New Book: The rise and the fall of Commodore

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 1:08 pm

In case you missed it on Comp Sys CBM today:

http://www.commodorebook.com/

Looks like a good read on a lawnchair with a brewskie in hand

Brian

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:23 am

I just got this book. It will be an interesting read!

/Anders

Schlowski · Post by **Schlowski** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:28 am

I ordered this some weeks ago directly form the states (or canada?) and payed more for postage than for the book...
I think now in germany you can order this from www.go64.de a lot cheaper

Interesting to read and a lot of (subjective) insights as well!

Now that I'm beyond PET, VIC20 and C64 it gets less interesting for me, but I think someday I will finish reading this book.

Björg

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:42 am

I bought mine on Tradera for 200 SEK. Then it turned out he wanted to pay for the postage (44 SEK) and when I got it, it turned out the post office hadn't stamped on the stamps, so I can use them again. So I paid just 200-44-44=112 SEK for mine if you exclude the postage. But one corner was a little bent...

/Anders

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 6:33 am

Finished mine in less than a week over Christmas

Great book but he needs a Editor next time.

Passed the book onto Schema to read next (what page are you on ther now Leif?)

You're right the 1st 1/2 is the most interesting. Large section on the Vic-20 and 6502 development. They seemed to skip the 4000 series PET, SuperPET and 64PET how they came into existance though

Brian

Boray · Post by **Boray** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:53 am

I have now come to where they start to design the diskdrive... One thing that I thought about while reading is that he constantly comments about Commodore's lack of taking the competition seriously. I don't know if they comment on it more later on, but why would they bother so much about the competition from Apple? They used Commodore's 6502 processor and probably also some IO chips etc from Commodore/MOS. So in other words, Commodore must have made money on every Apple computer sold. I think that's why they didn't bother. Peddle even helped them out with their first computer... and they almost bought up Apple to base Commodores first PET computer on it. Instead, they used a sprinkler system!

/Anders

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:37 pm

I've read a bit of it. Not much time to get into long reading sessions right now though with baby Andreas needing attention.

It's not really holding my interest to be honest. Yes, I own several Commodore computers, but I also own a PalmOS computer and a nice Acura car for that matter, but I don't really care about their histories either.

As for VIC-20 content, I thought the "Home Computer Wars" was more insightful into how the VIC came to be.

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:39 pm

Leif,

Know you know and it didn't cost ya at least

You know where the library drop off service is when you're done

Brian

Christian Johansson · Post by **Christian Johansson** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:41 pm

Schema wrote: ...

It's not really holding my interest to be honest. Yes, I own several Commodore computers, but I also own a PalmOS computer and a nice Acura car for that matter, but I don't really care about their histories either.

...

I can agree that it is not very easy reading. The book is packed with people and facts. The fact that it is English also causes me not to understand all of it. However, I still struggle to read through the book because it contains information that is very interesting to know as a Commodore enthusiast even if it can seem like a lot of information when reading the book. It is interesting to get an understanding of why the computers became like they became I think.

One thing you notice is that the core engineers behind the Commodore computers were just a few people who were very enthusiastic. They were persons who sometimes worked 20 hours a day and only slept 4 hours and didn't leave work. For example, the C64 was to a big degree made by only two persons: Bob Yannes and Robert Russell (although the VIC-II chip by Al Charpentier is also a very important part of it). Another thing you notice is that much is centered around the CES shows that occur twice per year. People work like crazy to get new prototypes ready to be shown at those shows.

davidv_ · Post by **davidv_** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:31 am

Just finished reading it.

I had a great time. Too often that kind of book really skip some technical details thinking the reader would not comprehend or care.
Lets say there are a coupla gems in there.

My favorite anecdote was from Bill Herd (C128) (iirc) picking up office phones up randomly, and saying 'hello?' in case someone was on the other line to prove a point
that one of the video chip designer's lack of interrupt after each scan line was a very bad idea. (the basic polling vs callback idiom). Since I work on real time audio systems,
this particular one made me laugh a long time.

Great read for any VIC-20 fan that care about where their favorite machine (and the
other ones before and after) came about.

Mikam73 · Post by **Mikam73** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 3:43 pm

I think that end of that book might be too sad for me..

davidv_ · Post by **davidv_** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:48 am

Mikam73 wrote:I think that end of that book might be too sad for me..

Well you are sad the book is over, but the decline of commodore..
well you kind of feel it comming a long time.
So yes the first part is much less depressing than the later.

Theres a a good section on the launch of the VIC and the first run of games, made by HAL labs (heck even the wikipedia article on HAL doesnt mention it).
Unless the author is wrong, the japan Vic-1001 group had the official rights for rally-x, galaxian, space invaders, night driver, lunar lander and pac-man.
But they had to change the names in other markets because they didnt have the official rights there.

eslapion · Post by **eslapion** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:57 am

davidv_ wrote: Unless the author is wrong, the japan Vic-1001 group had the official rights for rally-x, galaxian, space invaders, night driver, lunar lander and pac-man.
But they had to change the names in other markets because they didnt have the official rights there.

Well, Rally-X became Radar Rat Race, Galaxian became Star Battle, Space Invaders became Avenger, Night Driver became Road Race, Lunar Lander became Jupiter Lander and Pac-Man became Jelly Monsters...

Centallica · Post by **Centallica** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:13 am

Schema wrote:I've read a bit of it. Not much time to get into long reading sessions right now though with baby Andreas needing attention.

It's not really holding my interest to be honest. Yes, I own several Commodore computers, but I also own a PalmOS computer and a nice Acura car for that matter, but I don't really care about their histories either.

As for VIC-20 content, I thought the "Home Computer Wars" was more insightful into how the VIC came to be.

Leif,

Did you ever get into this book I lent ya?

I can't remember the last hard cover of several hundred pages that I couldn't put down like this one....love history of things

Brian

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:37 am

Yes, I finished it a couple of months ago. I'll try to return it next weekend

I enjoyed it more than I expected.