Commodore 64

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A Commodore 64 with peripherals.

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit personal computer first sold by Commodore Business Machines in 1982. It was the premier gaming computer of the early 1980s having good audio and graphic capabilities built into the base model. The overall shape and layout of the keyboard comes from the earlier VIC-20 and runs on a MOS 6520 CPU, a modified MOS 6502.

Personal

I never owned a Commodore 64 when they were popular, but I first used one in 1987 in second grade. Each room in my elementary school had either a Commodore 64 or Apple II, and there was a computer lab with dozens of Commodore 64s daisy-chained together. I really liked the way the computers looked with their brown and tan keyboards and cryptic symbols on each key.

I don't remember the titles of most of the software from the time, but I do remember what they looked like. The games I played included:

  • Logo
  • A hotdog stand game
  • A dragster game which required solving math problems
  • A monochromatic artillery game, perhaps Artillery.
  • Expeditions, which included an early version of The Oregon Trail.
  • A game with several math-related mini games, one included counting beans, in another you played a frog who raced against other animals like a flying or walking bird, and you had to solve math problems to hop.
  • Tri Math, which included a game called Math Mansion, where you explored a haunted house and had to solve math problems to get items to avoid monsters.
  • The Pond
  • There was also a reading game where you read a short story and were quizzed on your comprehension. If you got the quiz correct, you were allowed to discover an item from the attic to add to your list. Then, the game would ask you to recall three of the items at random, but my class never played the game enough to ever win, though some kids collected a pretty complete list from everyone else.

Status

I now own a Commodore 64 complete in box, and a 5.25" disk drive, complete in box, an another one loose.

Games

See all Commodore 64 Games.

Aside from the rare educational games in elementary school, I didn't get into Commodore 64 gaming until the 2000s when access to emulators and disk binaries became more popular. As such, I don't have any fond memories of playing the games when they were the height of technology. This makes me a bit sad because I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of games because it's now very difficult for me to get past their technical limitations, but at the same time, I'm happy that my opinion isn't rose-tinted.

Here are some of the C64 games I'm most impressed with:

Fonts

The blocky font used by in the original Commodore logo is Microgramma D Bold Extended. When the logo was updated, they switched to Futura SB Bold.

Media

Fan Art

Videos

8-Bit Guy, Commodore Mini review.

Links

Link-Wikipedia.png  Link-MobyGames.png  Link-VGMPF.png