got for $50, then got a monitor and 2 1541's (one with a drive switch in back) and some other junk at an estate sale (a taxxan rgb monitor not a 1702 sadly) and i got a new PSU from Ray Carlsen and a wifiModem from C4ever and I am having a blast. Now trying to decide best accelerator card - epyx fast load vintage or fastload reloaded which i think has a mini SD drive ?
This excellent episode "basic"ally covered a big part of my life back when I was about 17 years old. Thanks for the memories! The C64 will always have a special place in my heart, for a machine. I know, I'm a computer nerd. 😁
Was confused about my C64 not looking like yours (sadly thrown away by parents eager to free up closet space) until I saw that it was it was actually the 64C. Very informative video!
Hello David, I watch the channel every night for at least an hour lol. I figured I should write to say thanks after sitting at the local gas station/convenience store for the last 25 mins in the parking lot not going inside because I've been hooked into the vids. I hope you and your family are well! I love the new videos and I wish you all the best!
The hours I spent playing ZORK and its successors are some of my favorite memories. The InvisiClue hint books with special magic high lighters to reveal hidden text were really cool too. Making your own sprites was a lot of fun as well.
Great review! I did my final University thesis on Commodore 64. My two collegues and I built a 2 channel oscilloscope. Tha hand-made hardware plugged into the user port to start/stop, set channels gains and print wave graphics. Graphics programming was realy hard, but possible! Nice machine! :) Great feeling! :)
Great video. I owned a VIC-20 back then but moved pretty quick to a PC and didn’t pay much attention to Commodore. In this video, I learned so much about the C64 and its great history that I wish I had kept up with it back then! I do have a few C64s in my closet that I bought from eBay about 10 years back and I’m definitely digging in there to set one up again! Thanks for an amazing video!
Back in 1985, I did a demonstration speech on the SID’s ADSR technology at DeVry. The class was blown away from a demo disk I acquired from a trade show. 3 songs were played: Vivaldi’s Spring, Beethoven’s Fur Elise, and I think Joplin’s The Entertainer. For just 3 voices, this thing was amazing. Other things I remembered was a word processor that required a physical ‘key” to operate (Paperclip?). I would program in BASIC, PASCAL and Assembly. Was it wrong to kiss my C64 every now and then. I really, really miss those days, just wish there were more advance books for this computer back then.
It was a great video, with great explanations. Another important thing for me is that you speak very well, very clearly, at a normal speed so that other people who are not native English speakers have an easier time understanding what you say. THANKS
Spectacularly well researched and presented - the whole series of the Commodore history. Nice job! I grew up with a TI-99/4A and, being into electronics, was exceedingly jealous of the C64 owners with the user port. The TI had absolutely no equivalent to control the outside world. Hoping to see some TI99 history one day :-)
the TI's lack of GPIO is yet another example of how insular and unfriendly to developers their whole approach was... arguably one of the big reasons the system failed. Not the lack of GPIO, but the lack of third-party developers.
Nice put together. A hell of a machine. Talking about a golden era of computing is a nonsense, but if applied, sure it happend on the C64 era. Hats of to the people who designed a 12 year proof computer, that obvioulsy was way ahead in 1982. You keep showing what I think is the last revision of the C4 system board, but this board had changed at least three times. you can see a small reduction of chip in the later one, like they finally did in the C64 C. Here we had have both machines built localy and moded to PALN. Case colour could vary. They werent strict on the molding. One if the machine we had was grey with just a bit of light violet tone ... I dont think that Commodre was too concerned about it. RF mod was a dissaster. We keep changing cables and RF adapters. Some of them gave better results. but some days was unusable. Probably the pal n mod wasnt that good. Then TONS of cloned peripherals. Here we got a nice datassette made in Brazil, that was less prone to missaligment and more robust. And we hade a 1571 clone that or local Commodore representative sold but the couldnt put the Commdore brand on it. The drive was good. Joysticks were another complete talk, many local manufacturers offering stuff from garbage to premiun, even arcade style joystick in sort of antivandallic contruction (LOL). We got a third party Brick and this was far superior including with two 220V sockets, 2 110V sockets, switch with light and all metal casing. It was a bit expensive but way rugged and not potted so you could repair it.
Nice movie again! I remember buying my C64 around 1986, with the help of my parents. I spent countless hours on it, nice childhood memories. The poweradapter could be used to warm your feet, in winter. WHen young i had loads of energy, waking up easily at 05:00 in the morning to play games before school.
Nice presentation ! This brings back good memories and I'm going to send a link to my son. It was our first computer which led to many more, including the monster I'm using now which I built myself. My son went on, taking computer courses in college and works in IT today. It was truly a computer for the whole family!
Hi, I've been a Basic and Assembly programmer on both the Commodore Vic 20 and the Commodore 64. I congratulate you on your expertise, you made me relive the 80's times when programming was simple and it was pure fun .. . Greetings!
Absolutely loved this episode :) I owe the fact I can program and my love of computers (well admittedly retro) and consoles to the C64, my first computer. I still have my C64C from 1991 and it still works, although its box is rather dog chewed... Lots of happy memories coming back to me right now! Can't wait for the Plus 4 episode with all those weird and wonderful C16/264/364 machines maybe making an appearance!
I remember me and my buddies would see who type load"*",8,1 as fast as we could and see who was the fastest and other commands...lol....and do you know how hard it is to type that on a qwerty lol...after all these years I still have the muscle memory from the c64
8-Bit Guy, the Atari 800, released November 1979, has the Chroma and Luma pins on it's monitor port. Will you be doing a series on the Atari 8-bit generation of computers?
I used my 800’s so much they kept blowing out on me. I think I went through 2 800xls and two 130xe’s but by the time the 130xes were out for a year or so they were so cheap all I had to do was get some good grades then pops and I would go down to The Federated Group and pick up another one :) I was a pirate kingpin, I had drawers and drawers full of floppies filled with games on them. I wrote a hacking program to hack out calling card numbers while I was at school. I’d have 5 or so codes printed out after I got home from it banging out hundreds of tries. Now I could call the UK BBS’ at no long distance charge and get all the games before they were available in the USA. Problem was the darned local calling card number my program kept calling to hack out the codes was a toll call!! Oops! Pops got hit with a 300 page $300.00 phone bill full of $.10c toll charges. I never told him why until about a year ago...
The Atari 800 might have had Chroma and Luma pins on its monitor port but as Atari themselves made no monitor to use it, not could the public really buy such monitors in 1979 it hardly counts. Commodore made it usable by selling a monitor to take advantage of it and that's why its often seen as the first. Atari themselves ditched such a non used feature in its other models
Jean Michel Jarre's Popcorn was famous loooong before the C64 came out mate. Made it to the top of the charts in 1969 in fact. But like you I also "link" it to the C64. Anyway, here's our boring parents trippin' out on TV to it: ruclips.net/video/4E7BLSSLgtw/видео.html
I have watched the previous videos but all of a sudden a smile cane across my face when I saw the C64. This is where my computing days began. I loved creating Basic programs with this machine. The only problem was after a few moments the machine used to freeze and then free up again. "Garbage collection" I think we called it. So as soon as it was available I jumped into an Amiga 1000. I loved Amiga basic. I paid an absolute fortune for extra memory. Still it kept me out of trouble and also out of the pubs, well for a while anyway. Fond memories.
I working for Commodore here in California, I never saw one of these Commodore Max's go to mass production. Or my memory is bad, lol 1980 - 1984 .... I was there for the mass production VIC 20 and Commodore 64 and we toyed with various skin colors. Sadly the public did not get to see them. - Cheers Derrick
In my senior year of college (computer science major), I found a COMPUTE book that had something in it called "Assembler in BASIC." took the software, enhanced the heck out of it (added forward references and storage definition and allocation metacommands) and came away with a software tool good enough to be used professionally. Pity the machine died in the market soon after that.
This was a nice trip down memory lane. Thank you. There’s one peripheral I had for a while that if I still had it, it would definitely be sent on down to David for his collection. It was something like a drawing pad, but it had an arm you moved and which operated a pair of slider potentiometers inside the unit (so it was basically using the paddle functionality), and had some software similar to Koala Draw.
This is really great, thanks for doing this! I used to write games for the C64 (The Detective, Hyberblob) and this brought back a lot of memories. And I learnt some things that I didn't know. I've still got my VIC-20, C64, C16 and C128.
My first computer was a C64. My parents got it for us for Christmas in 1982 along with a small bw tv and a datasette drive. I eventually bought the 1526 printer and 2 disc drives. I remember many Saturday mornings typing programs into it and my friend's TRS-80 from the latest Compute! magazine and hoping that there were no typos from us or the listing. Some days I wish I still had this machine. My favorite game was the Zork series. I attempted writing my own BASIC programs but I just couldn't grasp the whole peek/poke thing. Thanks for this great series! edit: I remember being really excited to get the GEOS word processor to be able to attempt to complete homework assignments without having to use a typewriter.
WOW! That multi-instrument per simple pulse track idea totally blew me away. I can't wait to compose some neo 8-bit music with what you've just introduced me to, will be sure to send the results your way. Thanks!!
I may have loved my Amiga 500 back in the day but my all time favorite memories were with the C64 from the 80's. It's awesome that people are still making games for it. I'll have to invest into some in the near future.
My C64 is hooked up to a 37 inch 720P old school panasonic tv via s-video. It looks remarkably good actually. BC’s quest for tires looks amazing on it.
I love my Commodore 64. It was my second computer, I bought a TI-994a in 1983 with my 8th grade graduation money and I learned basic. I talked my older brother inlaw into computers and he was studying in Devry and he told me about the Commodore 64 and it's excellent programmers manual...may have been called advanced programers manual...I don't recall. And in 1985, while relativly poor, my parents bought me and my brothers a commodore 64, floppy disk drive, and a printer for around $1,000 US. I knew it was a lot of money and was proud of my parents to spend the money. With the advanced programing manual Commodore published you had full control of the hardware. I programed in Basic and Assembler and new how to talk to hardware in code. I even purchased a eprom burner, and learned what a eprom was, and made my own cartridges. Every peace of HW you bought came with a programmers manual! I learned to read code and assembler and crack and hack games, learning more as I did so. I also learned that the Floppy drive had the same processor as the C64 and you could send Assembler code there and it would run on the Floppy controller... This machine did more that what you would ever see in college. All that I learned on the C64 applied to future programing I did in college, PC and Main Frame assemble and of course simpler high level languages. One thing you learned that is missing today is...control. You control the PC, not the other way around. Today's IT and Users frequently let the machine tell them how to work. Today I still make computers do my will as they should be doing. Thank you for this video!
I just wanted to say thank you for these videos. The C-64 was the first computer I’ve owned. Did a lot with it. Added a floppy drive, used GEOS, and many more activities with it. Then I upgraded to a C-128. Wahoo! All that “power” it had. These are from my childhood, so it brings back many good memories.
Man! That picture of the electronics boutique took me way back! I used to go there ALL THE TIME! Sadly, by the time I convinced my parents to get me a computer, C64s were well on their way out, but it was more affordable. So it's what I got. All this cool hardware you're talking about was REALLY difficult to find. I could only find stuff second-hand, and I could hardly find software or better manuals. My parents just couldn't see the benefit of having a computer at home, despite my dad making a living as a Fortran programmer. I'll never understand that one. Also considering that I make my living as a programmer today. Ugh!
In the early 90s we had an Electronics Boutique (none of this EB games rubbish), and a Babbages at the new mall that was built where I lived. (Parks Mall in Arlington, TX) Unfortunately I had a CoCo2 at the time so nobody sold anything for it except RadioShack. But once I got my Tandy 1000 series computer, I had a whole new world of games available for it.
Earlier model C64s used the same case as the VIC-20. Later, Commodore made newer cases for the C64, which was shorter than the VIC's. To save more on costs, the VIC-20 later used the same cases as the C64, though with a slight modification to the bottom piece to accommodate the larger cartridges. I might be wrong, though, as a lot of documentation for these sorts of things aren't well-preserved.
5:00 I love this bit about "Kernal"! David you have such a great manner dealing with these things, articulating each letter and spelling it out is golden .
Absolutely astonishing game for it's time. I managed to get all the way up to Dangerous ranking and military lasers on all weapon points. Yes, I was addicted! ;-)
I find it fascinating computer makers could churn out the same computer year after year with the exact same processor and specs… even stranger to me is the concept of a computer loading directly into a developer environment instead of a general operating system. Thanks for making me feel young with this series!
What a trip down memory lane. No matter how old I get, I enjoy firing up a C64 emulator and just typing in random commands from time to time, creating stupid little programs for fun. It's amazing how many commands I still remembered after more than 30 years of not using them. The C64 kept me sane throughout my middle and high school years. Thanks for doing these!! There are also some websites dedicated now to old BBS services to really take you back.. they even work with modded C64's that have had modems added to them.
Mr. Murray -- thank you for your great documentary on this memorable computer! I'm sure you could make a 2h video on the subject matter as there is so much to talk about! My second computer was the C64c, and I pretty much had the same setup you eluded to -- 1200 baud modem, 1571 + 1581 drives, Geos with 128K Ram expansion. Growing up in Canada, I used a Super Snapshot cartridge which was basically the same thing as the Action Replay cartridge in the US: fast load with a way to "pause" the CPU and inspect/manipulate memory and save screen captures. In the early 90s, someone let me borrow a JiffyDos chip for my 1581 which was a remarkable replacement for the stock DOS chip. I was then amazed that a company started producing hard drives that were C64/128 compatible -- one of my friends ran a BBS with these drives. Another one of my Commodore buddies had figured out how to modify an REU to exceed its stock memory capacity; I recall the procedure involved soldering RAM chips on top of one another. Amazing stuff! My first computer was a C16 (which I still have) and I'm very much looking forward to watching your next video in the series.
3:59 The keyboard mechanism is actually also identical to the CBM machines, except they put 4 function keys instead of the number keypad. And the keycaps were different of course.
The thing I hated about the commodore keyboard was the restore key was hooked up differently from the others, and I always had to tap it somewhat vigorously while holding down run/stop to get it to register. Might have been an issue specific to my keyboard.
I was told by Bil Herd (designer of the C128) that the reason you had to hit RESTORE so vigorously, is that it was more or less directly connected to the NMI input of the 6510. The NMI is edge-triggered and unless you hit the button vigorously (to minimize bouncing of the contact) the processor doesn't recognize it. This was the same for all C64's.
The restore problem can be remedied by changing capacitor C38 in the NMI triggering circuitry connected to the restore key from 51pF to 4.7nF. Search for "c64 restore mod" via the usual search engine, and it's the first hit. Another thing to do is to clean the 30+ year old oxidised contacts inside the keyboard. I had a particularly bad case of this issue on a C64 I repaired. Restore had to be hit REALLY hard for it to work. Cleaning the contacts improved it, but not to an acceptable level. I didn't have any 4.7nF caps in hand so I used a 1nF instead, and although it still wasn't perfect, meaning that the restore key had to still be pressed a bit harder than the rest of the keys,, it worked a LOT better than without the mod. The restore circuitry is completely different in 250469 "short" board, i.e. the board in most C64Cs apart from the first production year or so, and it doesn't seem to suffer from this issue.
As millennial, I want to express my appreciation to 8-Bit Guy for his channel. After watching his videos, I did developed my view on PCs from 80s, namely Commodore, Atari and Amiga. Before I found this channel, I did know nothing about existence these vintage computers.
The C64 seems like an easy computer to make your own programs if you know what your doing. I actually thought about buying a C64 and experimenting with it.
in Canada the cassette drive may as well have never existed. It was the only thing frustrating about importing U.K. mags like ZZap!64, they often came with bonus cassettes which were useless in North America with no one having a cassette drive here. At least many of them had data on one side, and music on the other so they were partially usable. ;-)
15:12 picture from text adventure game kingdom valley, good one. 18:38 Rambo game 19:22 Impossible mission 24:15 Spy vs Spy 25:18 Master of lamps 27:26 Lemmings QuantumLnk was a great service but the only good services of it were in the (+) areas which costed 8 cents a minute to be in. Habitat was late renamed/branded as Club Caribe, RabbitJacks Casino was the more popular game on QunantumLink. I think in 1990 they had the Wheel of fortune like thing "Puzzler"
I really started to respect Commodore 64 (and VIC) after your videos! And in truth, the same powerful system as the ZX. What an impressive collection of c64 add-ons you have! Thanks so much for the video !!!
Thank you so much for making these videos. I started hacking with Vic 20 back in the days, went through Commodore 64, Amiga 1000/500/2000 and all the way to present day. I've read all the Commodore books and such, but still these videos filled me with not only nostalgia but much more new information. And a small thing to mention, but thank you also for not asking me to subscribe or do thumbs up. You've got it already :)
19:15 love the Ghostbusters game, partly because of the music and intro 19:18 impossible mission is something I can play hours on end and never get bored
When I was in college I had a friend with a C64. When he upgraded to the C128 I was blown away by the power and speed. After I graduated I bought am Amiga 1000. Great to watch your videos about this time in computer history.
We didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up. Neither of my parents ever finished high school and they worked hard blue collar jobs. They bought me a Commodore 64 in middle school and eventually the 1541 disk drive. I did tell them later in life how much I appreciated everything they did for me. Now however, looking up the prices for those 2 things in today's dollars, I realize just how much they must have sacrificed. My mother must have put them on layaway at KMart. They are both gone now so I can't tell them again how much it mattered to me. I spent over 10 years in IT because of that machine. I never became a programmer but I credit that machine with never being afraid of any computer that was put in front of me. Thanks Mom and Dad.
this comment is genuinely beautiful. parents really do give so much to their children.
I wish your mom and dad were still around. They are great parents.
*unexpected youtube wholesome-ness*
Rayne Thackery My background’s was very similar and my parents made several other sacrifices to finally get an AST computer for me at Radio Shack. ❤️
Rayne Thackery you are very lucky not like me ruclips.net/video/0mvYqYDB1ug/видео.html
My entire family was heavily invested in the C64 with at a dozen being used at any given time. My grandfather (a retired electrical engineer) was one of the last "official" C64 repairmen in the US when he died in 2005. Until a couple of years ago, we still had a basement full of parts from cases and chips to complete units of Vic-20s, C-64s, C-128s, etc.
I no longer watch telly, not because netflix etc but because channels like this. It's the content that counts. Brilliant work.
Yeah for sure, even if you live in one of the very few countries where TV is still partly decent, good youtubers are still 10 times better
Johannes Sumuvuori I still watch TV and RUclips.
I stopped watching telly around 6 years ago, switched to youtube only.
Emdzej telly in the UK is quite decent and I would never give it up.(Writing this as I watch doctor who.)Plus product placement isn't legal on TV. So it doesn't feel like watch advertisement's.
Me too! (not metoo)
I love how every time David talks about graphics on commodore machines, he'll go right to Qbert on the Vic-20 and mention how awful it looks
Holy crap I just noticed that 😂
I think he just wants to find an excuse to attack Qbert on VIC-20. I don’t blame him😂
@@McCoy-00 wait he needs an excuse to attack Qbert on the VIC-20? I thought those inexcusable graphics were all the reason he needed. If it was gonna be that bad why did the devs even release.
@@IgorOzarowski I’ve got one word for that last sentence, money. Plus I bet those devs had close to no time to get the port out in stores.
Well, he ain't wrong!
I will never forget the first time I put "Impossible Mission" into the C64 with my friend and it *_spoke_* to us! I had a ZX Spectrum 48k (can't wait for that video!) before the C64 and we'd never heard a computer do that in our lives- actually _talk!_
*_'Another visitor! Stay a while...STAY FOREVER!!!'_*
That sentence will be with me forever! I remember we purposefully got ourselves killed, just so we could hear that and the other dialogue again and again, laughing our heads off.
Awesome memories, awesome video. I love this machine.
That was *so awesome* !
My dad went in the Hungarian army (light communism at the time, but 1 year military service is a must) and they discovered that one of the Tanks had a C64 based laser/infra aim system. He and his friends learned the basics at home, and they managed to "hack" the machine. They bunched in the vehicle and played day and night, smuggled and exchanged games.
I think they are never got caught.
EDIT:
Just got more insigt from my dad, and sligt corrections. (Thermal guidance was not correct, but almost)
The time is the 1992 yugoslav wars, and my dad and his brothers/friends snuck in the neighboring tank unit. This T72 tank was in for the First Responding unit for Hungary. It was closed off for this immediate use, nobody attended them, nobody thougth soliders went to play in the tanks. (communist showbiz preparedness, these kinds of things never kept on well, never serviced, basically gathered rust)
They nearly went to war with Yugoslavia, cause yugo warplanes flew in the hungarian airspace. (Probably just sleeazy pilots, not provocation)
Slight correction here: the tank was geared up with a laser aim, infrared cameras and special steerable projectiles. You need to take and keep aim by hand, and the rocket stayed on the target. The infrared scope is for the always clear visuals.
Yes, we instincivly look down on soviet engineering, but the military had always the better budget opposed the public stuff. I guess it was some kind of soviet-hungarian tech co-op for the time.
Hope it helps clear out some questions after a year
Hajrá magyarok!
That's a really cool story. Honestly best RUclips comment I've read in years. Would read again
Tom Kovar well I’ve got good news for you
11 out of 10, best comment. - IGN
@CelticCurse doesn't matter :)
Ne basszál fel! :)
i think that David is the only person that would go through such task of adding some additional content to a previously made video just for the viewers... he seriously cares about us, that's extremely rare these days
thank you, David, for this amazing content :)
yep it's rare yet generous
I agree
sometimes i wonder why no one wants to produce real commodore 64's brand new like they did with the fisher price voice recorder only the brand new c64 would include a easy flash cartridge the advantage being it would break down less and possibly be manufactured differently to make it cheaper
@@mctv6486 there you have a project
lol fishing for david comments
"Another visitor. Stay a while. Staaay forever"
Loved that game, and miss my C64
I loved “Tztay a while, tztay foueva” !
Ahnothah visitah! Sshtay a while, sshtay forevaah
*walks off ledge*
aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
*falls* aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
**falls**
*AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
A seemingly lesser-known fact is that the C64 was originally called the VIC-40, after its 40-column display.
congratulation's you are a winner the 8-bit guy will send you retro brightened commodore 64 as your grand prize shortly after you give him your address for shipping purposes
@@raven4k998 lmao
but the VIC-20 had 22 columns... why was it not called the VIC-22?
@@SeeJayPlayGames Because VIC-20 sounded friendlier.
correct i didn't know that. What fun i've had with my C64 .
I used to love my C-64. I spent many, many hours programming in basic and assembly. In the days before the internet, we had BBS's. There was no BBS or terminal software for the C-64, so I wrote my own. I called it the "Satellite BBS" and it became quite popular.
My BBS software had all the features of the others, plus a "window" layer (written in 6502 assembly) that stayed in one spot on the screen, showing the current or last caller's information, while their activity scrolled behind it. I like to say I invented Windows. It was very configurable. I'm still kicking myself 40 years later for not completing my plan to sell it.
When I moved across the country many years later, I ended up giving everything away, including everything I wrote. I always wondered if the guy ever made use of it.
Unless you lived back then, you can't imagine the fun we had.
I remember that, I tried it for a bit, before I moved to WWIV.
I ran a BBS off a C64 for a couple of years back in the late '80s
I ran and Apple ][+ based BBS in 85-86. We did have a blast! The tinkering with our code never seemed to end.
@@emptywig Right? For devs... on personal projects especially... no program is ever really "done"
I had the 1200 baud modem for my c-64c, which I used for Q-Link, but I got busted by my parents for running up a huge bill since it was $5 an hour, so I started going on local BBS'es. Radio Shack carried a monthly publication where people listed their BBS'es. I used to love playing Legends of the Red Dragon, and Usurper. Other geeks were into this game called MajorMUD, where they ran scripts which let the computer play the game for them, which I never saw the appeal in. Once AOL started offering unlimited monthly plans that was sort of the end of the scene for most users.
The C64 was my first computer. I learned how to program on it, from the manual and also from magazines. I always appreciated how that early exposure to programming helped me in school by training me to break problems down to their component parts, design solutions to those problems, and troubleshoot solutions that fail. I don't do much programming anymore, but that work ethic I learned way back in '83 as an elementary school student is still a factor in how I approach life's challenges.
I miss type-in programs, too, even when you throw in the typographical errors that would creep in from time to time. It's a bygone era that millions of people miss, which is why there is STILL considerable interest in retro-tech and new hardware and software for those great old systems. There are even new games coming out each year for the Atari 2600! I think people are just getting burned out on state-of-the-art-first-person-shooters-ad-nauseum...
i could't have said it better. changed my life.
10 PRINT "HAVE ANOTHER DRINK"
20 GOTO 10
That was my life program that ran for a good 10 years, until I finally hit the RUN STOP key and typed NEW. The C64 saved my life.
@michael gregory My dad's first computer was the C64
@@JustWasted3HoursHere I remember a book from the library for Simon's Basic which had a program with lines and lines of DATA with lots of numbers. My bro-in-law and I typed all of it... and it didn't run. As far as we could see we didn't make any mistake. Many hours were lost, hahaha
I love how an unintended “ bug “ of the sid chip was a 4th audio channel for 4bit sample playback.. wish all bugs were that great
This is why I love this channel
00101011 00110001
am i the only one who got the google+ joke
1337
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro
Considering the company is called Commodore, you'd think they would spell "kernal" "colonel".
That’d be clever!
@@AshtonSnapp Don't you mean Klever
ALL operating systems have a kernal.
@ungratefulmetalpansy you're wrong. All operating systems have a kernal.
@ungratefulmetalpansy Ok, I stand corrected, spelling nazi asshole.
Thank you for an excellent summary of the C64. My first program was published in 1994 on Loadstar, just in time for the demise of the machine. Loadstar continued until 2007 - and included what is probably the last BASIC extension - DotBASIC Plus - which added about 100 commands to BASIC 2.0, and the resulting program would run on any C64. I would love to see a look at Loadstar, which was and will be forever the longest running disk periodical - achieving 249 issues. (To be honest, during the last years, the word "periodical" is better described as "once in a while." I was the Editor for issues 200 - 249.
I knew you were revising the episode, but 15 minutes of additional content? Wow.
Note that not all 64C models have the newer motherboard and SID chip. Those were introduced beginning in 1987, so the first year of production still had the old motherboard and SID chip. And most sold in the USA still had the graphics symbols on the front of the keys.
Also Atari fans would argue that the POKEY chip, designed in 1978, could hold its own against the SID chip, especially in terms of sound effects. And the Apple II and TRS-80 could actually do multi-voice sound, although it took up a lot of the CPU's processing power, so it was mostly only used for title screens.
Hi
I still haven't heard anything that comes close to the likes of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Turbo Outrun or the NTSC After Burner on the C64 running from the POKEY. The POKEY's a good chip and that extra sound channel helped when it came to generating in-game sound effects, but I don't think it had the musical versatility of the SID.
Of course, when we start getting to the demo scene, all bets are off; there's a ZX Spectrum homebrew game, Byte Me, with digital samples on the title screen that sound like they're not that short from the Amiga.
You have to remember that the Atari 8-bit computer series was designed in 1978, so it predates even the VIC-20, and the fact that it was seen as a direct competitor to the C64 -- a four-year-newer machine -- is really quite remarkable. Atari was working on an even better music synthesizer chip that they were going to put in the 65XEM model in 1985 but unfortunately it only made it to the prototype stage when Jack Tramiel canceled it.
The AMY chip definitely was a big loss to the world. Pity that Tramiel never exploited it; sounds like it would have been a great competitor to the Paula and the FM chips around at the time.
Those machines contain the slightly but not extremely rare assy 250466 motherboard. Is more integrated than the mainboards in most breadbins, but still uses the old chipset.
GEOS was another great late addition to the Commodore lineup. Having a GUI on such a small profile - was amazing and it worked great!
It was nuts. I couldn't believe what I was seeing as a kid back then. I had only seen a GUI on a Mac in an expensive computer store. The kind with a TV projection screen and few customers because it was expensive, so they let me spend mornings on their Macintosh II machine.
I used it to write papers in my junior, maybe beginning senior year of high school, before I got an Amiga 500 as an early graduation gift. Hah, my English teacher would get a little annoyed at me because we had one of those thermal printers with the special paper. I was always handing her "scrolls" instead of flat paper like all the other kids.
Wow, what a trip down memory lane. The 64 was my first computer. I worked a paper route for 2 years to save up enough money to buy it and I was the envy of all my geeky friends. I remember having debate class in grade 10 where my friend and I debated the pros and cons of Apple versus Commodore lol.
One thing I'd like to correct. You said most of the peripherals for the Vic 20 were compatible with the C64, but the 1540 disk drive was not. The C64 needed the 1541 which had an extra chip inside to slow the I/O speed for reasons I forget.
How could you leave us hanging ? Who won the Apple vs Commodore debate ?
Are you saying there were pros to the Apple?
@@SteveLeicht1 No, but his friends thought so bc they worked 4 years on the paper route to get their Apple.
this is my favorite episode. I've seen it like 20 times. I love your energy and hype with the c64.
Commodore 64 versus atari 8 bit computers what is a better gaming computer vote now
34 minutes?! I didn't notice how the time flew!
Shreyas Kulkarni same, didn't even realize how long of a vid it was till it was over
Absolutely true. In fact how the time flew from those days...
Great series Dave. I was never into Commodore machines in the 80s, my dad thought they were toys so we had IBM compatibles. It’s great learning about how Commodore helped shape the home computer revolution!
We had one because they were great for games and learning about computers and because a friend had one because his dad used it for administration for his company. It was much easier to get games for it than it was for an IBM. My dad had an IBM for speculating on the stock market and I always thought the games on it felt rickety. As if they would fall apart if you played too hard or something. The graphics also looked awful and the sound on the C64 was just way better. It took a long time before I appreciated the more powerful machines and even now with the modern day hand held ultralight supercomputers with a wireless telephone and internet connection I still love the C64 to death and I'm very happy that there are so many enthusiasts out there doing absolute magic on those tiny old chips. I mean, you heard that the IBM had 3D graphics and the C64 did not, right. Did you also notice those 3D graphics on the C64 demo's he showed? ;) You missed out bro :p I'm very sorry for you :p
Your dad embodies everything that is wrong with the world. He is the reason Commodore went bankrupt. You were getting a lot of bang per buck in the early 80s with a Commodore 64.
@@gregorymalchuk272 but their father was also quite on the money since IBM compatibles were the real deal for business applications and went on to dominate the computer industry. So from a "give your children an edge" perspective, he played smart !
Best 34 minutes and 58 seconds I have spent all week!
Wow, I didn't even realise that
I thought I watched a 10 minute video
That episode made me feel like a kid again, with my noisey modem, homemade, hand knotched double sided disks(crammed with bootlegs) unbalanced diskdrive with the cover loose to tap the insides when one too many coppies made that damn red light spaz. A good part of my childhood was spent sitting down behind that wonderfully clunky keyboard. I'm not sure I ve ever actually ever really gotten back up. Wow what time capsule.
The SID chip still sounds amazing in 2019 :)
the reason I got 3 C64 in my studio. And, I have the Therapsid mk2 synth, with 2 SID chips installed :)
@The SNES Man I bought 2 SID chips from someone that had salvaged around 100 SIDs from non-working C64s. Considering how many C64s was sold (I heard 17 million) I dont think you will run out of SIDs quite yet.
If you find a non-working C64, you should strip it of its working parts though, and either keep them or sell them to someone who needs them.
3 part harmony! Amazing!
@@DogWalkerBill Atari 800 - 4 part harmony. Amazing. Yes, that is 8 bit sound quality. You could also have 2 16-bit sound quality.
Imagine a modern computer with 5 of those
"Let's not forget the movie Pixels..."
I really wish I could though.
Ready player one was way better
Awesome history lesson, I ran a Wildcat BBS back in the day on my C64 and I loved it! Thanks for sharing this and I hope others find what we already know, that C64 was a big part of computer history!
NWO GUY Wildcat! Was DOS based. Perhaps you meant Cnet?
The Commodore 64 was my first computer which I got on my eighth birthday and is still my favourite machine of all time. Hearing SID soundtracks from The Last Ninja, Turrican, Commando bring back many nostalgic memories. The 64 lives on and I am LOVING Sam's Journey. Thank you for your video :)
So in 2018 more games were released for C64 than the 3DS
Even PS Vita had more games released in 2018.
r e k t
xdddd
@christian harvey i mean theyre right. as cool as modern c64 games are, persona q 2 is way better in pretty much every aspect that the two can be compared
I had a C64 with a cassette deck here in the Uk. I had no idea half of this stuff existed; not even the disk drive.
The more I learn about the C64 the more I'm impressed. I never had one myself _but_ I did use a 1702 monitor for years. My parents thought it could only be used for computers so they never suspected that I had a cable box hidden behind it. I would use it to watch TV at night when they went to bed lol. It had a great picture. I remember watching a lot of movies and TV shows on it.
I'm so sad that Commodore went down the tubes. Commodore was my absolute favorite computer company back in the day. Me and my C64 were an unstoppable pair. I miss the days of just being able to turn your computer on, and being able to just.. program the computer to do what you wanted it to do. And the computer actually came with the manuals with the information to show you how to write the programs. Nowadays, you have to purchase a compiler and figure out what language you want to write in from a half dozen programming languages that are each for different things. Things were so much simpler back then. I miss those days.
I agree, today it is so hard to learn programming, too much to learn before you can even see a most simple "Hello World". Back then, you just turned on your C64 and there it was: the blue screen of, no not death but genesis, a minimalistic but friendly "ready." greeted you and invited for hours of creativity and programming. Or games.
I think one of Commodore's mistakes was trying to save it's PET line. The C64 was crippled so as not to do too much damage to PET. But that tactic always bites you in the long run as your competitors won't hold back.
I never had a need to write in assembly. I always just used Basic for everything and it worked out fine for what I needed. I wrote so many damn games and programs for school on that thing. I was a whiz with Basic. I was dimly aware of assembly at the time but never bothered with it. Why bother with some new, more complex language when I was already getting what I wanted out of Basic?
Writing programs in assembly was actually very easy, all you needed was a for read loop and some (a lot) data instructions. And some knowledge of the opcodes. Very easy, very comfortable - well, almost. Probably a pita by today's standards, but fascinating back in the days.
Buy a compiler? Maybe back in the early 1990s, you might. I just use MinGW for my C++ compiling these days. Yeah, still on Windows 7 till Microsoft stops supporting it, then it's off to Linux land.
Thank you for the time you invested in making this "extended edition" video. Although the C64 has a long-time following, it is nice to have resources on RUclips to help introduce people to the system and give a bit of history on not just the system itself but also the era of computing during which it was released. Well done.
Got my first C64 35 years ago, and I still love it! These things never get old, do they.
osgrov a year for every minute of this video
Illuminati confirned
These computers were before my time, but this series is the entire reason I have a C64 now. It amazes me what they were able to do with the tech of the time. And the fact that its still a fun computer to use.
I don't know if it is just me, But i love the rustic kind of feeling of firing up an old C64 with a TV. The static makes it just feel right in my opinion.
My mom walks in and says, "Oh wow, a Commodore!! I used to play Pitfall and piano with the snap-on thing."
Now I'm looking for Pitfall and the snap-on thing....
did you build your commodore 64 yourself out of all new parts?
My dad:
LOOK UP FOR ME ON'T INTERNET "COMMODORE 16 AND 64"
I have to know. Did you find them?
The snap on thing you're talking about is the Incredible Music Keyboard. On the 8 Bit Keys channel, you can find a video about it.
Amazing chapter man! C64 was my first computer back in 1986 and I grew up playing a lot with that machine. It brings back very fond memories. I love your channel! Cheers from Uruguay!
One of our favorite computers of all time. Other beinc Commodore Amiga 1200. Damn we miss those times. Btw... still have Commodore VIC-20, Commodore C-64 & Commodore Amiga A1200. All of them work!
i had a vic 20 my first machine i learned to code on, then a 128 then an Amiga 1000. Don't have any of those machines anymore or my software projects but i did find an original c64 breadbin at an antique shop i got for $50, then got a monitor and 2 1541's (one with a drive switch in back) and some other junk at an estate sale (a taxxan rgb monitor not a 1702 sadly) and i got a new PSU from Ray Carlsen and a wifiModem from C4ever and I am having a blast. Now trying to decide best accelerator card - epyx fast load vintage or fastload reloaded which i think has a mini SD drive ?
Absolutely love your knowledge on Commodore and your videos.
This excellent episode "basic"ally covered a big part of my life back when I was about 17 years old. Thanks for the memories! The C64 will always have a special place in my heart, for a machine. I know, I'm a computer nerd. 😁
Was confused about my C64 not looking like yours (sadly thrown away by parents eager to free up closet space) until I saw that it was it was actually the 64C. Very informative video!
Parents are all the same, aren't they. Gave away my A1000, too.
Hello David, I watch the channel every night for at least an hour lol. I figured I should write to say thanks after sitting at the local gas station/convenience store for the last 25 mins in the parking lot not going inside because I've been hooked into the vids. I hope you and your family are well! I love the new videos and I wish you all the best!
The hours I spent playing ZORK and its successors are some of my favorite memories. The InvisiClue hint books with special magic high lighters to reveal hidden text were really cool too. Making your own sprites was a lot of fun as well.
Great review! I did my final University thesis on Commodore 64. My two collegues and I built a 2 channel oscilloscope. Tha hand-made hardware plugged into the user port to start/stop, set channels gains and print wave graphics. Graphics programming was realy hard, but possible! Nice machine! :) Great feeling! :)
L Essays
they're pointless quiet Kid crap
Great video. I owned a VIC-20 back then but moved pretty quick to a PC and didn’t pay much attention to Commodore. In this video, I learned so much about the C64 and its great history that I wish I had kept up with it back then! I do have a few C64s in my closet that I bought from eBay about 10 years back and I’m definitely digging in there to set one up again! Thanks for an amazing video!
I was patiently waiting for this video and I wasnt disappointed!
Fantastic work as usual, 8-Bit Guy!
Frank Herbert would like to know your location
Back in 1985, I did a demonstration speech on the SID’s ADSR technology at DeVry. The class was blown away from a demo disk I acquired from a trade show. 3 songs were played: Vivaldi’s Spring, Beethoven’s Fur Elise, and I think Joplin’s The Entertainer. For just 3 voices, this thing was amazing. Other things I remembered was a word processor that required a physical ‘key” to operate (Paperclip?). I would program in BASIC, PASCAL and Assembly. Was it wrong to kiss my C64 every now and then. I really, really miss those days, just wish there were more advance books for this computer back then.
Fun fact: Quantum Link eventually evolved into AOL.
AOL owned Time Warner from 2000 -2003
@Dominick Smith lol Packard Bell
We all hacked to be on Q-Link!.....Eff 6 cents a minute lol
Dr. M. H. Very underrated show. I truly miss the reruns when they’d play on SciFi channel back in the day.
Oh boy.....
@@Vessick ik
It was a great video, with great explanations.
Another important thing for me is that you speak very well, very clearly, at a normal speed so that other people who are not native English speakers have an easier time understanding what you say. THANKS
Spectacularly well researched and presented - the whole series of the Commodore history. Nice job! I grew up with a TI-99/4A and, being into electronics, was exceedingly jealous of the C64 owners with the user port. The TI had absolutely no equivalent to control the outside world. Hoping to see some TI99 history one day :-)
Zx spectrum
the TI's lack of GPIO is yet another example of how insular and unfriendly to developers their whole approach was... arguably one of the big reasons the system failed. Not the lack of GPIO, but the lack of third-party developers.
This is the 7th time i watch all parts of your Commodore History. This Videos are amazing !! Thanks for your work !!!
Nice put together. A hell of a machine. Talking about a golden era of computing is a nonsense, but if applied, sure it happend on the C64 era. Hats of to the people who designed a 12 year proof computer, that obvioulsy was way ahead in 1982. You keep showing what I think is the last revision of the C4 system board, but this board had changed at least three times. you can see a small reduction of chip in the later one, like they finally did in the C64 C. Here we had have both machines built localy and moded to PALN. Case colour could vary. They werent strict on the molding. One if the machine we had was grey with just a bit of light violet tone ... I dont think that Commodre was too concerned about it. RF mod was a dissaster. We keep changing cables and RF adapters. Some of them gave better results. but some days was unusable. Probably the pal n mod wasnt that good. Then TONS of cloned peripherals. Here we got a nice datassette made in Brazil, that was less prone to missaligment and more robust. And we hade a 1571 clone that or local Commodore representative sold but the couldnt put the Commdore brand on it. The drive was good. Joysticks were another complete talk, many local manufacturers offering stuff from garbage to premiun, even arcade style joystick in sort of antivandallic contruction (LOL). We got a third party Brick and this was far superior including with two 220V sockets, 2 110V sockets, switch with light and all metal casing. It was a bit expensive but way rugged and not potted so you could repair it.
Nice movie again!
I remember buying my C64 around 1986, with the help of my parents.
I spent countless hours on it, nice childhood memories.
The poweradapter could be used to warm your feet, in winter.
WHen young i had loads of energy, waking up easily at 05:00 in the morning to play games before school.
Fastbikkel yeah because they were awesome......
Nice presentation ! This brings back good memories and I'm going to send a link to my son. It was our first computer which led to many more, including the monster I'm using now which I built myself. My son went on, taking computer courses in college and works in IT today. It was truly a computer for the whole family!
Hi, I've been a Basic and Assembly programmer on both the Commodore Vic 20 and the Commodore 64. I congratulate you on your expertise, you made me relive the 80's times when programming was simple and it was pure fun .. . Greetings!
Absolutely loved this episode :) I owe the fact I can program and my love of computers (well admittedly retro) and consoles to the C64, my first computer. I still have my C64C from 1991 and it still works, although its box is rather dog chewed... Lots of happy memories coming back to me right now! Can't wait for the Plus 4 episode with all those weird and wonderful C16/264/364 machines maybe making an appearance!
I remember me and my buddies would see who type load"*",8,1 as fast as we could and see who was the fastest and other commands...lol....and do you know how hard it is to type that on a qwerty lol...after all these years I still have the muscle memory from the c64
8-Bit Guy, the Atari 800, released November 1979, has the Chroma and Luma pins on it's monitor port. Will you be doing a series on the Atari 8-bit generation of computers?
I used my 800’s so much they kept blowing out on me. I think I went through 2 800xls and two 130xe’s but by the time the 130xes were out for a year or so they were so cheap all I had to do was get some good grades then pops and I would go down to The Federated Group and pick up another one :) I was a pirate kingpin, I had drawers and drawers full of floppies filled with games on them. I wrote a hacking program to hack out calling card numbers while I was at school. I’d have 5 or so codes printed out after I got home from it banging out hundreds of tries. Now I could call the UK BBS’ at no long distance charge and get all the games before they were available in the USA. Problem was the darned local calling card number my program kept calling to hack out the codes was a toll call!! Oops! Pops got hit with a 300 page $300.00 phone bill full of $.10c toll charges. I never told him why until about a year ago...
The Atari 800 might have had Chroma and Luma pins on its monitor port but as Atari themselves made no monitor to use it, not could the public really buy such monitors in 1979 it hardly counts. Commodore made it usable by selling a monitor to take advantage of it and that's why its often seen as the first. Atari themselves ditched such a non used feature in its other models
If people are putting Kernels into their computers, they're making popcorn wrong... :P
Ironically, "Popcorn" was a piece of music which became famous as a demo of sound capability on the C64!
as long as they're not putting Colonels in their machines, that'd be a bloody mess.
Unless you're running an AMD Thunderbird, in which case, you're doing it properly.
Jean Michel Jarre's Popcorn was famous loooong before the C64 came out mate. Made it to the top of the charts in 1969 in fact. But like you I also "link" it to the C64. Anyway, here's our boring parents trippin' out on TV to it: ruclips.net/video/4E7BLSSLgtw/видео.html
Gershon Kingsley's*
I have watched the previous videos but all of a sudden a smile cane across my face when I saw the C64. This is where my computing days began. I loved creating Basic programs with this machine. The only problem was after a few moments the machine used to freeze and then free up again. "Garbage collection" I think we called it. So as soon as it was available I jumped into an Amiga 1000. I loved Amiga basic. I paid an absolute fortune for extra memory. Still it kept me out of trouble and also out of the pubs, well for a while anyway. Fond memories.
I working for Commodore here in California, I never saw one of these Commodore Max's go to mass production. Or my memory is bad, lol 1980 - 1984 .... I was there for the mass production VIC 20 and Commodore 64 and we toyed with various skin colors. Sadly the public did not get to see them. - Cheers Derrick
In my senior year of college (computer science major), I found a COMPUTE book that had something in it called "Assembler in BASIC." took the software, enhanced the heck out of it (added forward references and storage definition and allocation metacommands) and came away with a software tool good enough to be used professionally. Pity the machine died in the market soon after that.
This was a nice trip down memory lane. Thank you. There’s one peripheral I had for a while that if I still had it, it would definitely be sent on down to David for his collection. It was something like a drawing pad, but it had an arm you moved and which operated a pair of slider potentiometers inside the unit (so it was basically using the paddle functionality), and had some software similar to Koala Draw.
This is really great, thanks for doing this! I used to write games for the C64 (The Detective, Hyberblob) and this brought back a lot of memories. And I learnt some things that I didn't know. I've still got my VIC-20, C64, C16 and C128.
My first computer was a C64. My parents got it for us for Christmas in 1982 along with a small bw tv and a datasette drive. I eventually bought the 1526 printer and 2 disc drives. I remember many Saturday mornings typing programs into it and my friend's TRS-80 from the latest Compute! magazine and hoping that there were no typos from us or the listing. Some days I wish I still had this machine. My favorite game was the Zork series. I attempted writing my own BASIC programs but I just couldn't grasp the whole peek/poke thing. Thanks for this great series!
edit: I remember being really excited to get the GEOS word processor to be able to attempt to complete homework assignments without having to use a typewriter.
WOW! That multi-instrument per simple pulse track idea totally blew me away.
I can't wait to compose some neo 8-bit music with what you've just introduced me to, will be sure to send the results your way. Thanks!!
I may have loved my Amiga 500 back in the day but my all time favorite memories were with the C64 from the 80's. It's awesome that people are still making games for it. I'll have to invest into some in the near future.
Commodore 64 vs atari 8 bit computers what was and is a better gaming computer? Vote now
My C64 is hooked up to a 37 inch 720P old school panasonic tv via s-video. It looks remarkably good actually. BC’s quest for tires looks amazing on it.
Jason Dinkins nice
Amazing. Absolutely incredible video. Thank you very much.
I love my Commodore 64. It was my second computer, I bought a TI-994a in 1983 with my 8th grade graduation money and I learned basic. I talked my older brother inlaw into computers and he was studying in Devry and he told me about the Commodore 64 and it's excellent programmers manual...may have been called advanced programers manual...I don't recall. And in 1985, while relativly poor, my parents bought me and my brothers a commodore 64, floppy disk drive, and a printer for around $1,000 US. I knew it was a lot of money and was proud of my parents to spend the money. With the advanced programing manual Commodore published you had full control of the hardware. I programed in Basic and Assembler and new how to talk to hardware in code. I even purchased a eprom burner, and learned what a eprom was, and made my own cartridges. Every peace of HW you bought came with a programmers manual!
I learned to read code and assembler and crack and hack games, learning more as I did so. I also learned that the Floppy drive had the same processor as the C64 and you could send Assembler code there and it would run on the Floppy controller... This machine did more that what you would ever see in college. All that I learned on the C64 applied to future programing I did in college, PC and Main Frame assemble and of course simpler high level languages. One thing you learned that is missing today is...control. You control the PC, not the other way around. Today's IT and Users frequently let the machine tell them how to work. Today I still make computers do my will as they should be doing.
Thank you for this video!
I just wanted to say thank you for these videos. The C-64 was the first computer I’ve owned. Did a lot with it. Added a floppy drive, used GEOS, and many more activities with it. Then I upgraded to a C-128. Wahoo! All that “power” it had. These are from my childhood, so it brings back many good memories.
I remember wanting a 128 so bad, its BASIC had so many more commands than the 64.
Man! That picture of the electronics boutique took me way back! I used to go there ALL THE TIME! Sadly, by the time I convinced my parents to get me a computer, C64s were well on their way out, but it was more affordable. So it's what I got. All this cool hardware you're talking about was REALLY difficult to find. I could only find stuff second-hand, and I could hardly find software or better manuals. My parents just couldn't see the benefit of having a computer at home, despite my dad making a living as a Fortran programmer. I'll never understand that one. Also considering that I make my living as a programmer today. Ugh!
In the early 90s we had an Electronics Boutique (none of this EB games rubbish), and a Babbages at the new mall that was built where I lived. (Parks Mall in Arlington, TX) Unfortunately I had a CoCo2 at the time so nobody sold anything for it except RadioShack. But once I got my Tandy 1000 series computer, I had a whole new world of games available for it.
Wow! Was that the time when they made Parks mall? I lived in Arlington TX for three years (2013-16)
Your videos and knowledge are so impressive! Thank you for making them. I can't imagine how you have the room to store all that vintage equipment.
I suspect the main reason is that he has a very understanding wife.
New Techmoan video before bed.
Wake up to new 8 Bit Guy video.
My C64 sits higher than my VIC-20. I think it just depended on what moulding machine they used at what factory.
Earlier model C64s used the same case as the VIC-20. Later, Commodore made newer cases for the C64, which was shorter than the VIC's. To save more on costs, the VIC-20 later used the same cases as the C64, though with a slight modification to the bottom piece to accommodate the larger cartridges.
I might be wrong, though, as a lot of documentation for these sorts of things aren't well-preserved.
5:00 I love this bit about "Kernal"! David you have such a great manner dealing with these things, articulating each letter and spelling it out is golden .
Never will forget playing Elite on the C64. Great game, great computer.
Absolutely astonishing game for it's time. I managed to get all the way up to Dangerous ranking and military lasers on all weapon points. Yes, I was addicted! ;-)
Yep. basically the only reason why I keep playing elite dangerous. Never made it to Elite on the C64 :)
C’est superbe , quel plaisir de voir ce monde de Commodore 64
Excellente documentation. Je suis ravis. Belles continuations.
Yes.
My first computer... but only because I couldn’t afford an Apple 2e.
Love this series.
Well done.👍
Same. I had collected lots of Apple software that I used at school and library but could not afford one for at home.
I find it fascinating computer makers could churn out the same computer year after year with the exact same processor and specs… even stranger to me is the concept of a computer loading directly into a developer environment instead of a general operating system. Thanks for making me feel young with this series!
I've had to hack together all kinds of junk for my old c64s. I tried to get one running on an atx power supply with mixed results. Loved the video!
You just did my bio from age 12 to 18. Commodore made me everything I am today!
Snoo Pl me too
Man, this was one of the best RUclips video I've seen in a while... It was so complete!
Can't wait for the Amiga parts :D
That job is for 16-Bit Guy or 32-Bit Guy.
They will have to fight over it.
That's where Retro Man Cave steps in :)
Gear Seekers k
It was literally Spanish (or Portuguese) for "girlfriend."
Seriously, how lonely were computer technicians in the 1980s? 😭
@@grantorino2325 No, amiga it's "friend"
Girlfriend is "Novia"
What a trip down memory lane. No matter how old I get, I enjoy firing up a C64 emulator and just typing in random commands from time to time, creating stupid little programs for fun. It's amazing how many commands I still remembered after more than 30 years of not using them. The C64 kept me sane throughout my middle and high school years. Thanks for doing these!! There are also some websites dedicated now to old BBS services to really take you back.. they even work with modded C64's that have had modems added to them.
Mr. Murray -- thank you for your great documentary on this memorable computer! I'm sure you could make a 2h video on the subject matter as there is so much to talk about!
My second computer was the C64c, and I pretty much had the same setup you eluded to -- 1200 baud modem, 1571 + 1581 drives, Geos with 128K Ram expansion. Growing up in Canada, I used a Super Snapshot cartridge which was basically the same thing as the Action Replay cartridge in the US: fast load with a way to "pause" the CPU and inspect/manipulate memory and save screen captures. In the early 90s, someone let me borrow a JiffyDos chip for my 1581 which was a remarkable replacement for the stock DOS chip. I was then amazed that a company started producing hard drives that were C64/128 compatible -- one of my friends ran a BBS with these drives. Another one of my Commodore buddies had figured out how to modify an REU to exceed its stock memory capacity; I recall the procedure involved soldering RAM chips on top of one another. Amazing stuff!
My first computer was a C16 (which I still have) and I'm very much looking forward to watching your next video in the series.
9:38 The 1702 monitor is well-restpected beyond the Commodore community. I proudly have one as part of my daily-use Atari 800 setup.
🎵Are you keeping up with Commodore?🎵
onedeadsaint Yeah, why?
Coz Commodore is keeping up with you!
CAUSE THE COMODORE IS KEEPING UP WITH YOU
THE COMMODORE IS KEEPING UP WITH YOU!!
I want too but...
3:59 The keyboard mechanism is actually also identical to the CBM machines, except they put 4 function keys instead of the number keypad. And the keycaps were different of course.
"And now here's a typing demonstration of the Commodore keyboard." (chyrosran22 reference)
The thing I hated about the commodore keyboard was the restore key was hooked up differently from the others, and I always had to tap it somewhat vigorously while holding down run/stop to get it to register. Might have been an issue specific to my keyboard.
I was told by Bil Herd (designer of the C128) that the reason you had to hit RESTORE so vigorously, is that it was more or less directly connected to the NMI input of the 6510. The NMI is edge-triggered and unless you hit the button vigorously (to minimize bouncing of the contact) the processor doesn't recognize it. This was the same for all C64's.
The restore problem can be remedied by changing capacitor C38 in the NMI triggering circuitry connected to the restore key from 51pF to 4.7nF. Search for "c64 restore mod" via the usual search engine, and it's the first hit. Another thing to do is to clean the 30+ year old oxidised contacts inside the keyboard.
I had a particularly bad case of this issue on a C64 I repaired. Restore had to be hit REALLY hard for it to work. Cleaning the contacts improved it, but not to an acceptable level. I didn't have any 4.7nF caps in hand so I used a 1nF instead, and although it still wasn't perfect, meaning that the restore key had to still be pressed a bit harder than the rest of the keys,, it worked a LOT better than without the mod.
The restore circuitry is completely different in 250469 "short" board, i.e. the board in most C64Cs apart from the first production year or so, and it doesn't seem to suffer from this issue.
So excellent, it's like the curtain finally lifting up after so many years of wondering how it all worked.
As millennial, I want to express my appreciation to 8-Bit Guy for his channel. After watching his videos, I did developed my view on PCs from 80s, namely Commodore, Atari and Amiga. Before I found this channel, I did know nothing about existence these vintage computers.
The C64 seems like an easy computer to make your own programs if you know what your doing. I actually thought about buying a C64 and experimenting with it.
twistedyogert good idea
Yes, C64 Basic was easy to learn. He is correct that advanced graphics did take a lot of effort but it can be learned.
The Commodore 64 in Australia went crazy over floppy disks. We stopped getting cassette tapes very early in the 80's.
in Canada the cassette drive may as well have never existed. It was the only thing frustrating about importing U.K. mags like ZZap!64, they often came with bonus cassettes which were useless in North America with no one having a cassette drive here. At least many of them had data on one side, and music on the other so they were partially usable. ;-)
15:12 picture from text adventure game kingdom valley, good one.
18:38 Rambo game
19:22 Impossible mission
24:15 Spy vs Spy
25:18 Master of lamps
27:26 Lemmings
QuantumLnk was a great service but the only good services of it were in the (+) areas which costed 8 cents a minute to be in.
Habitat was late renamed/branded as Club Caribe, RabbitJacks Casino was the more popular game on QunantumLink. I think in 1990 they had the Wheel of fortune like thing "Puzzler"
That's not Twin Kingdom Valley, it's just a piece of artwork. The "Rambo" game is Commmando.
I really started to respect Commodore 64 (and VIC) after your videos! And in truth, the same powerful system as the ZX.
What an impressive collection of c64 add-ons you have!
Thanks so much for the video !!!
Thank you so much for making these videos. I started hacking with Vic 20 back in the days, went through Commodore 64, Amiga 1000/500/2000 and all the way to present day. I've read all the Commodore books and such, but still these videos filled me with not only nostalgia but much more new information. And a small thing to mention, but thank you also for not asking me to subscribe or do thumbs up. You've got it already :)
Never heard of the Max before - very interesting!
I was also pleased to see Zork loaded up on the 64.
Best channel about old computers!
19:15 love the Ghostbusters game, partly because of the music and intro
19:18 impossible mission is something I can play hours on end and never get bored
When I was in college I had a friend with a C64. When he upgraded to the C128 I was blown away by the power and speed. After I graduated I bought am Amiga 1000. Great to watch your videos about this time in computer history.
ive been watching these videos since i was 14. im now 21. i cant tell you how much your channel and content have gotten me through. thank you ❤