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When the Commodore VIC-20 was introduced back in 1981, I was hooked on computers from that point forward. It was hard to imagine a machine that could crunch numbers faster than any calculator, write and edit letters without having to use an erasure or white-out, and create neat color graphics (sprites) on your television screen. Wanting to get the most out of this computer, I started learning 6502 machine language and basic programming. It was soon apparent that the 5kb internal RAM in the VIC-20 was not sufficient for writing programs. After purchasing a Commodore-64 in 1984 ($1,500), I finally had the right tool for learning computers. After all, it had 64kb of RAM and I could store my programs on a huge 180kb single-sided floppy diskette. I used this awesome computer to write a computer game called POWER POKER, which was later published in COMPUTE's Gazette Magazine in November 1985. The computers in our house have evolved a great deal since those early Commodore days. Both Linda and I practically live on our machines for work, research, or just for the fun of it. |
