Joe Forster/STA wrote on 02. May 2009:
>
>> the C64 is just a hack
>
> So are all the computers of that era. With irrealistic deadlines,
> without factory standards (for the low-price segment of the market)
> and without the possibility to fix early software/hardware problems
> with just a firmware update over the Internet, it seems incredible to
> me that these computers work(ed) at all. This only proves the
> competence of the engineers that developed them.

True. But it was a different time. Internet was not available for the
masses and so these computers not designed for a firmware update. Though
it was possible to burn a different firmware on an eprom.

As I have to soldering skills a friend did this for me in about 1987 for
my C64, and I had the original, and a customized firmware, including turbo
loader for floppy and tape on a second PROM and a switch (drilled a hole
into the chassis) so I could "boot" one of them at a time.

The Amiga (1000) then came with the firmware on floppy (Kickstart) so
bugs were fixed and functions added. Still no internet for regular people
available. But you could get the floppies from a store (or friends, along
with other cracked programs :-).

BBS were around already, and few people also had modems or those acoustic
couplers and I'm sure you could also download firmware there.

F'up2 comp.sys.cbm.
-- 
Andreas
My      Commodore     64     classic     game     music     page      at
http://freenet-homepage.de/ankman/sid.html