MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat

> I think people remember the C64 so fondly because the system really did have
> personality.

Certainly more so than the PC of the day, and arguably more so the competing Apple II's. On the other hand, I am mystified as to why it appeared to have eclipsed the Ataris.

> It had cool (for the day) graphics and sounds, a *ton* of software, and
> yet you could do a lot more with it than you could with just a console. It was
> relatively affordable, and Commodore sold a buttload of them.

All true, and I don't regret my experience with 64/128's. Yet beyond games, I knew there were limitations in word processing, sound editing and music notation, which are some of my current top computing tasks. Those were jobs which couldn't be done any better on Commodore 8-bit despite the highest possible levels of expansion (e.g. third-party hardware like Creative Micro Designs).

> For a lot of people of
> a certain age, it was their first introduction to computers. A lot of programmers who
> are now in their 30s and 40s got started by typing in BASIC programs out of
> COMPUTE!'s Gazette.

This is admittedly how I began typing. (Although I ought to have invested in formal touch-typing courses...)