The Commodore 64 was an inexpensive home computer from the early 1980s that anyone could learn to program. If you got tired of playing amazing games like Fort Apocalypse, Impossible Mission, and Ultima IV, you could make your own!

The C64 was the best selling home computer system in history and was the medium for a tidal wave of home-grown creativity.

We're not going to go in to the whole chronology of the machine (you can read all about it here if you're interested) but rather talk about our personal experiences with it.

   My first exposure to programming was BASIC on a Commodore PET, in the back of my Grade 6 classroom. My teacher, Mr.Horemans, was into computers and electronics. He also taught with the philosophy that the children learning to express themselves was the most important thing at that age. He was one of my top 5 best teachers of all time =)

I was immediately hooked, and was soon trying to write my own games. From simple text adventures, to primitive arcade game by pokeing characters into screen memory. I was also using my first handle, "Thor". Thor was very cool when I was eleven.

That year at Christmas, Santa Clause brought my brothers and I got a Commodore 64. I was pleased to find that my BASIC programming skills tranferred easily to the 64. There was many an hour spent with graph paper and pencil, calculating the data for sprites.

"Expanding Horizons..."

   Things really took off for me when I got a 1200 baud modem and became a regular figure in the local C64 BBS scene as "The Imp". I met a lot of cool people, and it was with a little help from my friends that I learned C64 Machine Language. Over time I produced many intros and demos, by myself and with/for other groups. Like I said, I was hooked =)

Let me take this moment to say: Greets to Sting (Joy), Angelripper, Surge/Legion, Necrophobic/Legion, Bane/Carcass, Replay/Legion, The Love God/DSI

"The End Of An Era"

  With the rise of the PC, the C64 scene dwindled, as did my interest. I did take it with me when I moved out of my parents home, and fired it up from time to time to enjoy old favorites.

The Imp left the scene for good when his faithful Commodore 64c and hundreds of it's black squares were taken in The Great Basement Apartment Flood of '96.

It was tragic... I... I can't talk about it... So much data, gone. Gone-diddly-one.

"Reanimating It's Corpse"

  It was in 2000 that I first discovered emulators, and the world of the Commodore 64 was suddenly available again!

 The CCS64 Emulator is far and away the best emulator I have tried, and I've tried a few.

I coded a smooth scroller using the emulator, just to see if I could remember how its done. Writing a raster interrupt is just like riding a bicycle...

And the games! Many of my old favorites are in the public domain now, and run just fine in the emulator.

And of couse the demos are as freely available as ever.

"Saved From Oblivion"

I was truly humbled when searching through a C64 Demoscene ftp site when I found 2 demos that I had written. I was amazed that someone else cared enough to save them from oblivion.

Of all my losses in the flood, it was the loss of my years of intros and demos that hurt the most. But finding these helped take a little of the sting out.

Download SkullDruggery C64 Demo


Download Arise C64 Demo

* Warning Demos may contain some crude humor.

"Have Any Others?"

 If you happen to have any other Commodore 64 Demos or Intros, especially Canadian ones, I'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line on the contact page!