Happy 30th Birthday to the C64

[AndyFC]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19055707

I almost had a C64 but when my dad went to buy it, another customer told him to get an Amiga as it was the best thing he had done for his son. I got an A500+ Cartoon Classic pack that Christmas as a result.

[motrucker]

Man how time flies! I bought my first C-64 before the Amiga was released. That was a pretty expensive time for me, going from TI-99/4A, to C-64, to C-128, to Amiga in a matter of a very few years.
With all of the very active Commodore and Amiga user groups in this area, it was quite a fun time.

[spaceman88]

I've never seen a C64 connected to a tape drive before (I saw a VIC 20 once) my C64c had a disk drive like everyone else I knew. This must be an uncommon setup.

[tribz]

I've never seen a C64 connected to a tape drive before (I saw a VIC 20 once) my C64c had a disk drive like everyone else I knew. This must be an uncommon setup.

Not here in blighty, me and my mates all had cassette drives. Disk drive was an expensive luxury.

There must have been a significantly higher proportion of games released on tape than disk?

[Pentad]

Not here in blighty, me and my mates all had cassette drives. Disk drive was an expensive luxury.

There must have been a significantly higher proportion of games released on tape than disk?

I too did not realize that.  When first received my C64 in 1983 (xmas) it came with a tape drive.  However, the following Christmas a 1541 Disk Drive was under the tree because everything I wanted was on disk.

I do not recall many people having a tape drive or if they did I think they switched to the 1541 pretty quickly.

Interesting to see the difference across the pond.

The C64 will always have a special place in my heart.  :-)

-P

[Hattig]

Tape drive was standard in Britain, not many people used them for business uses, so they weren't going to spend an extra £200 on a disk drive for their child. When they turned on to business use of computers, they went out and bought Amstrad PCWs and then PCs.

Also, the tape drive wasn't that much slower than the disk drive ;-)

[Darrin]

Not here in blighty, me and my mates all had cassette drives. Disk drive was an expensive luxury.

There must have been a significantly higher proportion of games released on tape than disk?

Same here.  I reused the tape drive off my old VIC-20 as a cassette drive (Commodore branded) was 50 quid back then.  I eventually got a floppy drive many years later when Toys-R-Us in Cardiff had a sale and combined the 1541 with an MPS801 printer for 200 quid.  Bargain!

[Darrin]

Also, the tape drive wasn't that much slower than the disk drive ;-)

LOL.  Oh the fun of waiting 20 minutes for "Arcadia" to load off tape...