I just got my grandfather’s C64 up and running for fun. I ordered a 4:3 “security camera monitor” flat panel with an analog composite video input for a screen and it works great. Was only like $80 on Amazon.
I haven’t had time to play with it yet, but I also got one of these:
It’s a little mini replica of a C64 floppy that takes SD cards!
With that plus the monitor I hope to get some games going and order some controllers so I can play with my daughter. She loves retro games. They’re much more approachable and fun for young kids than a lot of newer titles.
I also plan to introduce her to programming on it. The simplicity and instant feedback on these old machines makes them great for taking the first programming steps. Sort of reminds me of how a lot of car people learn with old cars or other simpler engines as they are easier to work on. Makes me worried about how the engineers of the future will get started with today’s walls of complexity. I guess a Pi is the best modern learning machine.
The one I got running is the one my grandfather taught me BASIC on when I was like 6 so there is a neat tradition aspect too.
Commodore really could have been Apple had it been better run. The C64 was amazing, rivaling the early IBM PC for capability despite being only 8-bit. The Amiga was in many ways far superior to the early Mac and way ahead of its time.
Just a heads up - the original power supply tends to give off higher voltages the older it gets, so make sure to check the 5V rail, or better, get an aftermarket PSU. They use less electricity, don't run blazing hot, and won't burn your precious antiquity :)
> The simplicity and instant feedback on these old machines makes them great for taking the first programming steps
Yeah you took the first step and then you just had to keep going deeper and deeper until you reached the registers of the graphics chip and synthesizer, it was so addictive. Bare metal almost from the first day on.
I got my C64 when I was 10. I was fascinated by music and games. Remember turbo tape? :-)
Some years later when my father intruduced me to his first pc I was disapointed by lack of sound and graphics. And you couldn't even move your cursor around! Yet they prevail...
The Amiga was out in 1985. The PC did not have comparable graphics and sound to the C64 until the early 1990s and to the Amiga until the late 1990s.
Sure, you could - at any point in time - get a good frame buffer card from e.g. Matrox and a good sound card from e.g. turtle beach or Gravis. But the baseline targeted by most software was a SuperVGA du jour and 8-bit soundblaster (Adkins compatible!). 16 bit sound became common only at the end of the 1990s, whereas the Amiga had 14-bit capable sound in 1985 (required a trick, but was there all along).
A c64, some books and an always very antecipated monthly 64 magazine in my (physical) mailbox was my inspiration when I was 14. Thanks dad, where ever you are now, for that machine. What a great time we had. Networking? A buddy had an acoustic coupler, that was it.
I haven’t had time to play with it yet, but I also got one of these:
https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/shop/commodore/sd2iec-range...
It’s a little mini replica of a C64 floppy that takes SD cards!
With that plus the monitor I hope to get some games going and order some controllers so I can play with my daughter. She loves retro games. They’re much more approachable and fun for young kids than a lot of newer titles.
I also plan to introduce her to programming on it. The simplicity and instant feedback on these old machines makes them great for taking the first programming steps. Sort of reminds me of how a lot of car people learn with old cars or other simpler engines as they are easier to work on. Makes me worried about how the engineers of the future will get started with today’s walls of complexity. I guess a Pi is the best modern learning machine.
The one I got running is the one my grandfather taught me BASIC on when I was like 6 so there is a neat tradition aspect too.
Commodore really could have been Apple had it been better run. The C64 was amazing, rivaling the early IBM PC for capability despite being only 8-bit. The Amiga was in many ways far superior to the early Mac and way ahead of its time.