Firlapalooza

In less than a month, a far-ranging exposition will be held down in Toronto to showcase and celebrate one of the finest computers which has ever been produced: the Commodore 64.  Originally released in August 1982, its versatility, stability, and ease-of-use eventually made it the best-selling computer model to date, with in excess of 17 million units sold, up until production of the same model was discontinued twelve years later.  At the time of its release, it was much better than any of the competitors out there, especially in its price.  Now-ubiquitous PC’s didn’t compete too soundly until the early 1990’s, when graphics and sound capabilities actually caught up to that of the C64.  By the time of the Commodore 64’s demise, an immense quantity of software (predominantly games) had been produced for it.  A legacy of superior gaming influences are still left today, and a society-wide yearning for “retro” compilations of Commodore creations is sound proof of its importance in the canon.

Anyhow, there are many fans of this system still around, myself included, who still enjoy booting up the old C64 now and then to enjoy the system in its full 8-bit computing glory.  We are scattered throughout the world (predominantly North America, Europe, and Australia), and often will meet to commiserate upon the many aspects of the system at on-line forums such as Lemon64.com (don’t let the site’s name mislead you; by far, the system was not a lemon (based on its sales, durability, versatility, etc.); the site address refers to the last name of its creator).

It will be quite interesting to attend this ambitious conference, titled “The World of Commodore 2006″, which will include vendor displays, fellow users, demonstrations of hardware and software products, and presentations from keynote speakers, all in the common interest of showcasing an obsolete machine.  It is hosted by one of the oldest computer user groups in the country, TPUG (Toronto Pet Users Group).  Click here for a link to a web page with much information about the conference.  Sure, it’s no COMDEX, but I’m still not quite clear on how everyone will be able to fit into the venue, seeing as they are planning to hold it in a church basement.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 12th, 2006, and is filed under Computerized, Nostalgia. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. I reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments.