Fact: The best computers have a "return" key instead of "enter".

And yet, despite all its flaws and shortcomings, it became the best-selling computer of all time.

I used to have a C64 and an A500. At the time any progress was better because everything was new. Now 35 years later I am more impressed by my C64 that can do so much with so little. Not to minimize the revolution the A500 was at the time, that machine pretty much blew everything out of the water.

Fact (kinda) Everytime an 8 bit Commodore machine gets turned on , you can hear the faint cries of Bill G in the distance. Either that or a capacitor is about to fry...

MSX computers are not common in many countries, but man... thats a good 8 bit computer.

cough, cough, three, cough, grey

You are going to spend eternity with nothing but ZX Spectrums connected to black and white TV's with broken volume knobs cranked up to Max for making this video

Best? No. And I feel the C128, not the C64, was the best 8-bit machine. However, I consider it to be my favorite since it was my first personal computer. I still remember buying it in June 1983. (Forty years ago! 😮) It taught me so much about programming and using computers in general. It was also my entry point for BBSs and FidoNet. I made friends there and at Commodore clubs. And I’ve never loved a game as much as I loved Impossible Mission on my C64 and later on my C128. Today I have a MacBook Pro and a Windows tower PC and they’re fine and do what I need them to do. However, I don’t feel any more affection for them than I do for a TV set or a dishwasher. I’m generally anti nostalgic but I am nostalgic about those Commodore computers I had back in the ‘80s.

I was and still am an Amstrad enthusiast for the 8bit era. Angry comment for what, the video was great.

Used to have ZX Spectrum 48K at first and C64C later when I was a kid, C64 was a better machine in 8 bit era but I always liked Speccy more, nevertheless I was glad to have them both! ;-)

I had an Atari 800 back those days and always wondered, why the "C64 boys" so mich preferred their computer. The Atari had better Graphics, was much faster and also the Disk Drive was much much faster. But from todays perspective the C64 also had many advantages: Much more software, better sound (the SID chip had wave forms and filters), a few more sprites and more addons, like custom ROMs... Any over all there were much more freinds who could give you copies of their games...

The floppy disk being slow is a bug, there's a thing you can buy for fast-loading that fixes the bug or something to that affect

Some games were terrible. Graphics were usually awful too, even by 1980s standards. Not the most reliable computer either. But... nostalgia aside, the C64 came from a time when new computer technology was genuinely new and exciting, so it holds a lot of good memories for people. And when you did play a good game it was genuinely a great experience for the time. I wasn't too into programming at the time but it was a very good early computer to learn the basics on. Everyone I knew who took the time to do serious programming on the C64 went on to bigger and better things.

I owned a ZX Spectrum 48k and then an Amstrad CPC 6128 and the Commodore 64 was always 'the enemy' :-) I loved your video, it was full of wonderful irony 🙂

It was so difficult for me to choose which 8 bit home computer was the best so...i bought them all!

Surprised there aren't more comments attempting to correct your little Sonic troll there. Fun video!

Atari 8-bit fan here. We can all agree on the worse alternative. 🙂

I love my 64 and now even more with the Ultimate 2+L. I did never own a Amiga or C128 even tho they are great machines also but the Breadbin is a joy. I only need a new joystick - maybe for xmas. ;o)

Black, white and two shades of gray made for some good GUI ang graphics 😊

awesome video mate

Going for looks alone, I would say nothing can beat the ZX Spectrum 128K (Toastrack)! It is a timeless design.

This was funny, but you have to admit, the 6502 was the best processor at the time and its simplicity is why people still play with them. All of the x86 variants are boring by comparison and the only competitor it has for fun is the z80. I guess FPGA's are cool too, but even those are approaching boring.

DEFCON Level 1 snark, I love it!

Commodore 64 was awesome from 1984-1990. Now it is the Raspberry PI 400.

Yeah, totally correct. I grew up learning BASIC from books that listed compatibility with a bunch of rando computers I've never heard from plus C64. It apparently was the only computer from that era that didn't suck enough that it made it to the arse end of the world (Australia) so I could actually use it. Around my area the option was either a cheap C64, or a 10x cost x86 with GW-BASIC (or a shitty non-programmable console) so it almost certainly started way more Australians on the way to programming then any other computer at the time.

This may be controversial but the best computer is simply the one that holds the best memories for you. I admit this is just my subjective bias and not at all fact though. The mighty PC is very hard to think of as "the best" for me, because of it's generic nature; unlike the Amiga... Early computers had definite bottlenecks and it was fun to see programmers trying to seemingly make the impossible possible anyway.

ZX Spectrum, it dominated here in the UK but it made low cost computing here, really low cost! £399 for a C64 back in the day when a Spectrum 48k was £125. You didn't have to use the proprietory tape deck, loads of 3rd party kit available, games up the wazoo and STILL being made today, and of course the successor which is 100% backwards compatible, the Spectrum Next. I do like the c64, but the colours with what looks like 2 browns (cat poo and baby sick shades!) let it down for me, but some of the racers on it are way better than on the speccy, but we won't mention Turbo Esprit or Out Run...

THREE shades of grey, and TWO shades of B R O W N (the best colour)

I started collecting all the C-64 stuff I had when I was young, and things which I had not but wished I had. I cannot find the retail game M.U.L.E., not sure why, maybe it is so rare. I liked the game, but never understood it to be honest, had no manual. And there was a Joystick for C-64, not sure if you remember, which had quicksilver switches, it was maybe the first motion control Joystick, but unpractical. And some other things, but eventually I will find all of them I guess. I was lucky to buy a Commodore in nearly mint package. I am in Europe, so PAL region at the time. Nice work you do, thank you for the nostalgia. Videos of KZfaqrs like you are often better than the majority of movies and series today. 😄

I like how you didn't say wrong word about Atari. No need to throw angry comments :)

wow! That Sonic.... thing..... ough!

I AM OFFENDED, SIR! Like so many others you failed to mention the tiny little C116 with its horrible rubber keyboard and failing chips just like its TED-based brothers. Ok it was only sold in Europe, but still, It exists, gosh darn it!!! #JusticeForTheC116

I love my Amiga 500 just as much. Truth be told, had I gotten my father's C64 (in 2006, when I asked about it), I would have been bored with it after a month. 14 years later, I resurrected an Amiga 500 that literally was waiting for me, and I use it to type up short stories.

Great video - the "golden era" of computing was full of computers that had "character" - and the Commodore 64 had it in spades. How did we end up in a world dominated by 2 kinds of computers - the PC and the Mac? There's a story there too, but the outcome is really a boring one. In many ways the market is ready for a third party disruptor that can produce a new computer full of character with superior technology at a low cost - aka the "Jack Tramiel Formula for Success."

Good old days

Learn right hand dexterity with unique shift cursor keys!

It really is unironically the best though

Thanks a lot. After showing this video to me my wife and children won't let me spend my hard earned cash on Commodore stuff ever again. What am I to do now? Spend quality time with my son? Go out with my wife? Buy a Playstation for my son? Brrrrrr.

We love the C64 for its flaws... ❤ Great video, fun to watch.

I don't know, it looks pretty BASIC for me

yeah pretty much a fact C64 is the best but that wasn't the whole picture of course. The Amiga is also up there as joined best I would personally say. That said I love all the machines from this era as they were all very unique in terms of differences which meant pros and cons with each of them. The 8bits though were pretty special just to be part of regardless of what you had and it's a time I'm very fond of and continue to enjoy because it represented something had arrived that we hadn't seen before. Lucky to be part of it all

Nice try, but actually C128D is the best

Gotta love sonic on c64

The little breadbin is a true GIANT!!🤩

Haha fun video. I had a ZX Spectrum back in the day, now I own a bunch of retro computers. A friend had an Atari 800 though and that (overall) is my favourite 8-bit computer. Twice the CPU speed of the C64, twice the number of joystick ports, twice the number of cartridge slots that were contained internally rather than hanging out of the back, great keyboard, better color palette, great sound, much stronger construction, just less memory 48K vs 64K.

I really really really wish they would create a computer that works like the Commodore 64 basic that works with C, C++, Java, Python and have the compiler built into it. Turn the system on and the prompt is ready to program and just type couple commands and it compiled it. That would be awesome.

Fantastic video, I think so too and I also bring Commodore Computer to the channel! (and some atari 2600, recently, hahaha)

*popcorn gif* for the comments. Let's see who is too serious here. 😄 Fun one!

The Apple II had clear 80 columns. And Pascal. As a young programmer-to-be, it couldn't be beat.

Best soundchip, that 's a fact. Most of my music is made with the SID Chip 🎚️🎶🎵🎶🎶

Fun fact by the time the C64 came out the Commodore Pet had a better Basic but the C64 like the Vic-20 was made to be much cheaper thus used much smaller ROMs.

To support Matt's theory, every time you turned it on it started almost instantly and was exactly the same as when you turned it off. I had to replay the video to make sure I heard the load times correct. 2 to 3 minutes to load a program ..... :)

They were all great.......and they were all terrible......and i loved them all......

What’s with the Bob Marley face at 4:33? Thanks for the laugh!

I think one of the colours on screen is supposed to be pink, not a second shade of orange. Is the video circuitry broken or is that a weird artefact of VIC-II revision + screen + camera?

Atari 8 bit machines were and always will be the best of it's time because they were around long before almost all of them and still managed to outspec most if not all of them even still.

Er, isn't the Vic 20 case actually different to the C64? It's a bit taller isn't it? Or is this one of those early model things they changed later?

I got my old Vic20 and a ton of carts, Commodore cassette decks, etc. I'm in NoVA if you'd be interested.

Yeah, cool! I also had a ZX Spectrum and my father had a C64 (which I could use sometimes). It was a lot of fun! It took over 30 minutes to load Rambo Part II from cassette, and you would still get load errors sometimes. Oh, the joy! And yes, it was a LOT better with a disk drive, a cartridge or rom replacement loader (16x faster with the serial bus). But yes, weirdly, the C64 IS the best computer. The Spectrum and the Amiga were losers!

Honestly, I feel like the C64 is more of a British computer despite being designed and built in Pennsylvania. The Brits were the ones who pushed the C64 to its limits and most of the most beloved games for the computer came from there. Other than a few noteworthy EA, Activision, Origin Systems and Epyx titles, I ended up selling my NTSC breadbin collection because those in PAL land had it better.

New games and demos that push the C64's limits are still made to this day, nuff said...

LOL! this video says all! yeah... I touched my C64 joystick port by accident and boom! it is gonner :(

Uhm, it actually had three shades of grey, not two ;)...

The best (8-bit) computer has decent BASIC, a decent video ouput signal (RGB+80-column), looks cool, has common interfaces, has room for internal expansion and has a proper (built in) power supply. C64 does not fit any of those criteria. How can it be best?

Angry comment, eh? Hmmm. Well, I IMMEDIATELY recognized Goonies just from the theme, Goonies 'R' Good Enough! RABBLERABBLERABBLE! That's about as angry as I can get at the good ol' C-64.

This is brilliant - loved it. What is that Sonic game lol....

The C-16 is better because the best computers are antracite. And also, it has a very capable and useful BASIC.

This may be Tongue in Cheek... but if you have ever see some of the Artwork on the C64, done with only 16 colors... it will blow your mind. As an Artist myself... when you said that Grays basically dont count... you really proved your Ignorance. To make shadows, buildings, textures, and more... you NEED those other shades. Furthermore, you can alter how other colors look.. by Stippling those other colors next to each other... The real thing that killed me.. was the poor choice of SID music that you chose. The C64 had some of the most ICONIC music, depending on the game that you chose. In my Childhood.. my favorite was "The Last V8". This game was about a Post Nuclear war event.. and you had to drive your car safely back to base, without getting Melted from invisible Radiation spikes. The music is fantastically "ERRIE" and sets the proper Mood. The game is actually Psychologically Scary. Especially when that Radiation meter starts going off. The game itself had a very difficult control mechanic.. but when Mastered, was a fantastic accomplishment. The downside was the 2nd level.. which IMO, was nowhere near as fun as the first. That, and only having 2 stages period, was a bit limiting. But that game experience, with that insane music.. continues to Haunt my mind, to this very day. I remember listening to many Sid compositions, including a C64 version of Axel F, and being blown away at what these composers could produce... with such an affordable computer. In many cases, the sounds were far superior to stuff that was being put out by the NES... and the NES was released many years after the C64. I do not think the consoles got FM Synthesis, until the Sega Genesis. The C64 is clearly not the BEST computer... but it pretty much was the best PC for its Era. It was affordable. There were masses of games that you could buy / pirate for it. There were fantastic Music Tracks, and very cool Graphic + Musical demos. Heck, I believe my Grandfather used his C64 to input company data, into spreadsheets. One of the Best Consumer computers, was probably the "FM Towns". A Japanese computer, that could run at 720p resolution, had a CD rom drive, and that had near pixel-perfect Arcade Ports on it. A lot of Game Developers used the FM Towns / X68000 to develop games with, for other systems. BUT... that was a Japanese Only PC.. and it was INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. Maybe 20 times the cost of ANY Commodore PC ..with all of the accessories. But the C64, was something that the average Joe could pick up for a reasonable price.. and while it certainly had its limitations... people were still able to make some very amazing experiences with it.

Couldn't agree more

Classic sh!t post. Love your work, never stop. I like Bil Herd's perspective on how Commodore made chips with the expectation they only had to last 5 years.

Damn I had an Amstrad CPC 464, the popular choice in Europe. Also had a zx spectrum at one point, but it never lived up to the Amstrad. Had a friend who had a c64 aswell which was similar in alot of ways to the Amstrad. Good memories!

You think your Commodore 64 is really neato? What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?

Loved it! Thanks.

So both tape and disk took 2-3 minutes to load a program? :D

LOL Matt, you made me smile 😁

lol Matt, brilliant! Loved the whole tongue in cheek vibe 👍

A tape game didn't take 2-3 minutes. Try at least 10 minutes (but from memory often more).

LOL, Welcome to OCTari!

I have this feeling that this video was made after some serious trouble shooting to get a commodore working? 😅

Funny! Do more like this!!

Hi Matt, here is my angry comment: .. .. It seems everything is written for now 😁 Thank you very much for your short clip. Thumbs up!

It is for sure on top of a period, like the Oric Atmos after, then the Atari ST, then the PC (meh)

You're doing stand-up now? LOL

That was fantastico! :)

To do anything a little complex is Peek and Poke, Peke and Poke,.............

Best Computer? Ever sat down and programmed on it? No, not "10 PRINT "Hello World" | 20 GOTO 10" I wrote video games for the Commodore Computers in the 1980s and had to work with Atari, Apple and other systems. I'll admit to being a Commodore Boy at the time. But takes just a few lines of code on an Atari 800 takes a lot of code on the C64 to implement. And the Atari 800 used a 1.75MHz 6502 compared to the 1MHz 6510 on the C64 so the Atari beats it on Speed, and Graphics.And the Pokey Chip, though not a SID, can give the Sid a run for its money. Plus there were several Synthesizers that used the SID as well and the Commodore B-Machines also used the SID. As a Programmer's machine, it was a nightmare.

The Ataris had better colour, the Spectrum had a faster CPU but if you just even look at the C64 demoscene stuff coming out still in 2024 it's clear itwas the best 8-bit all rounder.

Nice video! just... Commodore 64 Longplay [158] Sonic the Hedgehog (Homebrew/NTSC Mode) -> search on youtube!

Terry Davis approves

I would say Amiga 500 is the best with the same philosophy

Lol, nice work Matt, that made me chuckle 😂 There would defo be far less C64 repair videos if MOS hadn't been so fast and loose with their quality control that's for sure!

fax!

I was told to leave an angry comment grrrrrr

Pffft.... The c64 wasn't even the best c64... gimme the c128 any day!

Don't MSX much??

😂... this is so funny....

50 Shades of Brown.

Angry comment: Angry comment

Oric atmos will never be beaten! Sacrilege!

Angry!