[BRIEF NOTE] More on the Commodore 64
Mar. 4th, 2005 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI wasted this morning completely playing Paradroid. "Waste" is perhaps too strong a word, mind, since I really enjoyed playing that game for the first time in a decade. The port of the game over to the Windows operating system was quite well done; I even recognized some of the layouts.
I wasn't expecting my search at news.google.ca using the keyword "paradroid" to actually turn up a hit, though.
Other sources suggest that a quarter-million copies of the C64 D2TV have been sold so far. If/when I ever bother to buy a television, I think I'll have to consider picking one up.
I've mentioned that my cell phone has rather more computing power than my dear old Commodore 64C. Even so, it was a wonderful computing system, remarkably flexible given hardware limitations. Consider GEOS, Berkeley Softworks GUI interface. As the Wikipedia article notes, it was remarkably efficient.
Also, take Q-Link, the Commodore computer messaging service that was the direct ancestor of AOL. I remember running the Q-Link demo program that came on a 5-1/4 disk and wishing, just wishing, that my parents would buy me a lightning-quick 2400 bps modem. Q-Link prefigured AOL, down to the emoticon usage.
I'm happy that the Commodore 64 and related computers live. Even now, there is an active Commodore newsgroup on USENET (comp.sys.cbm). Commodore--sadly defunct as a company from 1994--did remarkable things.
(All of this means, of course, that I'll have to resist playing Paradroid when I get home. Oh, and the Zzap!64 article mentioned by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
nickbarlow describing the development of Paradroid is located here.
I wasn't expecting my search at news.google.ca using the keyword "paradroid" to actually turn up a hit, though.
Videogame developer DC Studios is extremely happy to announce that its Commodore 64 Direct To TV console is to be released in the UK and Europe.
The C64 D2TV™ recreates 30 of its most well known games from the Commodore 64 home computer, including favourites from legendary developers Epyx, the Bitmap Brothers and Hewson. The C64 D2TV™ brings the seminal Commodore experience to a whole new generation of consumers, allowing them to relive the excitement the early generation of games systems without the long loading times.
Other sources suggest that a quarter-million copies of the C64 D2TV have been sold so far. If/when I ever bother to buy a television, I think I'll have to consider picking one up.
I've mentioned that my cell phone has rather more computing power than my dear old Commodore 64C. Even so, it was a wonderful computing system, remarkably flexible given hardware limitations. Consider GEOS, Berkeley Softworks GUI interface. As the Wikipedia article notes, it was remarkably efficient.
How the programmers at Berkeley Softworks could possibly devise a GUI-based OS within the limitations of an 8-bit Commodore CPU (with its 64K of RAM and 40 column video screen), was nothing short of incredible, nay miraculous. With GEOS, your C64 could do more than games. You could actually get work done with it. Or so the theory went (more on that later).
Also, take Q-Link, the Commodore computer messaging service that was the direct ancestor of AOL. I remember running the Q-Link demo program that came on a 5-1/4 disk and wishing, just wishing, that my parents would buy me a lightning-quick 2400 bps modem. Q-Link prefigured AOL, down to the emoticon usage.
I'm happy that the Commodore 64 and related computers live. Even now, there is an active Commodore newsgroup on USENET (comp.sys.cbm). Commodore--sadly defunct as a company from 1994--did remarkable things.
(All of this means, of course, that I'll have to resist playing Paradroid when I get home. Oh, and the Zzap!64 article mentioned by
nickbarlow describing the development of Paradroid is located here.
