Commodore computer

[Paul Montgomery]

Stewart Fist wrote:
> > what's WebTV then?
> 
> I think, its about the silliest concept I've seen for a long time -- or at
> least since the Commodore computer.  Remember how it connected up to your
> TV set, and 100,000 were sold in Australia as "Fun for all the family".
> Dad, mum and the kids were shown in the ads all sitting around laughing,
> while little Johnnie, with his hand on the sole joystick, played some
> game.
> 
> I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now.

<indignant rant>

Hey! Hands off the Commodore! >:-\

I had a Commodore 128D in high school, and it stood me in good stead for
my later years. I suppose if I'd had a Radio Shack from Tandy <eww> or
an IBM PC (shudder) I would have turned out even more of a nerd than I
am now, but the Commodore was a good cross between those old chestnuts
and the Atari, or other examples of pre-Nintendo games consoles. I could
play games and work on the same machine, plus it incorporated a couple
of versions of the Basic programming language, with which I learned my
healthy respect/fear for those amnong us who are blessed with the skills
and/or personality deficiencies to stick at the damn stuff.

It also gave rise to an extremely pervasive hacker culture (I bought
about 3 games, but had 250 in my collection), and many of today's
well-paid programmers and analysts learnt their craft by figuring out
the intricacies of sprite collision subroutines, overlaying raster beams
and PEEKs and POKEs when designing demos and intros for hacked Commodore games.

The playability of many of today's PC games pales in comparison with
that of some of the Commodore classics. The Sentinel, Paradroid,
California Games, M.U.L.E. ... the list goes on. In fact, too many of
today;s games are just tarted up versions of Commodore originals. I'm
wading through Might & Magic VI at the mo, and it strikes me how little
the NPC AI has changed from the AD&D versions on the Commodore 10 years
ago - they can still only run at you like lobotomised zombies, no matter
if a wall or door is in the way. Anyone heard of monsters with opposable thumbs?

</indignant rant>

My, I did ramble a bit there. Oh well, off to Queensland for the Com
Tech Forum.

-- 
Paul Montgomery, features editor for Image & Data Manager and assistant
editor for Internet World. Lives like a JavaBean. Go Socceroos in WC02!
mailto:monty@knapp.com.au  Tel: +61 2 9318 2644.  Fax: +61 2 9310 4608.
  "Just like the ocean, always in love with the moon / It’s overflowing
  now, inside you." Jeff Buckley, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk.