The real deal...

Forget about PCs, Mac, IPod, VOD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray, and the rest. Here's the real deal after all these years:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/12/07/c64/index.html

John

It's even older than me!!

I'm old enough to remember those good 'ol days. I think the big 'ol 5 1/2" floppy disc was my favorite part of the whole experience.

I learned 6502 assembly language first on this machine

Load"*",8,1

Ironbull,

A lot of people don't realize how amazing it was to get a game to fit inside a 16K Vic 20 like Pacman or Missile Command, which also had a 6502 processor. The 6502 couldn't even divide or multiply. You could add, subtract, and shift the bits in a single byte left or right. That was it for math. To save space, we were taught to use self-modifying code and dynamic jump tables. It was fun back when software engineering was truly an "art"

The Apple and Atari lines also had the 6502 processor. Only one "home" game computer at the time had something different (much more advanced) and that was the Radio Shack Color Computer that sported a Motorola 6809 that *could* divide and multiply. Although the computer platform never made it, the 6809 processor became the heart of so many embedded applications for so many years, it was crazy - from elevators, to manufacturing robotic controllers, to the electronic ignition/injection regulators in cars (probably countless military applications as well, but I'm not allowed to say that here ).

[Post edited by Skyhawk on Dec 7, 2007]

I had an Atari 800XL, 65XE, 520ST and a TIMEX Sinclair 1000.

All this DINOSAUR TECHNICAL MUMBO JUMBO got my head spinning, like Lindsay on a DMV driving test. My head was about to explode into a Britney Train-wreck, that I had to grab a copy of "PEOPLE"!

Ok, now I'm refreshed. Hey, did u know that Lance Bass is gay?

How 'bout them Dolphins, huh!

Skyhawk
A buddy and I were discussing how he built a replica arcade machine and fit thousands of original arcade and computer games in ONE machine when 20 years ago you could only fit one!
Remember typing code for half an hour just to see the computer duplicate a word from the top to the bottom of the screen! I remember my cousin bought an Atari 2600 that was some machine!

Check this out!
http://break.com/index/pacman-christmas-tree.html

Cool!

PS. SORRY JUST HAD TO POST THIS! I've never seen a Christmas tree like this before!

[Post edited by Ironbull on Dec 7, 2007]