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The Commodore 64 @ 30

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    The Commodore 64 @ 30

    For some reason, I never got around to uploading this piece I filmed for the BBC back in 2012 for the Commodore 64's 30th anniversary... anyhow, here you go heh... enjoy!

    Lie with passion and be forever damned...

    #2
    What a machine... now 36 years old.
    Last edited by beecee; 12-11-2018, 07:42.

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      #3
      Miss my C64 sooooo much!

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        #4
        I’ve been eyeing up buying a C64 for a while for nostalgic reasons and the thriving homebrew scene. But the Mega 65 is making me wait for it instead.
        The MEGA65 computer, a modern open 8-bit computer with many enhancements.


        As long as it runs Creatures I’m good.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Mayhem View Post
          For some reason, I never got around to uploading this piece I filmed for the BBC back in 2012 for the Commodore 64's 30th anniversary... anyhow, here you go heh... enjoy!
          I remember watching that on TV -- I didn't know it was you, Mayhem.

          I was an Amstrad and Speccy user, but always knew the C64 was something special. I actually bought one in 1990 with a disk drive and a bundle of games, so I did get to enjoy it eventually. It's easily one of my favourite 8-bit computers alongside the MSX/MSX2. The SID chip is such a magical, briiliant creation.

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            #6
            I was clearing out my stuff recently and I found our C64 and games etc all in their original polystyrene packaging. The tape deck still had the price tag from back in the 80s. £45 it cost for a tape deck... jheeze!

            The machine still works, but I just don’t have the desire to play the games again... it’s the memories that serve me well...

            It will always be the pinnacle of my childhood gaming memories...

            112

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              #7
              The BBC News page with it on is actually still active!
              BBC News has conducted an experiment to see what pupils of today make of the Commodore 64 home computer, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.
              Lie with passion and be forever damned...

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                #8
                Originally posted by 112 View Post
                The tape deck still had the price tag from back in the 80s. £45 it cost for a tape deck... jheeze!
                That's £300 in modern money. £45 was way too much for a tape deck -- should have been £15 -- but gamers were taken advantage of like they are now. At least with the Spectrum you could plug any tape deck into it.

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                  #9
                  Yeah but the commodore machines could start and stop the tape deck themselves!!!

                  Opened up my 1541 floppy drive last night and I see it has a 6502 in there. It's basically another Commodore 64 in there, minus the VIC and SID chips lol. It's also absolutely enormous and basically the slowest floppy drive unit ever made. I'm missing a 6 pin DIN serial cable so can't test it fully yet.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Brad View Post
                    It's also absolutely enormous and basically the slowest floppy drive unit ever made.
                    I bet it cost a ton back in the day. I guess it was a bit better than using tape though. The drive I had for my C64C was the later version that went with it. I have a soft spot from the 'bread bin' design though.
                    Last edited by Leon Retro; 12-11-2018, 15:06.

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                      #11
                      It cost more than the C64 itself IIRC! I have a rather nice condition bread bin but the SID chip is a bit dodgy; possibly caused by me I just discovered :-(

                      Devs got around the slow transfer rates by crunching the data and then having the drive itself decrunch it; possible due to the presence of the 6502 I assume. Also, you could make disc games perform better by using the CPU in the drive as a co-processor.

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                        #12
                        I still have the 1541-II floppy disk drive in its box also... it pretty much paved the way for piracy back in the day...

                        Unlike the Spectrum, copying a cassette was not as simple as ‘press play on tape’ to record...

                        112

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Brad View Post
                          It cost more than the C64 itself IIRC!

                          Devs got around the slow transfer rates by crunching the data and then having the drive itself decrunch it; possible due to the presence of the 6502 I assume.
                          I didn't know it cost that much. I read about how devs came up ways to make the loading faster, so the slow speed was at least overcome after a while. I didn't know the games could perform better because of the extra 6502, so that's interesting.

                          I might buy the C64 Mini, now that I've seen you can add loads of games to it.

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                            #14
                            Twin tape decks did the job just fine on the Vic-20! Helped by the 300 baud load speed no doubt. Yes, you read that correctly. Approx 30 seconds to load 1Kilobyte. Or in values the youth of today can understand approx. 0.0003Mb/s

                            To load Red Dead Redemption 2 (105GB) from tape on a Vic-20 or C64 would take just over 95 years and would come on a BASF C50,000,000 cassette, or - more likely - 135,000 C60s.

                            If you bought the 1541 drive you could load it in a little under 12 years.

                            I do the maths so you don't have to.

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                              #15
                              Was so envious of my pal with a C64, and choplifter on Rom. How can it load so fast...He had the floppy drive too. Zx and tape deck in my house...

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