4 ms·
The last two paragraphs make it sound like the C64 was the last successful product that Commodore made before imploding, and claim that Commodore never recovere
by mastazi 4y ago
The last two paragraphs make it sound like the C64 was the last successful product that Commodore made before imploding, and claim that Commodore never recovered after Tramiel left in early 1984.
But, as anyone who was around then knows, this is not the case, because the most successful Amiga model, the Amiga 500, came out three years later, in 1987.
Saying that Commodore was finished in 1984 seems like a gross oversimplification at best.
- sys_64738 4y agoThe C64 was a money spinner from Commodore all through the 80s and early 90s. It's their Apple 2 which kept Apple afloat with the grandiose Mac boat anchor which didn't actually make any money for Apple until Steve came back. The Amiga range was never really profitable for Commodore the way it should have and Jack would have released the A600 in 1985 which is exactly what was needed then.
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoTramiel and his sons and a big portion of the team around him at Commodore had their chance to make rock bottom price 16-bit machines after they left Commodore. That's what the Atari ST was. I loved mine, but it was no C64 in terms of market success. While it initially outsold the Amiga (because it came out earlier and cheaper) it plateaued and then lagged behind once the A500 came out. And both platforms hardly sold anything at all, in the grand scheme of things. The mid and late 80s home computer market was a very different place from the early 80s. His product development and sales style didn't do him any favours from 1985 on.
- musicale 4y agoI have heard that the Atari ST was popular for music production into the 1990s.
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoYeah, was the combination of: built-in MIDI ports, low price, high quality paper white monochrome monitor, mac-like GUI, tight low latency timing (single tasking OS until the early 90s -- straight from the interrupt to the subroutine do not pass go). Cubase and Logic both had their origin there and are still around. Myself, my mom and dad wouldn't spring for synthesizers for me, despite my mom being a music teacher. So I collect them (and Ataris) now but they just collect dust :-)
- tenebrisalietum 4y agoYou also could connect SCSI devices to it, which made it a pretty mean sampler.
- nick__m 4y agoIf you want an extreme example of Atari ST capabilities, listen to the album Delete Yourself from Atari Teenage Riot.
- KerrAvon 4y agoI don't recall the exact crossover point, but the Mac starting making serious money circa 1987 and the Apple II became irrelevant in terms of bottom line not long after. Steve came back in 1997.