Straight Outta Chicopee, MA
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:50 am
Being born when the Wintels essentially kicked every non-Mac computer out of the market, I spent most of my life thinking personal computers basically started with Windows, at least until I learned about early home computers like the Apple II and the Commodore 64. In fact, I've never actually seen a computer older than my Compaq Armada 1750 in person, and even that one was bought off of eBay earlier this year. The vast majority of my retro gaming experiences, Game Boy games and having a hand-me-down NES for a few years as a kid non-withstanding, has been through emulation. Some of my main inspirations for getting into retro gaming include the Angry Video Game Nerd, LGR, My Life in Gaming, the Nostalgia Nerd, and of course, David "The 8-Bit Guy" Murray.
Ever since David showed off Planet X2 and discussed assembly language, I've been wanting to learn assembly myself. Not only am I interested in the Commander X16 from that standpoint, but the VERA chip makes it great for some game ideas I have, like a Pokemon clone that could use a potential network card.
That being said, I've lately been brainstorming ideas for a computer inspired by the Commander X16's design, except closer to the ZX Spectrum and using the Z80 processor. I may discuss that at some point as well.