Commodore – Just when I thought I was out
…they pull me back in! While most people had girlfriends or the college campus experience during their formative years. I had Commodore. Yes, I was a bright-eyed, enthusiastic student intern, and the ultimate fanboy who was just beamed up by the mothership… just as somebody hit self-destruct. I led the local Amiga users’ group, infiltrated their Bahamas fortress for shareholder meetings, and worked for a spin-off for 8 years. Commodore Computers colored a good portion of my professional career, and taught me many of my key lessons in life. I thought I finally had it out of my system, and Barry Altman goes and brings it back from the dead… and I gobble it up. And damn it, I have to recommend this thing…
Here is my FAQ about Commodore
▶ What is the Commodore 64x, or C64x thing that you use?
The Commodore 64x, or C64x, is a re-issue of the approximate design of the Commodore 64, using an extremely high quality modern keyboard that is a delight to type on. I am something of a keyboard-snob, using nothing but IBM Model-M's, until this thing came along, offering the perfect combination of retro-coolness and typing delight—for which I have received much criticism. The insides accommodate almost any mini-ITX motherboard, which is a form-factor created for embedded systems like cable-boxes, meaning this thing is easily and infinitely up-gradable, offsetting what some think is "too expensive". I spent $595 on mine, which is exactly what the original C64 cost over 25 years ago.
▶ Why is there such hatred surrounding Commodore?
Nothing evokes passions, both positive and negative, like Commodore Computers. There are many layered reasons for this, but the most fundamental one is that you never forget your first love, and the C64 was the first experience with computers at a young age for millions of children of the 80's, representing a time of wonder and amazement in their life. Commodore's horrid treatment of its users, and subsequent demise had much of the flavor of a betrayal and break-up. I missed the C64 days (not because of age - I'm 41), but was around for the later Amiga days, which had many parallels - a superior, creative and liberating technology allowed to die, along with the hopes of a generation of alternative computing rebels along with it. This multifaceted story runs much deeper, in a story barely told.
▶ Can you tell me why Amiga died?
Ah, what a sad story. The world could have been much different if the technically superior, cheaper, and inspiring computer became the standard in the late 80's instead of the IBM PC. To make a long story short, Commodore was in the process of buying Amiga from a company founded by ex-Atari engineers, but Commodore's founder Jack Tramiel was kicked out by their uninspired chairman Irving Gould, and without Jack, Commodore was very poor stewards of the Amiga technology, fumbling both in promoting and advancing it technically. I attribute it to the mind-numbing effect of the suburbs in which their world headquarters was based—versus Silicon Valley where they should have been.
▶ What is it with you and Commodore, anyway?
I was about 12 years old (1982) when the home computer revolution really started to kick-in. I missed jumping on the Commodore-bandwagon the first time around, getting the failed Coleco Adam, and always sorta having C64 envy of my software pirating friends. This was worsened by the fact that some of these friends REALLY LOVED Commodore and followed it like some follow sports—because the C= world headquarters was somehow inexplicably located in our suburban Philly back-yards—instead of Silicon Valley, where it rightfully should have been. Then around '87, as it happened, I got a used Amiga 1000 that needed a $300 disk-drive repair, fell immediately in love with Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint (as an artist), became the head of the Philadelphia Amiga Users Group... then, in an amazing twist, was actually SOUGHT OUT by C= education executives Howard Diamond and John Harrison at a Valley Forge World Of Commodore show where I was helping man the PAUG booth. They recruited me to be a student rep on campus, and went to work for them on the Drexel University co-operative education program—the first college to require all incoming students to have computers (Macs). This Commodore co-op experience plugged me into a remarkable set of people that I built up into hero's in my mind, but then I lost my innocence trying to "save" Commodore as a shareholder, travelling TWICE to their Bahamas fortress to beat sense into Irving Gould to no avail. After graduating, I went to work for a Commodore spin-off, which REALLY opened my eyes. Suffice to say, I revised my understanding of what killed Commodore. Half was from kicking out their spit-and-vinegar Auschwitz-surviving man-of-steel founder Jack Tramiel... but the other half was definitely inane suburban mediocrity, and the effect it has on people unfortunate enough to end up living and working there. I almost fell victim to that trap myself, and have been correcting it ever since.
We live at a privileged time, because the history of computers is being written in our lifetime.
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There's not much in this for me besides recognition.
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