@@Lofote I recently got it, and besides the looks, which I really like, I find the C128 to be a disaster, overpriced fucked up machine with borderline disorder. After that I got a CPC 464 (with 128k expansion), and it is day and night. This is how I expected the C128 to be. Even our local weird Philips P2000T destroys the C128.
Not because what Commodore did, but because of double-deck cassette decks with high speed dubbing. Remember that a C64 game could cost in todays money like 100€, and a NES game 150€. There were other computers that cost 2 times as much, but with free legal downloads of great software, but the low entry price and pirating made the choice in many cases.
I used to have a C64 and an A500. At the time any progress was better because everything was new. Now 35 years later I am more impressed by my C64 that can do so much with so little. Not to minimize the revolution the A500 was at the time, that machine pretty much blew everything out of the water.
I agree, the A500 was an incredible piece of technology, a huge leap in the definition of a home computer in 1987. Unfortunately, I missed that because I was already into the PC universe after my humble ZX Spectrum. It has been 5 years that I got into the retro computer community, and I've only acquired an A500+ recently after many Spectrum and C64 machines. It really managed to amaze me in the year 2023!
Fact (kinda) Everytime an 8 bit Commodore machine gets turned on , you can hear the faint cries of Bill G in the distance. Either that or a capacitor is about to fry...
Some games were terrible. Graphics were usually awful too, even by 1980s standards. Not the most reliable computer either. But... nostalgia aside, the C64 came from a time when new computer technology was genuinely new and exciting, so it holds a lot of good memories for people. And when you did play a good game it was genuinely a great experience for the time. I wasn't too into programming at the time but it was a very good early computer to learn the basics on. Everyone I knew who took the time to do serious programming on the C64 went on to bigger and better things.
Best? No. And I feel the C128, not the C64, was the best 8-bit machine. However, I consider it to be my favorite since it was my first personal computer. I still remember buying it in June 1983. (Forty years ago! 😮) It taught me so much about programming and using computers in general. It was also my entry point for BBSs and FidoNet. I made friends there and at Commodore clubs. And I’ve never loved a game as much as I loved Impossible Mission on my C64 and later on my C128. Today I have a MacBook Pro and a Windows tower PC and they’re fine and do what I need them to do. However, I don’t feel any more affection for them than I do for a TV set or a dishwasher. I’m generally anti nostalgic but I am nostalgic about those Commodore computers I had back in the ‘80s.
I thought 128's didn't come out until 1985? I got my first 64 in 82-83 and later my parents got me a 128, a 1571 disk drive and a rgb monitor that could handle the 80 columns for Christmas...it was awesome.
The Amstrad CPC is one of my three favourite 8-bit computers along with the BBC Master and Atari 130XE. I also like Amstrad's other Z80 based CP/M machines like the 8256. My biggest complaint is the 3" floppy drives. The Amstrad CPC is also missing hardware scrolling and sprites which are important for games. The Plus models added those features but came out too late to get much use. I also really prefer the BASIC on the Amstrad CPC although being able to write assembly like BBC BASIC would be nice. I didn't have any of these systems growing up in the 80's. I had a VIC-20 and C64 before getting a series of Amigas. Today I'm not as much of a fan of the C64. It had a pretty good video chip (although the colours are drab) and a pretty great sound chip, but outside of that it doesn't really have a real OS like the Atari, BBC Micro and Amstrad have. Today I consider the C64 to be a video game console with a keyboard and disk drive.
@@timlocke3159 Same here. Yes the CPC had no HW support, but in some eras was better, like racing games. Also had no color clash. CP/M was great and was a real all in one computer with 80 columns mode.
@@timlocke3159 The CPC is a marvelous design, super-simple board layout, yet highly capable. I don't care about games, I've a PC Engine and NES for that, so I look at how they function as computer, and in that regard, the CPC is a very capable machine with proper BASIC, 80 column mode, more colours, clear RGB output and nicer keyboard layout.
Used to have ZX Spectrum 48K at first and C64C later when I was a kid, C64 was a better machine in 8 bit era but I always liked Speccy more, nevertheless I was glad to have them both! ;-)
@@lovemadeinjapan back in the day here in Greece when we we're saying home eight bit computers we meant spectrums c64 and amstrad cpcs. So that's what i have.I don't collect retocomputers in general ....i collect only the ones that bring nostalgia to me!!! 😉
You are going to spend eternity with nothing but ZX Spectrums connected to black and white TV's with broken volume knobs cranked up to Max for making this video
This was funny, but you have to admit, the 6502 was the best processor at the time and its simplicity is why people still play with them. All of the x86 variants are boring by comparison and the only competitor it has for fun is the z80. I guess FPGA's are cool too, but even those are approaching boring.
I owned a ZX Spectrum 48k and then an Amstrad CPC 6128 and the Commodore 64 was always 'the enemy' :-) I loved your video, it was full of wonderful irony 🙂
ZX Spectrum, it dominated here in the UK but it made low cost computing here, really low cost! £399 for a C64 back in the day when a Spectrum 48k was £125. You didn't have to use the proprietory tape deck, loads of 3rd party kit available, games up the wazoo and STILL being made today, and of course the successor which is 100% backwards compatible, the Spectrum Next. I do like the c64, but the colours with what looks like 2 browns (cat poo and baby sick shades!) let it down for me, but some of the racers on it are way better than on the speccy, but we won't mention Turbo Esprit or Out Run...
@@bigredracingteam9642 Special? They were relatively cheap and the amount of peripherals was incredible. Choice was amazing. And if for you that means a worse experience, then thats really sad!
Even with fast loading it is not fast. My 8-bit machine from 81, has a regular NEC 765 shugart floppy controller, and hooked up to a regular PC 3,5 inch drive, it screams compared to a 1571 on a C128.
Yes! I remember finding a 'fast loader' that only took seconds to load and after that, anything loaded would load like 3x faster. I copied it pretty much to every disc. Was a game-changer, literally...
It was not a bug. It was a bad workaround to have the screen on while loading from disk. Something that could easily be improved with software or hardware
I love my Amiga 500 just as much. Truth be told, had I gotten my father's C64 (in 2006, when I asked about it), I would have been bored with it after a month. 14 years later, I resurrected an Amiga 500 that literally was waiting for me, and I use it to type up short stories.
Get Amiga 600 (small footprint, easier to upgrade with modern stuff) , add new 1 MB chip RAM (24 EUR), new A608 mini board with 8 MB Fast RAM (50 EUR), buy new 8 GB CF card (10 EUR), feed with few thousands of WHDLoad games (no problems with compatibility at all), IDE44 to CD card adapter (2 EUR) and there you go. You just didn't investigate much.
I love my 64 and now even more with the Ultimate 2+L. I did never own a Amiga or C128 even tho they are great machines also but the Breadbin is a joy. I only need a new joystick - maybe for xmas. ;o)
yeah pretty much a fact C64 is the best but that wasn't the whole picture of course. The Amiga is also up there as joined best I would personally say. That said I love all the machines from this era as they were all very unique in terms of differences which meant pros and cons with each of them. The 8bits though were pretty special just to be part of regardless of what you had and it's a time I'm very fond of and continue to enjoy because it represented something had arrived that we hadn't seen before. Lucky to be part of it all
They didn’t just “re-purpose” BASIC from the VIC-20. It was rebuilt for the C64. More commands and functions were added to accommodate the C64’s expanded hardware.
This may be controversial but the best computer is simply the one that holds the best memories for you. I admit this is just my subjective bias and not at all fact though. The mighty PC is very hard to think of as "the best" for me, because of it's generic nature; unlike the Amiga... Early computers had definite bottlenecks and it was fun to see programmers trying to seemingly make the impossible possible anyway.
I really really really wish they would create a computer that works like the Commodore 64 basic that works with C, C++, Java, Python and have the compiler built into it. Turn the system on and the prompt is ready to program and just type couple commands and it compiled it. That would be awesome.
That would be a modern PC. 8 bit computers with 64kb of RAM simply not up to such tasks. I am doing something like this for my ZX Spectrum NEXT. Setup a development environment for Assembler and C on PC, with all the functions of multi windows, debugger, watcher, and most importantly output via a Cpsect emulator. It is as close to get to work with Assembler and C and getting it running immediately to test. I dont even need to test on the real hardware during development. There is also a Boriel Basic for the ZX Spectrum NEXT which is a BASIC compiler which runs insanely fast. A modern version of Bomb Jack was made for the NEXT using this. Imo, this version is the best BJ i have played and looks even better than the Amiga version, with the playability of the old Spectrum version. You would have thought it's written in Assembly.
Yeah, totally correct. I grew up learning BASIC from books that listed compatibility with a bunch of rando computers I've never heard from plus C64. It apparently was the only computer from that era that didn't suck enough that it made it to the arse end of the world (Australia) so I could actually use it. Around my area the option was either a cheap C64, or a 10x cost x86 with GW-BASIC (or a shitty non-programmable console) so it almost certainly started way more Australians on the way to programming then any other computer at the time.
I had an Atari 800 back those days and always wondered, why the "C64 boys" so mich preferred their computer. The Atari had better Graphics, was much faster and also the Disk Drive was much much faster. But from todays perspective the C64 also had many advantages: Much more software, better sound (the SID chip had wave forms and filters), a few more sprites and more addons, like custom ROMs... Any over all there were much more freinds who could give you copies of their games...
@@tetsujin_144 Why are they so friggin expensive? Not that they are rare by any means. The II GS is in fact cool, as it has some of the most crazy sound chips ever made. A 30 voice wavetable chip by Ensoniq.
I AM OFFENDED, SIR! Like so many others you failed to mention the tiny little C116 with its horrible rubber keyboard and failing chips just like its TED-based brothers. Ok it was only sold in Europe, but still, It exists, gosh darn it!!! #JusticeForTheC116
I started collecting all the C-64 stuff I had when I was young, and things which I had not but wished I had. I cannot find the retail game M.U.L.E., not sure why, maybe it is so rare. I liked the game, but never understood it to be honest, had no manual. And there was a Joystick for C-64, not sure if you remember, which had quicksilver switches, it was maybe the first motion control Joystick, but unpractical. And some other things, but eventually I will find all of them I guess. I was lucky to buy a Commodore in nearly mint package. I am in Europe, so PAL region at the time. Nice work you do, thank you for the nostalgia. Videos of TH-camrs like you are often better than the majority of movies and series today. 😄
@@xyzzyi5315 Some remakes are good. I was often disappointed too of remakes, when the original was simple with nice pixel graphics, and then they change it to a 3D game with ugly art style even, things like that.
Haha fun video. I had a ZX Spectrum back in the day, now I own a bunch of retro computers. A friend had an Atari 800 though and that (overall) is my favourite 8-bit computer. Twice the CPU speed of the C64, twice the number of joystick ports, twice the number of cartridge slots that were contained internally rather than hanging out of the back, great keyboard, better color palette, great sound, much stronger construction, just less memory 48K vs 64K.
But the games really didn't look better. I find Ataris very weird, i think most games were made to be compatible with early 2600 VCS consoles? I can't seems to find many comparable games to the C64. The C64 does not have the burden to be backward compatible with VIC-20, else all the games would be crap.
Fun fact by the time the C64 came out the Commodore Pet had a better Basic but the C64 like the Vic-20 was made to be much cheaper thus used much smaller ROMs.
@bobjohnson3173 I learned a lot with my C64 though, and I'd stop at the local corner store and buy the Commodore magazines ( remember they usually had a floppy disk inside) on Fridays after school, to pick up new tips and tricks. I was such a nerd.. lol
Have to say for it’s time it was pretty much ahead of the game. This was the first computer I ever owned, we did borrow a Commodore Pet, but the C64 was the first computer we owned, came with beach head and Bozo’s night out. Later moved to Amiga 500, then Amiga 1200, before finally moving to PC. Still own my Amiga and C64 computers.
To support Matt's theory, every time you turned it on it started almost instantly and was exactly the same as when you turned it off. I had to replay the video to make sure I heard the load times correct. 2 to 3 minutes to load a program ..... :)
The Ataris had better colour, the Spectrum had a faster CPU but if you just even look at the C64 demoscene stuff coming out still in 2024 it's clear itwas the best 8-bit all rounder.
Just got one, but man it is a truly weird machine. The 3 modes of operation with 3 incompatible flavours of basic, the crazy dual video port that is unable to render 80 character on the RF/DIN plug, and not able to run classic C64 graphics on RGB. The fact that 80-char is a cripled video mode not suitable for games. Also it has a deep dark dungeon with a chained MSX inside that can do some CP/M wannabe once in a century. It does look neat though, that's why I bought it. But that humongous power brick..... It could run off the average 5x4x2,5cm USB-C charger nowadays.
Atari 8 bit machines were and always will be the best of it's time because they were around long before almost all of them and still managed to outspec most if not all of them even still.
Thanks a lot. After showing this video to me my wife and children won't let me spend my hard earned cash on Commodore stuff ever again. What am I to do now? Spend quality time with my son? Go out with my wife? Buy a Playstation for my son? Brrrrrr.
Angry comment, eh? Hmmm. Well, I IMMEDIATELY recognized Goonies just from the theme, Goonies 'R' Good Enough! RABBLERABBLERABBLE! That's about as angry as I can get at the good ol' C-64.
Honestly, I feel like the C64 is more of a British computer despite being designed and built in Pennsylvania. The Brits were the ones who pushed the C64 to its limits and most of the most beloved games for the computer came from there. Other than a few noteworthy EA, Activision, Origin Systems and Epyx titles, I ended up selling my NTSC breadbin collection because those in PAL land had it better.
This may be Tongue in Cheek... but if you have ever see some of the Artwork on the C64, done with only 16 colors... it will blow your mind. As an Artist myself... when you said that Grays basically dont count... you really proved your Ignorance. To make shadows, buildings, textures, and more... you NEED those other shades. Furthermore, you can alter how other colors look.. by Stippling those other colors next to each other... The real thing that killed me.. was the poor choice of SID music that you chose. The C64 had some of the most ICONIC music, depending on the game that you chose. In my Childhood.. my favorite was "The Last V8". This game was about a Post Nuclear war event.. and you had to drive your car safely back to base, without getting Melted from invisible Radiation spikes. The music is fantastically "ERRIE" and sets the proper Mood. The game is actually Psychologically Scary. Especially when that Radiation meter starts going off. The game itself had a very difficult control mechanic.. but when Mastered, was a fantastic accomplishment. The downside was the 2nd level.. which IMO, was nowhere near as fun as the first. That, and only having 2 stages period, was a bit limiting. But that game experience, with that insane music.. continues to Haunt my mind, to this very day. I remember listening to many Sid compositions, including a C64 version of Axel F, and being blown away at what these composers could produce... with such an affordable computer. In many cases, the sounds were far superior to stuff that was being put out by the NES... and the NES was released many years after the C64. I do not think the consoles got FM Synthesis, until the Sega Genesis. The C64 is clearly not the BEST computer... but it pretty much was the best PC for its Era. It was affordable. There were masses of games that you could buy / pirate for it. There were fantastic Music Tracks, and very cool Graphic + Musical demos. Heck, I believe my Grandfather used his C64 to input company data, into spreadsheets. One of the Best Consumer computers, was probably the "FM Towns". A Japanese computer, that could run at 720p resolution, had a CD rom drive, and that had near pixel-perfect Arcade Ports on it. A lot of Game Developers used the FM Towns / X68000 to develop games with, for other systems. BUT... that was a Japanese Only PC.. and it was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. Maybe 20 times the cost of ANY Commodore PC ..with all of the accessories. But the C64, was something that the average Joe could pick up for a reasonable price.. and while it certainly had its limitations... people were still able to make some very amazing experiences with it.
I do not know, I loved both mine VIC20 and C64, but when Amiga arrived, it just blew my mind and made me fall in love instantly. Since then (so the end of 80's), nothing came even close to excite me.
The 1541 disk drive was actually more expensive then the C64 itself. As it had almost all the same chips in it. The fact it was so slow was disappointing.
The C=64 is the greatest computer ever! Well, there is the C=128 which was twice as better... Oh, and yeah, the Amiga 2000 which was 2000 times better. But, i do agree, all in all, the Commodore 64 was and still is the best computer in the world!
Just a bit different. Slots are different, height is different on a few models, same on others. It was just easier and cheaper to slightly retool manufacturing equipment rather than start from scratch
Best Computer? Ever sat down and programmed on it? No, not "10 PRINT "Hello World" | 20 GOTO 10" I wrote video games for the Commodore Computers in the 1980s and had to work with Atari, Apple and other systems. I'll admit to being a Commodore Boy at the time. But takes just a few lines of code on an Atari 800 takes a lot of code on the C64 to implement. And the Atari 800 used a 1.75MHz 6502 compared to the 1MHz 6510 on the C64 so the Atari beats it on Speed, and Graphics.And the Pokey Chip, though not a SID, can give the Sid a run for its money. Plus there were several Synthesizers that used the SID as well and the Commodore B-Machines also used the SID. As a Programmer's machine, it was a nightmare.
Great video - the "golden era" of computing was full of computers that had "character" - and the Commodore 64 had it in spades. How did we end up in a world dominated by 2 kinds of computers - the PC and the Mac? There's a story there too, but the outcome is really a boring one. In many ways the market is ready for a third party disruptor that can produce a new computer full of character with superior technology at a low cost - aka the "Jack Tramiel Formula for Success."
Damn I had an Amstrad CPC 464, the popular choice in Europe. Also had a zx spectrum at one point, but it never lived up to the Amstrad. Had a friend who had a c64 aswell which was similar in alot of ways to the Amstrad. Good memories!
Erm...The C64 is better in many ways to the Amstrad. Hardware scrolling and hardware sprites. Most Amstrad games scroll jerkily, some even worse than Spectrum version. Basically, any games which is flip screen, will look better on Amstrad than C64, due to better color palette. Any games with scrolling, the C64 is king.
@@ZxSpectrumplus That sounds like you care about games. You know what? My PC Engine destroys the scrolling of a C64, not to mention its palette, and even the wavetable synth eats SIDs for breakfast. So in the end the C64 is a pretty meager home computer, shitty BASIC, really bad text quality on a TV, not so reliable. The CPC on the other hand is a wonderful computer on a TV, with great text, good colours, CP/M, proper BASIC.
Yeah, cool! I also had a ZX Spectrum and my father had a C64 (which I could use sometimes). It was a lot of fun! It took over 30 minutes to load Rambo Part II from cassette, and you would still get load errors sometimes. Oh, the joy! And yes, it was a LOT better with a disk drive, a cartridge or rom replacement loader (16x faster with the serial bus). But yes, weirdly, the C64 IS the best computer. The Spectrum and the Amiga were losers!
Nice trolling of Commodore Users. 🧌 Apple was selling theirs for around $2300 Apple in 1983 w/ a disk drive and printer. $2300 would be compared to buying a PC for $7 grand today. What system sold more and had more programs and games and support. Tandy...Atari....nope...
The best (8-bit) computer has decent BASIC, a decent video ouput signal (RGB+80-column), looks cool, has common interfaces, has room for internal expansion and has a proper (built in) power supply. C64 does not fit any of those criteria. How can it be best?
@@CaptainDangeax No idea why my 8-bit machines needs to try to be a NES. Sure go like your SID arps, they drive me nuts... Commando.. aargh! And that keyboard. Sure it has a nice feel, but the problem is you don't get what you expect. The layout is so non-standard, you type in weird colours all the time.
@@lovemadeinjapan I diagnose your computer problem sits in the keyboard-chair interface. Nothing anyone can solve but you. Also, some people need to exist by downtalking popular things, makes them believe they're better than the reguler people. Hint for you: it's wrong
@@polybius223 No decent basic for TI99/4a because it uses the video memory instead of central RAM. No 80 columns for the TMS9918 inside the TI99/4a and although it's a good VDP used in Coleco and MSX1, it can not compete against the VIC-II
Fact: The best computers have a "return" key instead of "enter".
My computer says "Field Exit". I guess it's a soccer/football thing?
Convenient when it breaks down and you want your money back. "Return!"
Best computers had both ;)... (C128)
MacBook Pro:)
@@Lofote I recently got it, and besides the looks, which I really like, I find the C128 to be a disaster, overpriced fucked up machine with borderline disorder. After that I got a CPC 464 (with 128k expansion), and it is day and night. This is how I expected the C128 to be. Even our local weird Philips P2000T destroys the C128.
And yet, despite all its flaws and shortcomings, it became the best-selling computer of all time.
Therre are no flaws or shortcomings, only uniquely personal design choices.
Not because what Commodore did, but because of double-deck cassette decks with high speed dubbing. Remember that a C64 game could cost in todays money like 100€, and a NES game 150€. There were other computers that cost 2 times as much, but with free legal downloads of great software, but the low entry price and pirating made the choice in many cases.
I used to have a C64 and an A500. At the time any progress was better because everything was new. Now 35 years later I am more impressed by my C64 that can do so much with so little. Not to minimize the revolution the A500 was at the time, that machine pretty much blew everything out of the water.
I agree, the A500 was an incredible piece of technology, a huge leap in the definition of a home computer in 1987. Unfortunately, I missed that because I was already into the PC universe after my humble ZX Spectrum. It has been 5 years that I got into the retro computer community, and I've only acquired an A500+ recently after many Spectrum and C64 machines. It really managed to amaze me in the year 2023!
Fact (kinda) Everytime an 8 bit Commodore machine gets turned on , you can hear the faint cries of Bill G in the distance. Either that or a capacitor is about to fry...
MSX computers are not common in many countries, but man... thats a good 8 bit computer.
Some games were terrible. Graphics were usually awful too, even by 1980s standards. Not the most reliable computer either. But... nostalgia aside, the C64 came from a time when new computer technology was genuinely new and exciting, so it holds a lot of good memories for people. And when you did play a good game it was genuinely a great experience for the time. I wasn't too into programming at the time but it was a very good early computer to learn the basics on. Everyone I knew who took the time to do serious programming on the C64 went on to bigger and better things.
cough, cough, three, cough, grey
Best? No. And I feel the C128, not the C64, was the best 8-bit machine. However, I consider it to be my favorite since it was my first personal computer. I still remember buying it in June 1983. (Forty years ago! 😮) It taught me so much about programming and using computers in general. It was also my entry point for BBSs and FidoNet. I made friends there and at Commodore clubs. And I’ve never loved a game as much as I loved Impossible Mission on my C64 and later on my C128.
Today I have a MacBook Pro and a Windows tower PC and they’re fine and do what I need them to do. However, I don’t feel any more affection for them than I do for a TV set or a dishwasher. I’m generally anti nostalgic but I am nostalgic about those Commodore computers I had back in the ‘80s.
I just found Impossible Mission on a C128 I aquired today. No idea what to do though, but it looks and sounds cool.
_"...I don’t feel any more affection for them than I do for a TV set or a dishwasher."_
The C128 had a much improved keyboard to type on... but mine was in 64 mode probably 95% of the time.
I thought 128's didn't come out until 1985? I got my first 64 in 82-83 and later my parents got me a 128, a 1571 disk drive and a rgb monitor that could handle the 80 columns for Christmas...it was awesome.
I was and still am an Amstrad enthusiast for the 8bit era.
Angry comment for what, the video was great.
The Amstrad CPC is one of my three favourite 8-bit computers along with the BBC Master and Atari 130XE. I also like Amstrad's other Z80 based CP/M machines like the 8256. My biggest complaint is the 3" floppy drives. The Amstrad CPC is also missing hardware scrolling and sprites which are important for games. The Plus models added those features but came out too late to get much use. I also really prefer the BASIC on the Amstrad CPC although being able to write assembly like BBC BASIC would be nice.
I didn't have any of these systems growing up in the 80's. I had a VIC-20 and C64 before getting a series of Amigas. Today I'm not as much of a fan of the C64. It had a pretty good video chip (although the colours are drab) and a pretty great sound chip, but outside of that it doesn't really have a real OS like the Atari, BBC Micro and Amstrad have. Today I consider the C64 to be a video game console with a keyboard and disk drive.
@@timlocke3159 Same here. Yes the CPC had no HW support, but in some eras was better, like racing games. Also had no color clash. CP/M was great and was a real all in one computer with 80 columns mode.
@@timlocke3159 The CPC is a marvelous design, super-simple board layout, yet highly capable. I don't care about games, I've a PC Engine and NES for that, so I look at how they function as computer, and in that regard, the CPC is a very capable machine with proper BASIC, 80 column mode, more colours, clear RGB output and nicer keyboard layout.
Used to have ZX Spectrum 48K at first and C64C later when I was a kid, C64 was a better machine in 8 bit era but I always liked Speccy more, nevertheless I was glad to have them both! ;-)
It was so difficult for me to choose which 8 bit home computer was the best so...i bought them all!
Let me check if you have some really good ones: does the collection include an Olivetti M10 and a Philips P2000T?
@@lovemadeinjapan back in the day here in Greece when we we're saying home eight bit computers we meant spectrums c64 and amstrad cpcs. So that's what i have.I don't collect retocomputers in general ....i collect only the ones that bring nostalgia to me!!! 😉
@@spyrosskam8632 CPC is really good. Great it did so well in Greece.
@@lovemadeinjapan CPC 6128 was first in sales for two years in a row, 1987 1988!
You are going to spend eternity with nothing but ZX Spectrums connected to black and white TV's with broken volume knobs cranked up to Max for making this video
At least it has color clash with proper colours, instead of a palette with various flavours of diarhea.
You monster... ;'(
This was funny, but you have to admit, the 6502 was the best processor at the time and its simplicity is why people still play with them. All of the x86 variants are boring by comparison and the only competitor it has for fun is the z80. I guess FPGA's are cool too, but even those are approaching boring.
I owned a ZX Spectrum 48k and then an Amstrad CPC 6128 and the Commodore 64 was always 'the enemy' :-) I loved your video, it was full of wonderful irony 🙂
Going for looks alone, I would say nothing can beat the ZX Spectrum 128K (Toastrack)! It is a timeless design.
The non-toast is prettier. But the toast is a better machine.
@@lovemadeinjapan What is "non toast"?
@@borayurt66 The 48+
ZX Spectrum, it dominated here in the UK but it made low cost computing here, really low cost! £399 for a C64 back in the day when a Spectrum 48k was £125. You didn't have to use the proprietory tape deck, loads of 3rd party kit available, games up the wazoo and STILL being made today, and of course the successor which is 100% backwards compatible, the Spectrum Next.
I do like the c64, but the colours with what looks like 2 browns (cat poo and baby sick shades!) let it down for me, but some of the racers on it are way better than on the speccy, but we won't mention Turbo Esprit or Out Run...
In 1983 when the ZX 48K was £129, the C64 was £229
While the ZX was cheaper, it required special interfaces (or 'dongles' in today's parlance) for connecting virtually any peripheral.
@@bigredracingteam9642 Special? They were relatively cheap and the amount of peripherals was incredible. Choice was amazing. And if for you that means a worse experience, then thats really sad!
THREE shades of grey, and TWO shades of B R O W N (the best colour)
The floppy disk being slow is a bug, there's a thing you can buy for fast-loading that fixes the bug or something to that affect
Even with fast loading it is not fast. My 8-bit machine from 81, has a regular NEC 765 shugart floppy controller, and hooked up to a regular PC 3,5 inch drive, it screams compared to a 1571 on a C128.
@@lovemadeinjapan Well obviously, fast is relative here, but fair enough, probably should have specified that.
Yes! I remember finding a 'fast loader' that only took seconds to load and after that, anything loaded would load like 3x faster. I copied it pretty much to every disc. Was a game-changer, literally...
It was not a bug.
It was a bad workaround to have the screen on while loading from disk.
Something that could easily be improved with software or hardware
I love my Amiga 500 just as much.
Truth be told, had I gotten my father's C64 (in 2006, when I asked about it), I would have been bored with it after a month.
14 years later, I resurrected an Amiga 500 that literally was waiting for me, and I use it to type up short stories.
Get Amiga 600 (small footprint, easier to upgrade with modern stuff) , add new 1 MB chip RAM (24 EUR), new A608 mini board with 8 MB Fast RAM (50 EUR), buy new 8 GB CF card (10 EUR), feed with few thousands of WHDLoad games (no problems with compatibility at all), IDE44 to CD card adapter (2 EUR) and there you go. You just didn't investigate much.
I love my 64 and now even more with the Ultimate 2+L. I did never own a Amiga or C128 even tho they are great machines also but the Breadbin is a joy. I only need a new joystick - maybe for xmas. ;o)
Atari 8-bit fan here. We can all agree on the worse alternative. 🙂
yeah pretty much a fact C64 is the best but that wasn't the whole picture of course. The Amiga is also up there as joined best I would personally say. That said I love all the machines from this era as they were all very unique in terms of differences which meant pros and cons with each of them. The 8bits though were pretty special just to be part of regardless of what you had and it's a time I'm very fond of and continue to enjoy because it represented something had arrived that we hadn't seen before. Lucky to be part of it all
They didn’t just “re-purpose” BASIC from the VIC-20. It was rebuilt for the C64. More commands and functions were added to accommodate the C64’s expanded hardware.
This may be controversial but the best computer is simply the one that holds the best memories for you. I admit this is just my subjective bias and not at all fact though.
The mighty PC is very hard to think of as "the best" for me, because of it's generic nature; unlike the Amiga... Early computers had definite bottlenecks and it was fun to see programmers trying to seemingly make the impossible possible anyway.
awesome video mate
I really really really wish they would create a computer that works like the Commodore 64 basic that works with C, C++, Java, Python and have the compiler built into it. Turn the system on and the prompt is ready to program and just type couple commands and it compiled it. That would be awesome.
Commander X16 might be close
That would be a modern PC. 8 bit computers with 64kb of RAM simply not up to such tasks. I am doing something like this for my ZX Spectrum NEXT. Setup a development environment for Assembler and C on PC, with all the functions of multi windows, debugger, watcher, and most importantly output via a Cpsect emulator. It is as close to get to work with Assembler and C and getting it running immediately to test. I dont even need to test on the real hardware during development. There is also a Boriel Basic for the ZX Spectrum NEXT which is a BASIC compiler which runs insanely fast. A modern version of Bomb Jack was made for the NEXT using this. Imo, this version is the best BJ i have played and looks even better than the Amiga version, with the playability of the old Spectrum version. You would have thought it's written in Assembly.
Yeah, totally correct. I grew up learning BASIC from books that listed compatibility with a bunch of rando computers I've never heard from plus C64. It apparently was the only computer from that era that didn't suck enough that it made it to the arse end of the world (Australia) so I could actually use it.
Around my area the option was either a cheap C64, or a 10x cost x86 with GW-BASIC (or a shitty non-programmable console) so it almost certainly started way more Australians on the way to programming then any other computer at the time.
I felt every word of that comment. *wipes tear
I had an Atari 800 back those days and always wondered, why the "C64 boys" so mich preferred their computer. The Atari had better Graphics, was much faster and also the Disk Drive was much much faster. But from todays perspective the C64 also had many advantages: Much more software, better sound (the SID chip had wave forms and filters), a few more sprites and more addons, like custom ROMs... Any over all there were much more freinds who could give you copies of their games...
A friend of mine had a 800xl while I had a C64. Despite less colors on the C64, the gameplay and the sound were always better
The Apple II had clear 80 columns. And Pascal. As a young programmer-to-be, it couldn't be beat.
Apple II is cool.
...Except the IIgs.
@@tetsujin_144 Why are they so friggin expensive? Not that they are rare by any means. The II GS is in fact cool, as it has some of the most crazy sound chips ever made. A 30 voice wavetable chip by Ensoniq.
I AM OFFENDED, SIR! Like so many others you failed to mention the tiny little C116 with its horrible rubber keyboard and failing chips just like its TED-based brothers. Ok it was only sold in Europe, but still, It exists, gosh darn it!!! #JusticeForTheC116
Here here! #tedgang 😂
Surprised there aren't more comments attempting to correct your little Sonic troll there. Fun video!
I started collecting all the C-64 stuff I had when I was young, and things which I had not but wished I had. I cannot find the retail game M.U.L.E., not sure why, maybe it is so rare. I liked the game, but never understood it to be honest, had no manual. And there was a Joystick for C-64, not sure if you remember, which had quicksilver switches, it was maybe the first motion control Joystick, but unpractical. And some other things, but eventually I will find all of them I guess. I was lucky to buy a Commodore in nearly mint package. I am in Europe, so PAL region at the time. Nice work you do, thank you for the nostalgia. Videos of TH-camrs like you are often better than the majority of movies and series today. 😄
Loved M.U.L.E., really helped me understand some economics ideas better. They remade MULE, but it's a pain, nothing can ever just be a remake.
@@xyzzyi5315 Some remakes are good. I was often disappointed too of remakes, when the original was simple with nice pixel graphics, and then they change it to a 3D game with ugly art style even, things like that.
Haha fun video. I had a ZX Spectrum back in the day, now I own a bunch of retro computers. A friend had an Atari 800 though and that (overall) is my favourite 8-bit computer. Twice the CPU speed of the C64, twice the number of joystick ports, twice the number of cartridge slots that were contained internally rather than hanging out of the back, great keyboard, better color palette, great sound, much stronger construction, just less memory 48K vs 64K.
But the games really didn't look better. I find Ataris very weird, i think most games were made to be compatible with early 2600 VCS consoles? I can't seems to find many comparable games to the C64. The C64 does not have the burden to be backward compatible with VIC-20, else all the games would be crap.
Black, white and two shades of gray made for some good GUI ang graphics 😊
It really is unironically the best though
Fun fact by the time the C64 came out the Commodore Pet had a better Basic but the C64 like the Vic-20 was made to be much cheaper thus used much smaller ROMs.
They were clunky, but man, they were fun. I miss those days .
In a nostalgic way though not in a "I wish it was my daily driver again" way, right?
@bobjohnson3173 no I wouldn't want to fight with one today. ( on a day to day basis)
@bobjohnson3173 I learned a lot with my C64 though, and I'd stop at the local corner store and buy the Commodore magazines ( remember they usually had a floppy disk inside) on Fridays after school, to pick up new tips and tricks. I was such a nerd.. lol
Have to say for it’s time it was pretty much ahead of the game.
This was the first computer I ever owned, we did borrow a Commodore Pet, but the C64 was the first computer we owned, came with beach head and Bozo’s night out. Later moved to Amiga 500, then Amiga 1200, before finally moving to PC.
Still own my Amiga and C64 computers.
I loved my C=64, spent many an hour playing Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising"
Nice try, but actually C128D is the best
We love the C64 for its flaws... ❤ Great video, fun to watch.
*popcorn gif* for the comments. Let's see who is too serious here. 😄 Fun one!
To support Matt's theory, every time you turned it on it started almost instantly and was exactly the same as when you turned it off. I had to replay the video to make sure I heard the load times correct. 2 to 3 minutes to load a program ..... :)
The Ataris had better colour, the Spectrum had a faster CPU but if you just even look at the C64 demoscene stuff coming out still in 2024 it's clear itwas the best 8-bit all rounder.
Z80 was faster in MHz maybe, but the 6502 was the most efficient, eventually beating Z80 and all 680x by Motorola
Gotta love sonic on c64
I don't know, it looks pretty BASIC for me
*badum, tis
Learn right hand dexterity with unique shift cursor keys!
*gets PTSD flashbacks
I was born in 1974 I was 11 years old when I started using this fantastic Computer, this started me of with my love for computers and games.
the c64 "was" the best computer in its prime. Although the c64 model that later will resemble amiga 500, the c64C is the sexiest of all time.
Pffft.... The c64 wasn't even the best c64... gimme the c128 any day!
Just got one, but man it is a truly weird machine. The 3 modes of operation with 3 incompatible flavours of basic, the crazy dual video port that is unable to render 80 character on the RF/DIN plug, and not able to run classic C64 graphics on RGB. The fact that 80-char is a cripled video mode not suitable for games. Also it has a deep dark dungeon with a chained MSX inside that can do some CP/M wannabe once in a century. It does look neat though, that's why I bought it. But that humongous power brick..... It could run off the average 5x4x2,5cm USB-C charger nowadays.
Atari 8 bit machines were and always will be the best of it's time because they were around long before almost all of them and still managed to outspec most if not all of them even still.
That is, if you are in the US. Outside they did not exist.
Good old days
The little breadbin is a true GIANT!!🤩
DEFCON Level 1 snark, I love it!
Thanks a lot. After showing this video to me my wife and children won't let me spend my hard earned cash on Commodore stuff ever again. What am I to do now? Spend quality time with my son? Go out with my wife? Buy a Playstation for my son? Brrrrrr.
Get a new wife.
Angry comment, eh? Hmmm. Well, I IMMEDIATELY recognized Goonies just from the theme, Goonies 'R' Good Enough! RABBLERABBLERABBLE! That's about as angry as I can get at the good ol' C-64.
It was quirky, but it gave me many hours of enjoyment.
Honestly, I feel like the C64 is more of a British computer despite being designed and built in Pennsylvania. The Brits were the ones who pushed the C64 to its limits and most of the most beloved games for the computer came from there. Other than a few noteworthy EA, Activision, Origin Systems and Epyx titles, I ended up selling my NTSC breadbin collection because those in PAL land had it better.
This may be Tongue in Cheek... but if you have ever see some of the Artwork on the C64, done with only 16 colors... it will blow your mind. As an Artist myself... when you said that Grays basically dont count... you really proved your Ignorance. To make shadows, buildings, textures, and more... you NEED those other shades. Furthermore, you can alter how other colors look.. by Stippling those other colors next to each other...
The real thing that killed me.. was the poor choice of SID music that you chose. The C64 had some of the most ICONIC music, depending on the game that you chose. In my Childhood.. my favorite was "The Last V8". This game was about a Post Nuclear war event.. and you had to drive your car safely back to base, without getting Melted from invisible Radiation spikes. The music is fantastically "ERRIE" and sets the proper Mood. The game is actually Psychologically Scary. Especially when that Radiation meter starts going off. The game itself had a very difficult control mechanic.. but when Mastered, was a fantastic accomplishment. The downside was the 2nd level.. which IMO, was nowhere near as fun as the first. That, and only having 2 stages period, was a bit limiting. But that game experience, with that insane music.. continues to Haunt my mind, to this very day.
I remember listening to many Sid compositions, including a C64 version of Axel F, and being blown away at what these composers could produce... with such an affordable computer. In many cases, the sounds were far superior to stuff that was being put out by the NES... and the NES was released many years after the C64. I do not think the consoles got FM Synthesis, until the Sega Genesis.
The C64 is clearly not the BEST computer... but it pretty much was the best PC for its Era. It was affordable. There were masses of games that you could buy / pirate for it. There were fantastic Music Tracks, and very cool Graphic + Musical demos. Heck, I believe my Grandfather used his C64 to input company data, into spreadsheets.
One of the Best Consumer computers, was probably the "FM Towns". A Japanese computer, that could run at 720p resolution, had a CD rom drive, and that had near pixel-perfect Arcade Ports on it. A lot of Game Developers used the FM Towns / X68000 to develop games with, for other systems. BUT... that was a Japanese Only PC.. and it was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. Maybe 20 times the cost of ANY Commodore PC ..with all of the accessories.
But the C64, was something that the average Joe could pick up for a reasonable price.. and while it certainly had its limitations... people were still able to make some very amazing experiences with it.
The C-16 is better because the best computers are antracite. And also, it has a very capable and useful BASIC.
I do not know, I loved both mine VIC20 and C64, but when Amiga arrived, it just blew my mind and made me fall in love instantly.
Since then (so the end of 80's), nothing came even close to excite me.
They were all great.......and they were all terrible......and i loved them all......
So both tape and disk took 2-3 minutes to load a program? :D
Yep
The 1541 disk drive was actually more expensive then the C64 itself. As it had almost all the same chips in it. The fact it was so slow was disappointing.
50 Shades of Brown.
You talk about the colour palette I assume? Not about the plastic.
Commodore 64 was awesome from 1984-1990. Now it is the Raspberry PI 400.
Raspberry Pi's were nice from 2010-2020. Now they are obsolete.
The C=64 is the greatest computer ever! Well, there is the C=128 which was twice as better... Oh, and yeah, the Amiga 2000 which was 2000 times better. But, i do agree, all in all, the Commodore 64 was and still is the best computer in the world!
30 seconds in
3 shades of gray, so 11 colors, white, black and 3 grays
I have this feeling that this video was made after some serious trouble shooting to get a commodore working? 😅
Oh you know, 3 or 4 years of making videos and you accumulate material to work with :P
wow! That Sonic.... thing..... ough!
There is a better Sonic, but it requires an unusual memory expansion cartridge which performs DMA to scroll fast.
Er, isn't the Vic 20 case actually different to the C64? It's a bit taller isn't it? Or is this one of those early model things they changed later?
Just a bit different. Slots are different, height is different on a few models, same on others. It was just easier and cheaper to slightly retool manufacturing equipment rather than start from scratch
Early C64 use the same case as the VIC-20, later models have slightly revised breadbins which is a tad shorter.
Best Computer? Ever sat down and programmed on it? No, not "10 PRINT "Hello World" | 20 GOTO 10"
I wrote video games for the Commodore Computers in the 1980s and had to work with Atari, Apple and other systems. I'll admit to being a Commodore Boy at the time. But takes just a few lines of code on an Atari 800 takes a lot of code on the C64 to implement. And the Atari 800 used a 1.75MHz 6502 compared to the 1MHz 6510 on the C64 so the Atari beats it on Speed, and Graphics.And the Pokey Chip, though not a SID, can give the Sid a run for its money. Plus there were several Synthesizers that used the SID as well and the Commodore B-Machines also used the SID. As a Programmer's machine, it was a nightmare.
The TI-99/4a’s BASIC was pretty decent.
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato? What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
What’s with the Bob Marley face at 4:33? Thanks for the laugh!
I got my old Vic20 and a ton of carts, Commodore cassette decks, etc. I'm in NoVA if you'd be interested.
I like how you didn't say wrong word about Atari. No need to throw angry comments :)
lol Matt, brilliant! Loved the whole tongue in cheek vibe 👍
LOL Matt, you made me smile 😁
Don't MSX much??
Fantastic video, I think so too and I also bring Commodore Computer to the channel! (and some atari 2600, recently, hahaha)
Hi Matt, here is my angry comment:
..
..
It seems everything is written for now 😁 Thank you very much for your short clip. Thumbs up!
Great video - the "golden era" of computing was full of computers that had "character" - and the Commodore 64 had it in spades. How did we end up in a world dominated by 2 kinds of computers - the PC and the Mac? There's a story there too, but the outcome is really a boring one. In many ways the market is ready for a third party disruptor that can produce a new computer full of character with superior technology at a low cost - aka the "Jack Tramiel Formula for Success."
Damn I had an Amstrad CPC 464, the popular choice in Europe. Also had a zx spectrum at one point, but it never lived up to the Amstrad. Had a friend who had a c64 aswell which was similar in alot of ways to the Amstrad. Good memories!
Erm...The C64 is better in many ways to the Amstrad. Hardware scrolling and hardware sprites. Most Amstrad games scroll jerkily, some even worse than Spectrum version. Basically, any games which is flip screen, will look better on Amstrad than C64, due to better color palette. Any games with scrolling, the C64 is king.
@@ZxSpectrumplus That sounds like you care about games. You know what? My PC Engine destroys the scrolling of a C64, not to mention its palette, and even the wavetable synth eats SIDs for breakfast. So in the end the C64 is a pretty meager home computer, shitty BASIC, really bad text quality on a TV, not so reliable. The CPC on the other hand is a wonderful computer on a TV, with great text, good colours, CP/M, proper BASIC.
Loved it! Thanks.
I cannot and will not change your mind. 😁
Couldn't agree more
Uhm, it actually had three shades of grey, not two ;)...
A tape game didn't take 2-3 minutes. Try at least 10 minutes (but from memory often more).
New games and demos that push the C64's limits are still made to this day, nuff said...
LOL! this video says all! yeah... I touched my C64 joystick port by accident and boom! it is gonner :(
This is brilliant - loved it. What is that Sonic game lol....
Thanks! It was an unfinished tech demo from 2011 - csdb.dk/release/?id=101631
It is for sure on top of a period, like the Oric Atmos after, then the Atari ST, then the PC (meh)
I would say Amiga 500 is the best with the same philosophy
Not the same genre though, 8 bits vs 16 bits is a huge difference.
@@borayurt66 In 8bit era, C64 was the best for me.
Yeah, cool! I also had a ZX Spectrum and my father had a C64 (which I could use sometimes). It was a lot of fun! It took over 30 minutes to load Rambo Part II from cassette, and you would still get load errors sometimes. Oh, the joy! And yes, it was a LOT better with a disk drive, a cartridge or rom replacement loader (16x faster with the serial bus). But yes, weirdly, the C64 IS the best computer. The Spectrum and the Amiga were losers!
You must be all mistaken, the best computer is clearly the MGT Sam Coupe ;-)
first i had a spectrum 128k i think it was called then i got the commandor 64
c64 my fav computer all time
You're doing stand-up now? LOL
Just this once. Probably.
Nice trolling of Commodore Users. 🧌 Apple was selling theirs for around $2300 Apple in 1983 w/ a disk drive and printer. $2300 would be compared to buying a PC for $7 grand today. What system sold more and had more programs and games and support. Tandy...Atari....nope...
The best (8-bit) computer has decent BASIC, a decent video ouput signal (RGB+80-column), looks cool, has common interfaces, has room for internal expansion and has a proper (built in) power supply. C64 does not fit any of those criteria. How can it be best?
TI-99/4a checks a good number of those boxes.
Well, really actually not many…
But still more than the C64!
Decent basic is for noobs, bearded programmers use ASM. C64 best animation, best sound, best keyboard, and a power supply making it easy to export
@@CaptainDangeax No idea why my 8-bit machines needs to try to be a NES. Sure go like your SID arps, they drive me nuts... Commando.. aargh! And that keyboard. Sure it has a nice feel, but the problem is you don't get what you expect. The layout is so non-standard, you type in weird colours all the time.
@@lovemadeinjapan I diagnose your computer problem sits in the keyboard-chair interface. Nothing anyone can solve but you. Also, some people need to exist by downtalking popular things, makes them believe they're better than the reguler people. Hint for you: it's wrong
@@polybius223 No decent basic for TI99/4a because it uses the video memory instead of central RAM. No 80 columns for the TMS9918 inside the TI99/4a and although it's a good VDP used in Coleco and MSX1, it can not compete against the VIC-II