On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Larry Anderson & Diane Hare wrote:
> >If computer holy war zealots knew the story behind this Commodore debacle
> >back in the 80's when the flames were at their highest temperatures, the
> >anti-C64 contingent would have had a field day.
>
> They did, ever hear the term "the lumbering hippo", that was a nickname
> many gave the 1541 disk drive...
Well, I always knew the 1541 drive sucked egregiously, speed wise. I
mean, it was as bad as a cassette player...what was the point? Until fast
loaders came along. They made the 1541 as fast as any Apple drive with a
fast DOS. Then it was passable.
But what was very cool about the 1541, I later learned, was that it had
its own processor, and that you could upload a program into two drives,
hook them to each other and have them copy disks automatically...very
cool. Then when my friend gave me the program that played Daisy on the
1541 (by this time I had my own C64) I was dazzled. I wrote a similar
program for the Apple Disk ][ but the farts and grunts it made were hardly
comparable to the violin-like sqeaks that emanated from the 1541. Very
cool.
> >Oh well, you gotta love it.
>
> >PS. So the Commodore did suck after all ;)
>
> You forget that the VIC and 64 had an advantage over the competition,
> performance for a very low price. (albiet slower than necessary). Also
> the 64 had other merits such as its graphics ability and incredible
> sound... Every one rips the Commodores, but you have to remwmber who
> was posting profits and who was going bankrupt in the 80s... the
> nineties are a different matter I'm afraid.. :(
After I got over the computer-cock-war syndrome I did come to realize what
a cool machine the C64 was. I actually started to program on it and
started experimenting with the sound. It could make the wildest sounds.
I wanted to port the Apple ROM Monitor to the C64 so that I'd have a
decent Monitor with which to assemble machine code, but alas my C64 died
on the carpet in front of my TV (thus beginning the C64 curse I've fallen
victim to), I guess from static electricity. They just didn't make C64's
to last I'm afraid. Thus my C64 programming soire was cut short.
> (note, 1525 uses THIN paper not 9 1/2" form feed, a misunderstanding in
> the design specs, they thought 8 1/2" wide WITH the carrier.)
Ok, now that is just plain lame. Who the hell designs a printer and
forgets about the tractor feed bands?
;-P
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Wed Feb 18 1998 - 23:47:42 GMT