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For me, the appeal of the C64 is that it was documented very well in the standard reference manual, which was thoughtfully spiral bound and only about 300 pages

For me, the appeal of the C64 is that it was documented very well in the standard reference manual, which was thoughtfully spiral bound and only about 300 pages long. It included a detailed hardware schematic, the complete assembly language and machine codes, the BASIC language, explanations of how to use every component chip like the SID and video chips, and many example programs. The whole machine could be understood very thoroughly and programmed by a child, even with no access to additional materials, although I gobbled up magazines and books about the C64 as fast as I could. The RPi is fantastic, but it's far too complex to be described down to the machine code level in only 300 pages. I don't think even a million pages would describe the RPi to the same level as what we had with a C64. Of course, by modern standards, a new machine similar to the C64 (without the keyboard) would be rightfully called a small microcontroller and sell for less than $1.

neogodless 4y ago
It was programmed by a child, me, just using that manual. I was maybe 8 or 9? My parents did not help. I definitely didn't do anything amazing with it! But it amazed me nonetheless. No disk drive and my dad made me unplug it between uses...
unwind 4y ago
In my experience typical microcontrollers in that price range do not have dedicated graphics-drawing hardware, and often not even any video output hardware. Sure you can perhaps use the much faster CPU core to do both drawing and output in software, but (to me) that doesn't feel the same as having dedicated hardware with known architecture and limitations, shared among all machines of the same type.
- vintermann 4y ago
  Yes, if you want to use a microcontroller to do all the stuff the C64 did, including video and audio signal generation, well, it can be done (check out LFT's "craft" and "phazor" demos). But you'll need a considerably faster CPU.
pharaohgeek 4y ago
Can confirm. Was a child. LOVED learning to program in BASIC on my C64.

neogodless 4y ago

It was programmed by a child, me, just using that manual. I was maybe 8 or 9? My parents did not help. I definitely didn't do anything amazing with it! But it amazed me nonetheless. No disk drive and my dad made me unplug it between uses...

unwind 4y ago

In my experience typical microcontrollers in that price range do not have dedicated graphics-drawing hardware, and often not even any video output hardware. Sure you can perhaps use the much faster CPU core to do both drawing and output in software, but (to me) that doesn't feel the same as having dedicated hardware with known architecture and limitations, shared among all machines of the same type.

vintermann 4y ago
Yes, if you want to use a microcontroller to do all the stuff the C64 did, including video and audio signal generation, well, it can be done (check out LFT's "craft" and "phazor" demos). But you'll need a considerably faster CPU.

pharaohgeek 4y ago

Can confirm. Was a child. LOVED learning to program in BASIC on my C64.