BYTE.com > Features > 2004
The Commodore Comeback
By Paul Panks
December 20, 2004
(The Commodore Comeback
: Page 1 of 1 )
The Commodore 64 enjoyed three epochs, if you will,
of evolution. During the first stage (1982-1984), the 64
went from a burgeoning machine with soaring potential
(but little available software) to a robust, veteran
machine (1985-1987) with a wide variety of quality,
high end software. By the third stage (1988-1992), the
64 had reached digital nirvana. Comparing a game made
in, say, 1988 to 1982 is like comparing games on the
Atari 2600/VCS with games on the Nintendo NES.
There just was no comparison.
The First Stage (1982-1984) saw a disk drive shortage,
an overall lack of quality software and a confused
public. When I first played M.U.L.E., B.C.'s Quest for
Tires and Seven Cities of Gold on the Commodore 64 in
1984, I was shocked at how impressive these games were
in comparison to the Atari 2600/VCS. It was like night
and day. Not only were sprites crisper (and larger),
they were well defined, colorful and well animated.
Naturally, the Atari 2600 saw less use, as my brother
and cousins dove headlong into games like Raid Over
Bungling Bay, Jumpman and Blue Max. The Atari
collected dust, while the Commodore hardly ever got a
break. If we weren't playing games, we were typing in
programs from COMPUTE!'s Gazette or designing sprites
with Spritemaster.
I remember reading in COMPUTE!'s Gazette about the
upcoming IBM PC Jr., and genuinely laughing at it. Did
this thing enjoy sprites, or SID music? No. It was an
office computer pretending to be a toy. Although
King's Quest looked impressive on the PC Junior, we
had Bard's Tale and Seven Cities of Gold. That was enough
for anyone to junk the Junior and go back to the C64
(one of my next door neighbors had a Junior, and he
always begged to come over and play M.U.L.E. on our
Commodore 128…and the only game we ever played on
the Junior was King's Quest, which got old really
fast!)
Fast forward to The Second Stage (1985-1987). This was
a time in which the C64 (and 128) saw the most use.
Although the Apple Machintosh, Atari ST and
Commodore's own Amiga were all impressive machines in
their own right, we still loved the 64 and played
games as often as we could get them (from our friends, from
co-workers, from the store, etc.)
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