TECH TITANS COMMODORE
The legends and near misses from an ’80s gaming giant
[ Words CraigGrannell Images BillBertram, Jcassara86, Hedning, EvanAmos ]
What do I PET?
The C64 retained PETSCII characters, which you could peruse on its keys. So anyone could craft chunky art via PRINT statements.
Shot by both guides
Most games used joystick port 2… but plug another stick into port 1 and you effectively had a second fire button.
01 COMMODORE 64
The best 8-bit micro of all time?
That’s what C64 owners will tell you… mostly while banging on about the legendary SID sound chip. And you might well question their sanity.
Borrowing freely from the VIC-20, the C64 wasn’t the best-looking machine. Its various shades of brown were out-dulled only by those of its on-screen colour palette. And the sluggish CPU meant it struggled with vector fare and isometric games, which were like stop motion compared to playing them on the ZX Spectrum.