Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on May 1st, 2015 in Commodore 64, MainI recently cataloged all of my old Commodore 64 diskettes using DirMaster from Style (highly recommended). While browsing through the list of programs, one title jumped out at me: MAGIT MANSION. That particular title jumped out at me for three reasons: one, because it was located on disk 001 (my very first disk); two, because even though it was located on the front side of the first disk in my collection, somehow I had no memory of ever playing it; and three, somebody didn’t know how to spell MAGGOT. I fired the game up in an emulator and typed RUN.… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on November 24th, 2014 in Commodore 64Six months ago I was contacted out of the blue by a friend-of-a-friend (I don’t even know his real name) who asked if I was able to archive some old Commodore diskettes for him. I told him I could. I asked him what type of data was on the disks and he told me they contained programs he had written in BASIC and custom levels for games he had created almost 30 years ago. I gladly obliged. Unfortunately when the diskettes arrived in my mailbox the were unreadable. This happens. I don’t know if the disks were ruined from being… (read more)
A friend of mine tagged me with the following challenge on Facebook: 10 games that will always stay with you. Rules: Don’t take more then a few minutes. Don’t think too hard. They don’t have to be great works of the gaming industry, just games that have affected you in a positive way. Then tag 10 friends including me so I can see your list. If you know me you know simply making a list isn’t enough, so I added some additional information and links to videos. Although many of these games appeared on many different platforms, I included the… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 6th, 2014 in Commodore 64, Console Video GamesGet ready for another picture-intensive post that documents my family’s visit to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California! The Computer History Museum is divided into 20 numbered rooms, which advance their way through the history of computers chronologically, and starts with a pretty old computer — the Abacus. From a historical perspective this makes perfect sense, but it doesn’t do a good job in convincing a couple of kids that this museum is not going to be boooooring. At least the first 10 rooms of the museum cover computers that were made before I was born. There were… (read more)
Whenever I start a new project it’s not uncommon for me to dump all of my spare time into it and neglect my other projects, at least temporarily. Whenever my blog and podcast output wanes, you can bet I’ve been sidetracked. My latest project is a Facebook page called Vintage Videogame Ads. Even if you don’t have a Facebook account (who reading this does not have a Facebook account?) you can access the page here: www.facebook.com/VintageVideogameAds. Back in the 8-bit days of computing, advertisements in computer and videogame magazines were a great way to discover new games. Each time my… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on December 10th, 2013 in Commodore 64The Bedford Level Experiment, a band describing themselves as performing “indie geek folk-rock songs about sci-fi and the soul, Commodore 64 and the mind, and flat earth” on their Facebook Page, has released a new song about the Commodore 64. The song, “History (Commodore 64),” is an autobiographical song written by Robin Harbron. If that name rings a bell it’s because Robin worked on the Commodore 64 30-in-1 plug and play joystick, and his company p1xl games has released several “retro-style” games for iOS including RPG Quest: Minimae, PiXl Party, and 4NR. “History (Commodore 64)” features Robin on guitars/bass/vocals with… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on October 18th, 2013 in Commodore 64, Raspberry PiI currently own two cases for my Raspberry Pi. One is the gigantic red plastic case that came with it. The other is one I made out of a plastic Pop-Tart I bought at Big Lots. You can see both of those cases here. Enter my friend Aardvark. Aardvark is a very talented guy who plays guitar and once made a remote controlled phone. Aardvark also does CNC milling, and when he saw my terrible attempt at making my own Raspberry Pi case, he decided to take a stab at making one for me. The day after we had this… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on July 16th, 2013 in Commodore 64Joe Barlow over at SwordOfPixels.com posted a review of Commodork on his website recently (yesterday). I wrote and published Commodork back in 2006, so it’s always interesting to see new reviews of the book pop up. Joe’s review echoes what a lot of reviews of Commodork have stated, which is essentially that their personal stories of growing up with calling BBSes mirror my own. I have had people in Germany e-mail me just to tell me that they could totally relate to some of the stories in Commodork. I love hearing things like that. Joe added Amazon links to Commodork… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on May 14th, 2013 in Commodore 64A couple of months back I bought a flat screen television to use as a monitor for some of my old computers. After posting the following picture, the number one response I received was, “nice milk crate.” While digging around in the garage this weekend I found some scrap wood left behind by the previous owners and decided it would make a nice shelf for the television. I decided the perfect height would be “two Commodore disk drives, plus an inch or so.” Not very scientific, I know — rounding up, I decided on 8 inches. Once the sides were… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on April 28th, 2013 in Commodore 64A couple of months back one of my online friends (Mikey) mentioned to me he was looking to buy a Commodore 64. The next morning I went out to the garage, got one of my remaining spare Commodores, boxed it up and mailed it to him. Although I have run out of spare 1541 drives, Mikey had little trouble picking one up on eBay. It just so happens that Mikey lives about 10 miles away from the hotel I’ve been staying in for the past several days. Mikey expressed an interest in obtaining some more disks for his his new… (read more)
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