Still remember when we got our first ST520 to try out that was seemingly rushed from their labs (still had hand-soldered cables on the board) - this small machine was revolutionary for that time when we were making the screens of IBM PCs the price of a car glow green in the night. It had most of the things you could wish for, but at a fraction of the price.
What followed where long development nights / weekends first with Basic then digging deep into Motorola's 68000 assembler and C. Not to forget endless hours of playing Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (yes that was a text adventure).
With his C64 and the ST520 Jack has strongly contributed to spreading knowledge on computing and providing many a possibility and access to learn, practice and excel in this field of technology. All major computer companies that directly or indirectly are drawing talent and profiting from this till today should thank him greatly.
(For those who have never touched any of those machines - most likely those who you learned from or who thought you courses at University have and learned / discovered many things they are now able to pass on.)
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".
One neat thing they were developing, but never came to light, was Jaguar VR. It was a virtual reality headset, using IR-tracking, which let you play VR games. Only a few working prototypes exists:
VR headset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZCgNBxkcM
Game shown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJmnmRzWipo
Another of VR headset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NCQJrd-4rk
POKE 53280, 0
POKE 53281, 0
So the whole screen is black.
"poke, peak"
My grandfather had a similar influence - bought me a Vic 20 as my first computer (optical/laser engineer, programmed in C). At 6 years old I did my very first programming in BASIC on that thing, wrote out a typing tutor from a book called Parrot - had a crudely animated parrot head that made noises when you typed wrong. Couple years back tried to find the Vic 20 in my parent's storage and sadly only the box remains :(
I used it for many many years and I wish I still had it.
[I worked on it, and Leonard Tramiel, who was in charge of the software team, named it. I think you can attribute the lack of a creative name to the fact that we were all very tired: The software was started in September 1984, and we shipped the 1.0 ROMs in May].
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...
in my class of 24 or so. 3-4 spectrums, 1-2 c64s and 1 amstrad (poor sod, great computer, few users so few software swaps available)
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.
█
3583 BYTES FREECondolences to Mr. Tramiel's family.
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.
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.
'I once asked Jack how he coped with his Holocaust memories. Without missing a beat replied, "I live in the future."'
There is still a C64 scene alive! http://noname.c64.org/csdb/
http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2012/04/09/Jack-Tramiel-Com...
And I can still remember the quirks of the different disk drives that you had to use to get them to work effectively :-)
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...
RIP Jack!
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...
I really wanted an Apple II though. That's what the rich kids had.
(http://www.syntiac.com/fpga64.html)
etc.
RIP, Jack. You'll be missed.