Hmm, guess I am too :) Started here with a Vic20, graduated to the 64, then the 128. Loved Basic Programming, favorite game was Sword of Fargoal. I was a Beta tester for Quantum Link, and Rabbitjack casino. Many moons have passed LOL Must look for the 64, I'm sure we set it back somewhere.....
Wow, that brings back memories! I tried to program a choose-your-own-adventure style text game on one of those when I was a kid.... Hmm, I hope that doesn't reveal too much about my age.. Oh, well, not that I care.
Actually, we still have our Commodore 64 sitting downstairs in the basement. We bought it for my son since his handwriting was so bad the teachers couldn't read his work. He used it from 3rd grade on I think. He keeps saying he is going to use it to play some of the original games, but hasn't ever done so. I'll have to see if he has seen the news and if it spurs him to try to connect it up again. Since so many of our discs were copies I'm not sure any of us remember how to use them, but we'll have to see.
Now that rekindles my desire to see someone take the old design from the PCjr chiclet keyboard and make a USB attached version. It's really nice for someone like me with coordination issues because if you don't hit the key squarely in the center, you can't depress the key and because of the spacing between them, you can't slip across multiple keys and really mess up. I'm sorry, but keyboard dams just end up bruising my fingertips.
BTW, Zork is available for free through Activision. And of course, I have a DOS emulator on my computer for my old-school needs. *sighs* Ah, the good old days when floppy disks were. And you could spend frustrating days trying to figure out just what the right command was to pole vault across a chasm.
Never learned programming (but would love to). Did, however, learn computer skills thru school of hard knocks. Had to familiarize myself real quick when work went computerized. Bought my own for home and where is where I learned most everything. Trial and error. Did a little DOS but don't know the language off top of head. Noticing that everything you learn in school is only good for a few years out in the world before it is obsolete. Have to embrace change.
I was too poor to own a Commodore as a kid, but I do have a Sidstation synth, which uses a C64 sound chip. The synth was discontinued when they ran out of chips... so I saw this article and thought maybe they'd be making more... but no:
Clicky keys can be had without the Commodore.
I'm typing on a perfectly functioning IBM Model M right now and loving it's buckling spring switches.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not really tempted by the Commodore remakes, but the link from that article to the one about the guys who are trying to scrape together funds to build an Analytical Engine really caught my attention. I'd donate if I wasn't broke.