Chris Pirillo » commodore

Amiga and Commodore Forever

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 04:12:38 +0000

It’s no secret that my first home computing experience was with my grandfather’s Commodore Vic 20 (connected to a black and white television, no less). When Dad… er, Santa Claus brought home a Commodore 64 – complete with a color monitor – I was in 10 GOTO 20 heaven.

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Dan is one of the moderators in our chat room, a radio personality in the UK and has done several screencasts for us in the past. As a huge Amiga fan, Dan wanted to show off some of the great new features built into both Amiga Forever 2010 and C64 Forever 2010. Both products are emulators, combining high-quality software and original content with the ultimate set of videos to chronicle and let you experience firsthand the history, culture, challenges and passion behind the machines.

Amiga Forever 2010 includes everything you need to run different emulation engines, operating system versions, games and demoscene productions in simple one-click steps. Emulating the 1980s and early 90s on a modern-day PC is pretty simple. Taking yourself back in time is actually a lot of fun. The graphics on the Amiga back in the day were seriously high-end compared to the Mac and Windows machines available then.

Playing all of your favorite games from years gone by is a snap using this emulation software. Dan admits to spending hours on end running, shooting and jumping his way through various titles. Even though the games were groundbreaking back then, Dan feels that some of the applications on the Amiga were what made him a die-hard fan. He still uses an Amiga in his home to this day.

The C64 Forever emulator is the same type of application as what you have already seen with the Amiga Forever model. This brings you all of the best features from the old Commodore 64 machines. Again, back in their heyday, these were THE machines to have.

If you weren’t fortunate to grow up back in the 8-bit or 16-bit era, you can experience them with either of these titles.

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Amiga and Commodore Forever

World’s First Tweet from a Commodore VIC-20

Chris Pirillo — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:49:34 +0000

World’s First Tweet from a Commodore VIC-20

I can’t believe my eyes. Cam Hunt just sent me this bit of news and a YouTube video he recorded of this historic event:

The Personal Computer Museum is proud to make history on Saturday, February 20, 2010 with Twitter and the Commodore VIC-20. You too can be part of history as we put one of the lowest powered personal computers onto the Internet, and more specifically, with Twitter. The software is on cassette tape and runs on an unexpanded VIC-20 with only 5K of RAM. To put this in perspective, an average PC today runs at 3000 MHz and contains 2,097,152 KB. That means the average computer today has 419,430 times the memory power and at least 3000 times the speed of the VIC-20!

One of the first personal computers I ever used (as connected to a black and white television) is now on Twitter. Well, not the actual computer I used – but one from the series.

Yes, a Commodore VIC-20 is now on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/vintagepc/status/9388424599

Looking forward to seeing other vintage computers getting onto Twitter, too (which the museum says will happen in a matter of time).

Take a look at that cassette tape!

World’s First Tweet from a Commodore VIC-20

Chris’s First Computer

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:34:23 +0000

Chris’s First Computer

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http://live.pirillo.com/ – IAteAPen, a new users to our chat room, wants to know what Chris’s first computer was.

Chris first used the Commodore Vic-20, with a cassette tape, learning how to save program to diskette and how to program in BASIC. He also did quite a bit of programming on the Commodore 64.

Years later in college he purchased a basic PC for $200 in 1993, with a modem. He used telix to dial out to BBS services and kermit to dial into his universities network.

While the Commodore Vic 20 and the old PC were the first machines Chris cut his teeth on, his first real computer was a Packard Bell 486-DX2 66 with a 14" monitor and Windows 3.11 pre-installed, which he bought for $2000.

What was your first computer?

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Chris’s First Computer