Denial

The one thing I'd change about the Vic is that I would have included a better BASIC, something closer to what the PET had. At the very least, PLOT and SOUND commands, though I'd not want to include everything from, say, the Super Expander. Gotta give those newbie programmers some incentive to delve ...

Sounds like a typical middle management guy; heavy on the BS, light on facts. Perhaps he's helping Apple with their new ad campaign? :wink: Hehe, an interesting take on things, DQ! Of course, right after I posted the last post the book took a severe turn for the better. The rest of the "Trinit...

More factual problems in the chapter "The Trinity." He claims that the PET outsells everybody else, and goes on to say it did this with sales of about 4000 units in 1977. He expressly dismisses the S-100 systems, in fact, and concentrates on Apple and Radio Shack as being "the competi...

The main error in Bagnall's book is his claim that the user voided the warranty by opening the Apple II case. It was intended to be opened, and it didn't void the warranty. It would be like voiding the warranty on the Vic if you plug something into the expansion port or user port. The Apple was very...

Just read some more of the book. There's one big howler I can't let slide (there are a bunch of other little ones I won't bother with.) Bagnall tries again to make the case there's a huge distinction between the PET and other systems--he claims that unlike the PET which opened up to reveal the circu...

That book sounds a bit like the "Da Vinci Code" for the Commodore community. Edit : Or maybe that should be "Da PETSCII Code"? ROFL! "Da PETSCII Code!" I love it. Certainly there's been enough cloak and dagger in Commodore's history, not to mention the industry as a wh...

Once I've got time again, I'll fix my Vics and breadboard this up for testing. I've got a selection of 6502s, so I'll drop a ZIF socket into a Vic and give it a try with each, slap a scope or analyzer on and see what there is to see. I'll see if I can drum up any 8M ROMs in a box around here somewhe...

You're right, I am. I'm doing it from the perspective of the average attendee of the WCCF, who were a technical lot. As to the rest of your statements, I agree completely. But my comments were limited to a criticism about a bias I feel is in Bagnall's description of the WCCF. That's all. No PET bas...

Although I find your insight facinating, I must respectfully disagree with one of your points: Why people didn't like the PET: Oddball expansion connector. Limited memory. No slots. See above. No software. No ML monitor. Say what? You're going to sell someone a computer then lock them out of it? BA...

You sit unmoved through all of Terminator 3 until the end where the "hero" starts shoving old computer equipment on to the floor, at which point you shriek in horror and get the entire theater audience looking at you...

-Mark

I've seen two units in apparently working condition, after they'd been announced but before shipping (obviously, since that never happened.) I tried to buy one on the spot, but they wouldn't sell it to me. I placed a pre-order with my friendly local dealer but he had to give my money back. I wanted ...

You're headed the correct way with the diode gates and ideas on the latch. I burned up the time I have to post for now on Bagnall's Commodore book, unfortunately, no time to draw up anything now. I've had a project get hot over the weekend so I'll only be stopping by at "break times" when ...

UPS dropped off my copy today, and I've read up to just past the first West Coast Computer Faire (I think he's about to get to PC'76.) One irritation I have with the book so far is that Bagnall really beats up other authors of early microcomputer industry books for their bias, while having a bias th...

Boy, does that open a can of worms! You should be able to, IMO, but there are a lot of government goons who differ with me. I know I can't sell you one of my kidneys, at least not legally, here. Money obtained for blood "donations" is carefully not referred to as any sort of compensation. ...

Congrats! Man, what a deal. Thanks for being there to keep that one out of the dump.

-Mark