Commodore founder and "computers for the masses, not the classes" dude Jack Tramiel died yesterday, according to Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/04/09/computer-legend-and-gaming-pioneer-jack-tramiel-dies-at-age-83/

Now i'm sure that many of us got our gaming start with one of Tramiel's little breadboxes.

Let's spend a minute (or however long it takes for that damn tape to load) remembering the good times.

May he rest in peace.

I just hope that he won't be too bashed on this forum (due to that quote).

*Giant Salute*

He (or at least the C64 & Amiga he helped make) could well be one of the major influences in my life. I'd not be anything like such a giant IT nerd without him.

It's impossible to overstate the importance of the products his company made, I hope he is remembered. You mean "computers for the masses, not the classes"? Why would anyone bash him for that?

Because members of this community (sadly) hates with passion everything that can be even remotely associated with the term "dumbed down" (no matter how illogical the argument. You should see some of those rants on casual gaming), thus making this quote a prime target for tasteless Monty Python jokes.

I hope I won't see any, but it's the Internet.

RIP, Jack.

You made a difference.

RIP Jack, you will be missed

The C64 which was my first computer and it brought me so many years of joy, hell I still have my original brown breadbox may have to break it out to play some Wizard of Wor and some good old Last Ninja trilogy.

May he rest in peace.

A pioneer and a visionary. I think he was the first to understand what the personal computer could become.

For those who don't already know, yes, he was a Pole, born Jacek Trzmiel in Łódź (1928).

Commodore was first or one of the first to market in a number of product lines, including portable typewriters, adding machines, electronic calculators, and then the personal computer. The PET and then the Commodore 64 were remarkably advanced for their day, and Tramiel's direct marketing approach was hugely successful in establishing a personal computer as something you or I would want to have.

I don't think it has anything to do with dumbing down (that was Nintendo's job). I think his point was that Commodore's computers should be both affordable and widely available.

Yeah the C-64 was an awesome machine for it's time, but he never knew how to properly market the Amiga. Every time i read anything about him it seems overly negative. A sad day for the computer world indeed.

If you really want to give credit where credit is due for the Amiga, look no farther than Jay Miner, he is the true father of the Amiga.

Of course he didn't properly market the Amiga: he left Commodore to found his company just before the acquisition of Amiga/Hi-Toro.

He bought Atari from Warner Communications, and launched the Atari ST to oppose the Amiga 1000.

That said, the Commodore 64 is still the most popular personal computer of all time, with its 17 million units sold.

Oops, my bad you're right. I forgot about the Amiga/ST wars. My mistake. I guess i should have blammed Commodore for their lack of proper marketing.

Commodore didn't really know what they bought. They were counterproductive, made costly sponsoring and inefficient campaigns, and crippled the product line by holding back innovation (AGA chipset launched far too late) or pushing bad products (Amiga 600) or concurrent ones (Commodore PCs).

Tramiel did an excellent job with the Atari computer line. They couldn't really compete hardware-wise, without the Amiga dedicated chipset, but were very good at marketing.

Well, you know the old joke about the Commodore marketing department: If Commodore bought Kentucky Fried Chicken, they'd rename it "Warm Dead Bird" ;-)