As personal computers go, the Commodore 64 appears to be a commercial “hit”. It is a reasonably powerful machine with plenty of memory and unique graphic and sound features. Its quick acceptance by consumers should not be a surprise, since it is a bargain. (In December, 1982, the 64 sold for $595 and there was almost no discounting of prices.)
In fact, the complaint about the 64 has often been that its power is difficult to unlock from Basic, and novice users are shut out completely by the complexity of the task. The Apple computers at least have a few screen commands in their Basic, and the Atari computers have even more. Programming even the most rudimentary graphics and sounds on the 64 is an endless job of PEEKing and POKEing.
Simons’ Basic offers not only a solution to the problem but almost makes the 64 into an entirely new computer. (Probably the one it should have been in the first place.) The 114 new commands are so comprehensive that they make Simons’ Basic more than a good language extension. It may be one of the very best ever designed. I predict that it will cement the popularity of the 64 and become the standard language for programming the machine. Background
The origin of Simons’ Basic is interesting in itself. It was created by a British programmer named David Simons, whose parents gave him his first computer just three years ago on his thirteenth birthday. (Commodore’s founder and president, Jack Tramiel, should adopt the kid and make him heir to the company fortune, or at least pay him enough to keep him writing for his computers for life.) According to the official company legend, Simons surveyed other Basics and their extensions and picked from among their features. That is probably true. Simons’ Basic resembles other recent extended Basics such as BasicA for the IBM PC.
Simons’ Basic is packaged as a ROM cartridge, and should be available by the time you read this. At press time, no price was announced by Commodore, as the program had not yet gone on sale either in the United Kingdom or in the U.S. In the U.K., however, a price of 50 pounds sterling–or about $75–has been announced.
It’s an interesting proposition, and one with its roots in Commodore founder Jack Tramiel’s 1977 deal with Bill Gates to acquire a version of Microsoft BASIC for his machines, in which he paid a one-off fee for unlimited uses of the language rather than a per-sale levy. The argument in the post is that this led to later Commodore machines being hamstrung by an outdated BASIC interpreter as a cost saving measure. It fits well with those 1980s memories from school computer labs.
The C64 sold some 17 million units, so a lot of ’80s kids knew nothing else and thought the crappy BASIC was normal. Although it was one of the worst BASICs of its day 🙂
I was within those 17 million Kids… And Simon was our King for quite some time because he created something magical in 3 years as a teenager. I have always wondered how he managed to beat all those BASIC versions and became a well known player for Commadore 64 generation. Ever since I have the same attitude in life. I owe him a credit and a big thank you…
One needs to “stay foolish and stay hungry”…
He is a Brown Gradute and works for Adobe. I do not know if he ever realized his impact in our lives…
All the best dear David Simons.