A Look at the Commodore 64 : The Ultimate C64 Documentary You've Been Waiting For!!!
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- Let's take a look at the Commodore 64, the worlds best selling computer. We'll go back to World War II Europe, and follow the founder of Commodore on his journey to building this great company and product. The C64 is still the best selling computer ever produced.
Like all my "A Look At's", this video shows the history, what's inside, a 360 tour, powering it on and showing some gameplay and software, and my thoughts and opinions in the conclusion. In between each segment I also include retro commercials of the Commodore, to show how it was marketed. So sit back and enjoy, this one is full of great Commodore information...
#commodore64 #c64 #computerhistory #vintagecomputer #commodore #videogamehistory #commercials
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• A Look At:
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📖📖📖 Chapters 📖📖📖
0:00 Intro
2:30 History
16:18 What's inside
26:53 360 Tour of the C64
32:48 Software: BASIC
39:22 Software: GEOS
42:57 Gameplay: Choplifter
45:45 Gameplay: Test Drive
50:16 Gameplay: Pitfall II The Lost Caverns
52:27 Intro: Project: Stealth Fighter
55:15 Gameplay: Skate or Die
57:12 Gameplay: Pac-Man
58:47 Conclusion
🎶🎶🎶 Music Credits 🎶🎶🎶
Song: The Stencil Game
From: The Green Light EP
Produced by HAAL Electronica haalelectronica.bandcamp.com/...
Used with permission from HAAL Electronica
Check out his youtube channel: / haalelectronica
Song: Moonlight Chronicles
From: The Green Light EP
Produced by HAAL Electronica haalelectronica.bandcamp.com/...
Used with permission from HAAL Electronica
Check out his youtube channel: / haalelectro. .
Song: BOC-2
From: The Green Light EP
Produced by HAAL Electronica haalelectronica.bandcamp.com/...
Used with permission from HAAL Electronica
Check out his youtube channel: / haalelectro. .
Song: Dreamscapes
From: The Green Light EP
Produced by HAAL Electronica haalelectronica.bandcamp.com/...
Used with permission from HAAL Electronica
Check out his youtube channel: / haalelectro. .
Song: Norm Departure
From: The Green Light EP
Produced by HAAL Electronica haalelectronica.bandcamp.com/...
Used with permission from HAAL Electronica
Check out his youtube channel: / haalelectro. .
Song: G-Funk Rave
Produced by: RetrogamerGenX
Used with permission of my own. LoL :p
Produced with Cakewalk: www.bandlab.com/products/cake...
Song: Lab Mixture
Produced by: RetrogamerGenX
Used with permission of my own. LoL :p
Produced with Cakewalk: www.bandlab.com/products/cake...
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/paulo-kalazzi/he...
License code: MCZVVNPKNM7ANJ4Z
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/no-tim...
License code: WLJJ9D21MFCXKPFJ
Danke!
Gern geschehen und vielen Dank für Ihre Unterstützung
I got it in the spring of 1990, I was in the 6th grade and there was no end to the luck, and I keep it to this day, and it still works.
Nice.. Looks like you were a little late to the party but you still got to enjoy the C64 in it's golden years. Keep er' running!!
I started with the Atari 400, then got a C-64 from a friend who upgraded to a C-128. Dude, you are one expert Choplifter! pilot. :)
From an Atari 400 to a C64 is a good upgrade for sure. Lol Years of playing choplifter. Thanks for watching and dropping a comment.
my first computer, literally shaped who i am now. and i'm still using the SID for music in 2023. :)
great documentary
Thanks. Its was my first computer too. The SID was amazing, still rocking the tunes now in 2023.
I owned both a TI-99-4A and a Commodore 128. Great documentary.
Thanks. Nice a TI. I had a friend that owned one. I thought it was a cool computer, but he wanted a C64 so bad. Funny thing about it is, 40 some years later, I still want a TI too. 🤣🤣
C64 was my first computer. Load "*",8,1 Man that brings back memories. I loading my first game ""Wasteland" off a 5 1/4 floppy. It wasn't until later I picked cherries and made enough money in the summer to build myself my first IBM clone 8088 PC. Good old Dos 3.1.
Thanks for watching and commenting. Glad this brought back memories for you. Yeah I didn't go to PC until like 1996ish. I rocked Commodore until then using Amigas by that time.
Wasn't that a step back? No sprites and sounds etc..but sure a lot more speed.
I love this computer!
Me too. ❤️
I owned a Commodore VIC20 and a C-128. Well made, super fun and useful machines. Thank you Jack for making all these computers affordable and so enjoyable to use.
After the first consoles it was a blast to copy and play multiple games from disk.
Then I realized that computers are much more than just gaming, so I entered the IT-business 35 years ago and am still in it.
Yes, the C64 was the gamechanger and I'm so grateful for all the memories of my childhood!
Absolutely! C64 was the beginning for most IT professionals including myself. I hear that a lot from a lot of IT guys our age that the c64 was their first computer and that's where they learn how to program and other things.
I'm still somewhat into IT, but now I dabble mostly in BASIC programming on various emulations, and trying to improve my skills, which are a little rusty from a couple years of non-use. :)
Same! C64 was my first computer. I was like 10y old or so, but I learned so much. I was curious for more (than just games). This curiosity led me to become a developer. I am still working as a dev.
COMMODORE 64 FOREVER 😺👍🕹️!
Greetings from Martinlaakso, Vantaa (Finland 🇫🇮).
Greetings to you too...Yep.. gotta love the c64. i adore my 64's
Greetings to you.
at some point in the late 90's my local toys r us had two big displays set up C64's on one, and Floppy drives and some datasets on the other, computers were $49, same with disk drives, and datasets were $20 I kick myself in the butt to this day for not buying a 64 and a disc drive that day..
I still have my C64 and C64C. Plus my 1581, 1541, and 1541c drives. I first went online in 1985 with a 1660 Hayes 300 baud modem and have been going flat out ever since. Saw so many things come and go. Been a surreal ride. Also owned an Amiga 500. The banner colors on my page are Commodore colors and you can see my Amiga and C64 in two of my videos on my channel recorded in 88/89.
Nice.. You still have your OG commodore equipment. Same here, I had the 1200 buad modem, been "online" since 1987. Used q-link back then and bbs's. Then moved on to Amiga. Yeah it has been cool watching technology grow along with me since the 1970s.
@@RetrogamerGenX I ran a BBS in 1987 called "Spitting Image" because it was my fave show at the time. My first TV console was a Telstar. I bought it in 1978 and I remember it only worked on a B&W tele and needed 8 DD batteries. Sounds like we are both the real pioneers of the internet. LOL Surrounded by nebs that think the internet was around since forever. Thanks for the reply.
+++
OK
ath
NO CARRIER
*newbs rather
@@RetrogamerGenX Never owned an Atari 2600 tho, but played my friend's Ataris plenty. I had the Telstar and later Colecovision. Colecovision was eons ahead of the Atari.
My parents purchased me that original model, and believe me that disk drive would get scorching hot lol. In fact, I believe the heat was the primary reason my disk drive optimally failed. At that time, I used to spend hours upon hours playing SS Dungeons and Dragons games like Pool of Radiance and all of its sequels etc. and less of my time playing other types of games like Spy vs Spy, Karateka, etc. fun times. In fact, those Dungeons and Dragons games would come with like 12 disks in the box lol.
I had a few D&D games for the C64 too. Them and the Ultima series were my go-to RPG's back then. Thanks for watching and sharing. 👍👍
You must have had a lemon, or plugged a US model in EU mains. You can say tons of nasty things about 1541's, but the power supply is pretty decent.
The Commodore 64 is the King of all computers and that's that just don't even let it come into your mind give it up it's over u lost the C64 wins again
Agreed!!😀
I fever had a C64. My first computer was the Atari 800XE which I loved but yeah it was totally outclassed by it. I had the Amiga which to this day remains my all time favourite computer I’ve ever owned.
I still have the original Commodore 64 and
Amiga 500 computers, and i still play them
😹😸😺👍🕹️.
Nice.. Well I'm glad you jumped on the Commodore bandwagon with the Amiga. Keep an eye out, I will be doing a video like this for the Atari 8 bit line too. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Totally outclassed??? In my opinion that's an ignorant take hold by many . The C64 never matched Atari's color palette, or the speed of the platform (CPU or disk), or Its scaling and 3d graphical abilities (i.e. yoomp! stunt car racer), or the number of sound channels and its High Pass filter (this is why Paula was an improvement on Pokey's additional characteristics (PCM)...but not a synthesizer chip).
Sure the c64 brought big improvements in ram management, resolution and programming but toclaim it outclassed Jay Miner's machine that is factually wrong.
Actually the Atari 800 series wasn’t out classed at all. It was in some cases even better. 4 voices instead of 3, nice colour pallet a great abstraction for programming. I never owned one (till a few years ago) a friend did and I noticed the colours were nice loading from tape and disk was so much faster. You had load from disk from start. And recently I fixed mine up did a brief video on that and then reviewed a nice little disk interface and I watched demos and I have to admit, it’s as good if not actually better than the C64. And I adore my C64 and as a teen I couldn’t have admitted that. But now as an educated engineer that programmed so many different systems, I can objectively say it’s as good if not better. It just didn’t have a great adoption in Europe. And thus not a lot of people developing for it.
Others here have stuck up for the Atari 8-bits and I know why. They were based on technology made in the late 70s and with that in mind, they absolutely punched above their weight. I too was an Atari XE owner, and I'd loved that thing. But, I agree with you. The Commodore 64 overall was the winner when it came to games and other software. There are some examples where this wasn't the case (Dropzone and Rescue on Fractalus as two examples). But for the most part, the C64 kicked Atari's arse.
Unfortunately, they made a mistake not to put Commodore C128 with 4MHz on the market (with C64 compatibility), instead of an overloaded and half defect C128 with only 1MHz clocked (usable ) CPU.
Actually, i still hope some smart head would put 4MHz C128 together so we can finally get a worthy successor 😁
It is 4MHz. The Z80 is.... This machine needs to be run in CPM on a 1084 of RGBi anyway. For games, get a breadbin that costs 1/4th. But I agree, the C128 is a lot of mistakes, you wont get if you just feel it and look at it.
Commodore 64 is my computer
It was the first computer we had at home. We used it so much, but only for games. I still have one, but not the original one we had (it broke). Have many great memories playing it with my family. Back then my late father even played with us, something he wouldn't do later on. (my mother kept on playing).
It was my first computer too. Fond memories using it back in the day. It's cool your parents would play games on it. Sorry to hear your father passed, you have a really great memory of him playing on a C64. Thanks for sharing brother👍👍👍
Back in the day I was mad that my parents got a Philips P2000T and not a Commodore. Today I have all the machines from the era, including ZX and CPC. My parents were pretty awesome in retrospective. Side by side I seriously don't get the appeal of the C64. Not even game graphics. After struggling with RF and compsite, I now have THE C64 monitor: a 1084. Still, the games look washed out and almost monochrome. If you yank up the saturation beyond the "middle position click" the image becomes dirty with tons of chroma bleed. The games I have in Teletext graphics on the P2000T look more interesting, they pop and have an art-like quality to them. A bit like colour clash on a ZX, that does have charm. C64 games just look OLD.
Then there is the way software was made. On the P2000T there was a group of users that tested everything before it was allowed to be sold ONLINE, yes ONLINE in a Steam-like store before the internet. The beauty is that all programs follow basic rules. This is totally absent on the C64. So a game has 1) a built in guide, 2) communicates clearly what to do, 3) has a quit option that cleans the memory of the computer, 4) does all in Dutch, 5) give details on author and version history, 6) is well protected against bad input.
On the C64 if you load a game, there is always a game before the game: guess what port the Joystick has to be in, guess what you have to do to start the game, guess what the controls are if you use the keyboard, bet on how many seconds it will take to have a complete machine-freeze, be 99.99% certain that if you are done with the game, you need to switch the machine on and off to load something else. No chance you can leave the game with the press of a button to return to the BASIC prompt with clean memory.
Then there is the BASIC. Print heart to clean the screen. Seriously? Switch to show both lowercase and upper case, and type 10 PRINT"Hello World" and then RUN. You just get an error! The font is unbearable, the colours are bad to type code in, sure you can alter them, but only with POKE's, no elegant INK or BORDER command or such.
Having all 4 machines of the era side by side, and scoring them in 2024 for use NOW, I rate them as follows:
1) CPC 464+modern expansion: great BASIC, good RGB out, good colours, nice looking games, great sound chip in stereo, fast loading and saving on a USB drive, cool looking, good keyboard, 80 character mode on the fly with reduced colour.
2) P2000T: great BASIC, teletext graphics charm, super clean RGB output, awesome tape loading mechanism faster and esier than C64 floppy's, fun machine to build internally expansion modules, easy to service, great looking, good keyboard layout, a tad less good button feel. Good expansion ports. 80 character mode is not limiting colours or games, they just play on the left half of the screen and the right half might show the alternating display buffer.
3) ZX Spectrum 128 2+: good BASIC, fun to make games in with very easy sprite editing, charming colour palette and its clashes, good RGB output, bad keyboard layout, weird buttons on the toastrack version.
4) C64: bad BASIC, bad colours make you think the machine is broken, impossible storage system even on a faster 1571 drive with horrible commands, very bad video output quality even on the bundled 1084, bad keyboard layout, non standard ports, but a nightmare on a TV, games dated worse than the other 3 systems, and even the SID gets annoying.
If any of you C64 lovers want to learn how to do assembly on C64 I have a great set of videos on doing that and it’s not hard!
Nice bro. I'll have to watch them to brush up on 6502 Assembly again. 👍👍
Hello 👋 , yes C64 was my first computer too, brought it november 1982, and stil use it sometimes🙂, great documentary 👍 , hope you do one for Amiga too 🙏. greetings from Sweden
I LOVE C64 ❤❤❤FOREVER ❤❤❤❤❤
Ditto👍👍👍
The ",1" at the end of the load command tells BASIC to load the contents of the file to the memory location specified in the file header. Otherwise it relocates the contents of the file to the start of BASIC program memory.
Yes sir👍👍👍 After I finished the video I did a little more research and found that info. I've been using that command for 40 some years and never realized what it was completely for until then. So ,8 is for loading a basic program into the default basic memory location. Whereas ,8,1 loads a machine language program where the program designates its own memory location.
@@RetrogamerGenX the relocation feature allowed loading basic programs on tape or disk created on a PET or Vic-20, which used a different base address for BASIC programs, IIRC.
I forgot to say, great video, by the way! 👍
@@ryancraig2795 I remember in the 80's I had a friend that had a PET and I tried to load some of his software on my C64. Some ran but some didnt. I was bummed. Wasnt until later I found out that even though they are similar, the have different memory locations. So in basic terms, different peek and pokes. Thanks👍 And thanks for watching and dropping the comments..
You skipped the title screen in Skate or Die? That's a death penalty there. It's the best part of the game.
🤣🤣🤣Right...
Great video :) Thank You!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching.
Test Drive: Who needs 1st gear anyway? 😁
🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for the Blast from the past! I've had 2~3 C=64's and 2 SX=64's, ALWAYS with the Epyx Fast Load cartridges (I'd modify adding a reset switch). If you can find a SX=64, get it, fiberglass PCB and internal switching power supply, much better built, plus a better, more comfortable KB. One of my C=64's I built a metal case for, machined out aluminum panel for its KB and added a numeric pad, and plus shaped cursor keys so I didn't have to use shift. It took some figuring out the wiring, but it was worth it. Power Switch, Reset. and Joystick Ports out its front... all long gone. Thanks Again! mike
Thanks for watching and sharing brother!!! 👍👍👍 Yep I have the Fast Load cart too, with a reset mod as well. 🤣 Been looking for a SX for a long time. Just never seen any pop up where I live. Lot's online, but I don't buy consoles/computers online unless they don't work, so I can either fix them to sell, or have them for a parts puller. If it's for my collection, I have to see it with my eyes before I buy it. Sound like you've done some cool mods. C= forever bro👍👍👍
Great video, really enjoyed it as a kid of the 70's/80's. Side note though, and off topic. Has anybody ever told you that you look like Max Headroom when you smile and turn your head a bit? Seriously lol. ;)
Lol. Nope you're the first.. But I can see what you're talking about. I kinda do. Lmfao.. thanks for watching and commenting.
I would say 30 million easy. Half the homes of my classmates had a C64
Pretty much everyone I know, their first computer was a C64. So I wouldn't doubt it. Unless your family was super rich and could afford an Apple or PC, the C64 was the go to for most people.
mario vs the sewage pipe from hell
🤣🤣🤣
Hey thanks! That little programming was fun!
Glad you liked it!👍👍👍
Should have gone with the TMS99110A which has native floating point and use 512KB of RAM by using a SEG_REG the block of memory to be accessed can be selected, and programs would be faster and more compact as you would have multiply, divide,addition,subtraction left shift and right shift and arithmetic shifts both left and right.
I have a c 64 c case my problem now is to figure what to put in it to build my next home computer.
Maybe a laptop mobo. The C64C case is pretty slim is back, might be a tough one to retro fit. Good luck.
Thanks for this docu. ❤😊
Thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it.
This video is a masterpiece!
Thank You!!! 👍👍
"In 1983 the breadbin model was introduced"? What?
do you know what the yellow colouring is caused by, as the case returns to its constituent elements?
Mainly the yellowing is caused by the fire repellant put into the plastics during manufacturing. The only way to prevent/slow down the process is to make sure they are not in direct sunlight, or in a hot area. Cool and dark is the best way to keep them, but make sure there is no moisture (no dank basements, storage areas, or swamp cooled areas) either as it can corrode the electronics inside. Thanks for watching👍👍
Trasmiels? ...
Tramiels it is.
God bless you jack and thank you.
👍👍👍
30M units? The highest I've ever seen claimed previously was 20M. More realist is 15-17M.
If i remeber correctly that ,1 means that the file is loaded to memory location that 2 first bytes of file are pointing. Some programs have some trickery to do the autorun when loaded to correct place ;)
If you do not add that ,1 then it loads to start of basic memory.
Yep, absolutely right.
Vic 20 was my very first computer i ever own
That was an Su-24 not the F-111.
Yep the Russian f-111 copycat. Lol.
@@RetrogamerGenX The Soviet's admitted that they 'took inspiration' from the F-111. But give it a bit of due. It could operate from improvised airfields as we see in Ukraine, and they avoided some of the needless technical gotchas the F-111 suffered from And when the Europeans made the Panavia Tornado, they 'copied' the Su-24 and not the F-111.
Yes would be nice to see a GEOS video
I have a few other videos in queue first, but I will try to get a GEOS video done in the next couple of months. The first GUI I ever used. Most folks used Apple's Mac OS or a early version of Windows first. But us GEOS users know what's up.
Amazing what they did with the limited memory and disk space they had. I went from GEOS on the C64 to Work Bench on the Amiga, then to Windows in 1997. If Commodore was still in business today, I would be still using one now.
@@RetrogamerGenX thanks dear friend no stress
I'm just starting to watch this now, but am curious:
What computer model is that guy using in the 2nd commercial, where they talk about
"one of those tiny computers", and "too small of a machine"?
Would that just happen to be a TS-1000 or ZX-81? It sure looks like one !
Cool video, by the way - thanks for creating and sharing it.
I'm still making my way through it ... :)
I want to say that is a ZX. At least it looks like one. I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for watching and commenting. 👍👍
Unbeatable boot time speeds. Still today you cannot get this on modern pcs...
Right!! 🤣🤣
You missed the C128D.
The C64 invented everything. This is where it all started.
Thanks Tramiel for the amazing years. ❤
Great job on the documentary except you pronounced some of the peoples names wrong..Irving Gould,not Gold. Al Charpentier not Carpenter,etc. Also c65 was still a 8 bit machine not 16bit. its Breabox, UK/Europeans bastardized it as breadbin :) good work overall!
I'm European and c64 has always been breadbox here. Maybe some UK thingie that bin
smiley -> ;)
Were is the girl?
Probably retired and taking care of her grandkids by now. Seeing that this was from a Commodore 64 advertisement in Europe in the '80s, check out this link to see it. instagram.com/totallyawesome80s/p/C0MUeCuOQNX/
Curse that Joseph Mingle!
Poke120,0
Poke 808,211
Atari>Activision>Accolade
Atari did it 3 years earlier. That being said Jay Miner went on to design the Amiga which was better than the ST. 64 wasn't better for the time than than the Atari.
I think the C64 was better. And that's coming from someone who owned an Atari XE in the 80s (and only bought my first C64 a couple of years ago). If you put that Atari was 3 years older into account, then yes, it's a tough battle. But just on user experience alone (many, many more games - with many of these being classics like Impossible Mission, Wizball and Space Taxi), Commodore wins. And often when on both platforms, the C64 version was superior (e.g. Pitstop II). That all said, I know some games were better on the Atari, such as Rescue on Fractalus!, Ballblazer, Mr Robot, and Yoomp! to name a few. I enjoy both systems. But if I could only keep one... it's the Commodore 64 without question. That's despite it's slower disk drive, shittier BASIC, less colours and slightly slower CPU. The software is what matters.
Yeah, Atari engineers made Amiga possible :)
And about Atari, back in the day it was too expensive for normal people at least in hereabouts almost in russia so when C64 came it was great. And for 90's i've now seen that technology came here couple of years behind US if you didn't have crazy amount of money. My first IBM compatible was 486DX4 back in -95 and pentiums were there already daemn. I'm just glad i had my A4000/040 back then :D
Dude A4000/040 was very expensive in Canada back in the day.@@airjuri
@@errollleggo447 Yeah, i know, it was expensive everywhere :) I just was lucky back then to have some money to invest for my hobby that later became my career.