Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on August 08, 2004 09:17 AM
I think they did, especially for the VIC-20 and the C-64/128. (Maybe not so much for the Amiga.) After all, having sprites available for ML programmers is a clue, as well as auto-start cartridges.
Of course, their Office Environment (I forget the name they used) was an exception. Only the word processor ever existed and it was the most LITERAL embodiment of a typewriter I have ever seen. You had to put each piece of paper in the typewriter, hit return at the end of each line, and you couldn't even insert words and have the text flow down the page. You only had overtype (I suppose embodying white-out). It was a joke.
Later on, Berkeley Softworks had a decent OS and environment (GEOS), but they ported it to the PC and lost their shirt.
Of course I bucked the trend and wrote C and pseudo-compiled Basic programs for the C-64. My father and I developed a program to help people pass the various Ham exams. It even included graphics for the circuit problems. (IIRC these illustrations are no longer in the exams.)
It just goes to show that you can do serious work with any computer. Imagine a typing tutor on a Timex-Sinclair!
btw, I'm not sure I understand how the Commodore strategy would apply to Linux. IIRC, C-64's Kernel was open and documented (largely due to TPUG) and that's why there were so many games for it. The TI-99-4A (?) had a lot of games, but only sold BY Texas Instruments. Commodore themselves didn't sell that many games, but others made and sold THOUSANDS.
I was at a user-group meeting where a pre-teen kid was explaining to a man in a business suit how he wrote a new game every week, copied it onto tapes, and took them around to some stores to sell, for a percentage. When he was asked about how he handled the tapes that didn't sell, he said he just copied the new games over any old tapes he got back. He didn't care about last week's game, just the new one for this week. It was amusing to see the businessman boggled by the kid's insouciance to unsold inventory, normally a valuable and critical item.
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Commodore Not Acknowledge Games?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on August 08, 2004 09:17 AMOf course, their Office Environment (I forget the name they used) was an exception. Only the word processor ever existed and it was the most LITERAL embodiment of a typewriter I have ever seen. You had to put each piece of paper in the typewriter, hit return at the end of each line, and you couldn't even insert words and have the text flow down the page. You only had overtype (I suppose embodying white-out). It was a joke.
Later on, Berkeley Softworks had a decent OS and environment (GEOS), but they ported it to the PC and lost their shirt.
Of course I bucked the trend and wrote C and pseudo-compiled Basic programs for the C-64. My father and I developed a program to help people pass the various Ham exams. It even included graphics for the circuit problems. (IIRC these illustrations are no longer in the exams.)
It just goes to show that you can do serious work with any computer. Imagine a typing tutor on a Timex-Sinclair!
btw, I'm not sure I understand how the Commodore strategy would apply to Linux. IIRC, C-64's Kernel was open and documented (largely due to TPUG) and that's why there were so many games for it. The TI-99-4A (?) had a lot of games, but only sold BY Texas Instruments. Commodore themselves didn't sell that many games, but others made and sold THOUSANDS.
I was at a user-group meeting where a pre-teen kid was explaining to a man in a business suit how he wrote a new game every week, copied it onto tapes, and took them around to some stores to sell, for a percentage. When he was asked about how he handled the tapes that didn't sell, he said he just copied the new games over any old tapes he got back. He didn't care about last week's game, just the new one for this week. It was amusing to see the businessman boggled by the kid's insouciance to unsold inventory, normally a valuable and critical item.
parl
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