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Geek Culture / Rest in peace, Jack! :'(

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The Slayer
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Posted: 10th Apr 2012 03:54
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I don't know about you guys, but this IS sad news.
Jack Tramiel, the man who helped to create the Commodore 64, has died.
The C-64 was a milestone in game development as we know it today. Let's thank him for giving us so much fun.
May his soul find peace.

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Slayer267
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Posted: 10th Apr 2012 04:08
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*Cry*

Your signature has been erased by a mod; it needs to be no larger than 600x120.
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Dark Java Dude 64
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Posted: 10th Apr 2012 04:41
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[i][/i]

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MrValentine
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Posted: 10th Apr 2012 06:00
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My respects

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The Slayer
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Posted: 10th Apr 2012 23:08
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Just wondering...whom of you guys had the pleasure of coding games on teh Commodore 64, or play games? ?
And, if so, what kinda games were they? Would be interesting to know.
I programmed a small game that involved a flying saucer. It was partially done in Basic, and a small part in machinecode.
As for games, I don't remember all their names, but one of them was Gianna Sisters (I loved that one), and also 'Winter Olympic Games'.

Cheers

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MrValentine
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Posted: 10th Apr 2012 23:15
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I can not remember which one I playes on nor the title but only remember so little... some kind of game like gta 1

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 11th Apr 2012 01:09 Edited at: 11th Apr 2012 01:12
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Quote: "As for games, I don't remember all their names, but one of them was Gianna Sisters (I loved that one), and also 'Winter Olympic Games'."


I worked with the guy who made the Winter Olympics Game. There is a story that he told me. He was making the game for a company who were play-testing his unfinished game. It had 3 settings, easy, medium, and hard (one of the first games to do that). He told me that he hadn't had time to put the three settings in yet. But the play-testers came back with "Easy was too easy, and hard was too hard." The next time he sent them the game to test, he still hadn't added the difficulty settings, but this time they said "The 3 settings are perfect now". So in the end he didn't put any settings in at all, and the game was released with the 3 settings all the same.

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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 11th Apr 2012 02:03 Edited at: 11th Apr 2012 02:04
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Quote: "whom of you guys had the pleasure of coding games on teh Commodore 64, or play games?"


As a kid, the Vic 20/C64 were the hot property, so pretty much everybody I knew messed about with making games back then, some of them still do .


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Jeku
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Posted: 11th Apr 2012 07:43
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The Commodore 64 was the first machine I learned how to program on; in fact I still have it on my shelf! It was great! I mostly made music on it, though.


Senior Developer - CBS Interactive Music Group
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zeroSlave
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Posted: 11th Apr 2012 09:12
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My first foray into programming was an old 286 Tandy. Had it all the way up to my 486dx33. Man, computers have changed so much in the last 30 years. I feel old now.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
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Van B
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Posted: 11th Apr 2012 11:41
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I made a couple of small text adventures, a soundtracker (using that old example synthesizer code), and some little sprite demos here and there. As much as I liked the hardware, I never really enjoyed coding on the C64, I prefer the CPC464 for programming. I did make a few games in SEUCK though, that was awesome, kinda like Game Maker, the sort of thing you could spend an afternoon on and end up with a decent little game.

Sad to see another legend go. Maybe should code something in memorial - like maybe use the colour palette and screen res, pixel size etc from a C64 and make a demo or a game.

Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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The Slayer
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Posted: 11th Apr 2012 14:24
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Quote: "I worked with the guy who made the Winter Olympics Game."

That's coool, man!
Interesting story, btw. Makes one wonder if they REALLY tested it properly. Or, maybe there was a deadline.

Quote: "As a kid, the Vic 20/C64 were the hot property, so pretty much everybody I knew messed about with making games back then, some of them still do . "

I wonder how many 'old' functional C-64's still exist today.
There is a new version of the Commodore 64 available, and still in production, I think.

Quote: "in fact I still have it on my shelf! It was great! I mostly made music on it, though."

Awesome! Is it still working, and do you occasionnaly play/program on it? ?
It had that unique sound to it, which some are still trying to reproduce nowadays for their games.

Quote: "Man, computers have changed so much in the last 30 years. I feel old now. "

Indeed, man. Computer science is going at a rapid pace. You should play more games to keep a young spirit.

Quote: "Sad to see another legend go. Maybe should code something in memorial - like maybe use the colour palette and screen res, pixel size etc from a C64 and make a demo or a game."

Yeah, it is. But at least he made a big change in computer science that still influences our computer experience today.
Speaking of making a demo, does anyone know where to find the original colour palette, screen resolution, etc...?

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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 11th Apr 2012 22:56 Edited at: 11th Apr 2012 22:57
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Colour Palette: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_8-bit_computer_hardware_palettes#C-64

Taken from Wikipedia:

There were two low-resolution and two bitmapped modes. Multicolor bitmapped mode had an addressable screen of 160 × 200 pixels, with a maximum of four colours per 4 × 8 character block. High-resolution bitmapped mode had an addressable screen of 320 × 200 pixels, with a maximum of two colours per 8 × 8 character block.
Multicolor low-resolution had a screen of 160 × 200 pixels, 40 × 25 addressable with four colours per 8 × 8 character block.
High resolution "low resolution" had a screen of 320 × 200 pixels, 40 × 25 addressable with two colours per 8 × 8 character block.
Most video games used Multicolour low-resolution.
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nonZero
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Posted: 12th Apr 2012 15:56
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You'll be happy to know that the sound of the C64 continues to resonate in the hearts of people even today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinae_Supremacy

There was something about that whole era that produced a really awesome sound - for those who liked chip-tunez

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 12th Apr 2012 16:35 Edited at: 12th Apr 2012 16:35
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Rob Hubbard is King! I have most of his music on my computer.

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Van B
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Posted: 12th Apr 2012 17:56
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Yeah, I've been playing some C64 games on my iPad, most notable has to be Wizball - the music in that is superb.

I'm a big fan of all the Ocean Loader music, and pretty much anything by Hubbard or Jochen Hippel. The C64 music hardware was pretty damn awesome. It worked the same way on the Atari ST, but anyway the music chip could be programmed to automatically play on interrupt - so basically the background music used very little resources. It actually made in-game music the norm, instead of having to choose between sound or music a lot of the time. Modern computer hardware design owes a lot to the C64.

Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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tiresius
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Posted: 12th Apr 2012 18:44 Edited at: 12th Apr 2012 18:45
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I spent hundreds of hours playing Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoot'Em-Up_Construction_Kit
So much, in fact, that the physical floppy disk was getting worn out so I needed to clone the floppy to a new one to keep using the program.


A 3D marble platformer using Newton physics.
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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 13th Apr 2012 00:38
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The Slayer,

Quote: "I wonder how many 'old' functional C-64's still exist today.There is a new version of the Commodore 64 available, and still in production, I think. "


No idea of how many would still be service today, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few regions around the globe where they're pockets of active users on a number of 8/16bit systems. Theres still 3rd parties vendors building software and hardware expansions. A friend of mine wanted to get the SuperCPU expansion for his C64, which was pretty neat, but I don't think they're still in production.

The new owners of Commodore have released a number of legacy ( Vic / C64 / Amiga) updated systems, which apart from the case styling have little in common with the originals today. Which is not a bad thing, given how far home computing has moved on in that time.


Mobile Platforms Are Coming
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nonZero
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Posted: 13th Apr 2012 11:14
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Quote: "I wonder how many 'old' functional C-64's still exist today."


You'd be surprised (pleasantly). Lots of gamers/geeks/otakus have working retro systems (8/16 bit). My old Famicom (That's the original version of the NES from Japan - Although mine's a Chinese knockoff coz when my original was broken one of my idiot HS friends, he replaced it with that) is still in working order and will continue to be provided the storage company do not break all my stuff for the next year or so. My Sega Megadrive works too (although it freezes sometimes but tapping it unfreezes it most of the time). I knew a guy who claimed his old Atari (I dunno what specific series it was coz I'm not that clued up on Atari systems) still worked though I never saw it in action (It was in a display case lol). My 286 in a pizzabox (I started programming on that when I was young) still worked until I was about 16 (The hard drive was enormous in size but not storage capacity, lol). So yeah, I think there are prolly tons of working C64's out there - especially in Japan as the technology otakus there are incredibly good at taking care of their electronics.

I suppose that's one thing I'm grateful for about growing up in South Africa, is that until recently we were like 10 years behind the rest of the world so I got to experience the 2D era and the awesome synth chips of the 8bit and 16bit consoles, not to mention the amazing artwork. Even after playing modern games, I still find myself spending more time on emulators of old systems. Is it me or were those games of ye olde days just for more inventive? I mean working with those sound chips and limited palettes took a mixture of creativity and technical brilliance.

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halley
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Posted: 20th Apr 2012 17:00
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May his soul find peace.

The Miracrea Games
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bitJericho
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Posted: 20th Apr 2012 17:39
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I have a working c64 with drives, a crt display and a dot matrix printer. <3 I'm a fan of Michael Cannon's music.

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DevilLiger
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Posted: 20th Apr 2012 22:18 Edited at: 20th Apr 2012 22:19
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i once found an old working commodore 64 on craigslist once. sometimes i still regret not getting it. i would love to collect something like that and get it to work.


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Flatlander
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Posted: 21st Apr 2012 02:11 Edited at: 21st Apr 2012 03:04
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I was familiar with the Commodore PET which was mainly for the education market. I'm probably more familiar with the Atari 400 and 800. I believe those were the designations. I never owned one, however, As far as a color computer I worked with the Apple Computer sometime in '77 and '78. I also worked with Tandy's TRS-80 computers. All four of them Model I, II, III, and IV. The model II had the large 8" floppy disks. I remember spending $1500 for a 5 MB Hard Drive. Yes a whopping 5 MB and a whopping $1500. It was almost twice as much as the computer.

Byte Magazine called, Apple, Commodore and Tandy, the "1977 Trinity".

Addendum:

Oh yea, the HD had an 8" platter so the whole thing was as big as a VCR player.


Use RPG Mod and create a world filled with adventure!
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