My time at Commodore

When I reflect back on my career, there have been quite a few special and golden moments. One of my fondest experiences goes right back to the start with Commodore Business Machines in Lane Cove.

Younger readers probably have little idea of who this company was, why they were so special or what they made. But for the rest of us who grew up through the 80s and 90s, those days of the Commodore 64 and Amiga know all too well the magic of those machines and the community that surrounded them.

So how did I get to be at Commodore?

I grew up in a small cotton growing town in North West New South Wales called Wee Waa. It's not overly far from the Queensland border. I was in High School during the late 80s, and there was an opportunity to travel to Sydney and join a group of kids from various schools in a work experience programme.

I stayed in the northern suburb of Warriewood with a host family. On arrival, we were given a slip of paper where we could jot down three businesses that we would each like to work at. I noted down one entry: “Commodore”.

My hosts had a quiet word with me later noting that Commodore was in Lane Cove which was quite a hike from where we were, and I had best make a second choice. I had no idea on the size of Sydney.

The next day, my hosts told me: you'll be going to Commodore.

I didn't quite pass out, but to say that I was beyond excited was an understatement. However, it came with a warning. I was in for a heck of a trip. A long walk to the bus, two extended bus rides, and a long walk at the end.

I was prepared to do anything, so I eagerly accepted. And so my pilgrimage to Commodore began. Note of course, there were no mobile phones in 1987, so should I get lost it was a complex set of maneuvers to find a phone box and try and call whoever could help you. After a long trip, I arrived at the entrance. Jo was a secretary there and was my host for the week.

I had visions of the entire staff doing cool things on 8 and 16-bit machines, but in reality, it was a distribution hub with salesmen, administration staff and some technical. Beyond that though, the legends were all true and I was very much in the proverbial Chocolate Factory. There were rooms full of Commodore 64s, 128s, and other 8-bit machines or Commodore branded PC workstations.

There was the Amiga showroom, filled with Amiga 1000s, Amiga 500 and 2000 machines. This was the first time I had ever clapped eyes on an Amiga in the flesh. And the Amiga 500 no less, which I had only drooled over in magazines like the April 1987 edition of Commodore User.

I spent probably most of the day in there becoming acquainted with Deluxe Paint and Instant Music. I'd never seen graphics as good as that, and the sampled audio pumping all afternoon sounded just like a real band. Eventually I was told to shut up.

I remember a room full of Commodore 64s equipped with 1541 floppy drives and other peripherals in what I vaguely remember was a guest classroom. I spent a lot of spare time in here using the machine code monitor and working on game ideas. They gave me a few floppy disks to keep my work on.

Besides the usual work experience tasks like photocopying the Commodore Newsletter, I got to sit with some of the technical staff and listen in to what they were working on and problems to support.

On the last day, Jo gave me a bag full of swag (some I still have), and a hug goodbye.

Commodore's C64 and Amiga machines have very much shaped me as both a technical person and a creative. I didn't come from a mainframe computer science background but rather one where computing and technology in general were exciting.

Since starting this article, the news had come in regarding the new Commodore, so I'll talk a little about that.

I first heard the news at the Canberra Vintage Computer Exhibition that Commodore the company had been bought back by Perifractic. At first I didn't pay it much attention, as we've heard on-again off-again rumours of Commodore reawakenings for the past 30 years.

Ten days later, as it turns out, the rumours were true. Commodore was returning, and there was a new machine in the pipeline. Along with that, the support of a host of original Commodore staff members and leaders.

I immediately dropped the cash on the “kickstarter” for the beige model. But I was 10 days behind and so I'm unfortunately 5000ish in the queue.

The return feels like a complete rewind. It's pretty surreal.

In 1983, after begging my parents for a Commodore VIC-20, they brought home what looked like a VIC-20. But this was a Commodore 64. I had no idea what the machine was.

They bought the computer in the hope that this would help me with homework. The first night my mother and I set it up together and tuned it into the TV on the UHF band. That took around an hour, and soon after we were producing reverse coloured bars across the screen with CTRL-R and space.

We were painting on the television!

From there on, I ate this thing up. My days were filled with type-ins, creating sprites, sound and reams of BASIC and machine-code.

As I started to earn money with holiday jobs, I sold my Commodore 64 to progressively upgrade though to the Commodore 64C, Commodore 128, Commodore 128D and finally the Amiga 500 and 1200.

So today with the Commodore 64U (even though I've pre-paid for my unit) I'm saving for this machine just like back then. Any gigging money I make, goes toward the cost of it.

This is a powerful nostalgic moment in history for those of us who grew up on these machines and loved them so much. If it was just a company and a machine, honestly it wouldn't be that much of a big deal.

But this is more than that.

There is a powerful wave of anticipation for thousands of people being able to reconnect over Commodore and the C64 - it's about people again, and fun.

Today's world is little more than dull boxes, AI, toxic social media, influencers, and all the other assorted junk on the internet. Any excuse to further disconnect is music to my ears.

So with all that said… I'm just going to sit here with my buzz on for a little while - if you don't mind terribly much - and wait for my parcel to arrive.