Feb 20, 2009

The appropriately retro VIC 20 Gamer

GridrunnerDid you know that Commodore's VIC 20 was the daddy of the C64, Jack Tramiel's attempt at invading the Japanese market and the platform that hosted the first hits of Llamasoft? And how about the funny little fact that the VIC 20 was known as the VC 20 in Germany since VIC in German sounds quite a lot like fick which actually means fuck? Well, you do know. And if you are intrigued enough then you should visit the brand new Vic 20 Gamer website. It's filled with retro reviews of classic 8-bit games, impressive videos, more than a few freeware remakes and a ton of other features, while sporting excellent design and great writing.
Posted by at 20.2.09
Labels: ,

16 comments:

  1. Tramiel..a man of interest indeed. Almost killed the gaming industry back then. He was also one of the 45 survivors of Auswitz(the nazi camp, probably spelled it wrong).

    When he survived that he said "I didn't survive because I was a nobody"..and he didn't ended up one.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmm.. and intersting point that Dualnames. I never really thought that Tramiel's ethic, business tactics and hardcore capitalism were justified by the fact that he survived the concentration camp, though he can't but be admired about it.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I posted it in that way. I have nothing with Jews, at least the ones that lived/died the holocaust. But let's not take this conversation into politics. Heard anything about the Home of the Underdogs btw?
    ReplyDelete
  4. No, no, didn't really mean to take it into politics or the Jews or anyone else for that matter. Just wanted to point out that Tramiel mustn't have been nicest guy to work for or do business with.

    Oh, and I'm afraid HotU is quite dead.
    ReplyDelete
  5. You can't blame Jack or Commodore exclusively for the video game crash. There are a lot more pieces to that debacle. Read up.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Joe, firstly I didn't blame anyone for anything. I just commented on Tramiel's tactics, which I've been made aware of after actually reading up. Secondly, mind your manners mate.
    ReplyDelete
  7. His manners are just fine by me, but anyway, Tramiel was really a rough man, he couldn't win atari(unless I'm mistaken) or amiga or commodore(one of those three) so he bought em. But as for what almost killed the gaming industry in the late 80's that was surely E.T., man (as AVGN would say) what a piece of s^&%*t. Shame HOTU is dead. Who blames Commodore by the way? Commodore is the most succesful home computer of ALL TIMES. And quite one of the cheapest ones as well. It is widely known that a computer crysis in the mid/late 80's occured but none can really blame anyone without first blaming himself.
    ReplyDelete
  8. Actually I think Commodore was mainly blamed due to exactly selling too many computers, that were actually competitive to the video game market per se. And yes, a crash is just crash. It's no single game's, company's or man's fault. It actually is a pretty normal economic process.
    ReplyDelete
  9. Jack Tramiel, a legend - but legends are not always easy to work with.

    On the subject of manner, Mr. Cassara, I would suggest being more careful:
    http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/12/06/funny-pictures-put-up-a-good-fight/

    Our host here is a gnome after all...
    ReplyDelete
  10. "the VIC 20 was known as the VC 20 in Germany since VIC in German sounds quite a lot like fick which actually means fuck"

    The more you know...
    ReplyDelete
  11. Been reading the history of commodore book yet gnome? (On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore)

    Tramiel really, truly, was an aggressive and unethical businessman. But throughout the book his employees seem to have *quite* a bit of respect for him. Later on in Commodore's history, when Tramiel is fired and buys up Atari, you really see how downhill Commodore goes at the hands of its financier.
    ReplyDelete
  12. @ Barts: That was absolutely hilarious mate. A legend indeed.

    @Nebacha: Yes, amazing animals we humans my friend... ;)

    @ Chris: Yes, Chris, though not as thoroughly as I would like. I'm just waiting for things to calm down and I'll definitely look into how the early consumer computer industry was formed... For now I'll take your word!
    ReplyDelete
  13. A nice fick sounds pretty good about now...
    ReplyDelete
  14. You little pervy artist, you.
    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, the Vic 20 was my first proper computer. First computer was an ancient games machine with Pong and other sports games with 2 paddles. No idea what it was called though.
    ReplyDelete
  16. Cheers for the comment Donncha and hope you still got your VIC 20 somewhere close by. As for that ancient games machine you're referring to, well, it could be any Atari Pong machine, the Magnavox Odyssey, the Fairchild Channel F or something by Nintendo.
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)