Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore dies

[steve2112]

10 PRINT "We will miss you Jack"
20 GOTO 10


Check out my signature. It's been there for literally maybe 8 years of my nearly 10 year membership on these forums. Amigas and Commodores are what got me into computing, and Jack made that all happen!

I started with a VIC 20 and programmed with all 4K of RAM that puppy came with. Played a lot of GORF and text adventures on it.

Then we moved to a Commodore 128 ... which we normally used in 64 mode. Who didn't? That single computer was probably the reason I got into computing.

I then moved on to an Amiga 500, then an Amiga 2000 ... and finally an Amiga 1200– they had the AGA chipset and, despite the numbering convention, was far more powerful than the 2000. I can't say enough about the Amiga line. It quite literally took until the mid 90's before any other computer could match an Amiga's graphics and sound capabilities.

My first Mac was a PowerComputing clone with a 603e processor that I bought in 1997 for my junior year of graphic design school. It lasted me maybe 4 years and multiple upgrades! I had a *massive* 64MB of ram in it.

Everyone makes waves in the universe somehow. Jack made computing affordable to a lot of people that, despite my love for Apple and Jobs, Apple didn't do as well. The Apple II was inferior in nearly every way.

When I was in high school, there was a group of us who all had C64s, and we would swap code, games, etc. Then one guy got an Atari ST, and lots of us got very jealous. That thing was amazing. Then we all got REALLY jealous was when another guy got an Amiga. It was far ahead of anything any of us had ever seen, including the Mac and the Apple II. As you said, it was many years before anyone had something that could touch it.

When I was in college in the mid 90s (around 94-95), I had a friend who worked in the campus TV station. I thought all the cameras and other tech they had was kind of neat, but what really caught my eye was the Amiga 2000 with a Video Toaster they were using to do graphics work. It amazed me that it was still working, and according to the staff, doing a better job than anything else they had tried.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Those were the good old days. Commodore 64 with 1541 Floppy drive and later an Amiga 1000 with A1060 Sidecar for PC XT compatibility after he moved to Atari.

My only regret is I never owned an Apple IIe or Commodore PET. I used an Apple II in school programming Shape Tables in BASIC. My school had about a dozen Apple IIe hooked up to a networked 5 MB hard drive (beast). The Commodore PET had a really good BASIC compared to the Commodore 64. I ended up using something called Simons Basic that gave new life to the Commodore 64.

Sorry to see him not get the fame of Steve Jobs.

 

[Frobozz]

...When I was in college in the mid 90s (around 94-95), I had a friend who worked in the campus TV station. I thought all the cameras and other tech they had was kind of neat, but what really caught my eye was the Amiga 2000 with a Video Toaster they were using to do graphics work. It amazed me that it was still working, and according to the staff, doing a better job than anything else they had tried.

Ahhh, the Video Toaster! Who can forget that! It was the single product that launched the non-linear editing revolution. It was the first time someone could spend less than $10k for a complete NLE editing solution, complete with 3D capabilities with Lightwave! Ah, that brings me back.

The other thing that I really missed was the short programs you could find in magazines at the time. They came in all varieties, C64, Vic20, Amstrad, AppleII, Atari ST, TI994/A, Sinclair, and so forth. My mother and I would sit down and program in these really long DATA entries. One person would read and the other would type. Of course, it saved me a TON of time when they had the checksum programs to ensure you entered each line correctly. Nothing worse than an errant 245 instead of 255 in your DATA statement screwing everything up!

----------

Those were the good old days. Commodore 64 with 1541 Floppy drive and later an Amiga 1000 with A1060 Sidecar for PC XT compatibility after he moved to Atari.

My only regret is I never owned an Apple IIe or Commodore PET. I used an Apple II in school programming Shape Tables in BASIC. My school had about a dozen Apple IIe hooked up to a networked 5 MB hard drive (beast). The Commodore PET had a really good BASIC compared to the Commodore 64. I ended up using something called Simons Basic that gave new life to the Commodore 64.

Sorry to see him not get the fame of Steve Jobs.

I learned quite a lot from my Commodore 128 and my Amiga. I programmed in BASIC on the Commodore and AMOS Pro and Pro Basic on the Amiga. I loved to draw and program as a kid– eventually led me to web design and development, then into UX. Would any of that happened had I not had an affordable, easy to use machine that captured my imagination? Maybe not.

RIP Jack T.!

 

[steve2112]

Ahhh, the Video Toaster! Who can forget that! It was the single product that launched the non-linear editing revolution. It was the first time someone could spend less than $10k for a complete NLE editing solution, complete with 3D capabilities with Lightwave! Ah, that brings me back.

The other thing that I really missed was the short programs you could find in magazines at the time. They came in all varieties, C64, Vic20, Amstrad, AppleII, Atari ST, TI994/A, Sinclair, and so forth. My mother and I would sit down and program in these really long DATA entries. One person would read and the other would type. Of course, it saved me a TON of time when they had the checksum programs to ensure you entered each line correctly. Nothing worse than an errant 245 instead of 255 in your DATA statement screwing everything up!

Yeah, those things were great. Usually one of us would get the magazine and share with everybody else. I find it odd that I never got more interested in programming. I'm in IT, but I can't stand coding now.

 

[iJohnHenry]

Once you know how to do it, and do it well, there is no challenge left.

 

[Getitdone]

This is sad news indeed. Reading through the above posts brought back a flood of memories. My father was/is an electronics/computer fanatic so we had the PET, which I think was one of the first computers that you could buy for home use. It was the beginning of a beautiful journey for our family.
There are so many unsung heros who helped pave the way - albeit usually on a crooked and rocky road - to where we are today. I truly appreciate their contributions.

 

[Jowl]

This is very sad news.

A very large part of my childhood and into my teens was all with Amiga's.

Still love them to this day. I still own a few - mainly for retro gaming these days