April 23, 2004

I was doing some digging on the web when I ran across a most interesting page, Commodore.ca's "The Commodore 128: The Most Versatile 8-Bit Computer Ever Made". It is a most engaging (and suspensful) account of how Commodore's crown 8-bit machine came to be. While I have read several accounts of this machine's history, none have contained the minutia and intriguing factoids that this article possesses, making you feel as though you were on-hand, watching the development unfold, in person. A quote from the article:

Unbelievably, in this time of crisis, both MOS chip designers went on Christmas vacation and "...a sprinkler head busted and rained all over computer equipment stored in the hallway. Engineering gathered as a whole and watched on as a $100,000 worth of equipment became waterlogged....  I can honestly say that it didn't seriously occur to me that we wouldn't be ready for CES... There were just too many problems to stop and think what if."

An excellent read. The same site also features a Commodore 64 history piece, entitled "The Commodore 64: Machine of Destiny," which is equally engrossing.