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The Commodore Series #2
Commodore: a Company on the Edge
Filled with first-hand accounts of ambition, greed, and inspired engineering, this history of the personal computer revolution takes readers inside the cutthroat world of Commodore. Before Apple, IBM, or Dell, Commodore was the first computer manufacturer to market its machines to the public, selling an estimated 22 million Commodore 64s. Those halcyon days were tumultuous, however, owing to the expectations and unsparing tactics of founder Jack Tramiel. Engineers and managers with the company between 1976 and 1994 share their memories of the groundbreaking moments, soaring business highs, and stunning employee turnover that came with being on top in the early days of the microcomputer industry. This updated second edition includes additional interviews and first-hand material from major Commodore figures like marketing guru Kit Spencer, chip designer Bill Mensch, and Commodore co-founder Manfred Kapp.
548 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 14, 2005
83 people are currently reading
2431 people want to read
About the author
Brian Bagnall
11 books20 followersBrian Bagnall is the author of numerous computer titles, including the Commodore Series.
Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
December 2, 2007
I liked this book quite a bit, but I have always had a soft spot for tech-story books, even the fantasy of the Apple story. The C64 was my first computer at around 9 and I loved it with all my heart. I wrote my college entry essays on it when my peecee broke and was accepted to all of them (errr.... both). The interesting thing to note is that Commodore gets very little credit for revolutionizing the PC industry even though it can be said that they did more for it than Apple and IBM combined. But I believe that the reasons for their relative obscurity in the revolutionizing department are two-fold:
1) No one likes the leader. They sold something like 20 million C64s and dominated the market for 5 years or so (which in computer years is something like 27 bajillion years). Everyone hates the winner.
2) The guys creating the computers were dicks. From Tramiel to Peddle the engineers and mangers involved were not cool and had over inflated views of themselves. On more than one occasion someone describes themselves as a samurai and on other occasions they talk about how superior their brain cases were. At least Apple had Woz and while IBM was Borg, they at least were nameless and faceless automata.
So that's it. It's still a nice read, and highly recommended for those in love with computer folklore. Just don't expect to find many heroes.
-m
1) No one likes the leader. They sold something like 20 million C64s and dominated the market for 5 years or so (which in computer years is something like 27 bajillion years). Everyone hates the winner.
2) The guys creating the computers were dicks. From Tramiel to Peddle the engineers and mangers involved were not cool and had over inflated views of themselves. On more than one occasion someone describes themselves as a samurai and on other occasions they talk about how superior their brain cases were. At least Apple had Woz and while IBM was Borg, they at least were nameless and faceless automata.
So that's it. It's still a nice read, and highly recommended for those in love with computer folklore. Just don't expect to find many heroes.
-m
February 8, 2012
This is the story of not just Commodore, but the founding of MOS Technology which created the 6502 microprocessor.
This is a better business book than most I've read, because the author is unafraid to make clear judgement calls. When Jack Tramiel did something smart, the author says so. When someone does something dumb, he says so to. For instance, their marketing guy Tomczyk spent a long time negotiating a deal with Nintendo to have Commodore be the American company to port Nintendo's games to the C64 and release them. He brought the deal to Tramiel and Tramiel inexplicably said no. Result: Nintendo turned to Atari, who became their launch partner, and the games still came out for the C64 but now Commodore wasn't making any money.
You can learn about mistakes to avoid from this book. Other business history books I've read often somehow manage to muddle the story so that it's never clear; I have one about Carly Fiorina's time at HP (widely regarded as disastrous) that doesn't clearly explain what major decisions she made and why, and how they turned out wrong.
Note 1: There seem to be two editions of this book, and the first edition supposedly goes to 1994 (covering the Amiga story and leading up to the time Commodore went bankrupt), but the edition I have (the 2nd ed.) doesn't seem to go that far. It might be worth getting the first edition as well.
Note 2: I didn't realize it, but the 6502 was a ground-breaking invention because it was the first microprocessor that was fantastically cheap enough to be included in mass market consumer devices. Motorola and Intel had somewhat more-capable chips which sold for about six times as much. The tech lead for the Motorola 6800 team suggested to Motorola that they make a low-cost device, and Motorola said no. So the team quit, and moved to a new company MOS Technology, and made the 6502. MOS was able to get their defect rate low enough that the chip could be sold cheaply; they introduced it at an early West Coast Computer Faire, and there was a groundswell of demand. People were buying 6502s for like $20, out of a big jar; and the jar was a visual demonstration that MOS could manufacture the chip in volume, in order to make people feel comfortable about building it into their products. (In fact, only the chips on the top of the jar were good; the ones in the middle and bottom were ones that had failed testing.) The 6502 is, in some sense, the Model T Ford of microprocessors.
This is a better business book than most I've read, because the author is unafraid to make clear judgement calls. When Jack Tramiel did something smart, the author says so. When someone does something dumb, he says so to. For instance, their marketing guy Tomczyk spent a long time negotiating a deal with Nintendo to have Commodore be the American company to port Nintendo's games to the C64 and release them. He brought the deal to Tramiel and Tramiel inexplicably said no. Result: Nintendo turned to Atari, who became their launch partner, and the games still came out for the C64 but now Commodore wasn't making any money.
You can learn about mistakes to avoid from this book. Other business history books I've read often somehow manage to muddle the story so that it's never clear; I have one about Carly Fiorina's time at HP (widely regarded as disastrous) that doesn't clearly explain what major decisions she made and why, and how they turned out wrong.
Note 1: There seem to be two editions of this book, and the first edition supposedly goes to 1994 (covering the Amiga story and leading up to the time Commodore went bankrupt), but the edition I have (the 2nd ed.) doesn't seem to go that far. It might be worth getting the first edition as well.
Note 2: I didn't realize it, but the 6502 was a ground-breaking invention because it was the first microprocessor that was fantastically cheap enough to be included in mass market consumer devices. Motorola and Intel had somewhat more-capable chips which sold for about six times as much. The tech lead for the Motorola 6800 team suggested to Motorola that they make a low-cost device, and Motorola said no. So the team quit, and moved to a new company MOS Technology, and made the 6502. MOS was able to get their defect rate low enough that the chip could be sold cheaply; they introduced it at an early West Coast Computer Faire, and there was a groundswell of demand. People were buying 6502s for like $20, out of a big jar; and the jar was a visual demonstration that MOS could manufacture the chip in volume, in order to make people feel comfortable about building it into their products. (In fact, only the chips on the top of the jar were good; the ones in the middle and bottom were ones that had failed testing.) The 6502 is, in some sense, the Model T Ford of microprocessors.
April 3, 2009
This book is great. Seriously. 5 stars.
My first computer was a Commodore 64 and we also had an Amiga, so I'm probably biased. There is a lot of revising of history that eliminates Commodore from the personal computer landscape and makes everything be about PC vs. Apple. In the early and mid 80s, Commodore had a lot going for it. The Commodore 64 was the first personal computer to sell 1 million units. The Amiga was light years ahead of everything else when it came out in 1985.
If their technology was so awesome then what happened? READ THE BOOK.
My first computer was a Commodore 64 and we also had an Amiga, so I'm probably biased. There is a lot of revising of history that eliminates Commodore from the personal computer landscape and makes everything be about PC vs. Apple. In the early and mid 80s, Commodore had a lot going for it. The Commodore 64 was the first personal computer to sell 1 million units. The Amiga was light years ahead of everything else when it came out in 1985.
If their technology was so awesome then what happened? READ THE BOOK.
October 15, 2020
If, once upon a time, you loved your C64 and promised to keep loving it when YOU're 64, you'll love this book too. There are probably lot more details than you think, but if you really want to know everything and all that happened while you were happily gaming away with 11-th Quickshot of the year counting seconds until its demise under your sweaty hands, this book is for you.
August 13, 2015
I had read the original edition and had found it to be one of the best computer history AND business books I've read.
Though I'm no Commodore fan (CPC rulez!) the book is really great with an exciting pace and many insights. Really well put together with characters coming alive and several not known or obscure details about the development of the company and its machines.
Can't wait for the Amiga Years!
Though I'm no Commodore fan (CPC rulez!) the book is really great with an exciting pace and many insights. Really well put together with characters coming alive and several not known or obscure details about the development of the company and its machines.
Can't wait for the Amiga Years!
August 8, 2007
Commodore built some of the landmark computers early in the history of the personal computer. They made the first fully integrated personal computer, the first computer to sell more than a million units, and the best-selling single model of computer ever (the Commodore 64). They were also responsible for the first multimedia computer, the Amiga, and were a mainstay of the digital arts world for over a decade.
So how did they manage to screw it all up? They could have owned the world. The story of Commodore is told in "On the Edge", and it's a great story.
In fact, the story is, honestly, the only reason I keep reading. I love the old Commodore machines (especially the Amiga), and I love hearing the story from the perspective of those in the trenches. The book certainly does not disappoint in that regard: there are interviews with dozens of people who worked for Commodore throughout its turbulent history. The interviews are informative and to the point.
Unfortunately, the non-quote writing leaves quite a bit to be desired. The author does not follow standard English professional writing style. For example, he italicizes things that should not be in italics (for example, the University of Minnesota). He also seems to have been writing with a thesaurus next to him. Whenever he quotes someone, he finishes the sentence with a new synonym for "said": people in turn "exclaim", "recall", "muse", and a variety of other actions. It's not bad to use these words when the subtle shades of meaning actually fit what is being said, but someone does not, for example, exclaim "I started working at this company in 1979. It was a bit of a rainy day."
The biggest flaw, however, is that the author seems to occasionally forget to introduce important people. Someone will say something about another person in an interview, and that person magically becomes part of the narrative. It is up to the reader to determine, via context, what relationship that person had with Commodore. The author also forgets critical background information, leaving it as a stumbling block when it is referenced in quotes later in the text (for example, Jack Tramiel, a major player in Commodore's history, was a survivor of the Nazi death camps. This is not mentioned in the narrative, but someone does say "Jack worked in the camps." It's up to the reader to determine which camps).
So, I would say that, while I do recommend this book, it's not because of the writing. The story of Commodore is so good and so integral to the modern personal computer that anyone with an interest in computer history should read it. If you ignore the mediocre writing and the lamentable lapses in journalistic ability, it's a great story.
So how did they manage to screw it all up? They could have owned the world. The story of Commodore is told in "On the Edge", and it's a great story.
In fact, the story is, honestly, the only reason I keep reading. I love the old Commodore machines (especially the Amiga), and I love hearing the story from the perspective of those in the trenches. The book certainly does not disappoint in that regard: there are interviews with dozens of people who worked for Commodore throughout its turbulent history. The interviews are informative and to the point.
Unfortunately, the non-quote writing leaves quite a bit to be desired. The author does not follow standard English professional writing style. For example, he italicizes things that should not be in italics (for example, the University of Minnesota). He also seems to have been writing with a thesaurus next to him. Whenever he quotes someone, he finishes the sentence with a new synonym for "said": people in turn "exclaim", "recall", "muse", and a variety of other actions. It's not bad to use these words when the subtle shades of meaning actually fit what is being said, but someone does not, for example, exclaim "I started working at this company in 1979. It was a bit of a rainy day."
The biggest flaw, however, is that the author seems to occasionally forget to introduce important people. Someone will say something about another person in an interview, and that person magically becomes part of the narrative. It is up to the reader to determine, via context, what relationship that person had with Commodore. The author also forgets critical background information, leaving it as a stumbling block when it is referenced in quotes later in the text (for example, Jack Tramiel, a major player in Commodore's history, was a survivor of the Nazi death camps. This is not mentioned in the narrative, but someone does say "Jack worked in the camps." It's up to the reader to determine which camps).
So, I would say that, while I do recommend this book, it's not because of the writing. The story of Commodore is so good and so integral to the modern personal computer that anyone with an interest in computer history should read it. If you ignore the mediocre writing and the lamentable lapses in journalistic ability, it's a great story.
May 12, 2011
The introduction to the book sets the tone, when the author laments how most of the other computer histories in books and movies get it wrong, giving too much credit to other companies like Apple for the success of the personal computing revolution. That's a valid point. But As I've started to read the first hundred pages or so, a pattern emerged. The following occurs so many times, we can call the book formulaic:
"Book xxx says that the following thing happened. But it's wrong, and here's a quote from Chuck Peddle as proof."
"Here's a quote by an industry insider xxx, who says that the following thing happened. But it's wrong, and here's a quote from Chuck Peddle as proof."
The book reads more as an autobiography of Chuck than anything else. I can't get past the first 150 pages without having read a few hundred quotes from him, with only about a dozen quotes from other sources mixed in.
Also, the book takes the opportunity to bad-mouth Apple at every opportunity. The author really has some anger issues to work out.
Well, that, and the poor grammar and lack of editing. The wrong usage of the word "you're/your" and incorrect use of an apostrophe ("the two Steve's" used in a non-possessive context) within the first 60 pages detract from what might be valid points.
I wanted to like this book, to read something that offered a look at a company that wasn't Microsoft or Apple during those years. But the angry tone and bias of this book weaken what could have been an effective rewrite of history.
"Book xxx says that the following thing happened. But it's wrong, and here's a quote from Chuck Peddle as proof."
"Here's a quote by an industry insider xxx, who says that the following thing happened. But it's wrong, and here's a quote from Chuck Peddle as proof."
The book reads more as an autobiography of Chuck than anything else. I can't get past the first 150 pages without having read a few hundred quotes from him, with only about a dozen quotes from other sources mixed in.
Also, the book takes the opportunity to bad-mouth Apple at every opportunity. The author really has some anger issues to work out.
Well, that, and the poor grammar and lack of editing. The wrong usage of the word "you're/your" and incorrect use of an apostrophe ("the two Steve's" used in a non-possessive context) within the first 60 pages detract from what might be valid points.
I wanted to like this book, to read something that offered a look at a company that wasn't Microsoft or Apple during those years. But the angry tone and bias of this book weaken what could have been an effective rewrite of history.
April 8, 2010
"BUSINESS IS WARRRRRRRRR!!! WE MUST BECOME THE JAPANEEEEEZZZE!!!" -- Jack Tramiel, CEO Commodore
If I was an engineer back then, I'd happily sacrifice my life as a Commodore Warrior for "Jack-Attack" Tramiel.
Don't believe the revisionist history! Apple is, and always has been, the original evil-empire. They led a revolution? THEY LED NOTHING!!!
Read about how Commodore engineer Chuck Peddle used to school "The Woz" and "Fake Steve" in how real computers were made. Read about a company that lived life on the edge, broke all the rules, and brought more affordable & advanced computers to more people than any other company of it's day.
This story comes complete, including the evil Wall Street banker, to kill the once-mighty company in the end.
Seriously, what self-respecting engineer could'a worked for a man who wears black turtlenecks with skinny arms... or a full-grown man who rides a scooter everywhere and wants to be called "The Woz"?
A great and entertaining book about mutually abrasive personalities locked in a single room. Think Jerry Springer with PhD's.
If I was an engineer back then, I'd happily sacrifice my life as a Commodore Warrior for "Jack-Attack" Tramiel.
Don't believe the revisionist history! Apple is, and always has been, the original evil-empire. They led a revolution? THEY LED NOTHING!!!
Read about how Commodore engineer Chuck Peddle used to school "The Woz" and "Fake Steve" in how real computers were made. Read about a company that lived life on the edge, broke all the rules, and brought more affordable & advanced computers to more people than any other company of it's day.
This story comes complete, including the evil Wall Street banker, to kill the once-mighty company in the end.
Seriously, what self-respecting engineer could'a worked for a man who wears black turtlenecks with skinny arms... or a full-grown man who rides a scooter everywhere and wants to be called "The Woz"?
A great and entertaining book about mutually abrasive personalities locked in a single room. Think Jerry Springer with PhD's.
November 10, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A caveat: I am old and grew up on the PET and Commodore 64. Thus this book provided a historical context around technology I was personally involved in, which probably made it more interesting.
The author did a great job of providing relevant technical detail while focusing on the personal details of the people involved. I think anyone with a passing interest in early home computer technology would get a lot out of this book.
I was particularly surprised at how negative this book was toward Apple. The history in this book lays out a pretty convincing argument that Apple was not at all one of the inventors of the home computer industry as they have claimed. Then again, the victors write the history books so it's not surprising that we would now think that Apple invented everything.
One minor gripe: the editing of the Kindle version of this book was pretty terrible. One page of the book was just the same two sentences accidentally repeated over and over again.
The author did a great job of providing relevant technical detail while focusing on the personal details of the people involved. I think anyone with a passing interest in early home computer technology would get a lot out of this book.
I was particularly surprised at how negative this book was toward Apple. The history in this book lays out a pretty convincing argument that Apple was not at all one of the inventors of the home computer industry as they have claimed. Then again, the victors write the history books so it's not surprising that we would now think that Apple invented everything.
One minor gripe: the editing of the Kindle version of this book was pretty terrible. One page of the book was just the same two sentences accidentally repeated over and over again.
May 20, 2017
Detailed outlook on commodore
A bit more detail about all of the people involved in the rise of commodore than I needed, but still a good read for a history lesson on personal computing
A bit more detail about all of the people involved in the rise of commodore than I needed, but still a good read for a history lesson on personal computing
February 23, 2020
Now that I’m much older, I’ve been interested in the corporate history of early personal computer companies. Apple is one. IBM another, along with Microsoft. But then there is Atari & Commodore. Like in many arenas, it is a matter of luck and skill that leads to success. Apple has a lot of luck. They were able to survive when others did not through the shakeouts of the 1980’s & 1990’s. Commodore, the subject of the book here, contained a number of people that were developing ideas way ahead of their time. But through mismanagement, it was squandered.
I’m a dyed in the wool Apple guy. So I acknowledge that I have a certain bent to the early computer history of Silicon Valley. But time has given me the ability to look outside & understand the crazy time that was the personal computer golden age when I was growing up.
So this will be a series of things I learned and didn’t know.
I had always thought of Commodore as an east coast company. I didn’t know there were extensive R&D offices in the Bay Area. There was an advanced technology group on Moorepark. They were doing a investigating a lot of far sighted ideas there (this would be similar to Apple’s ATG). Eventually this was shut down, as Jack had issues with it over time. Amiga was also local to the Bay Area, eventually doing their work in Los Gatos.
The father of the 6502 was also the father of the PET computer. Commodore owned MOS, so they had their own fab for custom chips. This explained how the C64/128 & Amiga could have a lot of custom silicon. For the C64, it helped get around the limits of the 6502, while in the Amiga it really pushed what a 68k based machine was capable of.
Speaking of the Amiga. It was a fully realized machine in 1985. 68k based like the Mac, but with more memory and a lot of sophisticated silicon. Multitasking from the outset, 4096 colors. The Mac Plus didn’t hit until 1986. Color, expandable Macs were not out until 1987. All for less. What hampered the machine was the OS. Lots of drama with the OS. Also lots of drama with the marketing of the Amiga. This kept Commodore from reaching their core market, ceding it to Atari. They had all of the pieces in place to dominate the personal computer market, but the brilliant Amiga engineers couldn’t fix the systemic issues within the rest of the company.
Jack, through to the C64, couldn’t care less about software. He was a calculator hardware guy. Software was an expense. Jobs saw software as key & shunned custom silicon (hence a slow Mac).
Jack had no long term vision, other than create [insert company name here] killers. The C64 was to be the Apple killer. Then he wanted to dominate the sub-$100 market, mainly to kill TI, as he had personal issues with them. Business is War was his ethos. It also kept the company from truly dominating. Jack didn’t understand computers, really. He simply wanted to brawl at the low end. He’d be his own worst enemy, squeezing margins. Plus suppliers (owing without paying was one of his signature moves). But to keep the business moving, it needs profits to pour back into more development.
Except that didn’t really happen. While the engineers had a lot of freedom, they were also subject to the whims of Jack. He made sure everything moved through him & he’d change directions to suit his mood. ie make an Apple killer in 3 months so he could show it at the next CES. The engineers pulled it off, though the machine was essentially a hack due to the serious time constraints. Yet it sold in huge numbers. I liked the story about the compatibility mode in the C128. The engineers had to put all of the bugs back into the system, as clever software developers had used the flaws for their own hacks.
So what could have been a series of truly dominating machines ended up being victim to egos at the top. Just when they were on top of the world, they would tear themselves down. What a waste of engineering talent and what they were able to do in such resource constrained environments. For me, in the end, the book was sad in that regard. The engineers poured so much of themselves into their machines, yet in the end, management ran the company into the ground.
One note about the writing itself. There was a lot of repetition & at times the narrative dragged. At times it felt the author wanted to dive into the technical parts of the machines, but then pulls away to analyze the personalities involved. It didn't flow. It did feel best when the engineers were describing their work and how they fixed the problems they encountered. It looks like this book was expanded into a set of 3, with more material. This is a good introduction for me to the hisotry.
I’m a dyed in the wool Apple guy. So I acknowledge that I have a certain bent to the early computer history of Silicon Valley. But time has given me the ability to look outside & understand the crazy time that was the personal computer golden age when I was growing up.
So this will be a series of things I learned and didn’t know.
I had always thought of Commodore as an east coast company. I didn’t know there were extensive R&D offices in the Bay Area. There was an advanced technology group on Moorepark. They were doing a investigating a lot of far sighted ideas there (this would be similar to Apple’s ATG). Eventually this was shut down, as Jack had issues with it over time. Amiga was also local to the Bay Area, eventually doing their work in Los Gatos.
The father of the 6502 was also the father of the PET computer. Commodore owned MOS, so they had their own fab for custom chips. This explained how the C64/128 & Amiga could have a lot of custom silicon. For the C64, it helped get around the limits of the 6502, while in the Amiga it really pushed what a 68k based machine was capable of.
Speaking of the Amiga. It was a fully realized machine in 1985. 68k based like the Mac, but with more memory and a lot of sophisticated silicon. Multitasking from the outset, 4096 colors. The Mac Plus didn’t hit until 1986. Color, expandable Macs were not out until 1987. All for less. What hampered the machine was the OS. Lots of drama with the OS. Also lots of drama with the marketing of the Amiga. This kept Commodore from reaching their core market, ceding it to Atari. They had all of the pieces in place to dominate the personal computer market, but the brilliant Amiga engineers couldn’t fix the systemic issues within the rest of the company.
Jack, through to the C64, couldn’t care less about software. He was a calculator hardware guy. Software was an expense. Jobs saw software as key & shunned custom silicon (hence a slow Mac).
Jack had no long term vision, other than create [insert company name here] killers. The C64 was to be the Apple killer. Then he wanted to dominate the sub-$100 market, mainly to kill TI, as he had personal issues with them. Business is War was his ethos. It also kept the company from truly dominating. Jack didn’t understand computers, really. He simply wanted to brawl at the low end. He’d be his own worst enemy, squeezing margins. Plus suppliers (owing without paying was one of his signature moves). But to keep the business moving, it needs profits to pour back into more development.
Except that didn’t really happen. While the engineers had a lot of freedom, they were also subject to the whims of Jack. He made sure everything moved through him & he’d change directions to suit his mood. ie make an Apple killer in 3 months so he could show it at the next CES. The engineers pulled it off, though the machine was essentially a hack due to the serious time constraints. Yet it sold in huge numbers. I liked the story about the compatibility mode in the C128. The engineers had to put all of the bugs back into the system, as clever software developers had used the flaws for their own hacks.
So what could have been a series of truly dominating machines ended up being victim to egos at the top. Just when they were on top of the world, they would tear themselves down. What a waste of engineering talent and what they were able to do in such resource constrained environments. For me, in the end, the book was sad in that regard. The engineers poured so much of themselves into their machines, yet in the end, management ran the company into the ground.
One note about the writing itself. There was a lot of repetition & at times the narrative dragged. At times it felt the author wanted to dive into the technical parts of the machines, but then pulls away to analyze the personalities involved. It didn't flow. It did feel best when the engineers were describing their work and how they fixed the problems they encountered. It looks like this book was expanded into a set of 3, with more material. This is a good introduction for me to the hisotry.
February 4, 2016
This is a thorough account of Commodore through all its computer-producing years. As a former C64 programmer and enthusiast, the accounts of the key personalities and behind-the-scenes corporate drama are fascinating.
Unfortunately, many long passages, especially in the earlier chapters, are verbatim quotes from Chuck Peddle presented without commentary or any countervailing perspective. The text has numerous typos, repeats phrases, and drags in places. The book would have benefited from more forceful editing.
It's an enjoyable read for Commodore groupies, but would probably be a slow slog for anyone else.
Unfortunately, many long passages, especially in the earlier chapters, are verbatim quotes from Chuck Peddle presented without commentary or any countervailing perspective. The text has numerous typos, repeats phrases, and drags in places. The book would have benefited from more forceful editing.
It's an enjoyable read for Commodore groupies, but would probably be a slow slog for anyone else.
October 13, 2007
aaaahhh...geeky nostalgia goodness! i went the route of Apple II back in the day, only hands-on exposure the competition (commodore, atari) was at K-Mart. dunno why. Apple II led to the Mac, which was extremely hard to program for (aak, Hypercard)! and was still niche. wonder what life would be like if i grew up hacking away at a commodore or atari machine. would have led to PCs rather than Macs.
anywho, good times those late 70s early to mid 80s. the technology we take for granted today.
anywho, good times those late 70s early to mid 80s. the technology we take for granted today.
February 18, 2013
A really fascinating and seemingly authentic look at not only the rise and fall of the biggest computer company of all-time, but also of the entire industry upto the mid nineties. Highly recommended reading for those of you who think Apple and the Jobs Messiah are the most important thing to happen to computers.
December 28, 2013
About to re-read this and realized I'd never rated it. Will edit this later but, as a very fortunate child whose DoD-employed grandfather introduced her to the Commodore 64 (hence setting me on the track to a tech career I love, and have always, loved), I highly recommend this. Warning: This recommendation may contain a touch of nostalgia.
May 9, 2015
Çok ama çok fazla bilgi içeren, muhteşem bir araştırma ürünü.
November 12, 2021
A self-published book of over 500 pages certainly gives a prospective reader pause: this combination tends to indicate excessively in-depth treatment of a niche subject area that surely could be improved with the services of a good editor. One must decide at the outset (or after reading a short section of the book) whether the appeal of the subject matter itself outweighs any of these flaws. For me, it did, because I am a nerd about computing history, but it's true that a tome like this is not generally readable by a layperson audience. It meanders, it duplicates material, its timeline is not as linear as one would imagine, and it is both strong and weak on detail in different areas. That said, it is no doubt as comprehensive an account of the rise and fall of Commodore Business Machines as we can hope to have -- inflected, as it is, with substantial survivor bias (Bagnall clearly lionizes many of the engineers, and hasn't interviewed any of the managers that those engineers disdained). Bagnall also falls into the trap of lionizing the engineer stereotype: the unwashed, anti-social geeks who worked 100+ hours, barely showered, and delivered amazing results under pressure. All this may be factually true, but much of it wouldn't have been necessary were it not for enormous management incompetence, starting with Jack Tramiel and his primary investor, Canadian playboy Irving Gould, and ending with later generations of imbeciles like Mehdi Ali. Any competent managers seem to have been driven out of the company sooner rather than later.
Commodore did deliver some incredible products under pressure, although the systems (Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga, etc.) were not as well-architected as one might think based on their market success, which goes to show that a company must work together in its entirety to create sustainable innovation and growth. Accordingly, Bagnall's harsh criticisms of marketing as being a bunch of mostly lackluster idiots who delivered little value to the company do not hold much water, and in fact seem to parrot Jack Tramiel's view that engineers should be viewed as all-powerful kings. Bagnall misses an opportunity to be more critical of the systemic, cultural, and organizational issues that underpin Commodore's eventual failure, engaging rather in a glib and superficial analysis-by-anecdote of the effects of poor management, rather than the proximate causes. Again, one can't help but imagine these are issues that the withering gaze of a good editor would have rectified.
On the Edge is not as unreadable as I originally feared (after ingesting the first fifty pages); I was compelled to finish it. But it's certainly not for an average audience.
Commodore did deliver some incredible products under pressure, although the systems (Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Amiga, etc.) were not as well-architected as one might think based on their market success, which goes to show that a company must work together in its entirety to create sustainable innovation and growth. Accordingly, Bagnall's harsh criticisms of marketing as being a bunch of mostly lackluster idiots who delivered little value to the company do not hold much water, and in fact seem to parrot Jack Tramiel's view that engineers should be viewed as all-powerful kings. Bagnall misses an opportunity to be more critical of the systemic, cultural, and organizational issues that underpin Commodore's eventual failure, engaging rather in a glib and superficial analysis-by-anecdote of the effects of poor management, rather than the proximate causes. Again, one can't help but imagine these are issues that the withering gaze of a good editor would have rectified.
On the Edge is not as unreadable as I originally feared (after ingesting the first fifty pages); I was compelled to finish it. But it's certainly not for an average audience.
January 27, 2025
Going through my teens as a budding geek in Europe in the 80s, I grew up in the heyday of Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and MSX.
I loved reading about the Commodore, as they are not frequently covered in the recent histories about the time. The book is written as a long collection of quotes from interviews with the key players, which gives it credibility and authenticity - but at times I wish there was a bit more of a narrator voice too.
That said, I loved this and at times found it hard to put down. 👍
Full review: https://puf.io/books/commodore:-a-com...
I loved reading about the Commodore, as they are not frequently covered in the recent histories about the time. The book is written as a long collection of quotes from interviews with the key players, which gives it credibility and authenticity - but at times I wish there was a bit more of a narrator voice too.
That said, I loved this and at times found it hard to put down. 👍
Full review: https://puf.io/books/commodore:-a-com...
October 24, 2025
My first interaction with a computer was a Commodore 64 my dad had bought some time in the early 80s. I always had a nostalgia for it even using it just as a kid and wondered what the story was. I learned so much for this book most fascinatingly how many things Commodore was way ahead of the curve on as well as of the venerable 6502 I had no idea how much computing owes so that single chip. A worthy read for anyone with an interest in retro computing and tech history.
November 17, 2018
Veldig usikker på om jeg skal gi denne en 3 eller 4. Den er nok mye mer relevant for de som er litt eldre enn meg, siden jeg aldri har tatt på en Commodore-maskin.
Men ganske morsomt å se hvordan datamaskinindustrien var i begynnelsen (og hvordan vellykkede firmaer ofte har svakt psykopatiske ledere)
Men ganske morsomt å se hvordan datamaskinindustrien var i begynnelsen (og hvordan vellykkede firmaer ofte har svakt psykopatiske ledere)
November 23, 2018
Storie, aneddoti e retroscena raccontati da chi lavorò in Commodore tra fine anni 70' fino a metà anni 90'.. i progetti sognati, realizzati o vaporware, le strategie aziendali e di politica interna.
Un libro ben fatto che rende eterna ciò che era già leggenda: la storia della Commodore dalla polvere all'altar .. dall'uno all'altro mar.
Un libro ben fatto che rende eterna ciò che era già leggenda: la storia della Commodore dalla polvere all'altar .. dall'uno all'altro mar.
September 22, 2017
One of the best computer history books out there. Bagnall does a fantastic job in producing a book that is not only great in terms of retro computing, but also manages to be a great business book. Hats off!
October 15, 2017
I appreciated the depth of the technical details that went into this book, making it easier to understand why certain business decisions were made and how technology development is managed and integrated (or not) with marketing.
November 12, 2017
As a child of the 80's nothing was more popular in this time than the Commodore64, iconic product of its time. Fantastic read, as like other corporations in history (i.e. Nokia, Atari) interesting to read how they got it so wrong.
August 12, 2019
Wish I'd never given this book away, as it's not in print and, I think, has been split into two larger books I can't afford :(
Amazing story. Jack Tramiel is... a boss?
Amazing story. Jack Tramiel is... a boss?
December 21, 2019
A good book for reading and learning history and computers... It was thrilling sometimes...
January 4, 2021
Good book that provided a great insight into Commodore and the start of the 8-bit computer age.
September 1, 2024
One of the best documentary books I read in years.
January 31, 2014
A brilliant book that pretty much makes other books about Commodore redundant. This book is so comprehensive that it's hard to think of what might be missing. This is a book about a very peculiar company and some brilliant people doing brilliant stuff. Commodore did some brilliant stuff, like the sound and video chips on the Commodore 64. I hadn't even realised that the CPU of C64 was actually the same as in VIC-20, C64 just had those chips and more memory, but it was on a totally different level performance and price wise to anything on the market at the time. The sound chip, SID, was way better than anything else in anything affordable to normal consumers even though it was a rush-job (like most of the stuff done at Commodore during their peak). The result was a chip that has produced some of the most memorable game music ever and is used to this day.
I also didn't know Amiga wasn't actually a Commodore product at first but the way it was built was reminescant of the way Commodore built some of it's products (PET, VIC-20, C64): by going far beyond what anyone else had ever done. Amiga, at the time of it's release, was an amazing home computer offering unrivalled price and performance. It's too bad Commodore marketing messed the North American market completely and effectively killed the product there. European sales were not enough to keep Commodore afloat in the end. What made Commodore a success at first was the combined price cutting by Tramiel who always wanted to sell at far lower prices than the competition and the engineers who didn't like compromises and were brilliant at what they did. To make such important products required both.
But first and foremost this book is about people. The odd, the brilliant, the obsessed people that made Commodore what it was. From founder and CEO Jack Tramiel who was not a very nice person and ruined a lot of lives but after whose dismissal by majority shareholder Irving Gould Commodore went downhill fast and would have folded a lot earlier without Amiga to the brilliant engineers like Chuck Peddle who created the computer section of Commodore and was then destroyed by Tramiel and the engineers who created C64, Robert Russell and Bob Yannes and many others. These guys were motivated to the point of obsession, brilliant at what they did and some very eccentric, none more so than Bil Herd, a brilliant hardware guy and alcoholic. The stories of some of the antics they made are just brilliant, like how and why Herd punched a hole in the wall of his office.
For someone who spent way too much of his youth playing with the C64 this book is a goldmine of information. For instance, the reason why the 1541 floppy disk was so ridiculously slow is revealed. Commodore was a major factor in bringing computers to home. Much more so than IBM and Commodore easily out-sold companies like Apple during the critical years when the home-market was created (the first three true home computers were TRS-80, Commodore PET and Apple II and the Apple sold way less than the other two). So this book is also a valuable tale of how the computer arrived to our homes. Everyone might have an IBM PC clone now but in the 80's it looked for a while like the future might be in Commodore machines but for some shocking marketing decisions. The whole computer business seems to have changed from brilliant engineers doing brilliant, ground-breaking work to the business-driven model of today where products are changed just enough to make people want to buy it.
The only little thing I was left hoping for was some sort of timeline of the events listed in the book, including the things competition did that was mentioned in the book. Sometimes it was hard to follow the order of the events because things happened in parallel so you might be tossed back several years with a new chapter. Another thing is, of course, that since this book is largely the voice of the engineers that made this happen, the opinions might be a bit lop-sided but this really only bothered me on a few occasions.
For me some of the best gaming experiences ever were with C64 and it's the reason I now work in the computer industry even though I never did do much programming on it. But I, like countless others, were drawn into the computing industry by Commodore. So their legacy is still strong even though the company folded in 1994. This book brings back many memories and also makes you wonder have we lost something while gaining computers with computing powers completely unthinkable 25 years ago.
A company that created PET, VIC-20, C64 and Amiga (they made it a success by creating a cheaper version which made it affordable to many more than the original Amiga 1000) deserves it's history to be told. This book does it and brilliantly. A must-read for anyone who has ever owned one of Commodore's computers.
I also didn't know Amiga wasn't actually a Commodore product at first but the way it was built was reminescant of the way Commodore built some of it's products (PET, VIC-20, C64): by going far beyond what anyone else had ever done. Amiga, at the time of it's release, was an amazing home computer offering unrivalled price and performance. It's too bad Commodore marketing messed the North American market completely and effectively killed the product there. European sales were not enough to keep Commodore afloat in the end. What made Commodore a success at first was the combined price cutting by Tramiel who always wanted to sell at far lower prices than the competition and the engineers who didn't like compromises and were brilliant at what they did. To make such important products required both.
But first and foremost this book is about people. The odd, the brilliant, the obsessed people that made Commodore what it was. From founder and CEO Jack Tramiel who was not a very nice person and ruined a lot of lives but after whose dismissal by majority shareholder Irving Gould Commodore went downhill fast and would have folded a lot earlier without Amiga to the brilliant engineers like Chuck Peddle who created the computer section of Commodore and was then destroyed by Tramiel and the engineers who created C64, Robert Russell and Bob Yannes and many others. These guys were motivated to the point of obsession, brilliant at what they did and some very eccentric, none more so than Bil Herd, a brilliant hardware guy and alcoholic. The stories of some of the antics they made are just brilliant, like how and why Herd punched a hole in the wall of his office.
For someone who spent way too much of his youth playing with the C64 this book is a goldmine of information. For instance, the reason why the 1541 floppy disk was so ridiculously slow is revealed. Commodore was a major factor in bringing computers to home. Much more so than IBM and Commodore easily out-sold companies like Apple during the critical years when the home-market was created (the first three true home computers were TRS-80, Commodore PET and Apple II and the Apple sold way less than the other two). So this book is also a valuable tale of how the computer arrived to our homes. Everyone might have an IBM PC clone now but in the 80's it looked for a while like the future might be in Commodore machines but for some shocking marketing decisions. The whole computer business seems to have changed from brilliant engineers doing brilliant, ground-breaking work to the business-driven model of today where products are changed just enough to make people want to buy it.
The only little thing I was left hoping for was some sort of timeline of the events listed in the book, including the things competition did that was mentioned in the book. Sometimes it was hard to follow the order of the events because things happened in parallel so you might be tossed back several years with a new chapter. Another thing is, of course, that since this book is largely the voice of the engineers that made this happen, the opinions might be a bit lop-sided but this really only bothered me on a few occasions.
For me some of the best gaming experiences ever were with C64 and it's the reason I now work in the computer industry even though I never did do much programming on it. But I, like countless others, were drawn into the computing industry by Commodore. So their legacy is still strong even though the company folded in 1994. This book brings back many memories and also makes you wonder have we lost something while gaining computers with computing powers completely unthinkable 25 years ago.
A company that created PET, VIC-20, C64 and Amiga (they made it a success by creating a cheaper version which made it affordable to many more than the original Amiga 1000) deserves it's history to be told. This book does it and brilliantly. A must-read for anyone who has ever owned one of Commodore's computers.
March 18, 2021
This book suffers the "exhausted author" syndrome, the initial effort is only maintained for a little while, after which the quality recedes to a very average level.
The beginning of the book is very interesting, the narrative is coherent and correctly written. After a while, several hints point at an increasing loss of interest by the author. The most noticeable is the amount of repetitions, in two different forms:
- the author feels compelled to back his narrative by quotes that say exactly the same: '[some fact] happens: "and then [some fact] just happened at this point," says Y'. Sometimes it's even several people repeating the same fact, as if there were any doubt on it. "Here, I can prove it, they say the same," says the author. This is made even more unnecessary by end-of-chapter references to other documents which include those quotes;
- facts and anecdotes repeated in different paragraphs or chapters, most probably by lack of a correct editing phase or because of poor review process.
Those repetitions tend to be very annoying, and most importantly, lengthen the book considerably.
Another issue that appears after 1/4 - 1/3 of the book is the difficulty to keep track of the timeline. The author often mentions the year only, like 1982, but a great deal happened that year, so it's hard to tell whether such fact occurred after or before the other ones. Then the author tends to mix the events when it's not necessary, by jumping quickly ahead before coming back in details and mostly repeating what was presented before. This leads to a inextricable spaghetti of factual threads that the readers must sort out by themselves.
The language becomes a little bit casual in the 2nd half of the book, the author uses expressions that are not really fit for this style of written narrative. The quotes could also be adapted for comprehension or correctness.
Factually though, the book is correct with very rare exceptions, as far as I can tell, it is a good compilation of many sources of information on the subject. It rectifies misconceptions published by other books such as, for example, several biographies of Steve Jobs according to which the Apple II sales dominated the market from the start. It adds very interesting facts on the interaction between the big players of the time: Tandy, Commodore, Apple, Texas Instruments, Atari, ... and the key people working in those companies. The early chip design process is also detailed quite accurately.
But what is the subject? The title suggests it is about Commodore, but I would argue that this is about Jack Tramiel more than about Commodore. The book stops when Tramiel leaves the company, yet the history goes on for Commodore, for another 10 years. To be fair, the Kindle version doesn't miss the opportunity to mention the next book on the Amiga, once the end of this one is reached (but I'll pass on the offer, it's from the same author).
In conclusion: this could have been a great book. In order to reach that status, I would recommend another pass to reorganize the story by sticking more rigorously to the timeline, to remove the unnecessary repetitions and "justifying quotes", then a thorough proofreading of the result. Adapting the title to its actual content would be fair, too.
Despite all that, I can recommend the book for its first 9-10 chapters (there are 36 of them!), to people interested in the beginning of personal computers.
As a reader who has a strong technical background, and for whom computer history is a passion, I devoured the first chapters, but past the first half of the book, I began to skip entire paragraphs at a time because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I'm glad I could reach the end, but it was painful.
The beginning of the book is very interesting, the narrative is coherent and correctly written. After a while, several hints point at an increasing loss of interest by the author. The most noticeable is the amount of repetitions, in two different forms:
- the author feels compelled to back his narrative by quotes that say exactly the same: '[some fact] happens: "and then [some fact] just happened at this point," says Y'. Sometimes it's even several people repeating the same fact, as if there were any doubt on it. "Here, I can prove it, they say the same," says the author. This is made even more unnecessary by end-of-chapter references to other documents which include those quotes;
- facts and anecdotes repeated in different paragraphs or chapters, most probably by lack of a correct editing phase or because of poor review process.
Those repetitions tend to be very annoying, and most importantly, lengthen the book considerably.
Another issue that appears after 1/4 - 1/3 of the book is the difficulty to keep track of the timeline. The author often mentions the year only, like 1982, but a great deal happened that year, so it's hard to tell whether such fact occurred after or before the other ones. Then the author tends to mix the events when it's not necessary, by jumping quickly ahead before coming back in details and mostly repeating what was presented before. This leads to a inextricable spaghetti of factual threads that the readers must sort out by themselves.
The language becomes a little bit casual in the 2nd half of the book, the author uses expressions that are not really fit for this style of written narrative. The quotes could also be adapted for comprehension or correctness.
Factually though, the book is correct with very rare exceptions, as far as I can tell, it is a good compilation of many sources of information on the subject. It rectifies misconceptions published by other books such as, for example, several biographies of Steve Jobs according to which the Apple II sales dominated the market from the start. It adds very interesting facts on the interaction between the big players of the time: Tandy, Commodore, Apple, Texas Instruments, Atari, ... and the key people working in those companies. The early chip design process is also detailed quite accurately.
But what is the subject? The title suggests it is about Commodore, but I would argue that this is about Jack Tramiel more than about Commodore. The book stops when Tramiel leaves the company, yet the history goes on for Commodore, for another 10 years. To be fair, the Kindle version doesn't miss the opportunity to mention the next book on the Amiga, once the end of this one is reached (but I'll pass on the offer, it's from the same author).
In conclusion: this could have been a great book. In order to reach that status, I would recommend another pass to reorganize the story by sticking more rigorously to the timeline, to remove the unnecessary repetitions and "justifying quotes", then a thorough proofreading of the result. Adapting the title to its actual content would be fair, too.
Despite all that, I can recommend the book for its first 9-10 chapters (there are 36 of them!), to people interested in the beginning of personal computers.
As a reader who has a strong technical background, and for whom computer history is a passion, I devoured the first chapters, but past the first half of the book, I began to skip entire paragraphs at a time because I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I'm glad I could reach the end, but it was painful.
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