My dad had a Commodore 64 when I was a kid in the 80's. He used it mainly for home business as he had such programs like Magic Desk designed for that purpose. The thing I remember most about that computer is that he had a big library of games as he would trade them with my uncle who also had a C64 and his friends. I remember the C64 fondly because it sparked my interest in computers and video games. The C64 fills me with so much nostalgia that I bought the C64 mini when it became available and was able to play all those classic C64 games I grew up playing.
Gaming and maintaining computer software and hardware. The C64 got me involved in both my career as an adult and one of my favorite leisure activities. I cannot overstate my appreciation for that wonderful machine.
The C64 has been for gaming computers what the NES has been for consoles : the transition from prehistory to history, the moment games where starting to look like something, real graphics, scrollings etc. The C64 was overall better rounded than every other 8 bits computers :-)
I think that from a technology perspective that crown might belong to the Atari 8-bit range but the C64 certainly blazed the trail for gaming-specific hardware due to its incredible success.
@Debiruman1666 & @Daz555 - For music, the C64 was the best but the Atari wasn't that bad. The same goes for graphics. Here's some of the highlights of the C64 : The graphics chip, VIC-II, features 16 colors, eight hardware sprites per scanline (enabling up to 112 sprites per PAL screen), scrolling capabilities, and two bitmap graphics modes. For graphics, the Atari wins over the C64. Now let's look at the Atari 8-bit family : 256 colors, 4 8-bit sprites as well as 4 2-bit missile sprites (that can be used together to make another 8-bit sprite). The sprites have three possible widths and vertically it has the height of the screen. Sprites can also be sliced into may different sprites using display list interrupts - each "new" sprite can have its own width, color, and horizontal position. Scrolling is easier to do on the Atari. While both machines have registers that can move a scan line horizontally by 1 pixel, on the C64 when the register reaches its limit (7 bits), one has to reset the register and then move all the scrolling screen memory which means thousands of bytes. The Atari has the same sort of register but when it reaches its limit you reset the register but only have to increment the screen address points to memory which means only updating a few hundred bytes of memory. The same is true for vertical scrolling. The Atari has 5 character modes and 10 bitmapped graphics modes that can be mixed together.
@@Gamevet Agree 100%. The C64 has the edge on sound. What's incredible about the hardware on the Atari 8-bit range though is that is was released nearly 3 years before the C64. It was trailblazing to have such custom game specific hardware in home computer. C64 remains my favourite 80s micro though. Sits alongside the ZX Spectrum as the defining machines of that era for me.
@@Daz5Daz I wanted one of those Atari 400/800s as a kid. It wasn't until I'd played a friend's C64, that I totally wanted that instead. I did get to play a friend's Atari 800 XL in the late 80s and had thought that it was really cool.
Lol, my dad coded software protection for games on the C64. We had like 6 of the damn things laying around, along with a few 128's, and even the "portable" one. I played the hell out of those games. On the SID, the audio on C64's was way ahead of its time - to the point where it allowed the C64 to have music authoring software like 'Music Construction Set'. Many fond memories of that.
Great video. My C64 started off my lifetime love of personal computers and eventual career in the game development industry. I have always wondered what might have happened had the C-64C (Amiga-case style C64) released with GEOS in ROM as the default OS instead of Basic V2.0. Essentially an 8-bit Amiga. It could have sustained the system for at LEAST another 5 years and possibly saved Commodore intl. from bankruptancy dispite the best efforts of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould. :(
Lady Decade, congratulations 🎉. You are now my #1 channel on UA-cam. I'm 40 and have been playing video games since I was 4, and you touch on topics I have never heard of in my entire life. Simply amazing channel.
You're doing so many videos fast and they are all so well produced, researched and interesting. Impressive I must say. Your narration is also top notch with lots of feeling and making everything even more exciting.
Agreed, This channel needs to be seen by more people. I don't understand why it hasn't more subscribers than it does. It's better produced and presented than many other Retro channels.
The C=64 was my favorite gaming system I've ever owned and I'm old enough to remember the day Pong released. Yep I'm over 50 and still gaming to this day, my system and gaming collection is almost as big as yours Lady Decade. I remember paying almost $1000 for my C=64, tape drive, C= 1541 disk drive & C= 1701 Monitor also this was the first Computer system that was able to be modded. Also listening to the classic SID chip tunes in the background of your clip was great, my smartphone ring tone is the main turn from Wizball by Martin Galway.
❤️ for covering my favorite computer in such a fun way! My faves: Archon, Boulder Dash, Dino Eggs, Doriath, Fort Apocalypse, HERO, Hardhat Mack, Impossible Mission, IK+, Jumpman Jr, Karateka, Lode Runner, Mario Bros, Montezuma's Revenge, Paperboy, Pirates, Prince of Persia, Space Taxi, Summer/Winter Games, Exploding Fist, Wizard of Wor, Zaxxon, Dig-Dug, Ms Pac Man, Centipede, Yie Ar Kung Fu.
Back then, I wrote a multi track software with an on-screen keyboard that allowed you to record three tracks. Once you completed the tracks, you could tell it to mix. Upon doing so, it automatically generated the basic code of commands that brought it all together. It was better than the software that was released for the Commodore at the time. I distributed on bulletin board systems. I was so young and determined to get what I wanted from the machine, rather than be limited by software on the shelf. They commodore 64 and then 128 was an early playground for me as a musician. What I do today here on UA-cam began on that platform.
Unfortunate enough? I was definitely FORTUNATE enough to have grown up in the 70s with my Atari 2600 and my Rock n Roll. I also was incredibly fortunate to have grown up in a time where there was no internet and no social media. I can't even explain to you how magical that was because at your age you simply wouldn't understand.
LOL I'm 33 years old, I'm not Gen Z, I was 10 when the Internet really became a thing. And you do realise that the biggest cultural gap between any generation is between Millennials and Gen Z due to the reasons you've just stated. My upbringing probably wasn't that far off yours, I mean, flares and platform shoes and Star Wars were all massive in the 90s!
Wrote my first program on the commodore. Choose your own adventure type for D&D. I was so proud. And it fit on just one cassette. Great video. New subscriber. The Quartering sends its regards.
Absolutely loved this one. Absolutely nailed it! :) Leagues ahead of the usual US-centric takes which, as you say, don't give the C64 the respect it deserves.
I'm not sure if it was intentional, but the VIC20 box in the video here is a TheVIC20 box (a TheC64 in a VIC20 styled case and keyboard, note the RetroGames logo at 6:45), and there's a TheC64 and its box later in the video too. This leads to a somewhat side discussion of the recent activity with the classic breadbox (and other retro computing releases as well). In the wave of mini-consoles, there was a TheC64 mini (1/4 scale plug & play console), and later a full sized release w/ working keyboard (both being emulated, so USB and HDMI in terms of connectivity). The full sized units sport VIC20 emulation and a host of features that make them a viable option in place of original hardware if you want something that looks the part w/o worrying if 40+ year old hardware is going to stay working. Then there's the Mega65 which is an FPGA based implementation of the un-released Commodore 65 (a more direct successor to the C64 in terms of specs than what the C128 was), and the Spectrum Next (also FPGA based), which is an evolution of the beloved Speccy. The community around the 8bit micros is still very much active.
Great Video, and a truly great machine. A friend had one of these, and it inspired me to get into game development - despite my parents being totally against it, now i'm in my 40's with 20+ years of game industry experience, and no slowing down - has both of them eating their words.
Great job talking and TEACHING about this wonderful little machine. Your delivery is brilliant and sharp! I still have my C64 set up and ready to get that retro fix and dabble in some 8bit art.
I have a Commodore 64 connected to a CRT TV. I started gaming on Arcades, Atari 2600, Pong console, Commodore 16, Commodore 128, SEGA Master System, SEGA Mega Drive etc.. born in the 1977.
Am from the 80's. Can confirm if you had a 'real' computer in your home you were *not* part of the masses and that was *not* a toy. thanks for the continued coverage of the games and hardware of yesteryear.
We had a C128 with thousands of pirated games. I eventually discovered you can use Sega Genesis controllers with it since the joysticks were always breaking.
It is not a good idea to use a Mega Drive controller with a C64 or C128. Did the same, but did not work properly - but there is a risk to destroy the joystick port that way (fortunately nothing happens here on my C128).
C64 was a huge part of my life from age 10 to 17 (1983-1990) and I only sold mine after getting an Amiga. The Amiga was more powerful but the Commodore 64 was my first true love, so after I got a PC and discovered eBay I bought another (and more than a few spares). C64 'til I die!
I loved the C64! The loading was comically slow, though. My brother and I would start the loading command line for a game, and then go play outside for 30 minutes, until it would finally come up. Good times!
I hope that was on cassette. The Atari 8-bit family had the same problem with slow loading cassettes. There was nothing sadder than having to wait over 1/2 hour for my Scott Adams text adventure to load than to hear the final beep go bbbeeeeee....... only to have to rewind and restart again.
My Grade School had a PET with a tape drive and I still remember the day we got a floppy drive, load times became "lightning fast". One day a Commodore 64 showed up and WOW! The level of quality of the games was impressive... at the time. The music for some of these games still rattles around in my brain till this day.
Great video with some interesting facts . I loved my c64 till early 90s when I managed to afford an amiga 500 still have a c64 today with sd card adapter so no waiting 10 mins to play ik+ lol
Many fond memories of the c64. Not only as a gaming system, but also as a home PC. I learned to type on it, as well as several school reports back in the day. Speedscript anyone? Lol But the sound chip demos are the most amazing part of it, even 30+ years later 🔊
Summer 1985 when my father came home with a Commodore 64 for me - was a great time to be a pre-teen (just...) - even came with the "International Soccer" cartridge included
I still need to see if my aunt will let me into my deceased grandmother's house to find my old Commodore 64 system. It was given to me around the mid 90s when I lived there, and it had the amber monochrome monitors with joystick controllers, 5-1/4 floppy with about 50 different sofware discs. Back then I never really played it much because it was all about Doom and Quake on pc's and consoles.
as a kid in 84 I didn't have the privilege to get the C64, but I had the VIC-20 at the age of 7 that year instead. Later I got the Tandy Color Computer II from Radio Shack in 87.
I always wondered and find it sad that there is so little C-64 stuff on UA-cam compared to the vast amount on the NES, so I appreciate this video more so. I had a C-64 in my childhood and those wonderful years will never be forgotten.
2 stories are in my head from when I was 4 either, my Dad randomly decided to get the C-64 out of the loft one day or my cousin showed off their NES and then I asked my Dad if we had any computer games. I'm fairly certain I asked my cousin if he had any computer games after being shown the C-64 and the first game I ever played was Mad Nurse on a cassette and then Terminator 2 on a 3 in 1 cartridge. My future brother-in-law gave me a NES when I was 5-ish and then I saw a Mega Drive at my brother's friend's house and I bought it off him when I about 6-ish and then I got a Playstation for my 7th birthday shortly after that the Dreamcast was announced.
Wild that there was a whole calculator market, and that they were pretty high end and expensive pieces of machinery. The scientific calculators high school kids buy these days for 15 quid are probably just as or more powerful than anything available to universities around around time of the commodores release
This channel is a necessity for gracious living. Love u Lady Decade !! Slight mistake when u mention Bob Yannes and the video shows an image of Brian Epstein..
Even to this day I still regularly listen to SID music either MP3 versions or the original SID versions via SIDPlay for Windows. The music released at that time on the C64 was at least 10 years ahead of what came out in pop music. I remember hearing pop music where everyone would be excited for a certain band or whatever with a "NEW" sound only for me to think "I heard this years ago". I would buy games just for the music and record it to tape so I could listen to it on my walkman, the games were a bonus if they were any good. I still have a VIC20 and numerous C64s, 1530 cassette decks, 1541 disk drives, MPS801 printers etc.... I'm not addicted at all I can give it up any time. JUST DON'T TOUCH MY STUFF GRRRRRRRR OK!!!!!!!!
Commodore absolutely dominated the home market here in North America and nearly single handedly caused the "video game crash" of 83. In reality more games were being played than ever, just off tapes and floppies and not Atari cartridges.
As a child my parents owned a vic20 and then a ç64. I remember typing in games to play and then we got a cassette tape recorder to save our games. The first on I remember typing was called Puoyann (spelling).
When I grew up in the 80s, we had a Commodore 64. It had a cassette tape deck that we would save the programs to. My brother would find code for games in magazines and type them in and save them to the tape deck. We also had an Odyssey 2 from Magnavox. I don't know if you guys had that across the pond. But it was the alternative to the Atari. We loved it. I would love if you did a video/doc about that console.
Was a bit too early for this era. In our house we had our first console, the NES (in about '90) UK) when I was five. My uncle had one of these older machines (cant remember which one) which I had go on at Christmas one time, was super young also at the point. Can't remember the name of it, but it lit the torch for my love for video games.
Commodore 64 commercial: Are you keeping up with the Commodore? 'Cause the Commodore's keeping up with you. A decade later: Commodore International stops producing products
Never had a c64 nor did I ever know anybody that's ever actually owned one. I've always found the computer rather intriguing since I've gotten into emulation. However, to me it just makes more sense to forego the c64 and instead go the Amiga route.
The Amiga is a much more powerful multimedia and gaming computer, but it has far less software owing to it never taking off the way the c64 did. I never had a c64 but I had an Ami by the time I first encountered one. It's prosaic basic based operating system and chunky pixels seemed quite crude and quaint, but in retrospect I can see how cutting edge it once was
My father owned a few. I may have been a little child back then, but yes! I lived through this. The C64 was what kept gaming going through the video game crash of 1983. With the price war between Commodore and Texas Instruments going on, the Commodore 64 was so cheap that there were just so many of them out that you had to make software for it because there was enough money to be made. With the Atari 2600 obsolete in 1983, and Atari losing tons of money and Apple not following the price war and keeping its prices high, and no one touching the video game console market, the C64 was the choice for computer gaming. The only reason youd want to touch a Commodore 64 is to play the games that were ORIGINALLY made for the C64 (there are too many to name), just because of difference between it and other systems. There is always a difference between the original games and the ports to other systems.
I wasn't a C64 owner back in the day but was a fan but I wish you'd do more 8-bit stuff as I find there was some great software I've never seen before from channels such as chinneyvision for example. I know you have to please a large diverse audience but I guess I'm just an 80s kid that doesn't understand the love that most things Nintendo gets coz they didn't innovate jack squit!
People blame the "video game crash of 83" on a variety of things, but I was there, as a kid, in a big US city and I blame at least half of the "crash" on home (gaming) computers like the C64. It seems the industry really wanted everyone to pivot from consoles to computers (probably for the higher profits), but that was never going to work in the US the way it did in Europe. American kids (and parents) were way too unsophisticated at that time and most of us certainly did not have the patience to deal with games on cassette versus plug-and-play cartridges. Also, the weather in the US was/is generally better too, so we had a wider variety of things to entertain us besides sitting at a desk waiting for a cassette to noisily load up a game that we knew was only going to be fun for 2 minutes. So, after what felt like a short dark age, the NES finally showed up offered us a "convincing" option and we ALL begged our parents for one immediately, proving that we were never anti-video game, we just weren't ready for games on microcomputers (or at least most of us weren't). P.S. Why the Colecovision was not able to bridge the console gap between the 2600 and the NES more successfully for more Americans is still a mystery to me.
It was ou first home computer we got it second hand in 1990, i remeber loading up the Barbarian tape, waiting what felt like half an hour, then chopping off heads. Great times!
The cost of a PET in 1977 was equivalent to ~ $2800 today. A great many ordinary middle-class people bought PETs at that price. Heck, there are people who spend that much on their gaming rigs today. I don't think it is fair at all to say that the PET was not affordable in 1977, or doesn't qualify as a "home computer". It absolutely was.
I can always tell the difference between Commodore 64 emulation and real hardware images. real hardware has jail bars on the video out, the audio is slightly different. I use real hardware via S-video connected to a CRT. There is only a handful of UA-cam creators that actually use real hardware most use emulation.
The TED Line (PLus4) while 3.5 times faster and better BASIC, it didn't have a SID Chip nor sprites, which is why no one would drop the C64 for it. The C128 tried to remedy that mistake, by including the VIC-II and the SID, it even contained a GO64 mode, but because of that mode, most developers delevered for the larger market which was still the C64 and the GO64 mode on the 129. So the 128 still couldn't kill the C64. The C128 was discontinued in 1989, 5 years before the Commodore 64, which ended with the company going under. What Commodore should have done was put more effort into it's PC line. Granted they prefered to use their own parts, But even their Amiga line had trouble competing with the new Pentiums with 16-bit sound and SVGA graphics. I was actually saving for an Amiga 1200 the time Commodore closed it's doors. So I ended up building a PC instead. All the games I wanted for the AMiga were availble to the PC, so the switch wasn't too bad. But technology was moving quickly in the 90's. Just a few years later we were seeing hardware 3D graphics, wavetable sound and OPL3 sound being replaced by live recordings both because of more memory and audio compression. A lot of computer companies that made only PCs wouldn't last the next few years. Even IBM dropping out of the market they created. What we see now is just a handful of lines that are manufactured, and the rest are exactly what we can build at home.
I've been on the hunt for a C64 for a long time, but they're always more than I can afford. Great video; would love to see a follow up with coverage of the history of the company more broadly/how they got to the financial woes that ultimately sealed the commodore 64's fate, or histories of the other computers they released in a similar style to this one. If it was only discontinued because the company was going down, I can't help but wonder how different if at all the home PC market would look had they stuck around. Would Windows ultimately have the market share they do now just later? Would there even be a Microsoft as we know them?
My dad had a Commodore 64 when I was a kid in the 80's. He used it mainly for home business as he had such programs like Magic Desk designed for that purpose. The thing I remember most about that computer is that he had a big library of games as he would trade them with my uncle who also had a C64 and his friends. I remember the C64 fondly because it sparked my interest in computers and video games. The C64 fills me with so much nostalgia that I bought the C64 mini when it became available and was able to play all those classic C64 games I grew up playing.
Did you find them enjoyable? I'm interested as you grew up in a different era, one of playstation, super Nintendo and xbox
@@MegaasAlexandros I had a blast with it! Like I said, it was used for every single thing! Games. Homework. Shopping lists. Everything.
Nice touch with the Last Ninja soundtrack.
I love that games are still being released for this system!
Me too!
Seeing Cosby in that old ad made me laugh cause of that line from Soldier Boy in The Boys 🤣🤣🤣
Gaming and maintaining computer software and hardware. The C64 got me involved in both my career as an adult and one of my favorite leisure activities. I cannot overstate my appreciation for that wonderful machine.
The C64 has been for gaming computers what the NES has been for consoles : the transition from prehistory to history, the moment games where starting to look like something, real graphics, scrollings etc.
The C64 was overall better rounded than every other 8 bits computers :-)
I think that from a technology perspective that crown might belong to the Atari 8-bit range but the C64 certainly blazed the trail for gaming-specific hardware due to its incredible success.
@@Daz5Daz The Atari computers were pretty cool, but the sound hardware of the C64 put it on another level.
@Debiruman1666 & @Daz555 - For music, the C64 was the best but the Atari wasn't that bad.
The same goes for graphics. Here's some of the highlights of the C64 : The graphics chip, VIC-II, features 16 colors, eight hardware sprites per scanline (enabling up to 112 sprites per PAL screen), scrolling capabilities, and two bitmap graphics modes.
For graphics, the Atari wins over the C64.
Now let's look at the Atari 8-bit family : 256 colors, 4 8-bit sprites as well as 4 2-bit missile sprites (that can be used together to make another 8-bit sprite). The sprites have three possible widths and vertically it has the height of the screen. Sprites can also be sliced into may different sprites using display list interrupts - each "new" sprite can have its own width, color, and horizontal position. Scrolling is easier to do on the Atari. While both machines have registers that can move a scan line horizontally by 1 pixel, on the C64 when the register reaches its limit (7 bits), one has to reset the register and then move all the scrolling screen memory which means thousands of bytes. The Atari has the same sort of register but when it reaches its limit you reset the register but only have to increment the screen address points to memory which means only updating a few hundred bytes of memory. The same is true for vertical scrolling. The Atari has 5 character modes and 10 bitmapped graphics modes that can be mixed together.
@@Gamevet Agree 100%. The C64 has the edge on sound. What's incredible about the hardware on the Atari 8-bit range though is that is was released nearly 3 years before the C64. It was trailblazing to have such custom game specific hardware in home computer.
C64 remains my favourite 80s micro though. Sits alongside the ZX Spectrum as the defining machines of that era for me.
@@Daz5Daz I wanted one of those Atari 400/800s as a kid. It wasn't until I'd played a friend's C64, that I totally wanted that instead. I did get to play a friend's Atari 800 XL in the late 80s and had thought that it was really cool.
I loved my C64. Was a fantastic improvement from having a ZX81 😎 (and I loved my ZX81)
Lol, my dad coded software protection for games on the C64. We had like 6 of the damn things laying around, along with a few 128's, and even the "portable" one.
I played the hell out of those games.
On the SID, the audio on C64's was way ahead of its time - to the point where it allowed the C64 to have music authoring software like 'Music Construction Set'. Many fond memories of that.
Great video. My C64 started off my lifetime love of personal computers and eventual career in the game development industry. I have always wondered what might have happened had the C-64C (Amiga-case style C64) released with GEOS in ROM as the default OS instead of Basic V2.0. Essentially an 8-bit Amiga. It could have sustained the system for at LEAST another 5 years and possibly saved Commodore intl. from bankruptancy dispite the best efforts of Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould. :(
You are on fire with these videos. You and Top Hat are pumping out awesome content like it is nothing.
Loved my C64 and still do, was streaming it last night even... may it long live through the homebrew scene!
Lady Decade, congratulations 🎉. You are now my #1 channel on UA-cam. I'm 40 and have been playing video games since I was 4, and you touch on topics I have never heard of in my entire life. Simply amazing channel.
You're doing so many videos fast and they are all so well produced, researched and interesting. Impressive I must say. Your narration is also top notch with lots of feeling and making everything even more exciting.
Agreed, This channel needs to be seen by more people. I don't understand why it hasn't more subscribers than it does. It's better produced and presented than many other Retro channels.
The C=64 was my favorite gaming system I've ever owned and I'm old enough to remember the day Pong released.
Yep I'm over 50 and still gaming to this day, my system and gaming collection is almost as big as yours Lady Decade.
I remember paying almost $1000 for my C=64, tape drive, C= 1541 disk drive & C= 1701 Monitor also this was the first Computer system that was able to be modded.
Also listening to the classic SID chip tunes in the background of your clip was great, my smartphone ring tone is the main turn from Wizball by Martin Galway.
Awesome comment
I learned to program on the C-64. I'm a senior software developer now.
My friend had a C64. A few of us would actually pool our money together for him to buy new games so we all could play them!
❤️ for covering my favorite computer in such a fun way! My faves: Archon, Boulder Dash, Dino Eggs, Doriath, Fort Apocalypse, HERO, Hardhat Mack, Impossible Mission, IK+, Jumpman Jr, Karateka, Lode Runner, Mario Bros, Montezuma's Revenge, Paperboy, Pirates, Prince of Persia, Space Taxi, Summer/Winter Games, Exploding Fist, Wizard of Wor, Zaxxon, Dig-Dug, Ms Pac Man, Centipede, Yie Ar Kung Fu.
Thank you! Brilliant piece, lovely details and an hilarious delivery. You’re amazing.
Back then, I wrote a multi track software with an on-screen keyboard that allowed you to record three tracks. Once you completed the tracks, you could tell it to mix. Upon doing so, it automatically generated the basic code of commands that brought it all together. It was better than the software that was released for the Commodore at the time. I distributed on bulletin board systems. I was so young and determined to get what I wanted from the machine, rather than be limited by software on the shelf. They commodore 64 and then 128 was an early playground for me as a musician. What I do today here on UA-cam began on that platform.
This is my first home computer that still works with its longevity, worldwide distribution and wide range of video games also on cassette.
Always used to love visiting my relatives
As my uncle had this, spent hours on this . Good times
Every time I hear her say "the necessity for gracious living," I want to scream.
Unfortunate enough? I was definitely FORTUNATE enough to have grown up in the 70s with my Atari 2600 and my Rock n Roll. I also was incredibly fortunate to have grown up in a time where there was no internet and no social media. I can't even explain to you how magical that was because at your age you simply wouldn't understand.
LOL I'm 33 years old, I'm not Gen Z, I was 10 when the Internet really became a thing. And you do realise that the biggest cultural gap between any generation is between Millennials and Gen Z due to the reasons you've just stated. My upbringing probably wasn't that far off yours, I mean, flares and platform shoes and Star Wars were all massive in the 90s!
Wrote my first program on the commodore. Choose your own adventure type for D&D. I was so proud. And it fit on just one cassette. Great video. New subscriber. The Quartering sends its regards.
Lady Decade, thank you again for this trip down memory lane. I enjoy your videos so much.
Absolutely loved this one. Absolutely nailed it! :)
Leagues ahead of the usual US-centric takes which, as you say, don't give the C64 the respect it deserves.
I'm not sure if it was intentional, but the VIC20 box in the video here is a TheVIC20 box (a TheC64 in a VIC20 styled case and keyboard, note the RetroGames logo at 6:45), and there's a TheC64 and its box later in the video too.
This leads to a somewhat side discussion of the recent activity with the classic breadbox (and other retro computing releases as well). In the wave of mini-consoles, there was a TheC64 mini (1/4 scale plug & play console), and later a full sized release w/ working keyboard (both being emulated, so USB and HDMI in terms of connectivity). The full sized units sport VIC20 emulation and a host of features that make them a viable option in place of original hardware if you want something that looks the part w/o worrying if 40+ year old hardware is going to stay working. Then there's the Mega65 which is an FPGA based implementation of the un-released Commodore 65 (a more direct successor to the C64 in terms of specs than what the C128 was), and the Spectrum Next (also FPGA based), which is an evolution of the beloved Speccy. The community around the 8bit micros is still very much active.
Great Video, and a truly great machine.
A friend had one of these, and it inspired me to get into game development - despite my parents being totally against it,
now i'm in my 40's with 20+ years of game industry experience, and no slowing down - has both of them eating their words.
Great job talking and TEACHING about this wonderful little machine. Your delivery is brilliant and sharp! I still have my C64 set up and ready to get that retro fix and dabble in some 8bit art.
The C64 is an amazing system. Yes, I'm definitely all for more coverage of vintage computer systems.
I have a Commodore 64 connected to a CRT TV. I started gaming on Arcades, Atari 2600, Pong console, Commodore 16, Commodore 128, SEGA Master System, SEGA Mega Drive etc.. born in the 1977.
I still have a C128D.. bought a tapecart SD recently and it loads games in a few seconds.. so much fun still to this day!
Am from the 80's. Can confirm if you had a 'real' computer in your home you were *not* part of the masses and that was *not* a toy.
thanks for the continued coverage of the games and hardware of yesteryear.
So being middle class wasn't masses? We had a TI in 1983.
We got our first C64 in 1988, I still have it today.
Girl...I have no idea who you are, but you absolutely cracked me up with your narration!! You have a new subscriber!!
I seen a lot of my favorites from my childhood!
We had a C128 with thousands of pirated games. I eventually discovered you can use Sega Genesis controllers with it since the joysticks were always breaking.
It is not a good idea to use a Mega Drive controller with a C64 or C128. Did the same, but did not work properly - but there is a risk to destroy the joystick port that way (fortunately nothing happens here on my C128).
Worked fine with my spectrum + and Acorn a3010. Megadrive pads were so versatile.
The lady decade UA-cam channel: a necessity for gracious living
C64 was a huge part of my life from age 10 to 17 (1983-1990) and I only sold mine after getting an Amiga. The Amiga was more powerful but the Commodore 64 was my first true love, so after I got a PC and discovered eBay I bought another (and more than a few spares). C64 'til I die!
I loved the C64!
The loading was comically slow, though.
My brother and I would start the loading command line for a game, and then go play outside for 30 minutes, until it would finally come up. Good times!
I hope that was on cassette. The Atari 8-bit family had the same problem with slow loading cassettes. There was nothing sadder than having to wait over 1/2 hour for my Scott Adams text adventure to load than to hear the final beep go bbbeeeeee....... only to have to rewind and restart again.
Thank you for the very nice video. Yes, I would be interested in more videos about Commodore 64.
My Grade School had a PET with a tape drive and I still remember the day we got a floppy drive, load times became "lightning fast". One day a Commodore 64 showed up and WOW! The level of quality of the games was impressive... at the time. The music for some of these games still rattles around in my brain till this day.
Thanks for the video (and all the implied work neeed). I would love to see one about the Commodore 16
Great video with some interesting facts .
I loved my c64 till early 90s when I managed to afford an amiga 500
still have a c64 today with sd card adapter so no waiting 10 mins to play ik+ lol
Many fond memories of the c64. Not only as a gaming system, but also as a home PC. I learned to type on it, as well as several school reports back in the day. Speedscript anyone? Lol
But the sound chip demos are the most amazing part of it, even 30+ years later 🔊
Being a patreon of Lady Decade and hearing your name at the end... a necessity for gracious living ✨️
Ahhh thank you Saj x
When she sang the intellivision song.. I spit my beer out.. great retro review! keep them coming!
C64 was my first computer with the batman movie game
Fantastic video. A fine computer. I still have mine stashed somewhere.
Summer 1985 when my father came home with a Commodore 64 for me - was a great time to be a pre-teen (just...) - even came with the "International Soccer" cartridge included
I still need to see if my aunt will let me into my deceased grandmother's house to find my old Commodore 64 system. It was given to me around the mid 90s when I lived there, and it had the amber monochrome monitors with joystick controllers, 5-1/4 floppy with about 50 different sofware discs. Back then I never really played it much because it was all about Doom and Quake on pc's and consoles.
as a kid in 84 I didn't have the privilege to get the C64, but I had the VIC-20 at the age of 7 that year instead. Later I got the Tandy Color Computer II from Radio Shack in 87.
I always wondered and find it sad that there is so little C-64 stuff on UA-cam compared to the vast amount on the NES, so I appreciate this video more so. I had a C-64 in my childhood and those wonderful years will never be forgotten.
Shared this on the biggest C64 Facebook group. They dig it!
That keyboard looks like it would be a dream to type on with those Buckler switches
I never had one I was a Spectrum 48k Fanboy back in the day
Fantastic video LD
2 stories are in my head from when I was 4 either, my Dad randomly decided to get the C-64 out of the loft one day or my cousin showed off their NES and then I asked my Dad if we had any computer games. I'm fairly certain I asked my cousin if he had any computer games after being shown the C-64 and the first game I ever played was Mad Nurse on a cassette and then Terminator 2 on a 3 in 1 cartridge. My future brother-in-law gave me a NES when I was 5-ish and then I saw a Mega Drive at my brother's friend's house and I bought it off him when I about 6-ish and then I got a Playstation for my 7th birthday shortly after that the Dreamcast was announced.
Wild that there was a whole calculator market, and that they were pretty high end and expensive pieces of machinery. The scientific calculators high school kids buy these days for 15 quid are probably just as or more powerful than anything available to universities around around time of the commodores release
This channel is a necessity for gracious living. Love u Lady Decade !!
Slight mistake when u mention Bob Yannes and the video shows an image of Brian Epstein..
Back in the early 80s, my first gaming experience was on Dad's C64. Thanks for the vid!
Even to this day I still regularly listen to SID music either MP3 versions or the original SID versions via SIDPlay for Windows. The music released at that time on the C64 was at least 10 years ahead of what came out in pop music. I remember hearing pop music where everyone would be excited for a certain band or whatever with a "NEW" sound only for me to think "I heard this years ago". I would buy games just for the music and record it to tape so I could listen to it on my walkman, the games were a bonus if they were any good. I still have a VIC20 and numerous C64s, 1530 cassette decks, 1541 disk drives, MPS801 printers etc.... I'm not addicted at all I can give it up any time. JUST DON'T TOUCH MY STUFF GRRRRRRRR OK!!!!!!!!
It’s not just a gaming king, it’s a keyboard king!
Commodore absolutely dominated the home market here in North America and nearly single handedly caused the "video game crash" of 83. In reality more games were being played than ever, just off tapes and floppies and not Atari cartridges.
As a child my parents owned a vic20 and then a ç64. I remember typing in games to play and then we got a cassette tape recorder to save our games. The first on I remember typing was called Puoyann (spelling).
that Commodore keeping up with you has always sounded like a threat to me, warning you of a persistence predator chasing after you.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
When I grew up in the 80s, we had a Commodore 64. It had a cassette tape deck that we would save the programs to. My brother would find code for games in magazines and type them in and save them to the tape deck.
We also had an Odyssey 2 from Magnavox. I don't know if you guys had that across the pond. But it was the alternative to the Atari. We loved it. I would love if you did a video/doc about that console.
Was a bit too early for this era. In our house we had our first console, the NES (in about '90) UK) when I was five. My uncle had one of these older machines (cant remember which one) which I had go on at Christmas one time, was super young also at the point. Can't remember the name of it, but it lit the torch for my love for video games.
I was more a Spectrum and Amstrad kid, but I did enjoy the C64 when I finally got one.
Commodore 64 commercial: Are you keeping up with the Commodore? 'Cause the Commodore's keeping up with you.
A decade later: Commodore International stops producing products
Loved your documentary.
Never had a c64 nor did I ever know anybody that's ever actually owned one. I've always found the computer rather intriguing since I've gotten into emulation. However, to me it just makes more sense to forego the c64 and instead go the Amiga route.
The Amiga is a much more powerful multimedia and gaming computer, but it has far less software owing to it never taking off the way the c64 did. I never had a c64 but I had an Ami by the time I first encountered one. It's prosaic basic based operating system and chunky pixels seemed quite crude and quaint, but in retrospect I can see how cutting edge it once was
My father owned a few. I may have been a little child back then, but yes! I lived through this.
The C64 was what kept gaming going through the video game crash of 1983. With the price war between Commodore and Texas Instruments going on, the Commodore 64 was so cheap that there were just so many of them out that you had to make software for it because there was enough money to be made. With the Atari 2600 obsolete in 1983, and Atari losing tons of money and Apple not following the price war and keeping its prices high, and no one touching the video game console market, the C64 was the choice for computer gaming.
The only reason youd want to touch a Commodore 64 is to play the games that were ORIGINALLY made for the C64 (there are too many to name), just because of difference between it and other systems. There is always a difference between the original games and the ports to other systems.
Love that music from the game Shadowfire! Strangely, I was playing Shadowfire last week with Retroarch on my Series X.... Great game too!
My Amiga 2000 still works. It was funny with Y2K the clock went back to an odd year, but still works. 🤣
I loved my Amiga. It was such an awesome machine for the time
Robocop 3 for the C64 has one the ABSOLUTE BEST video game opening songs of all time HANDS. DOWN.
I raise you Batman, it was epic. Also New Zealand story had a great tune
Had both the ZX Spectrum and the C64, loved them both
Ahhh yes, my first system I gamed on ♥️. Loved my C64
Wow, I used the Ensoniq Mirage sampler back in the 90s in a rack mount, had no idea it was based on C64 tech
Excellent video 👍❤️
I wasn't a C64 owner back in the day but was a fan but I wish you'd do more 8-bit stuff as I find there was some great software I've never seen before from channels such as chinneyvision for example. I know you have to please a large diverse audience but I guess I'm just an 80s kid that doesn't understand the love that most things Nintendo gets coz they didn't innovate jack squit!
Found ya via The Quatering and subbed especially as i had vic20, c64 then the amigas
Great video. I had a C64. This took me back.
People blame the "video game crash of 83" on a variety of things, but I was there, as a kid, in a big US city and I blame at least half of the "crash" on home (gaming) computers like the C64. It seems the industry really wanted everyone to pivot from consoles to computers (probably for the higher profits), but that was never going to work in the US the way it did in Europe. American kids (and parents) were way too unsophisticated at that time and most of us certainly did not have the patience to deal with games on cassette versus plug-and-play cartridges. Also, the weather in the US was/is generally better too, so we had a wider variety of things to entertain us besides sitting at a desk waiting for a cassette to noisily load up a game that we knew was only going to be fun for 2 minutes. So, after what felt like a short dark age, the NES finally showed up offered us a "convincing" option and we ALL begged our parents for one immediately, proving that we were never anti-video game, we just weren't ready for games on microcomputers (or at least most of us weren't). P.S. Why the Colecovision was not able to bridge the console gap between the 2600 and the NES more successfully for more Americans is still a mystery to me.
It was ou first home computer we got it second hand in 1990, i remeber loading up the Barbarian tape, waiting what felt like half an hour, then chopping off heads. Great times!
*great stuff! much prefer computers than consoles! especially commodore! my heart is with the Amigas, but 64 is a legend!* 💪👍
Still a very fun computer to game on. The new/home-brew games (since the last decade) coming out for it are amazing too! Sam's Journey!!
And you're a Gaming Queen.
I learned a ton from your recent Pico video.
The TI-99 has two great versions of Burgertime. One blue and one black background game. It's much like the MSX version. Great game!!!!
Love the 64! Sinclair ZX Spectrum next please!💪
I had a commodore 16 plus 4. I had a ton of games for it, wish I kept it as nobody seems to talk about it
If you haven’t already a C64 games rundown video would be much appreciated. Cheers.
Nice video!!!
If you haven't done so already, can you do a video on the Color Computer series?
The Commodore VIC20 was my first ever home computer! :)
Instant subscribe...appealing to my old ass gamin/computing.
The cost of a PET in 1977 was equivalent to ~ $2800 today.
A great many ordinary middle-class people bought PETs at that price. Heck, there are people who spend that much on their gaming rigs today. I don't think it is fair at all to say that the PET was not affordable in 1977, or doesn't qualify as a "home computer". It absolutely was.
I can always tell the difference between Commodore 64 emulation and real hardware images. real hardware has jail bars on the video out, the audio is slightly different. I use real hardware via S-video connected to a CRT. There is only a handful of UA-cam creators that actually use real hardware most use emulation.
Great video thanks, I would like to suggest a video on the Atari 800XL
The TED Line (PLus4) while 3.5 times faster and better BASIC, it didn't have a SID Chip nor sprites, which is why no one would drop the C64 for it. The C128 tried to remedy that mistake, by including the VIC-II and the SID, it even contained a GO64 mode, but because of that mode, most developers delevered for the larger market which was still the C64 and the GO64 mode on the 129. So the 128 still couldn't kill the C64. The C128 was discontinued in 1989, 5 years before the Commodore 64, which ended with the company going under. What Commodore should have done was put more effort into it's PC line. Granted they prefered to use their own parts, But even their Amiga line had trouble competing with the new Pentiums with 16-bit sound and SVGA graphics. I was actually saving for an Amiga 1200 the time Commodore closed it's doors. So I ended up building a PC instead. All the games I wanted for the AMiga were availble to the PC, so the switch wasn't too bad. But technology was moving quickly in the 90's. Just a few years later we were seeing hardware 3D graphics, wavetable sound and OPL3 sound being replaced by live recordings both because of more memory and audio compression. A lot of computer companies that made only PCs wouldn't last the next few years. Even IBM dropping out of the market they created. What we see now is just a handful of lines that are manufactured, and the rest are exactly what we can build at home.
Yep you rockin Lady!
Haha thank you! X
I've been on the hunt for a C64 for a long time, but they're always more than I can afford. Great video; would love to see a follow up with coverage of the history of the company more broadly/how they got to the financial woes that ultimately sealed the commodore 64's fate, or histories of the other computers they released in a similar style to this one. If it was only discontinued because the company was going down, I can't help but wonder how different if at all the home PC market would look had they stuck around. Would Windows ultimately have the market share they do now just later? Would there even be a Microsoft as we know them?