Chapter 4: Keeping up with The Future
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“Similar to More Expensive Personal Computers”: The GEOS Desktop
Page 161: GEOS (Berkeley Softworks, 1986) gave the C64 a graphical interface to keep up with newer computers. By serendipity, the facility supporting the already outmoded paddle controllers could be used for connecting a mouse.
Keeping up with the Games
Page 163-165: Cinemaware’s 1986 Defender of the Crown for the Amiga was not only billed as an “interactive movie”, but contemporary reviews expressed unanimous awe about the quality of the graphics. The C64 version was reviewed as "extremely good indeed".
Page 165-166: Lemmings (DMA Design 1991) was one of the most famous Amiga games. Could the C64 conversion (E & E Software 1994) overcome the C64’s limitations? Surprisingly, the background is made from sprites, while the lemmings are made from characters.
Keeping up with the Amiga and PCs
Page 167: The Tutankhamen story continues. The 1986 Power Windows demo gratuitously puts the Tutankhamen image inside a simulation of the Amiga Deluxe Paint interface, letting users pull down the “window” using a joystick. (Use cursor keys.)
Page 167: The most direct demo reference to later systems is the 1986 Amiga Demo 2.0, emulating the iconic Amiga Boing demo used to demonstrate the pre-prelease system in 1984. Press enter to return to BASIC, demonstrating simple multitasking on the C64.
Page 167: Late C64 demos were surprisingly good at recreating newer effects, if at lower resolution and speed. C64 demo Mathematica (Reflex 1995) creates a Mandelbrot fractal on a rotating cube and a Wolfenstein 3dÂ-like maze.