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Commodore 64 still loved after all these years

(CNN) — Like a first love or a first car, a first computer can hold a special place in people’s hearts. For millions of kids who grew up in the 1980s, that first computer was the Commodore 64. Twenty-five years later, that first brush with computer addiction is as strong as ever.

There was something magical about the C64, says Andreas Wallstrom of Stockholm, Sweden.

He remembers the day he first laid eyes on his machine back in 1984.

My father brought it home together with a tape deck, a disk drive, a printer, and a couple of games…I used to sneak home during lunch to play [on it] with my friends. Learn about the components of the C64 system

Wallstrom is the webmaster and designer for C64.com, a Web site dedicated to preserving the games, demos, pictures, magazines and memories of the Commodore 64.

C64.com visitors are mostly nostalgia seekers — men in their 30s looking to download their favorite childhood games. Emulators let them play the games without having a machine. Popular downloads include Boulder Dash, Ghostbusters, and The Great Giana Sisters.

It may have not been the most sophisticated computer, but it did have a lot of personality and it was lovable and remains loveable, said Harry McCracken, vice president and editor in chief of PC World.

Often overshadowed by the Apple II and Atari 800, the Commodore 64 rose to great heights in the 1980s. From 1982-1993, 17 million C64s were sold. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the Commodore 64 as the best-selling single computer model.

The computer featured 64 kilobytes of memory (a lot for 1982), a huge index of games, a sophisticated sound chip, and a relatively parent-friendly price — $595.

On Monday, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, will celebrate the C64’s 25th anniversary. Computer pioneers will reflect on the C64’s achievements and contribution to the industry. Jack Tramiel, the founder and CEO of Commodore, will attend, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and William C. Lowe, father of the IBM PC.

It was the right machine for the time, said McCracken. The Commodore 64 did a lot to popularize computers. Sold in shopping malls and discount stores and not just small computer stores — the norm for the time — the C64 became many people’s gateway into the world of computers, said Brian Bagnall, author of On the edge: The spectacular rise and fall of Commodore.

It was so new, Bagnall said. Users could play many games and also learn the programming language of computers — BASIC.

Jim Park, 39, a software developer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, got his start on a C64 in 1984 when he was 16. Park learned to program motion-graphics synchronized to dance music and ran a BBS, an electronic bulletin board system, the precursor to the Internet. I really lucked out that something so obscure and nerdy has turned into the modern business and pop-culture phenomenon that it has, he said.

Wallstrom said it was the simplicity of the C64 that made it so great. You switched it on and it was there, ready for input in a second. Programming on the C64 was straightforward because you got to command the processor directly. You had full control of the whole computer…that is something you don’t have with any modern PC.

Still, the C64 had an uneven reputation. It was widely considered clunky, its BASIC outdated and graphics weak in comparison to the Apple II and Atari 800, according to McCracken. And then there was the quirky floppy drive. It was pitifully slow, Bagnall said. It was big and noisy. It sounded like a Gatling gun when it was trying to load stuff.

The floppy drive took so long to load, the music would play before the game did, recalls Rob Kramer, artistic business director of Productiehuis ON, a production company based in the Netherlands. These tunes would get stuck in your head, he said.

In 2006 Kramer came up with the idea of having an orchestra play the music from the games. We found this crazy orchestra that plays on the street. It’s full of young people in music school. They are in their 20s and they’d never played a Commodore 64. For them it was like ‘Wow, this is great stuff.’

The 12-piece C64 Orchestra has played at churches, musical venues and festivals. The compositions run 4-6 minutes. The crowds are mostly fans of the C64. They really dig it, Kramer said. Watch how I-Reporters are using the C64 today

Kramer described the music as haunted. There’s a lot of tension, and it repeats itself. It takes you places where normal classical music doesn’t. Watch as the orchestra plays

The classical ensemble released a CD in Europe featuring the original computer and orchestral versions of Delta, Commando, Monty on the Run, International Karate and more. The CD will be available in the United States on January 15.

By 2007 computing standards, the Commodore 64 is a dinosaur. A relic of the past, long made obsolete by the march of time. But the C64 isn’t dead. It’s very much alive — on gaming Web sites, through music and in the memories of millions who owned and loved them.

Computer nostalgia is something that runs pretty deep these days. The memories that people have of this machine are incredible, McCracken said.

Twenty-five years ago computers were an individual experience; today they are just a commodity, he said.

I don’t think there are many computers today that we use that people will be talking about fondly 25 years from now.
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Televangelist refuses to turn over more financial documents

(CNN) — Georgia televangelist Creflo Dollar is refusing to turn over any more financial documents to the Senate Finance Committee, even though they are overdue.

Last month, the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Charles Grassley, asked Dollar and five other TV and megachurch preachers to provide him detailed reports on how they’re spending billions of dollars in church donations. He wants to make sure their ministries aren’t violating their tax-exempt status by spending church donations on personal luxuries.

Five of the six ministries have either turned over documents or asked Grassley for more time, which the senator readily agreed to give them.

But Dollar and his World Changers Church have refused, and he’s hired a lawyer. He said if Grassley wants more information he’ll have to subpoena him to testify before the committee.

The Iowa senator is surprised by Dollar’s ultimatum. If he sticks to his guns, Grassley said, this will be the first nonprofit that I know of that hasn’t cooperated with us over the last five or six years. Watch why Dollar doesn’t want to turn over the documents

In November, Dollar told CNN that his church was not in violation of any tax laws. We’ve always said at the very beginning we have no problems if it’s a valid request, Dollar said. And, you know, we comply with the IRS.

Dollar is making no apologies for living in a $2.5 million mansion in Georgia, driving a church-bought Rolls Royce and having access to a luxury Manhattan apartment. He said the church owns some of his luxury items and he bought the rest with his own money.

Dollar also told CNN he did turn over some documents to Grassley’s office and was confident they would be sufficient. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, one of those documents spelled out how much money the church raked in last year: $69 million.

Again, Dollar makes no apologies. His prosperity ministry preaches a form of Word of Faith theology, which teaches God wants the faithful to have the best in life, including material things.

He said Grassley is sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong — in church doctrine.

Grassley strongly objects to that sentiment. For the focus of this inquiry, ministries are the same as any other nonprofit organization, he said. It’s a question of abiding by tax laws.

Rusty Leonard, who runs an online citizen’s watchdog group, Ministrywatch.com, is on Grassley’s side. He said Dollar’s church should be transparent so donors know how their money is being spent. He said Dollar should be happy to comply with Grassley’s request, unless he has something to hide.

I guess, looking at it from their perspective, they could potentially go into Grassley’s confessional and end up walking out in handcuffs, Leonard said. So they have to be very careful about what they release.

Grassley, so far, isn’t threatening Dollar with a subpoena, but he didn’t rule it out either. He said he’s used it in the past to great effect.

Here’s how the other minstries have responded to requests for accounting, according to Grassley’s office:

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland (Kenneth Copeland Ministries): Attorneys delivered material to Grassley’s staff on Thursday.

Benny Hinn (World Healing Center Church, Inc.): Grassley’s staff is scheduled to meet with the ministry’s attorneys on Friday.

Eddie Long (New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Ministry): Representatives said publicly that the ministry will cooperate. Grassley has not received any material or had contact from the ministry.

Joyce Meyer (Joyce Meyer Ministries): Grassley’s staff received material from the organization on Tuesday and is reviewing it.

Randy and Paula White (Without Walls International Church Today): Received initial contact from attorneys who said they will contact Grassley’s staff shortly but has had no further response.
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Bill raising auto fuel standards hits snag in Senate

WASHINGTON (CNN) — An energy bill that would require automakers to raise average fuel economy standards hit a roadblock Friday in the Senate, but senators vowed to work over the weekend to find a way to advance the legislation.

A procedural vote on the bill failed 53-42, seven votes short of the 60 needed for the bill to advance. Republicans objected to $21 billion in new taxes contained in the bill.

The legislation, which the House of Representatives passed 235-181 Thursday night, would be the first major increase in fuel economy standards in more than 30 years.

It would require automakers to raise their corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. Supporters say that would result in significant fuel savings.

The current standard — 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 22.2 for trucks — was passed in 1975.

Senators said the bill’s failure to overcome the procedural hurdle did not mean the legislation was dead.

This doesn’t mark the end of this bill, said Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It means we have to go to work to fix some of the problems that the House bill has generated for us.

The panel’s Democratic chairman, Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, said he saw some changes to the legislation that can make this bill acceptable to a vast majority of senators. Bingaman said he thought a new version could be brought to the floor next week.

A senior Democratic aide said the next vote on the energy bill likely will occur Tuesday.

The auto industry and many Republicans support the bill’s new CAFE standards, but the taxes contained in the bill complicate its prospects for passage in the Senate. The bill would repeal billions of tax subsidies, including $13 billion for the nation’s five largest oil companies.

The bill also includes a mandate that electric utility companies generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources such as wind, biomass or solar power by 2020.

The White House has threatened to veto the bill. The president’s chief economic adviser, Allan Hubbard, wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, this week, citing the renewable electricity mandate and taxes as unacceptable.
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Rice: U.S. still wants Iran sanctions

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States would continue along a two-track strategy to deal with Iran, pressing for new sanctions and holding talks to convince Tehran to come clean about its nuclear program. But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran.

Despite strong support from NATO allies in the wake of a new U.S. intelligence report that concludes Iran actually stopped atomic weapons development in 2003, the top U.S. diplomat was unable to persuade Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the urgency of fresh sanctions.

Rice said her talks with Lavrov were an extension of other conversations we have had, suggesting the two didn’t see eye to eye.

We are going to continue along the two-track process, Rice said at a news conference, referring to sanctions and diplomacy.

After seeing Rice on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial meeting, Lavrov told reporters: It fully confirms the information that we have: that there is no military element in their nuclear program. We hope very much that these negotiations with Iran will continue.

Lavrov, who has become the public face of opposition to the U.S. and European strategy on Iran, has maintained Russia has no evidence that Tehran had ever had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international treaty obligations.

He did not discuss what Rice had told him.

His comments were not unexpected given past Russian statements on the issue, but nevertheless dealt a setback to efforts to boost pressure on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities with a new U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution.

China, another key participant in the so-called P5+1 group of world powers now trying to craft such a resolution, is also resisting. The P5+1 includes the five permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany.

Apart from China and Russia, the others have endorsed upping pressure on Iran since the release on Monday of the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which represented a surprising turnaround in Washington’s assessment of Iranian intentions. See what U.S. intelligence experts now say about Iran’s nuclear program

President Bush and Rice have argued that the report actually shows that Iran is susceptible to outside influence on its nuclear program because it finds that Tehran stopped its weaponization attempts four years ago in response to diplomatic pressure.

It was international pressure that got the Iranians to halt their program, Rice said ahead of her talks with Lavrov. This suggests that you ought to keep up that international pressure.

Her meetings in Belgium were her first face-to-face exchanges on the matter since the intelligence report became public.

Rice saw Lavrov after having won NATO backing to stay the course on a two-pronged approach to Iran that offers the Islamic regime civilian nuclear cooperation in return for a shutdown of uranium enrichment and reprocessing.

There was unanimity around the table that there is a clear choice for Iran, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters, noting offers of nuclear cooperation with Iran if it stops enriching and reprocessing uranium.

Iran can see the outstretched hand from the international community if they are willing to join the drive against proliferation, he said. But if Iran persists on defying the will of the United Nations Security Council, then there must be further sanctions.

But Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow had never seen evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, not even one that it had given up on four years ago.

Rice had hoped to convince Lavrov that the new intelligence proved the value of tough diplomacy rather than undermining the drive to press for more sanctions.

In fact, I would think given the assessment that Iran is indeed susceptible to coordinated international pressure that (this) is the right approach, she said.

The U.S. has been successful in leading two rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran and is pushing for a third set of economic sanctions if the country refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.

Waterway concern

Amid the growing pressure on Tehran, Iranian threats to close the vital commercial waterway of the Strait of Hormuz are the greatest concern for naval security in the region, a senior U.S. naval commander said Friday.

Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said that while the likelihood of that happening is low, concerns about Iran consume the region — and his day.

I wake up thinking about Iran, I go to bed thinking about Iran, Cosgriff told reporters on the eve of a regional conference here where Iran will be a key focus.

He added, I know of no threat that would cause them to want to close … the Strait of Hormuz. To me it’s coercive, it’s intended to intimidate not only the regional nations — ‘look at us we can damage your prosperity’– but it’s intended to intimidate the global market. I just don’t think that’s responsible behavior.

His comments came a day before a regional security conference that Iranian officials decided at the last minute not to attend. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to make the keynote speech Saturday morning to foreign delegates and other national security officials from Persian Gulf nations and other major powers.

Gates has been meeting with his military commanders in Bahrain, and will participate in the conference, sponsored by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. The meeting will focus on security issue in the region, but Iran is likely to dominate much of the discussions.
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Van der Sloot ordered released from Aruba jail

(CNN) — In a decision that could end hopes for any prosecutions in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, an Aruban judge on Friday ordered the release of a third suspect, Joran van der Sloot.

The other suspects, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, were released last week, a decision upheld by a three-judge panel on appeal. Prosecutors said they will not appeal the decision to release van der Sloot, meaning all three suspects will remain free pending any potential trial.

The judge’s reasoning in making the decision Friday follows that of the Court of Appeal in the decision to uphold the release of the Kalpoes, Chief Public Prosecutor Hans Mos’ office said in a written statement.

He writes that recent investigation has not resulted in more direct evidence than before that Natalee Holloway has died as a result of a violent crime against her or that the suspect has been involved in such a crime, it said.

The prosecutor’s office said that in light of the Court of Appeal’s decision on the Kalpoes’ release, an appeal of the van der Sloot decision is viewed as fruitless.

All three suspects, who were arrested and released during the investigation in 2005, were rearrested November 21, with authorities citing new and incriminating evidence against them. That new evidence has not been disclosed, but Mos has said it was gathered from advanced techniques used to re-examine existing information, including cell phone records and text messages exchanged the night Holloway disappeared.

Investigators also returned to the homes of the suspects to try to re-create transmissions. The team also discovered that some existing evidence was improperly analyzed, Mos said.

The three were held on suspicion of manslaughter, or assault and battery resulting in Holloway’s death, authorities have said.

Holloway, 18, has not been seen since she left an Oranjestad, Aruba, nightclub on May 30, 2005, with the three youths. She was on the island with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, but failed to show up the following day for her flight home.

Mos has said he believes evidence in the case will show Holloway is dead, although her body has never been found.

The three youths have maintained their innocence in the case. The Kalpoes have told police they dropped Holloway and van der Sloot off near a lighthouse on the northern tip of the island after they left the nightclub. Van der Sloot’s mother, Anita, has said her son told her he was on the beach with Holloway but left her there because she wanted to stay.

Prosecutors have said they will announce by the end of the year whether they will try the suspects in the case.

Meanwhile, the girl’s parents have resumed the search for her remains. A boat commissioned to search the waters off the coast of Aruba was expected to arrive on Tuesday, after it was delayed by a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the boat team.
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