Commodore 64 The most popular and longest surving computer of all time.
I'd say back in the day, in Europe it was mostly Commodore, Atari and then some Spectrum, Apple and Amstrad. Commodore was always looked up to as the "desirable" and "leader" personal computer due to its superior graphics and sound effects (6581/6582/8580). We got our machine sometime in 1985 and loaded most of the programs via tape deck (datasette). This was good as by then the ugly revision A mainboards where replaced by the B revisions. Furthermore, the problem back then was that the disk drive was almost as expensive as C64 so fewer people could afford one. This might not have been the case in the US. The 1541 was not the fastest 5.25" disk drive either. Nonetheless, this computer was in use from 1982-1994 and the most amazing part is the way the DEMO/CRACKING/HACKING SCENE evolved. Throughout the 80s Commodore had awesome magazine and community support which helped it stay in use, inspite of newer computers like Amiga being released. Those communities thrive even today, and not just through emulation.
Even today, if you get Commodore 64 with JiffyDOS + 1581 (3.5" disk drive) with JiffyDOS, you can see that it's a pretty good machine for some programming and some addictive gaming. My only wish if one could teleport back, was to make the Amiga as popular as Commodore 64. If that was the case, without a doubt Amiga would be the computer in most places and Commodore Business Machines would be still in business. But then again, people who were inside Commodore like Dave Haynie would better know this. Afterall, they knew first hand how badly marketing and CEO/managers really mismanaged the Commodore and its many opportunities to be the #1 in Computers.
Happy Birthday Commodore 64! It is still fun and pleasure to use today!
Burt / terminator3 of Commodore Dungeon
Biting the hand that feeds IT
