
Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, dies at age 83 - hackermom
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/04/09/computer-legend-and-gaming-pioneer-jack-tramiel-dies-at-age-83/
======
inovica
My very first computer was a Commodore 64. My grandfather, the day before he
died, said to me that I needed to get into computers as they are the future.
He gave me some money that day and that evening he passed away peacefully in
his sleep. I bought a C64 with this money and I still have it now.

~~~
D_Alex
My first computer was a C64 also. It cost A$699, plus $99 for the tape drive.
In 1982 money. My father's salary was about $40,000 per year then. Can't think
of money better spent.

~~~
vidarh
We had to go on a waiting list in Norway to get ours because Commodore had a
hard time ramping up to meet demand and so availability depended a lot on
market. Probably went on the waiting list end of 1982, and got it spring of
'83. Until then we'd been borrowing a VIC-20 for some time.

------
drawkbox
It's people like Jack Tramiel, Steve Wozniak, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Bill
Gates and others that remind you that individuals, even within powerful teams,
can be extremely innovative and important. When that carries from company to
company and industries it validates it further: Commodore, Atari, Apple, Pixar
etc.

I spent about 2 summers at my friends house playing Summer Games on C64 and
wrote my first lines of BASIC there, at school I used an Apple II.

We need more people like these guys for the next wave.

READY.

█

~~~
rbanffy

      3583 BYTES FREE

~~~
ssdsa
No matter if it is 3583 BYTES FREE or 38911 BYTES FREE or some other number -
the start-up text was an important message to all users: There's this language
(BASIC) available right here at the prompt, ready for you, just type away. And
there are N bytes free, available for you to do whatever you want to do.

~~~
rbanffy
I was raised on the ]█ (later the ]▒) prompt, but I agree with you. We lost a
lot when computers started greeting people with OS prompts and mouse pointers.

~~~
brianobush
I agree, but people commonly argue that there is so much more available today.
However, the one thing we lost is the focus to turn the machine into something
more.

~~~
rbanffy
I think the kinds of media being produced shifted. Machines like the Apple II
or the VIC-20 were machines to produce computer programs (and to play games).
Then computers became machines to produce spreadsheets, reports and memos,
then machines to share photos and comments. It was an unavoidable transition,
as those who are interested in producing programs are no longer the majority
of computer users.

------
simmons
Like many here, Jack Tramiel's vision of an affordable yet versatile computer
certainly had a huge impact on my life. I keep my old C64 set up in my office
to remind me that I have to live up to the expectations of the 10-year-old kid
who would stay up late at night trying to make that machine do something
amazing.

Condolences to Mr. Tramiel's family.

~~~
Zikes
That is the most sincere motivational statement I've heard in quite a while.
Thank you for sharing it.

------
dgallagher
Jack did some amazing things while owner of Atari Corporation too (his son,
Sam, was CEO). They helped bring the Lynx to market, developed by Epyx, which
was "miles" ahead of other consoles at the time. It had amazing sound, color
graphics, and 3D graphics, on a portable in 1989!

~~~
mosburger
Wasn't the Atari ST during his tenure as well? That was an excellent little
machine that doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

~~~
OzzyB
Well the ST definitely got alot of love from musicians due to the MIDI ports
that it had.

Now that was forward thinking -- brought MIDI sequencing to the masses.

\--- [Additional Edit]

The C64 is also getting alot of love _today_ from musicians due to the
wonderful soundchip it had.

There is a great company called "MidiBox" that provides kits for you make your
own "8bit soundmachines".

<http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid.html>

------
pgrote
The Commodore 64 is what inspired my career in tech. Many firsts including
machine language, pascal and game/utility programming.

The first software I ever created and sold was Disk Ease, which brought low
level control of the 1541 to the normal person. Sold it through ads in the
back of Computer Shopper magazine; I was 14. Let me tell you, there is nothing
more inspirational than people sending money to your post office box from all
around the country for something you built.

It wasn't a big seller by any means, but it laid the groundwork for my future.

~~~
bemmu
I'd like to hear more about this story. I know personally at 14 while I was
doing programming, it would have been super scary to call a magazine to place
an ad or have the money for such an ad. How did you end up doing that?

------
selectnull
Because of Commodore 64, I got into programming. RIP Mr Tramiel and thank you.

POKE 53280, 0

~~~
fourmii
POKE brings back so many memories!!

~~~
lanstein
I have a disk at my office that my five-year-old brother labeled:

"poke, peak"

~~~
muyuu
PEEK

~~~
lanstein
Yes, that's where the five-year-old brother part comes in.

------
kylemaxwell
I wasn't a Commodore user, but as I was heavily into home / hobbyist computing
at that time, they had a huge influence on me. At the time, we mostly used
TRS-80s and the like, but my school had C64s and I vaguely remember trying to
make sure that BASIC code from a book for C64 users would work for me.

And only today did I find out that Tramiel was a Holocaust survivor who became
one of the most influential figures in the computer revolution of the 80s.

My thoughts are with his family and those who knew & loved him.

~~~
vidarh
An anecdote from Michael Tomczyk (who Tramiel gave overall responsibility for
the VIC-20 launch) that seems quite fitting:

'I once asked Jack how he coped with his Holocaust memories. Without missing a
beat replied, "I live in the future."'

------
dr_
I learned BASIC on the Vic 20. I had no storage device, so I would get
magazines from the library, type in the code, play the game as much as I
could, then turn my machine off and lose everything. Those were the days!

------
dca
My first program was on the C64 when I was very young. Had it not been
available to my parents and me at that time, I'm not sure I would have the
same passion for technology and programming I have today. Thanks Jack, for
helping bring it to the masses.

------
rhizome
My first job was to demo Vic-20s in department stores around the SF Bay Area
at age 13. Funny that just yesterday I was at my Mom's looking for my "I'm a
Commodore Kid - Ask me!" polo shirt.

RIP Jack!

------
zedr
"Computers for the masses, not the classes."

A cutthroat businessman, but a brilliant mind nevertheless.

It was only because of Jack Tramiel, and geniuses like Chuck Peddle and Bob
Russel, that easy to use computers were cheap enough to be affordable by
almost everyone. At least for me, his influence on modern home computing was
greater than Steve Jobs and Bill Gates combined.

Now, I hope he did tell somebody where the Magic Sword and the Philosopher's
Stone are...

------
nollidge
LOAD "CONDOLENCES",8,1

~~~
more_original
RUN

~~~
nollidge
SYS64738

------
hub_
TOS stood for Tramiel Operating System. Yes, he is the one who brought in the
Atari ST.

~~~
waterlesscloud
Ah, the ST. My first major purchase with my own money, made from working a
billion godawful hours of overtime at my summer construction work job in
college. And worth every damn penny of it.

~~~
mikecane
Hahahaha. I laugh because I put in the OT too in order to buy one. Mine was in
an office, though, as a Mac(!) temp.

------
ssdsa
Without him, the world would be a different place. The Commodore computers
inspired so many people (adults now) and made all "our" business world, start-
up world and hacker world what it is now. By bringing home computers to a huge
number of houses, a lot of kids got the chance to experience first-hand what
it is like to be in control of a "personal" computer.

There is still a C64 scene alive! <http://noname.c64.org/csdb/>

~~~
mikecane
See also this: <http://www.commodorefree.com/issues.html>

------
VonGuard
I found a "lost" article I wrote about Jack from 2007. He was an Auschvitz
survivor, almost died in a plane accident, and was an unsung visionary that,
perhaps, was the first to truly commoditize compute power.

[http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2012/04/09/Jack-Tramiel-
Com...](http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2012/04/09/Jack-Tramiel-Commodore-
founder-passes-at-83.aspx)

~~~
tangue
I didn't know Jack survived Auschwitz. It makes me even sadder. Being able to
create those machines after such a life commands respect.

------
mikecane
Apple was cool, but Commodore was affordable. Thanks, Jack, for that $199
C=64. Rest in peace.

~~~
vidarh
In Europe the difference was staggering - in many countries Apple was pretty
much a total unknown until the Mac. I don't remember ever seeing an Apple
computer in any of my local computer stores in Norway, for example, while VIC
20 and C-64, and even some PET's were all over the place.

I started with a VIC 20, then got a C-64. Pretty much all my friends had
C-64's at some point or other in the '83-'88 time frame. Nobody I knew had an
Apple computer...

~~~
mikecane
The C=64 began at US$595 -- which was still a bargain for that time -- and you
had to go to a computer store to buy one. in NYC, those were generally snooty
places that catered to Suits. So the price drop to US$199 within a short time
was an even bigger shock.

~~~
vidarh
It was a big shock to Commodore too, apparently.

According to "Commodore - A company on the edge" it was a snap decision by
Tramiel to get back at Texas Instrument (who nearly caused Commodore to go
bankrupt during the "calculator wars") while they had the chance, because he
realized TI was essentially bleeding money on their computers to build a
software market - at one point TI was losing $100m a quarter on the home
computer business .

So he slashed the price of their hardware _and_ cut the price of all
Commodore's software titled in half, preventing TI from raising their hardware
prices again, and cutting off their air-supply by making it near impossible
for them to make back their losses through software sales.

While Commodore could afford it, thanks to ownership of MOS etc. that pushed
their manufacturing cost extremely low and meant they'd still make a profit on
every machine sold, they shafted their retailers massively by not giving them
any time to shift existing stock before announcing the price drop, and it
ended up costing them a _lot_ and apparently infuriating Irving Gould and
contributing to Tramiel getting ousted (the other big factor was his ongoing
attempts to get his sons into high level positions at Commodore).

But it made TI announce plans to exit the home computer business pretty much
immediately...

------
arundelo
I made a Commodore 64 play "Taps": <http://youtu.be/cPtdcv1G01Y>

------
protomyth
I still have my Atari 400 (pre-Tramiel) and my 130XE (Tramiel era). We were
pretty poor financially as a family when I got them. Without cheap,
programmable machines like the Commodores and the Ataris, I doubt I would have
been a programmer. I cannot imagine what I would have used these days in the
sub $200 market.

------
siavosh
I remember I would beg my dad to drive me around on the weekends looking for
garage sales to find Commodore 64 software. Sometimes we would get them by the
box full, on unlabeled floppies, and spend the whole weekend trying each one.
Every once in a while you found a disk filled with a bunch of games. Good
memories.

------
Keyframe
RIP Jack Tramiel! Here is Computer History Museum 25th Anniversary Celebration
of Commodore 64 with him on the panel
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk> Micro computers were a startup
movement in a true sense of the word.

------
shill
I learned BASIC in the early 80's on a VIC 20. Luckily we had the tape drive
so I could save my 'work'. We also had the extra RAM cartridge that was needed
for some of the larger games.

I really wanted an Apple II though. That's what the rich kids had.

------
zedr
A long interview with Jack in 2007:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk&feature=player_detailpage#t=1020s)

------
fourmii
RIP Jack. And thanks for my first computer and all those memories.

------
anigbrowl
I learned BASIC on a Commodore PET. Thanks, Mr. Tramiel.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET>

~~~
mjwalshe
In my first job i used to develop for PETs did a project with the BSI that
went towards the research for applying iso 9000 to software amongst others

And I can still remember the quirks of the different disk drives that you had
to use to get them to work effectively :-)

------
mkramlich
It's interesting that Amiga isn't being talked about more in this thread. Also
by Commodore, though a bit later than the C64. The Amiga was a powerful little
machine for it's time, especially for games and "multi-media" as the state of
the art existed then. And it had personality. Personality goes a long way.

------
codequickly
My first computer was a C64. 30 years ago, I learned to program Basic and
assembly language with it. God bless

------
DanBC
For anyone who missed out on the Commodore computers (I had a zx81; then used
the family's Sharp MZ80K) there are some modern hardware versions.

(<http://www.c64upgra.de/>)

(<http://www.syntiac.com/fpga64.html>)

etc.

------
iqster
The C64 was the first computer I programmed. Made my life better for it.
Thanks Jack! RIP.

------
remixhacker
R.I.P. Jack thanks for everything! You democratized computers back In the day.

------
cpg
So sad to hear! This dates me I had to get my C64 from a trucker who went on a
rare trip to the UK (I lived in a rural area of Spain). I went into software
thanks to a C64.

------
mkramlich
RIP Mr. Tramiel. The C64 and Amiga were both machines that helped define their
era. Lots of veteran professional programmers working today got their start on
them.

------
andyjohnson0
Like many others here, my first computer was a Commodore (VIC20 in my case).
Whether I owe my career to this man I couldn't say, but I owe him my
gratitude. RIP.

------
nbatavia
Wow, what memories, the very first line of assembler code I ever wrote was on
a C64. Had one for years! Now it's going to be super hard to get another one.

------
mapster
My brown C64 with a 300baud Hess modem and Indus drive - that first $600 phone
bill was all worth it. Bless you Jack for your vision and tenacity!

------
drey08
I'll never forget my first computer. Rest in peace, Jack Tramiel.
<http://imgur.com/GYHVR>

------
nsxwolf
Oh, the Atari 7800 could have been so much more. Could have given the NES a
run for its money.

------
muyuu
Thanks Jack for all these moments playing and coding with my father.

------
vigo
as being c64 scener i'm soo sorry to hear this news. rest in peace! c64 is the
milestone of my life. Thank you for great inspiration.

------
dy9
A9 52 20 D2 FF A9 49 20 D2 FF A9 50 20 D2 FF

~~~
vidarh
For the curious, it's:

LDA #$52 JSR $FFD2 LDA #$49 JSR $FFD2 LDA #$50 JSR $FFD2

It outputs "RIP" on a Commodore 64.

To my eternal shame, I had to look up the kernel vector at $FFD2. (it outputs
a character to the current device, usually the screen, on the C64). At least I
can redeem myself partially by having remembered the opcodes...

------
korbinus
Thanks for my Atari 520 STF Mr. Tramiel. RIP

------
rbanffy
A minute without the computer.

RIP, Jack. You'll be missed.

------
georgieporgie
_"We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes."_ Thanks for
that, as one of the masses, my VIC-20 was crucial to developing my early
passion for computers.

------
hackermom
Thank you for all the fun Commodore computers gave to my childhood, Jack.

------
SXSWMMO
RIP Jack! Big fan of the Atari ST.

