Commodore Invented the Mass Market Computer | Hacker News Reader

Commodore Invented the Mass Market Computer

every.to

42 pointsrbanffy9 comments

My memory must be going Because I lived through this And don't recall things going like this at all. While maybe saying I don't remember it like this at all is a little harsh it seemed to recall a little bit that was similar But a lot of it seems like it's been written by An A I. I'm pretty sure I went to those computer shows And weren't they called COMDEX? Also before halt and catch fire I don't even think I ever heard of Osborne. Another thing that seemed to have been messed is the Commodore 128 did I just imagine that computer? anyone else remembered it? Go 64? As far as Compaq Gateway HP and any other flavor of PC goes that was more because of open architecture: suddenly every startup in the world could produce hardware and software and compete with the big guys, this article claimed that the home computer market was dying off as of 19 96 but from my point of view things just really took off right around that time Has everyone wanted the internet So they could meet at Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan Winky Face. They do have to admit wanting a pulmonary 64 though, My buddy had one And all of the Bulletin boards at that time Had really cool games for it. I don't want to be too critical though It was a good read and they brought back some memories and actually I kind of feel like we're just entering very similar time As was back then. I can only imagine what this generation will come up with and hope there is just as much if not more innovation and enterprising companies like Commodore And Atari... even if I might not be around to see it!

PS sorry for all the typos I can't use my hands anymore and voice access is a little flaky [But I'm still very thankful there is such a thing!]

Don't worry. It's perfectly readable :). Thank you for sharing

I didn't get the AI vibe from the article, thought it was well-written, a good view on Jack and the industry during the era.

I always believed Osborne was a little bigger in the UK, got the feeling they had a slightly better machine in some aspects than the Sinclair and TI and as polished as Commodore but just burnt out really early, unfortunately. I had a C64 but enjoyed programming enough to flip through the books at the library for the other machines, to see the differences in language, programs and games. Thinking about it now, I wonder how many Osborne programming books got printed vs machines sold?

It's unfortunate there was no mention of the C128, but it was mostly a stopgap machine in the wars between the 64 and the Amiga, there wasn't any mention of the earlier Atari 400/800/XL, etc machines before the ST either. I wanted a C128 just for ELSE, the 64 only had IF-THEN natively.

but all 'ELSE' is, is functionally adding ": GOTO <line after end of else block>" on the end of your IF THEN

The C128 was great, and they sold something like 4 million of them. But that was overshadowed by the C64 selling 15-20 million, and the fact that very little 128-specific software was made, because of the 128's near-100% compatible 64 mode. Unless your program had to have a 128 feature, like the 80-column screen, you wrote it for the 64 and had a much bigger market.

I think it was also hurt by the fact that Commodore was turning attention to the Amiga, marketing-wise, by the time the 128 was on the market. It was intended to be a stop-gap, just to have something new until the next big thing, but it did better than that and the company didn't know what to do with it.

Bil Herd has done some talks about the development of the 128 that are worth watching. They threw the thing together in a matter of months, and features like the 64 mode and the Z-80's CP/M mode were added almost as accidents.

Sir Clive Sinclair in the UK should be credited with inventing the mass market computer. Commodore 64 launch price on the UK was £299 whereas the ZX Spectrum was £129 and it's predecessor the ZX81 sold for £70. Clive wanted to set a price point so that ordinary people could buy one. He started with the price and built a machine to meet that price. This made it accessible to most people as the Commodore 64 would have been outside the budget of most households.

I’ve always been fascinated on more details about the VIC-1 in the Vixen/VIC-20.. Apparently designed for an arcade machine use, but then put into use for the VIC.. Wish there was more about that part of the story as I’ve no idea how it really came about and would dearly love to know more.. Aside from that, the gang did an amazing job, Jack, Chuck, Bob, Tony and Co. I raise my glass to you all :)

Someplace in there was: (in no particular order) The Apple I The Commodore Vic-20 The Ohio Scientific Superboard series The Exidy Sorcerer The SWTPC 6800/1 The SWTPC 6800/2 The SWTPC 6809 The Heathkit H8 The Heathkit H11 The TLF Corporation 6100 The Digital Group (several systems) Mini Micro Mart (many systems) Kaypro Rainbow Radio Shack TRS-80 The HP-85 (Hewlett-Packard) The Byte 8 The Kim-1

Reply on news.ycombinator.com