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Gamasutra's "A History of Gaming Platforms" - The Commodore 64 (Loguidice and Barton)

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Bill_Loguidice

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Gamasutra's "A History of Gaming Platforms" - The Commodore 64 (Loguidice and Barton)

Just an FYI, Gamasutra will be running the ongoing A History of Gaming Platforms from myself and Matt Barton, which will be a series of excerpts from my book that has been over two years in the making. They are committed to an initial run of six excerpts (six systems of the 40+ covered in the same detail as this modified C-64 entry). Today it's on the front page of Gamasutra as their cover feature, but the direct link to the article is here. In regards to the book, there have been some issues with the publisher I had (even though it's still listed for pre-order at Amazon and elsewhere), so we are in search of a new one at this time, but there are plenty of prospects out there and I'm certainly curious what the reaction will be to some of these modified excerpts. I can't say the C-64 entry is my favorite entry, but some of the future entries certainly are. I'll be curious to see how my own perceptions gel with public reaction as this will be the first time some of this material will be widely available.

As a heads-up, the next entry will be on the Vectrex and will run sometime next month. I also believe I have finally found a photographic technique I'll be happy with, so you should also see greatly improved images to go along with that. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
 
He just has an extra "the" after the "Thankfully, ".

Ok, and could change "aftermarket for" to "aftermarket of" and maybe "which also often reduced" -> "reducing"
 
Terry Yager said:
I was also going to point out the failure to mention the RGB port on the 128, but that's the job of the Content Police, not my department.

--T
Click to expand...

Yep, unfortunately I have no real control over any corrections once it's in Gamasutra's hands, unless it's something major. Otherwise it's not worth it, even if it's an error that they introduce.

For the purposes of the book, the mentioning of the RGB port is irrelevant and was implied anyway with the 80-column comment to a degree. It's tough to give a concise, yet thorough, entertainment-focused look at each of these systems without leaving out some details here and there. Frankly, if I added anything to these, I'd always want to add more game information, since that's the book's goal. The basic premise was to give people enough accurate information to go on to know more about the system(s) and then go into more exhaustive detail on their own.
 
I didn't mean to be overly critical, it's just that I always thought the RGB capability was one the most important upgrades...especially for gaming, with programs that were written for it. (Actually, the 128D was always a favorite of mine).

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
I didn't mean to be overly critical, it's just that I always thought the RGB capability was one the most important upgrades...especially for gaming, with programs that were written for it. (Actually, the 128D was always a favorite of mine).

--T
Click to expand...

I'm using a C-128DCR right now with a Commodore 1084S (in fact, the one in the article) while playing Wizard's Crown, so I know the pleasures of the output, but the reality is, as a game machine, which is the primary focus of the book and obviously excerpts, the C-128 systems were pretty much a non-factor. Everything was geared more or less towards the stock C-64 system, and rightly so from a mass market standpoint. Again, not to argue over something silly, but everything I focused on was focused on for a reason, which may not be clear out of context.
 
Hi Bill,

Interesting article. I enjoyed reading it.

You had a quote in there, namely...

“The Commodore 64... has to be the most overpraised, deceptively advertised, and ‘user-hostile’ machine to appear in years. If you’ve already got one, you may not (yet) realize how thoroughly you’ve been hornswoggled.” -- Jon Freeman in Computer Gaming World, September 1983​

You know, initially that was my reaction to the C64 too back in the day. I guess it was because I used computers more for business purposes rather than games (although I wasn't adverse to the odd Adventure game or shoot-em-up now and again). I was also in my early 20's, married and carving out a career.

At that time I was very happy with my Disk-based System 80 (a TRS-80 Model 1 clone known as the PMC-80 in the US and Video Genie in Europe), which I used mainly for Word Processing, number crunching for my graduate studies, to learn programming and as a terminal from home to my University mainframe.

When I had my first close look at the C64 I was disappointed and felt it was completely overhyped. Only 40 columns (forget about serious word processing or spreadsheet work), a really, really, poor version of BASIC (forget about doing any serious programming with this) and a disk drive and OS that was both clumsy and slooooow. Even the keyboard felt mushy. Yuk!

I also thought the name was very deceptive, because it indicated there was 64k available in RAM, which of course there wasn't in it's default configuration.

And was colour that important for "serious" stuff??

BUT...history has proved it was a great games machine and is truely a "classic". It was just aimed at a different type of computer consumer than I was at the time. Hat's off to the C64!

Now I want one! :D
 
My Commo experience almost mirrors that of tezza. I too owned and rejected a 64 rather early on, for pretty much the same reasons. I really needed a more business-oriented machine when I had the garage. I concluded that a 'personal computer' was more of a toy than a real business machine, which sorta put me off from computers in general. The result was that it was almost 10 years or so before I ever touched another computer (yes, I'm a real n00b compared to many of our members). Of course, it was love at first sight when I saw my ol' obsolete Kaypro II come up to a CP/M prompt for the first time. No colors, no graphics, no games, no frills, whistles, bells, etc, just a good solid computin' mochine.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
Of course, it was love at first sight when I saw my ol' obsolete Kaypro II come up to a CP/M prompt for the first time. No colors, no graphics, no games, no frills, whistles, bells, etc, just a good solid computin' mochine.

--T
Click to expand...

Yes, about 1984 I started to use a geniuine IBM PC (twin disk drives) at work. I just loved it. It was so...well..."SOLID". A crisp and clear and unwavering green display. Good screen real-estate. Solid-iron case. A good quality keyboard, that "felt" like quality. Simple, no-nonsense PC-DOS and BASICA. A reliable workhorse. I can see why businesses took to it!

I want one of these too!! :D

I think I'm a minimilist at heart. I guess that's why I love vintage computers more than those of today.

Simplicity is elegance.

Sorry if this post is slightly off-topic :)
 
Techincally speaking, how many C128 VDC games are there? The number of C128 games is rather low, and I'd suppose games that run on the VDC are even fewer, mostly text adventures and perhaps role-playing games. It lacks sprites and hardware scrolling if I recall correctly. Given these limitations, the RGB output doesn't help it much when it comes to gaming. It is like praising the gaming capacities of a CGA-class PC.
 
carlsson said:
Techincally speaking, how many C128 VDC games are there? The number of C128 games is rather low, and I'd suppose games that run on the VDC are even fewer, mostly text adventures and perhaps role-playing games. It lacks sprites and hardware scrolling if I recall correctly. Given these limitations, the RGB output doesn't help it much when it comes to gaming. It is like praising the gaming capacities of a CGA-class PC.
Click to expand...

You're correct. As was mentioned in the article, the C-128 mode was mostly used for productivity applications (since it addressed the majority of the C-64s deficiencies in those areas, even in regards to the built-in OS/BASIC), not entertainment software. There are some public domain games, some later homebrews, but a distinct lack of commercial software in the same class as C-64 games. There are several Infocom text only adventures that made use of the extra memory and 80 columns (since some of the later adventures required those as minimums) and would only work on the C-128, as well as one title I'm aware from Spinnaker and a C-128 version of The Last V-8 from Mastertronic, among very few others. Some games made a small amount of use of the faster disk drive or extra memory when they detected they were in a C-128 rather than a C-64, such as Ultima V, which featured a musical score on a C-128, but not on a C-64. Of course the C-128 could play CP/M games, but since it used standard text-only CP/M, obviously, you were limited to that platform's text or character-based games.

While the C-128, and particularly the C-128D, are super 8-bits, unless one has an interest in BASIC programming or CP/M, from a pure gaming standpoint, the stock C-64 is where it's at today, and obviously even then. The disparity in sales was something like 20 million units in favor of the C-64 anyway, so it's no wonder with all the other considerations aside, developers and publishers targeted the older specification.
 
But if the VDC would have had sprites (yes, I know it takes a lot of chip die size), the C128 could've become a natural successor to the C64, although a bit late compared to the 16-bit systems even Commodore rolled out at the same time.

The point I'm trying to make, is that as far as I know, the RGB output is not accessible from 40 column mode, neither in C128 nor C64 mode. If it was possible to get 40 column RGB output, it would be something extra, but it had required Commodore to redesign the VIC-II chip. That's not a problem, as they had several revisions anyway.
 
Bill_Loguidice said:
Thanks, but really, that was the biggest problem with the previous publisher, getting the photo quality up high enough. I have that light tent that I'm anxious to try and we'll see if I can get better results for the next entry.
Click to expand...

One thing I remember reading back in the day in a Compute!'s Gazette or one of the other Commodore magazines about taking pictures of the screen was that the only light in room should be from the monitor you are getting the picture of the screen from. ie the room should be completely dark except for the monitor. Also you want to have the shutter (IIRC) open a little longer... Kinda like when you are taking pictures of lightning, but maybe not as extreme.

Cheers,

Bryan
 
80sFreak said:
One thing I remember reading back in the day in a Compute!'s Gazette or one of the other Commodore magazines about taking pictures of the screen was that the only light in room should be from the monitor you are getting the picture of the screen from. ie the room should be completely dark except for the monitor. Also you want to have the shutter (IIRC) open a little longer... Kinda like when you are taking pictures of lightning, but maybe not as extreme.

Cheers,

Bryan
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I was actually referring to the physical hardware, not the screen. I can directly capture almost anything with video output - which is how I got the screenshots for the article - and the rest can be captured via emulation. It's more an issue of taking photos of physical items and making the background vanish. That's where the light tent should help.
 
Enjoyed the article, thanks for the link! I won't critique things since it's already published there but I didn't notice much if any grammar or spelling issues and the stories were entertaining to hear.

Look forward to the next article.

- John
 
Bill_Loguidice said:
Thanks, but I was actually referring to the physical hardware, not the screen. I can directly capture almost anything with video output - which is how I got the screenshots for the article - and the rest can be captured via emulation. It's more an issue of taking photos of physical items and making the background vanish. That's where the light tent should help.
Click to expand...

OH! ok.. sorry..

I really enjoyed the entire article and read all six pages with much interest. Looking forward to the Vectrex one! :)

Cheers,

80sFreak
 
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