unced in August 1981, Commodore users couldn't believe
that anyone would try to sell a machine that was so underpowered and overpriced. $3,000 for a little machine with 16K of RAM, expandable to 32K, black-and-white only, disk drive extra? And their first floppy disk drives could store only 160K of data, where Commodore drives ranged up to 1.2 megabytes in capacity. And powered by an Intel 8088, it wasn't exactly a
16-bit machine; just part 16 and part 8.

But the name IBM had credibility, and it sold well, beyond IBM's expectation. At one point, I told Commodore that their mistake was in picking the wrong first letter for their initials; change the "C" to an "I" and they'd be in business. IBM made frequent upgrades to their product line - from PC to XT to AT. The machines became truly 16-bit were fitted with formidable memory and improved disk drives. At each new product announcement, to IBM's astonishment, the new unit quickly sold its initial production, and then sales dropped of radically. If it was off the shelf, users didn't want it; they always wanted the next generation.

All other brands of small computer were seriously impacted. to our surprise, people would buy these expensive machines, borrow software from their place of business, and set up these machines in their homes. PC users groups expanded
at a startling rate. And when, in 1983, Compaq and others broke the IBM stranglehold on the PC design, prices dropped and sales exploded. By that
time, the PC architecture clearly outperformed the 8-bit computers in raw computer power, although they still performed poorly in the graphics and games area.

Commodore introduced its own line of PC-compatibles in 1987. These sold well
in Europe and reasonably well in Canada. The US market was never penetrated to any significant extent, and they ceased production in 1993 ...

Oh, and just to prove that IBM isn't perfect; their scaled-down PC Junior failed miserably.

XVIII. THE COMMODORE EMPIRE DISINTEGRATES -

Commodore had run out of steam on the 8-bit track and were concentrating all their efforts on the Amiga. It wasn't enough, and Commodore as we knew it
broke up in April of 1994. Commodore was gone, but the name stayed. It was
sold and resold to a number of organizations, most of whom were in Europe
where the name was viewed favourably by consumers.

XIX. FOLLOW ON: LOYALTIES REMAIN-

Magazines scaled down and ceased publication. Users groups dwindled. But loyalties remain. Many users haunt thrift stores for old Commodore computers and spare parts. There are continuing rumours that both the Commodore
computers and the Amiga will reborn in some form of other.

Meanwhile, "64 emulators" can be run on a PC which closely match the behaviour of the original machine. It's not the same, of course; part of the joy was the things you could hook up to the machine. Small users groups still gather in Canada and the USA. In mid-May, there will be a gathering in Louisville, Kentucky. In September, I expect that there will be something in the Chicago area. There has been talk of something in Las Vegas this year. And TPUG tells me that the World Of Commodore will take place one again in Toronto sometime
in early December.

Here's a story of dedication and loyalty. Back in the Commodore heyday, a
young girl loved her Commodore 64 so much and was so curious about its inner workings, that she destroyed quite a few of them in trying to find out how it works. She was determined that someday, she would construct a Commodore 64.

Her name in Jeri Ellsworth, and she did it. She built a complete Commodore 64 on a chip: processor, video, sound, operating system ... the whole works. Her most recent creation is the 64DTV, a Commodore 64 on a tiny chip buried inside a joystick, including about 30 games of the era. Without a keyboard, it's hard to program, but it can be done. Without a disk interface, it's hard to store
or load other programs - but a good hardware hacker can construct one, and
some have done so. It's quite a feat. And it makes me think that perhaps the Commodore 64 will live forever.


*************************************
INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT HUNTER
Creator Of The Commodore Pi
By Commodore Free
*************************************

www.commodorepi.co.nr/

The goal of the Commodore PI project is to develop a native Commodore 64 emulator and operating system for the Raspberry Pi hardware, with the
following features:

* Fast boot up time - nearly instant on

* Output to HDMI and composite video sources

* GPIO pin connection to external devices (hooks via the kernal code)

* Ethernet connection

* USB Connections

* Access to the full RAM of the Pi possibly via bank switching

* Multitasking by means of multiple emulation cores

* Modern graphics modes

Think of the project as a Commodore 64 operating system. It is based on the Comeback64 emulator. The goal will be to include all of the expected emulation features such as SID sound, sprites, joystick connectivity, REU access, etc. In
time, even the emulation speed could be changed, as well as additional
modern graphics modes.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. It's always customary in Commodore Free to introduce yourself; so can you
perform the honours please?

A. Thanks. My name is Scott Hutter and I am a software engineer in Nashville, Tennessee. My first computer was a VIC-20 I bought for $100 back in 198-something. Then as many of us did, I went up to a 64, then a 128. At this point, I have a collection of VICs, a flat 128, a 128D, an SX-64, some Plus4s, a C16, and an A2000. Too much!

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. What when and Why did you become involved with Commodore Computers, and is it just a love of Commodore machines or are you just a Retro fan in general?

A. I love the simplicity of the older machines. Today's hardware is so complex that few are really interested in hacking away at their machines. And nearly every operating system today is either Microsoft or *-nix based. "Think Different" to me, is a READY. prompt with a blinking cursor.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. So is The Commodore Pi some code that will turn your Raspbery Pi into a Commodore 64, can you first explain what is the Raspberry Pi and what is the Commodore Pi?

A. The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized full computer "System On a Chip" which is being developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with a goal or mass producing extremely low cost computers for education. They are low powered, self-contained ARM-based computers featuring HDMI and composite video, audio, and two USB ports. The Commodore Pi project's goal is to run an emulation of a Commodore 64 (and in time, other CBM machines) natively. I have never been satisfied with emulators. Given the speed of modern computers, I see no reason that an emulator cannot be an operating system kernel in its own right. The hardware was only part of the equation back then - the software made the machine as well. So I see no reason to ditch the software just because the hardware has aged. With this project, it is conceivable to have a Commodore 64 running 512MB of RAM (using bank switching techniques), access to the GPIO ports, stereo sound, multitasking, etc. Newer versions of the Commodore kernal could be written to allow the system to use the newer hardware. And we aren't limited to just the Raspberry Pi... an OS based on emulation could run on any platform.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. You mention the code is based on comback64 emulator how much of this code
is from the emulator and how much is bespoke IE coded by yourself?

A. Admittedly, I am not an emulation guru and can take no credit of the emulation. I had worked on a similar project a few years ago (cbm11.codeplex.com) which emulates just the 6502 CPU as an operating system. Comeback64 had very readable source code in C. After learning how the
Raspberry Pi manages its frame buffer, I went straight to work writing library functions for the graphics code. Honestly, the most frustrating part is speed/timing and the USB ports of the Raspberry Pi. Given the thoroughness of the famous VICE emula

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