The purpose of this site/blogcast is to introduce (or re-introduce) the Commodore 64 (and Vic-20) personal home computers of the 1980's and early 1990's to people who are unfamiliar with them - and make gaming or music making through emulators or even on original hardware simple and fun to pick up.

The C64 was a unique and fantastic home computer for people who were actually into home computers back then.  Why?  What made it so great?  First a little history.

The Commodore 64 was an 8-bit home computer released in 1982. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 with only 5K of memory on board and limited graphics and sound, the "C64" featured 64 kilobytes of RAM with sound and graphics performance that were far superior to most personal home computers of the time.

During the Commodore 64's lifetime, sales totaled 30 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.  From 1983-85, the Commodore 64 dominated the market with approximately 40% share.

One might make the argument that the extreme success of the C64 prevented Commodore from winning converts to its other, newer systems like the Amiga, and led to the downfall of Commodore -- to the point where today many younger computer users have never even heard of the brand and assume that the IBM and Apple computers have always dominated the market.

I know from personal experience that when given the choice by my father in the late 1980's to buy another newer C64 or make the change to an Amiga, I chose a fresh new C64.  But of course, there were many other reasons for Commodore's financial problems that led to its collapse, and you can read about them in the interesting book "On the Edge - The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore", of which I own a copy and recommend.

The C64 had a massive library of applications and games (something close to 10,000), and that is what the C64 Walkabout is all about -- reintroducing some truly unique and interesting games that deserve new life with another generation of computer users --- or enjoyment by old C64 users who've long since lost their hardware, but can again enjoy C64 programs thanks to Computer Emulation.

I am just someone who really enjoyed the C64 as a kid, and am enjoying it once more with the help of emulators like Vice.  I'm no expert on the hardware, and I never did much programming beyond tweaking a Compute's Gazette type-in program, but I do have a passion for these old computers and the unique graphics, sounds, music and gameplay they offered, and I'd like to share that with visitors here.

Why "Walkabout"?  Why not walk-thru?  Or Tutorial?  Well, a Walkabout is an Australian Aboriginal practice of tracing the paths that their people's ancestors took and imitating their deeds.  I welcome you, especially young fans of gaming and computers in general, to trace my path and try out the games and programs I'll introduce here.  But a Walkabout is also about personal discovery, so rather than "walk through" a game or program from start to finish, I'll discuss them in detail and set you on the path to enjoying them for yourselves.

So welcome to my site, I hope you enjoy discovering, or re-discovering the great games and programs that made the Commodore 64 so much fun!

- R.M.