The Commodore 64C
I'm not sure exactly when this commercial is from but it probably would have been from around Christmas of 1987 or sometime in 1988. Pictured in this commercial is the Commodore 64C which was introduced in 1987. It was primarily a cosmetic upgrade to make it match the style of the newer Commodore 128. Functionally, it was identical to the original Commodore 64. It also had some internal changes to make it cheaper to produce, more efficient and more reliable. This model would be produced for the rest of Commodore's life.
Commodore 64C
The disk drive for the Commodore 64 was a separate 5.25" unit connected via a kind of serial cable. It had its own built in DOS that you interacted with indirectly via the Commodore 64's built in BASIC with commands like 'LOAD"*",8,1'. You could have multiple disk drives attached. The disk drive usually cost slightly more than the Commodore 64 itself which is why cassettes were a popular form of storage in many places. The disk drive also received a cosmetic upgrade to match the color and styling of the C64C and was known as the 1541C. The standard disk drive would get one more substantive upgrade pretty quickly after the 1541C was introduced in the form of the 1541-II which moved the power supply outside the unit into a separate power brick which helped make the drive much smaller.
1541C
There were a couple of other floppy drives available including the 1571 and the 1581 as well as various 3rd party clones of the 1541. The 1571 was designed for the Commodore 128, was faster and double sided. It could also operate with the Commodore 64 and in 1541 mode. The 1581 was a 3.5" 720K disk drive that could be used with either the Commodore 64 or Commodore 128.
1541-II
Commodore introduced the revamped C64C in what was possibly the peak year for the Commodore 64. Virtually every computer game made was available on the Commodore 64 if not developed there first. And while games were certainly where the Commodore 64 was strongest, tons of applications were available too and even an online service made just for the Commodore 64. Quantum Link would later become AOL. However, Commodore 64 support dropped of very rapidly after that. The Commodore 64C would stay in production until liquidation forced by Commodore's bankruptcy happened in 1994.
Read more: https://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2017/01/19/commodore-64-commercial/
https://twitter.com/Darth_Azrael/status/1453468665354113032
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
I was a C128 fan myself. A slicker smaller form factor :)
I had a friend with a 128D which was the version with detachable keyboard and built in disk drive. I eventually had a 128 much later. The C64C redesign basically gave the C64 the same form factor as the 128 only smaller since there were fewer keys on the keyboard (and a smaller motherboard I would imagine). The original C64 was thicker but not as wide or deep as the 128.
The 128 could operate in C64 mode which was good since there wasn't a whole lot of software specifically for the 128...and virtually no games. The 80 column mode was nice for productivity stuff though and it was twice as fast with a much faster disk drive. The C64 was limited to 40 columns.
The thing I remember most about the C-64 is my friend getting so angry at one of the games that he pulled the disk out of the drive... crumpled it up and threw it across the room. Needless to say that game was never played again.
Hehehe... do you remember what game it was? There were definitely some very hard and frustratimg games. I loved my C64 too much to get abusive with it though.
I do not remember what the game was. It might have been called Monster Trainer. The game involved a variety of characters that you could level up but it was always a one-on-one battle vs the other monsters. One of the characters had an attack called beast-fu. That's all I can remember about it other than the epic rage quit that my friend did all those years ago.
Ohhh I remember th3 c-64 very well... used to spend hours getti g frustrated by "jet set willy" & "monte mole" among others. Plus who didnt love a good syntex error??