The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
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The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
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Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#2The last two paragraphs make it sound like the C64 was the last successful product that Commodore made before imploding, and claim that Commodore never recovered after Tramiel left in early 1984.
But, as anyone who was around then knows, this is not the case, because the most successful Amiga model, the Amiga 500, came out three years later, in 1987.
Saying that Commodore was finished in 1984 seems like a gross oversimplification at best.
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#3The article completely omits any mention of the Atari 8-bit computers which used 6502. It skips from Atari VCS/2600 to C64.
Atari 400/800 GTIA & ANTIC were a massive improvement over the TIA in the VCS and came to market in 1979 more than 2 years before C64.
Atari 8-bit had better colour than the C64 (palette of 128). C64 had much better sprites, but Al Charpentier had the benefit of seeing what had been already been done by Atari.
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#4The last two paragraphs make it sound like the C64 was the last successful product that Commodore made before imploding, and claim that Commodore never recovered after Tramiel left in early 1984. But, as anyone who was around then knows, this is not the case, because the most successful Amiga model, the Amiga 500, came out three years later, in 1987. Saying that Commodore was finished in 1984 seems like a gross overs…
The C64 was a money spinner from Commodore all through the 80s and early 90s. It's their Apple 2 which kept Apple afloat with the grandiose Mac boat anchor which didn't actually make any money for Apple until Steve came back. The Amiga range was never really profitable for Commodore the way it should have and Jack would have released the A600 in 1985 which is exactly what was needed then.
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#5The article completely omits any mention of the Atari 8-bit computers which used 6502. It skips from Atari VCS/2600 to C64. Atari 400/800 GTIA & ANTIC were a massive improvement over the TIA in the VCS and came to market in 1979 more than 2 years before C64. Atari 8-bit had better colour than the C64 (palette of 128). C64 had much better sprites, but Al Charpentier had the benefit of seeing what had been already been…
All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them.
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#6The article completely omits any mention of the Atari 8-bit computers which used 6502. It skips from Atari VCS/2600 to C64. Atari 400/800 GTIA & ANTIC were a massive improvement over the TIA in the VCS and came to market in 1979 more than 2 years before C64. Atari 8-bit had better colour than the C64 (palette of 128). C64 had much better sprites, but Al Charpentier had the benefit of seeing what had been already been…
All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them.
All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them.
Four million units for the Ataris in the U.S. versus 5.7 million for the C-128 worldwide.
Seems pretty significant to me, especially compared with other 8-bit computers that people are always talking about on HN:
- BBC Micro: 1.5 million
- Sinclair ZX: 5 million
- Apple ][: 4 million
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#7The article completely omits any mention of the Atari 8-bit computers which used 6502. It skips from Atari VCS/2600 to C64. Atari 400/800 GTIA & ANTIC were a massive improvement over the TIA in the VCS and came to market in 1979 more than 2 years before C64. Atari 8-bit had better colour than the C64 (palette of 128). C64 had much better sprites, but Al Charpentier had the benefit of seeing what had been already been…
All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them.
I don't think the historical importance has anything to do with sales numbers. The article mentions Commodore PET, of which only 200,000+ units were manufactured.
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them.
All the Atari 8-bit computers sold way less than Commodore 128s sold so there's hardly any value in mentioning them. Four million units for the Ataris in the U.S. versus 5.7 million for the C-128 worldwide. Seems pretty significant to me, especially compared with other 8-bit computers that people are always talking about on HN: - BBC Micro: 1.5 million - Sinclair ZX: 5 million - Apple ][: 4 million
Sure, let's shoehorn in lots of random computers from overseas. BBCs only sold to schools and education but not to most parents as they were too expensive. ZX Spectrums were Z80 based which isn't a 6502 processor. Apple 2 is mentioned in the article.
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#9The article makes it sounds like it was difficult to update the AppleII screen so that there was no flicker. It was not difficult. We had plenty of time.
I seem to recall we could flip between two different high res screens and so we drew on the hidden one and then flipped to the other one when the vertical blank interrupt occurred. Also, we rarely had to update the entire screen all at once.
Both the Apple and C64 had awkward graphics, but graphics speed was not a concern. The issue was more often disk storage and access speed, and of course memory limitations.
The thing I am most proud of as a programmer is I wrote an emulator of AppleII graphics for the C64 so we could reuse the art from the Apple version of the game. It was just barely fast enough.
Re: The Rise and Fall of 6502 Gaming (2020)
#10The last two paragraphs make it sound like the C64 was the last successful product that Commodore made before imploding, and claim that Commodore never recovered after Tramiel left in early 1984. But, as anyone who was around then knows, this is not the case, because the most successful Amiga model, the Amiga 500, came out three years later, in 1987. Saying that Commodore was finished in 1984 seems like a gross overs…
The C64 was a money spinner from Commodore all through the 80s and early 90s. It's their Apple 2 which kept Apple afloat with the grandiose Mac boat anchor which didn't actually make any money for Apple until Steve came back. The Amiga range was never really profitable for Commodore the way it should have and Jack would have released the A600 in 1985 which is exactly what was needed then.
Tramiel and his sons and a big portion of the team around him at Commodore had their chance to make rock bottom price 16-bit machines after they left Commodore. That's what the Atari ST was.
I loved mine, but it was no C64 in terms of market success. While it initially outsold the Amiga (because it came out earlier and cheaper) it plateaued and then lagged behind once the A500 came out. And both platforms hardly sold anything at all, in the grand scheme of things.
The mid and late 80s home computer market was a very different place from the early 80s. His product development and sales style didn't do him any favours from 1985 on.