The Commodore 64 - Computers of Significant History 

I LOVE the Commodore 64, raised in England my first foray into computing was the humble ZX81 from which I learned basic programming, and then moved onto the mighty Spectrum. In 1986 I bought a Commodore 64 with 1570 disk drive (yes I know.......) and didn't look back. I learned 6502 machine code (am still learning more!), played games, watched demos and had what can only be described as the greatest time of my life. Even though i bought an Amiga in 1990 and got into business programming om the IBM AS400 the commodore 64 sits in a place that can never be erased, a time when I would stay up until 5am tinkering around with a raster bar bounce effect with multiplex sprites doing weird things in front of it. Squeezing every byte out of that machine was incredibly hard, and incredibly satisfying when you see the results on screen.

I had a friend who was entering grad school at Colorado in the computer science department when the C64 came out. He bought one for himself because he told me it was the only inexpensive computer with which you could actually do anything serious.

I had the entire C64 unit: Tape player, keyboard, monitor, printer, all of it.

Why has this channel only 423 subscribers? It should have at least a thousand times more.

I still lament the day I sold my C64. Back then it was my only option... I needed the money for an Amiga 500. Years later I bought back a 64... but it just isn't the same. Wish I still had THAT computer :(

My home in the 80's and 90's [North America] just had IBM PC clones. Had parent who worked in IT. Didn't get to touch a C64 until about 5 years ago. Have 4 now, 1 not working. 1 is PAL version. Love the little machine.

I learnt Basic on my C64, then CC+ programming, that got me on a training course, that taught me all the technical computer information, like Servers and Networking. From this, I had a 35-year career earning up to 6 figure wages, all because of my C64!!

My dad bought a Commodore VIC-20 when I was a kid long before the C64 came out. I was in love with it using it to program and be amazed that it would do what I asked it to do. The C64 was my next with the floppy drive. Felt as if I was in a world of great technology. Programmed budget applications and games with sound. Oddly enough at 64 years of age (retired Industrial PLC Programmer) I now have in my home hobby shop one desktop running Windows, three micro computers running Windows, one of which runs my home built CNC wood router along with an Arduino board running GRBL software, two Raspberry Pi's and more micro-processors boards like the Arduino and ESP-8266 than I can count. To think my obsession all started from a simple VIC-20. My motto.... Never Quit Learning! 😃

What really killed them was that the Amiga was unable to run C64 software. There was no incentive to stay with Commodore. There was also many other issues with productivity products which was lacking along with print drivers for the Amiga. So people went to Apple or IBM.

I was not expecting such an insightful commentary on the concept of people's unique experiences driving their actions and beliefs on a Commodore 64 video. Well done!

I was 22 years old when I got mine. I had a store in original mall. The lady at electronics boutique told me to buy it, so I did. I could knock out a payroll in 12 minutes or less using a 5 1/4 floppy desk.😂 The lady up at Nextel wanted me to pay $3000 for IBM 5055 I think and 2000 for the software that was not guaranteed to run I bought the one at electronics boutique, and it lasted me over a decade Best money I ever spent

Good video. 👍 The C64 wasn’t the first computer I ever used (that was a DEC PDP-11), but it was the first one I ever owned. And none since have had as much fondness as I had for my C64. I particularly like your analysis of Commodore’s last days. I was on a GEnie Amiga roundtable and several Commodore-related BBSs at that time and we had many discussions about it. The one I remember the most was about the sale of office equipment at Commodore’s headquarters. We all a laugh/cry when the last bit of equipment, a floor polisher of all things, finally sold off.

Great history lesson! I wasn't into the 64, but I had relatives that loved the thing, and it's a piece of history.

6:30 the SID is absolutely my favorite sound chip even as of today. I'm using 12 of them in live streams for music these days as I'm writing this comment (2023).

Finland had most C64 per capita in the world. I had one, and about 50% of my friends had one, in 1987.

Quality content! Thank you.

I used to have an original breadbin and loved it as a teenager. I can't remember what happened to it. I either sold it or its still in my fathers loft. Anyway I reached the age of 50 about 4 years ago and realised i really missed the the old box so i bought a Commodore 64C and a SD2IDE with fastloader. That old feeling still comes over me when i plug it it. You can keep your NES, my nostalgia is for the C64. Hey BTW i loved your video on the IBM PS/2, great informative vid.

Wow. I can’t believe I just discovered this channel. Love the videos👍

Well edited and watchable, informed and not snooty. This makes a change from so many. Agreed with the view, there was no _best_, every PC of the late 1970s and early 1980s had strengths and weaknesses. The problem was some had more weaknesses than others. Part of that democratization of computing was cassette tapes, something not mentioned in the video. Imagine if floppy disks had been the only option in 1979, very few people would have gotten into computing. The home video game market would still have happened, but not home computing.

I still have all my C-64 stuff, which includes 3 c64 machines, of which one of them was my first ever 64, bought in 1983. Also includes peripherals (7 impact printers, 7 floppy drives, 2 cassette drives, cartridges, joysticks/paddles, adapters, etc), as well as stacks of floppy disks & related paper (manuals, magazines, books, old printouts). Some of these do need servicing though. Also have a c64 cpu accelerator bought in 1990 that boosts the speed to 4 times faster than stock. There were a few of us that enjoyed a speed-boosted 64 way back then in the late 80s & early 1990s. I used a speed-boosted c64 to write/printout essays (& gaming, heh) during my late 1980s college, as GEOS64 was my main operating system. The SID chip was something I was attracted to & used a lot, as I was also getting into synthesizers by the early 1980s because the SID was a basic subtractive synthesizer on a chip. Anyway, I have also kept our Coleco Telstar & Atari VCS game consoles from the late 1970s, as well as several typewriters & print calculators of the 70s, several CRT TVs & monitors, & many PC stuff. Commodore & the IBM/Intel PC was where I was most proficient at. I never got into Apple, Tandy Radio Shack (TRS), Atari or Amiga, although I have had some experience with them, most especially the TRS Model 3&4 in highschool (it was the school main computers) & the Apple Mac (now called the classic Mac) during college in the late 1980s. But it was my experience with a Commodore PET in highschool 1983 that introduced me to Commodore & eventually decided to get a c64. I also almost got a free C-128 around 15 years ago but I turned it down. Radio Shack was my favorite store growing up though, since 1980, as I did also get into electronics, & it was sad when they liquidated across the nation one last time in 2017, although they are still in business today, just not as glorious as they once were. I did get to buy tons of stuff during their liquidation, 40 to 90% off, stuff I would have never bought at regular Shack prices. Also had some good programming experience with a Hewlett-Packard 85 computer during college. I know (or knew) several computer languages (Basic, ForTran, Pascal, ASM, etc), including some formatting languages for medical databases/management software. Also watched Computer Chronicles religiously back then, as short clips of it shown in the video above. Nice reference to Lemon64 as well. The one thing I knew & was aware of way back then as a teen was ... do not throw away, sell or give away stuff, that you might regret doing that later on. That is why I still have all this stuff & they are the originals bought, not replacements. I am hoping to do a C-64 project some day to show on my youtube channel, but I have yet to start, it will be a long while probably, heh. 03/28/24

This is fantastic, I love the personal bent. I had a very similar route, got the C64 only in 1992 (former Soviet bloc country) and it sustained me all the way to 1998 when I got my first Cyrix 200 MMX PC :) Immediately subbed!

Great vid! Enjoyed it!

It might interest you to know that there is a recent “Commodore” episode of the BBC Radio 4 programme called Toast. They do a deep dive into failed businesses and products, and they get hold of people with some involvement at the time.

I find it peculiar that the Commodore logo is the speed of light.

Hey! Looks like I made it into your video!

Great video. Commodore had an appalling reputation for the way it treated those who went into business with it or sold its machines. It's hard to understand how even bad leadership would make that kind of mistake.

I grew up in South Africa, and we had a healthy blend of European and U.S.A influence. It was only after moving to England that I started to how unaware the two markets were of each other.

Great video.

Nice video essay, as I sit in a digital basement, as it were, full of multiple Commodores (C64s, C128, PET, VIC, Amiga), Apple systems from 1980-20xx, TRS-80s, DOS and Windows machines and more.... but I have to ask... at ~14:10. what is the project that needs rebuilding a Jazzmaster, an old corporate Dell (yes, I know, funny I consider the Dell old, considering...), apparently a mid-to-late-2000s Mac, and I guess some external device, maybe a drive enclosure? Aaaah, stock footage lol.

Probably the first computer I used besides the terminal my dad got from the NSA. My dad was telecomputing in 1980.

I have a c64c and i use the kung fu flash cartridge which loads games in seconds.I love these old commodore computers..

got an atari 130xe at 11 (1985) - a couple of friends had the c64

Without Jay Miner's 8bit computer creation (1979) the C64 might never existed as we know it(that would make a great "computer of significant history " episode). I do agree with your aesthetic preference. I prefer the revised case plus it tends to enclose far more reliable rev boards from those found in bread bins. I think it's meaningless to compare consoles and computers based on game performance alone. Micros were a completely different beast that inspired many owners to create while most console users didn't have the chance to experience the same stimuli. On the other hand many computer owners with ...rich parents(loads of games) did probably miss that aspect of micros all together. Most computer users (on a budget) , at some point they were bored of their limited gaming library, so they got curious on what else they could do with their machines. I remember gaming ending up as a side dish after discovering programming, drawing, animating and composing music,. Micros had the ability to satisfy a larger number of interests than just gaming. A gamer and a user had(have) different "needs" so ts like comparing apple to oranges.

I also like the 64C over the Breadbin after they switched to the updated motherboard.

Very good content, Thank You. Regarding the console vs. computer topic, I think that retro enthusiasts these days, share a love for both types of machines equally :)

Awesome video. But seriously impressive editing.

Nice video about one of my favorite computers of all time. But you must be one of the only people in the world prefering Nintendos very limited sound chip to the SID - yes there was crap tunes on the SID as well... but ... The Last Ninja, Last Ninja 2, One man and his droid, International Karate, ... I mean there was nothing even NEAR those soundscapes on the NES ;)...

the nostalgia is gone! full video youtube !!commodore everyone has access to a commodore now they are everywhere easy to buy ! , I still have my 80 and 90 'amiga, 64,128, vic 20 consoles. i just got a hard drive 122,000 games and my old consoles will go! time to let it all go! and great video good job !

Great video. My one critique would be the random stock footage was a bit jarring/unnecessary

I REALY LOVE MY C64 ❤❤❤FOREVER ❤❤❤

I have to compliment you for your surprisingly decent British accent!

Appreciate your esthetics analysis, but breadbin is THE C64, for me.

Oh yeah, you know, I probably should leave one of them comments on this here video to appease the machines in control. A++ Video, even better Brit Impression. My prefered shade of beige #ECEBBD

What you feel about the C64.... (or the 64C, as it may be), is what I feel having grown up with the Color Computer series.

9:35 - I can't speak for any but myself but I feel that part of that sentiment is less console VS computer and more NTSC vs PAL. I've lost count of the discussions which end up devolving into "we never used tapes in the US" and "the Amiga was a failure". For me, the discovery of emulation was also the discovery of just how /good/ NTSC users had it, what with their Mario RPGs, Final Fantasy III/VIs and their Chrono Crosses and so on. So I do feel a little justified in the vitriol I feel towards NTSC users who speak like their experience was the only valid one and I have to fight to keep my hands away from the keyboard whenever I head a NTSC user complain that a new game or piece of hardware is, GASP, not NTSC compatible. Fortunately things are getting better, slowly. Unfortunately the majority still think that Nintendo resurrected gaming and that Apple invented the personal computer.

C64 has never been not useful. I demand you take that comment back. You may have ditched the Commodore at one point. But I never did. I only stopped for a decade because mine got stolen. Where I live they are not easy to find, so it took me from 2006 to 2018 to find another set. Since then it is hooked up and ready to go. I never forgot my roots, I had to suffer with emulators for a long time. Now I am back at the dance with the real hardware and with the so so Maxi

I severely disagree with your opinion on the looks of the C64c (it's a beige bore!), but I will defend to the death your right to say it