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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 338
EAN: 9780973864908
ISBN: 0973864907
Label: Variant Press
Manufacturer: Variant Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 548
Publication Date: September 14, 2005
Publisher: Variant Press
Release Date: September 14, 2005
Sales Rank: 23256
Studio: Variant Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Between 1976 and 1994, Commodore had astounding success in the nascent personal computer business. Amid the chaos and infighting, Commodore was able to achieve some remarkable industry firsts. They were the first major company to show a personal computer, even before Apple and Radio Shack. They sold a million computers before anyone else. No single computer has sold more than the Commodore 64. The first true multimedia computer, the Amiga, came from Commodore. Yet with all these milestones, Commodore receives almost no credit as a pioneer. Commodore was one of the only companies with the ability to make silicon, and the results were obvious. They had more creativity, more color, and more character than the competition. While Apple and IBM charged exorbitant prices, Commodore was able to reach the masses with affordable computers while remaining profitable. The Commodore 64 cut a path of destruction through the early industry, knocking Tandy, Texas Instruments, Sinclair, and Atari out of the computer business and badly hurting Apple and even IBM. While other companies received more press, Commodore sold more computers. Yet Commodore never reached a comfortable position. They were always on the verge of blinding success or abysmal failure. Commodore’s volatile founder, Jack Tramiel, lived on the edge, and he made sure his employees lived there too. On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore tells the story through over 44 hours of interviews with former engineers and managers: Chuck Peddle, the digital God who created a revolution with the 6502 chip and designed the PET computer. Al Charpentier, the chain smoking architect of Commodore’s revolutionary graphics chips. Bob Yannes, the frustrated musician and synthesizer aficionado who designed the Commodore 64 and the SID sound chip. Bil Herd, the unruly engineer who created the maligned Plus/4 and later sought redemption with the C128. The Amiga engineers, who created the first true multimedia system even before the word multimedia existed. Irving Gould, financier and majority shareholder who rescued Commodore in the sixties, then allowed it to wither.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Having had several Commodore 64s in the 1980s and having loved the darned little machine to death, literally, I eagerly plowed into this thick hardback. It was a slog at times, especially when the politics and the business stuff got heavy, but there was enough technology to make it quite interesting. One fascinating story is how the MOS engineers got hold of a chip made by Atari and scraped it down, layer by layer, to find the Japanese had cloned the 6502 core, minus the Commodore patented circuits. ... Read More
Rating:  -
An enlightening and educational read that is at once fascinating and frustrating, "On the Edge" generally succeeds. The chronicles of Peddle and his MOS team, Yannes and his SID chip, and Miner, Mical and co. with their Amiga, are all brimming with poignant tales from a bygone era that seems far removed from today's PC industry. Further, Commodore is examined from technological and humanistic perspectives equally, which is impressive and unusual for books on this subject.
With that said, ... Read More
Rating: -
On The Edge is a book you certainly want to read if you are interested in what went on behind the scenes at Commodore during the years of their success on the home computer market through to their decline during the 90's. Brian Bagnall did a fine job of sifting through what must have been many long interviews and collecting stories and produced a very detailed and extensive history of a company that captures the imagination of so many people to this day. This book will keep you reading all of it's 550+ ... Read More
Rating: -
"We need an effort like we've never seen before... again!"
Like many computer geeks my age, I grew up using the VIC-20 and the Commodore 64. But I was far too young to be reading the Wall Street Journal and the Forbes 500 reports to learn how the well the company was or wasn't doing. I was also too young to realize what a technological leap was born at Commodore and at MOS Technology. So this book was perfect for me; it offers a nice balance between the small picture (geeky hardware stuff) ... Read More
Rating: -
As a teenager, I saved a summer's worth of lawn mowing money, to purchase my first computer, a Commodore 64. So, I was excited to read the book on the computer that formulated my career. However, I'm in the minority here, by thinking this book is good, but not great.
I take off two stars for a couple of reasons. First, the content of this book needs to be ruthlessly cut. It weighs in at about 500 pages; it could be cut down to 300, and be just as interesting and informative. For instance, ... Read More
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