> What made it so fascinating? Like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the biggest factor was probably the relatively cheap price. Households who may never have conside

> What made it so fascinating? Like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the biggest factor was probably the relatively cheap price. Households who may never have considered purchasing a computer otherwise, could dabble in one thanks to the Speccy and C64. Other reasons: • The sheer hands-on access: You could DO things the instant it was powered on. Even if nothing else (except a TV of course) was connected. Almost nothing was off limits. You could program right away, unlike the $500+ devices of today that you can't even use as a simple calculator without needing an ""operating system"" and updating it and creating an account and picking a password and giving your phone number then downloading an ""app"" from the internet! (exaggerated snark but you know) • All of the software that was made for it would run on it. Let that seemingly obvious statement sink in for a second. When you purchased a C64 or Speccy game or app, there was a very high assurance that it would run on all C64s or Speccies out-of-the-box. That greatly reduced the barriers for non-techie people to warm up to computers. If something needed extra hardware, like RAM or peripherals, it would say so on the box right up front, though it was mostly for the 16K/48K Spectrum differences and supporting software for third-party add-ons. • The subculture. This is the best part for me. There were lots of weird and funky magazines. Everybody was new to it all. Everyone was excited about everything. Entire new genres were being spawned before your eyes. All the developers were learning as they went. When you look at early C64 games and compare them with later stuff by say Thalamus or Apex, it will seem like they are for entirely different systems. So even without buying new hardware, it was like you effectively got free upgrades throughout the machine's lifetime! :) Bruce Lee (1984): https://youtu.be/gRGGWWvvO0o?t=31 https://youtu.be/gRGGWWvvO0o?t=31 Creatures (1990): https://youtu.be/SDDkxfJCB9Y?t=2m35s https://youtu.be/SDDkxfJCB9Y?t=2m35s and yes, those catchy soundtracks spawned a whole another subculture of their own (see SID chiptune remixes.)