Back to basics

[DarkoT]

Hi friends,
you will not belive, but it's true...
A few days ago, I found an old Commodore 64 computer. It's probably around 1001 years old (just kidding, I think it should be around 40 years old). Out of pure curiosity, I connected it, and ohhhh, it works! I'm attaching a picture... Do you have anything similar at home that could almost go into museum?

Best regard to all collegues which exactly know what is C64..

 

[Sandman]

You might be surprised to know that the demo-scene for C64 is very much alive and well. I follow a couple of channels with C64 content on YouTube, it's so much fun.

Here's a nice demo from 8 months ago:


And this is also a nice channel, when you crave some 8-bit content:

https://www.youtube.com/@8_Bit

On a sidenote, I wonder why your C64 says "X2". Did you make an easter egg?

 

[AHilton]

Sure, I have a lot of my old computers still laying around. My C64 from 1984 with original tape drive and also the 5.25 disc drive (made and sold my first commercial program on that). I turn it on once in awhile and load up some game discs that I typed in from a magazine way back when. A Commodore PET that we used in High School. An Apple IIe that was given to me around 1988 by an insurance agency wanting me to make them some software for their national offices.

 

[kimstudio]

I am interested in these old BASIC 8bit computers.
I want to enjoy to type in some basic games code into these computers in emulators.

Any friends could tell me which 8bit computer is the best for this purpose? (C64? MSX? Apple II? CPC? etc. Never own any one of them).

I also want to know old basic game books with list of codes for typing in, better for graphic games. I have one called "basic computer games" but seems all are text games.

 

[bparent]

Sure, I have a lot of my old computers still laying around. My C64 from 1984 with original tape drive and also the 5.25 disc drive (made and sold my first commercial program on that). I turn it on once in awhile and load up some game discs that I typed in from a magazine way back when. A Commodore PET that we used in High School. An Apple IIe that was given to me around 1988 by an insurance agency wanting me to make them some software for their national offices.

I still have my C64 and C64 luggable.

 

[Sandman]

Any friends could tell me which 8bit computer is the best for this purpose?

I'd recommend the C64. It's such a likable little computer.

 

[Gonza8]

I have some old computers, one c64, two c128, one msx spectrum and one Atari 800xl.
Is really funny play with this computer.
?

 

[ilan]

i had one when i was a kid. now i own the c64 mini and play some old c64 games like bruce lee and rambo. love the c64.

 

[techknight]

Retro computing is actually one of my hobbies, I have a fairly extensive collection although the C64 really isnt one of those. Those systems were before I was born and I had no experience with them. However even with that said I did manage to get an SX64 last year. Sadly, its a shelf ornament as I am not quite sure what to do with it or how to enjoy it since its a pasttime ive never had.

With that thought, most of my machines are shelf ornaments now because the enjoyment/nostalgia I had for them back then, cannot be done today as the needs of computing have changed drastically and the things I enjoyed back then you cannot do on that era hardware anymore.

I could get into vintage programming projects but that clashes with $dayjob so that doesn't happen.

buuuuuuut my enjoyment in the hobby has diverted more into vintage computers used in weather presentation systems lately, which actually does work in the modern context.

 

[Daestrum]

I have an Atari STE and a Tandy colour computer knocking around somewhere ( haven't seen them for years thoiugh)

 

[BlueVision]

Hard to recommend a good 8-bitter from good old times. If you had a C-64, you will recommend it, same with the 8 bit machines from ATARI.
The built-in BASIC-interpreters are often crap in my personal opinion, this is valid especially for the C64 (BASIC V2). The ATARI's (800XL, 130XE, 65XE) were slightly better.
Forget about the Commodore Plus 4
The king was C64, simply because most games to play were developed for this machine.
ATARI was better in my opinion but never made it to beat the C64, good software, not only games.
Sinclair ZX Spectrum was good machine, worth a look too. But good software is very rare...

First recommendation is an ATARI (one of the three above) with TURBO-BASIC-XL. The best BASIC I've ever seen. All is possible, even faster when compiling the TurboBASIC-Code with the compiler.
Second recommendation is the Commodore C128. You can switch between C64 (BASIC V2) and the much better C128-Mode (BASIC V7). Additionally you have the chance to run that machine in CP/M-Mode, this is compatible with early MS-DOS-Versions.
Depends on what you want to do. C64 has the better soundchip, ATARI the better GRAPHICS and structural design.

The 6502-processor of the ATARI's and I think the 6510-processor of the C64 too have a buswidth of 8 Bit. 65XX was the first processor with rudimental pipelining. The bad thing were the registers. Not 16 Bit, it was switchable double 8 Bit. But this is nice to know. You want to program in BASIC, not in assembler. And keep in mind, there is a limitation in RAM. Not really 64kByte are available, see the blue picture in the first post...

It is simply a wide field of early computing technology, but it was pure fun. Everything was possible and I miss that times...

 

[MrKim]

I still have my Tandy Model 100. Still worked last time I booted it about 5 years ago. It is what got me started programming. It came with Microsoft BASIC.
I would get about a week of use out of the 4 AA cells it ran on and the keyboard is still one of the nicest I ever worked with. So smooth. I got it used from a newspaper add. $100 US and included a daisy wheel printer and a 1 year subscription to CompuServe.

 

[DarkoT]

I still have my Tandy Model 100. Still worked last time I booted it about 5 years ago. It is what got me started programming. It came with Microsoft BASIC.
I would get about a week of use out of the 4 AA cells it ran on and the keyboard is still one of the nicest I ever worked with. So smooth. I got it used from a newspaper add. $100 US and included a daisy wheel printer and a 1 year subscription to CompuServe.

Oooo, you reminded me on CompuServe... This was also my first "bbs" contact with "internet"... What happens with Compuserve now? Are there still a live?

And – I was hudge fan (if somebody can remember) of Novell Network…

 

[MrKim]

Oooo, you reminded me on CompuServe... This was also my first "bbs" contact with "internet"... What happens with Compuserve now? Are there still a live?

And – I was hudge fan (if somebody can remember) of Novell Network…

Don't know about CompuServe - google it. Our original software was written in a language called TAS and the DB was Btrieve on Novel servers. Back then things were simple. We supplied the whole thing software, hardware (we had a local guy who built computers for us to spec.), servers, network - everything. It was nice because there was no pointing fingers. If something didn't work they called us and we fixed it. Even better it was like a plumber. Once we walked in the door we got paid by the hour to fix the problem.