Commodore Free 39/Commodore_Free_Issue_39_2010_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/john 1

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 11KB | 341 lines

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      FIRST COMPUTER NOSTALGIA
      Why I Like The Commodore
           By John Fielden
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I remember I was 8 or 9.  Leading up
to Christmas 1982/3.  Before that I
hadn't really noticed computers
much.  Apart from The Junior school
proudly showing off it's BBC Micro.
I say showing off as it seemed rare,
if ever that any-one besides the
teachers got to use it. In fact if
memory serves it seemed to spend its
life flashed in front of students
without being used but moved out for
others use, or moved in for storage
only. Nice school!

To that point I didn't think much of
computers, not much hope of getting
one so I never bothered to dream
about it, or in fact understand what
they were; except glorified
calculators and a means to play
games that could be educational as
the headmaster was keen to point
out. (I genuinely hope he learned a
lot from his experiences!) One of
the class mates used to talk
enthusiastically of his commodore
64. One thing I remember was a
cousin, whom one day I visited had
Frogger on his C64.  I was rubbish
by his practised standard, but
instantly smitten. He soon turned it
off to talk and be sociable. And
there was this lingering wish to
keep playing. I don't remember much
else of the visit apart from some
experiment with 3D glasses that had
no effect on me due to astigmatism
(A spatial impediment of the eye.)

It was a rare treat, a one off due
to the families other commitments
etc. A chain of events occurred that
helped me to forget all about that
impossible dream. Well almost.  An
aunt had holdings where we lived.
And threatened to come home for good
one day.  Meantime being something
of a curious kid, and perhaps out of
boredom saw fit to sneak open some
of the holdings once home alone.
From a background philosophy of If
you have nothing then nothing can be
stolen. To a new material paradise
world of treat yourself whether you
can use it or not. I unwrapped a
ghetto-blaster and spent hours of
fun listening to the radio. Until
inevitably found out when said aunt
came home and noticed things out of
place. Of course I was the first and
last and only to be suspected. And
of course was chided & derided
heavily -and constantly thereafter.
Branded bad for life and with no
hope of reprieve! (there are
undercurrents to this very day!) I
was to live out my days waiting for
any opportunity to listen to the
radio in glorious stereo FM!  To
make things worse a friend of my
mum's helping with her cubs project,
unwittingly decided to be kind and
pass on to me her son's cast offs. I
got tapes of all the favourite
Saturday night viewing of the time,
with little books to read as you
heard. And was the ancient little
mono tape player with its crackly
volume control enough?...Nope! So
more trouble. And they say 'hell
hath no fury like a woman scorned'.
It might in this case be true for
the fury of a woman taking out all
her anger at 'misspent' adventures
with men projected where it's safe
to at any given opportunity though
must be far worse. After all had the
woman in question been more
nurturing she might've encouraged a
child to explore the emerging
technological world. No there was a
deeper motive to the midwives
hatred. I won't dwell on it or try
to analyse it here. Suffice to say
that in the build up to that Yule
tide. When my Dad asked "What do you
want for Christmas, son?"

A "tape recorder, please" was pretty
soon out of my lips. Only to be
drowned out by those who seemed to
take it upon themselves to talk for
me completely uninvited, only to
hear "He wants a radio alarm" like
my mum had which was on the list.
The question was asked "Which?"
I asked Dad for the tape recorder,
thinking of the ghetto-blaster.

Well Christmas finally came full of
days and weeks of Grandma's "Isn't
it exciting!".  When I woke up
Christmas morning, ushered
downstairs to the living room where
I saw a present in the shape of a
ghettoblaster, and opened my own
Commodore 16 computer. I was amazed,
awestruck. And I don't remember much
else except wanting to try the tapes
that came with it. And was
encouraged to read the books that
came with it by Dad who since said
that he wasn't going to let me be
left behind as all the other kids
had computers. Thank You Dad, very
much!

We were later upset that the C16
games weren't compatible with C64
machines and vice-versa. But this
didn't prevent the beginnings of
learning programming from happening,
in fact it enabled it for longer.
And while by the time I got to the
end of part 1 of An Introduction to
BASIC, the recommended part 2 was
out of print (I still haven't
tracked it down, though I found one
for the C64). The love of computer
programming lives on and has been
exercised by the excellent
commodore-free magazine. My skills
so far progressing with each new
topic covered. And providing its own
rewarding challenges. As I hope is
also true for every-one following
the articles. Even my comprehension
of the intro part1 has greatly
improved. Expect to see an odd
program based on themes from these.

Challenges along the way included;
initially only having one television
and no monitor. A headmaster who
seemed vindicated that my computer
had been confiscated after he'd hit
me for being unable to stop giggling
with a mate in class. And throwing
the parental notification letter
away forgetting it was parents
evening that night.  My mum fussed
that she'd been unprepared. But I
look back thinking maybe better that
than her stressing what she might
say all night before going. Also
games, as they took away budget for
books. Although I had no idea where
to get these or their importance in
advancing learning. Growing up;
football took precedence.

At school, even on the rare occasion
in the final year when I got a go on
the Beeb.  And with some excitement
as the educational games looked
interesting. The conflicting
keyboard always brought my usage to
a premature end. The Beeb's break
key or Reset, being where the Ins
Del or Delete key was on my C16.
With very unsympathetic teachers
whom having to rely on the head to
reload the program. Having been put
with some-one not skilled in
appropriate typing, my turn was lost
while the Headmaster was called to
fix it, but the so and so whose
mistake I'd been eager to correct
got another go!  Needless to say no
cross reference in programming
commands is given to that box of
rusty old bolts!

When things progressed to senior.
The BBC seemed to die somewhat and
Spectrum owners seemed to wage war
with mainly the C64. Obviously
seeing no threat from the C16,
some-one half heartedly tried to
compare it to the old ZX. But the
real contest was with the 128's (x2
or x3). I was almost part of the
Commodore club but of no use in the
raging arguments about the new game
for which platform provided the best
playability, sound and graphics
capabilities. In all those years, I
only saw the commodore rivalled once
in graphics by an "Amstrad", which
was heavily suspected to be one of
the new 16 bit models like an Atari
ST. I forget the game in question.

Having nearly been part of a club
(albeit unofficial & unregistered).
The draw of peer pressure had me
wishing to be a fully fledged
member. By the time another cousin
was ready to sell on his C64. It was
because he was ready to upgrade; To
an ST., as it happens. And of
course, so was every-one else!
...That is an ST.: Or an Amiga, of
course!  And by the time I got my
Amiga these peers had pretty much
left the picture.  Now it seems more
of a case of which brand is the best
with PCs and Macs covering, for the
most part, different things, as far
as I can tell.

Commodore 16

The first games I played were from
the complimentary pack included in
the box. A tape of four games, as
well as two tapes to try to
demonstrate the programming
capabilities. These would've been
better had they included a write up
to show the user what was going on.
I found my mind boggling at the site
of the long listings scrolling up
the screen. Full of numbers, POKES &
PEEKS and DATA statements that I had
no chance of understanding. (I'm
still exploring the PEEKS & POKES).

Back to the games then.

In no particular order. A Chess game
for beginners which we couldn't beat
without backtracking. And then it
took some doing. We surpassed it
eventually learning that it gave up
on losing "his" Queen!

Rolf Harris Picture Builder with two
examples of what could be achieved
if you happen to be Leonardo
Divinchi! None of us were artistic
but still, for a time it had a nice
novelty value for playing around,
and what must've looked like
"toddler-art" or something.

Moving on we looked at a rather
complicated and strange looking game
to the newcomer called XZAP. A shoot
em up, as the name suggests, with
strange patterns loosely resembling
maze like caverns. With all sorts of
alien creatures that you had to use
all your cunning and sharp reflexes
to keep away from while trying to
clear the screen of other said
aliens. These were mainly shapes
from the keyset, but often the shape
or its density changed and bullets
would pass through or bounce off
depending on the alien. My Dad and I
had much fun teaming up. With him
concentrating on firing and myself
controlling the movements of the
little cannon shaped ship. It was
hilarious when I expected him to
fire on something and he didn't, or
when he fired expecting me to attack
something when I went a different
way to avoid something else.

The final game in the set was
Punchy. A Platform type, based on
The sea side Punch and Judy shows.
The way to do it was to get across
the screen as the policeman to try
to save Judy from Mr. Punch. The so
and so would throw custard pies and
such that you either had to jump
over, or avoid jumping into and not
get hit. Despite such things as
navigating over a fortress, or
trying to land on a magic carpet to
get across a canyon. Very Arabian
Knights. It took many hours, over
many days and weeks to complete this
game. But I did it, with my Dad's
encouragement. Unfortunately, the
anti-climax was realising you just
go back to the beginning. We wanted
theme Music, A victory tune with a
note of congratulations on screen,
fireworks. The Policeman maybe
handcuffing Mr. Punch and putting
him in a vehicle to be taken away.
At least before starting again.

"That's the way to do it!".  I since
found the game is also on the C64. I
played it through an emulator as
with the C16 version. And believe it
or not, found The C16 version to be
better! Although it did come out
after the C64, so the programmers, I
think, would have opportunity to
improve the design. The sound is
better too despite the glories of
SID.

         Continued in John 2