Computers COMPUTERS

Commodore 64

  1. Home
    2. >
  2. Computers
    3. >
  3. Commodore 64

I got my first Commodore 64 in 1984 and I still have it now - it works just fine. I have the monitor, printer and disc drive and still use it for amateur radio, packet programs and morse code also. I used to use my Commodore 64 in college also.

The Commodore 64 had a built-in keyboard and an external disc drive. Programs were saved on 5 and a 1/4 inch discs and it took many discs to load some programs. The Commodore 64 had 64K bits of memory, of which 32K was available for usuage and as a word processor it was hard to beat, even into the late 80's.

Commodore actually had a GUI before Apple had theirs. The games were fun and some were very challanging.

There are still many Commodore 64 users in the world today and many emulators are available on the internet.

All in all, the Commodore 64 was a fantastic machine... and still is! (As was its baby brother the VIC 20)

Suggest an update

Author of this article:



Contributors to this article:

  • There are no contributors yet

Message boards

Discuss Commodore 64 on the message boards

Do You Remember Commodore 64?

Do You Remember Commodore 64?

  • adidas
    on
    Best home computer ever! I still have mine in its original box - I must try it out again sometime...!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    GEOS, the GUI for the Commodore 64 came out in 1986. The Apple Macintosh was out in 1984. So the article is wrong. The disk drive option was as expensive as the computer and most people used the standard Commodore Datasette 1530 tape thing.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    i remember being desperate to get one of these beauties they seemed to be sold out all over the place i eventaually found one in a department store in walworth rd london it was a display model but it was the last one in the world or so it seemed to say i was choked when i got it home and the thing didnt work would have been an understatement a week or so after that currys at croydon miles away from where i lived had a new shipment of the machine so i had to get a train down there to get my hands on one it took pride of place on my bedroom desk and it meant i no longer had use for my old speccy 48k
  • Anonymous user
    on
    My mates Dad had one....I remember circa 1985/86. A gang of us sitting in her cellar during the Easter holidays, playing games on it and listening to the Madonna 'Like A Virgin' Album. Soooooo 80's!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I won't bore you with my continuing history of the C64, but I will state that it all began in 1984 when my mom’s best friend let me tackle a paint program. I took a pig out of clip art, filled in the space with black paint, and added white specks. I called it Pig in Space and I could not stop talking about how cool it was to do something besides gaming (I was a avid Atari 2600 user). December 1984, a C64 could not be found so I ended up getting one in January. I made my first basic program – and called it “Trivia Space Game”… a trivia game made with a black background and a space ship for a title screen. One problem though. I didn’t have a way to save it!!! We drove to the nearest Toys R Us and I bought a datasette for $50 using my Christmas money. It was money well spent because I still have that first program burned on a CD now. Unlike the “terrible load times” people are talking about here, I didn’t have that problem with Turbotape, a utility found in Compute Gazette.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Early PC which connected up to the TV, had a tape deck to load programs. Had 640k memory. Many fantastic games were written for the system ie. Elite (voted best game of the year way back when, this game was 3d wireframe rendered)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Though I eventually got my own C64 virtually at the end of its commercial life (1993), I had previously seen it as the only computer I should have owned above all others (despite the fact I was familiar with the Amigas and IBM Windows PCs). The C64 was the first machine I explored and used to hack games, program and generally use as a jolly decent office tool and cheap games machine. I still have all my old games and files, now ported to CD Roms for emulator use. These days, due to its bona-fide synthesiser, I use two Commodore 64s as part of my recording studio kit. They act as my MIDI composer and keyboard machines which link up to external MIDI syntehsisers, VST computer and mixer. A real king of a machine, still truly useful years after its official 'death'. http://www.concept-single.org
  • Anonymous user
    on
    As mentioned below, the C64 is handy for studio use. Butrecently I also aquired extra composition software, MIDI plugins and VSTi SID chip emulations for the PC.____________________This means that I can compose a series of different MIDI parts and copy them over to the sequencing PC along with the C64's own sounds. This gives an extra versatility to record making, particularly as the Instant music software I use is extremely intuitive and completely remarkable - NOTHING like it has appeared since, even on the PC!___________________See http://homepage.ntlworld.com/michael.braisher/Records.htm for an example of how a C64 can be used (Concept Single 10 Music)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    C64.... best....... computer...... ever! I defected from the ZX Spectrum to the old commy and never looked back. Paradroid is still one of my all time favourite games along with Kikstart, Ghostbusters and Gribbly's Day Out. Zzap64! was also, in my opinion, the best gaming mag ever made.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    i remember the first c64,we had one of the first in the country coming with introduction to basic part one.i bet most people wont remember games like super blitz and breaking joysticks playing Daly Thompsons decathalon.Attack of the mutant camels and hovver bovver were ace.still got them! we had a vic 20 and a plus 4 but neither were as good.

Do you remember these?