6 ms·

> the landscape needs a new "creative computing" competitor I hadn't really thought of it this way before, but there is one. Arduino.

drblast 16y ago
Yeah, Arduino does have that same spirit. The nearly direct access to the hardware was what made the C64 so cool. This new C64 has none of that, unfortunately.
- daeken 16y ago
  > The nearly direct access to the hardware was what made the C64 so cool. This new C64 has none of that, unfortunately. Every PC has near-direct access to the hardware. There's nothing stopping you from writing your own BIOS, bootloader, kernel, or anything else -- it's easier than it ever was before. Many people (including myself) really do this, and enjoy it.
  - asciilifeform 16y ago
    You will have to choose two from: A) Written in less than ten man-years without being a Unix clone and/or using existing C drivers B) Displays modern video C) Runs on a neighbor's PC I speak as a frustrated OS developer.
  - URSpider94 16y ago
    This may be true, but the C64 booted into a BASIC interpreter with PEEK and POKE commands, making it possible to read and write to all of the system's memory, including mapped IO ports, from the command line. Plus, monthly magazines like COMPUTE'S Gazette offered in-depth tutorials on just about every sub-system, from audio to video to disk I/O. System-level programming was incredibly easy on the C64 -- I was doing it as a teenager, whereas I have yet to write a device driver for a Linux PC.
    - hessenwolf 16y ago
      I practically wet myself with joy the first time I changed the colours of the border and main screen with, erm, peeks or pokes; I can't remember.
      - Maci 16y ago
        POKE 53280 and 53281. Values 0 to 15.
    - pontifier 16y ago
      Just today I found an old issue of a magazine called "Ahoy!" that was devoted to the commodore 64. What a neat time period, it was so exciting. I remember typing in games for my TI in the early 80's. Now programming feels like work to me.
evanrmurphy 16y ago
Could you recommend resources for learning more about Arduino? Is http://www.arduino.cc/ http://www.arduino.cc/ a good place to start?
- dddrh 16y ago
  It is a great place to start! Additionally Make magazine has good articles and a slew of projects for the Arduino. 1)Arduino Issue: http://makezine.com/25/ http://makezine.com/25/ 2)Arduino Projects: http://makeprojects.com/Topic/Arduino http://makeprojects.com/Topic/Arduino
torpor 16y ago
Arduino rocks. And I concur with your point that Arduino is a "creative computing" platform, especially if Arduino continues in this direction: http://www.creativeapplications.net/arduino-2/computerless-arduino-arduino/ http://www.creativeapplications.net/arduino-2/computerless-a...
chalst 16y ago
When I saw the title, I hoped the story was about Arduino hardware...
tintin 16y ago
And the Beagleboard came in mind (http://beagleboard.org/ http://beagleboard.org/).

drblast 16y ago

Yeah, Arduino does have that same spirit. The nearly direct access to the hardware was what made the C64 so cool. This new C64 has none of that, unfortunately.

daeken 16y ago
> The nearly direct access to the hardware was what made the C64 so cool. This new C64 has none of that, unfortunately. Every PC has near-direct access to the hardware. There's nothing stopping you from writing your own BIOS, bootloader, kernel, or anything else -- it's easier than it ever was before. Many people (including myself) really do this, and enjoy it.
- asciilifeform 16y ago
  You will have to choose two from: A) Written in less than ten man-years without being a Unix clone and/or using existing C drivers B) Displays modern video C) Runs on a neighbor's PC I speak as a frustrated OS developer.
- URSpider94 16y ago
  This may be true, but the C64 booted into a BASIC interpreter with PEEK and POKE commands, making it possible to read and write to all of the system's memory, including mapped IO ports, from the command line. Plus, monthly magazines like COMPUTE'S Gazette offered in-depth tutorials on just about every sub-system, from audio to video to disk I/O. System-level programming was incredibly easy on the C64 -- I was doing it as a teenager, whereas I have yet to write a device driver for a Linux PC.
  - hessenwolf 16y ago
    I practically wet myself with joy the first time I changed the colours of the border and main screen with, erm, peeks or pokes; I can't remember.
    - Maci 16y ago
      POKE 53280 and 53281. Values 0 to 15.
  - pontifier 16y ago
    Just today I found an old issue of a magazine called "Ahoy!" that was devoted to the commodore 64. What a neat time period, it was so exciting. I remember typing in games for my TI in the early 80's. Now programming feels like work to me.

evanrmurphy 16y ago

Could you recommend resources for learning more about Arduino? Is http://www.arduino.cc/ http://www.arduino.cc/ a good place to start?

dddrh 16y ago
It is a great place to start! Additionally Make magazine has good articles and a slew of projects for the Arduino. 1)Arduino Issue: http://makezine.com/25/ http://makezine.com/25/ 2)Arduino Projects: http://makeprojects.com/Topic/Arduino http://makeprojects.com/Topic/Arduino

torpor 16y ago

Arduino rocks. And I concur with your point that Arduino is a "creative computing" platform, especially if Arduino continues in this direction: http://www.creativeapplications.net/arduino-2/computerless-arduino-arduino/ http://www.creativeapplications.net/arduino-2/computerless-a...

chalst 16y ago

When I saw the title, I hoped the story was about Arduino hardware...

tintin 16y ago

And the Beagleboard came in mind (http://beagleboard.org/ http://beagleboard.org/).