I kinda want a modern computer that comes with a book similar to how Commodore included one that had simple instructions on how to do pretty much everything, like making simple music all the way to programming it
you’re right. nowadays a beginner would have to sift through a bunch of websites to figure out how to do it.
Literally, the new Commodore 64. Comes with a book that teaches you Basic.
And on that note, the Commodore X16 from The 8 Bit Guy is built from the ashes of what would have been a C64 successor, post 128. Documentation available is extensive. Of course, it doesn’t ship with a spiral bound manual, so I guess it doesn’t even apply, but, ya know. It’s a cool little thing to tinker with.
Terry Davis tried to do for the PC with TempleOS what the C64’s BASIC and KERNAL did for its hardware.
Terry was all the more a mad lad because he didn’t get to create the hardware spec he was working with.
Could you imagine someone doing the same as Commodore did but starting with 64-bit era hardware?
Taking it another direction, there are free and paid “easy programming” platforms that provide a sandbox not unlike a modern version of what it was like to program a C64.
At a pinch, DOSBox and a copy of QBASIC might suffice.
Not a console, but PICO-8 can be installed on lots of stuff and uses lua.
Also TIC-80.
Cool, I didn’t know there was an open-source alternative. Thanks!
I’ve said this for years… There was no “gaming crash”, people just started playing games on the C-64.
…and a high percentage of those were copied illegally. I’m not judging, just stating a fact
We literally had hundreds of games and had bought maybe ten of them.
Your percentage of legal games was probably still higher than average 😉
Here there was no sensible way to buy C64 games till the early 90’s. Late 80’s you could find few games “under the counter” in shops specialised in electronics, if you asked. They were usually expensive garbage and picked by someone, because of the cover art. There was always the one obscure flight sim for adults that was also shit.
So 100% illegal copies.
If somebody found a good game it was quickly bartered and copied to everyone else.
A C64 is one of the only retro machines I’ve never encountered before in-person. Presume they were less popular in the UK because of the Spectrum.
But I have a default appreciation of it because of my childhood Amiga adoration.
I actually installed Virtual64 on the Mac the other day and was trying to learn some ways to mess around in BASIC. Hoping to get to know the C64 (and Spectrum) better, mainly just for the fun of it.
