On the Edge
This book tells the story of Commodore through first-hand accounts by former Commodore engineers and managers. Reliving the early years of an icon in the personal computer revolution turns out to be a fascinating and improbably hilarious journey. This gripping tale of ambition, greed, and inspired engineering gives readers a front row seat at the dawn of the personal computer. Engineers and managers relate their experiences through personal first-hand accounts, vividly recalling the most important moments of Commodore's entry into computers in 1976 until its demise in 1994. The Commodore years are tumultuous, owing to their volatile founder, Jack Tramiel. He pushes his team to extreme limits, demanding that they almost kill themselves to meet his lofty expectations. Against all odds, his engineers deliver more color, more character, and more value than either Apple or IBM. While other companies receive more press, Commodore sells more computers. They cut a path of destruction through the competition, knocking out Sinclair, Tandy, Texas Instruments, and Atari and almost mortally wounding Apple. Unfortunately, Tramiel's cut throat tactics also prove to be his undoing. He uses up his managers and employees like disposable ink cartridges, producing the highest employee turnover rate in the industry.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
18mentions
13people
2009–2023years
72% recommend28% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore (Brian Bagnall)
Commodore: A Company on the Edge (Brian Bagnall)
Commodore: The Amiga Years (Brian Bagnall)
Commodore: The Final Years (Brian Bagnall)
Commodore: The Inside Story by David Pleasance
Back Into The Storm (Bil Herd's time at Commodore)
The Future Was Here (Commodore Amiga)
Atari Inc.: Business is Fun by Goldberg and Vendel
Sophistication and Simplicity: The Life and Times of the Apple II computer
iWoz (Steve Wozniak)
BREAK OUT: How the Apple II Launched the PC Gaming Industry
The New Apple II User's Guide by David Finnigan
CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy's Underdog Computer
Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution
- Commodore: A Company on the Edge by Brian Bagnall is highly recommended.
- +1. Interested readers should check out the very good book "Commodore: A Company on the Edge" by Brian Bagnall for this and other fascinating stories from how the PET, VIC-20, and C64 came to be. (And parallels to Internet-age companies are a fun exercise for the reader)
- Anyone who want more background on Bill Mensch and the 6502 and the other people around it should pick up Brian Bagnall's "Commodore: A Company on the Edge". Note that this is the first of two volumes of the second edition; the second covers the "Amiga years" and is not yet published (in progress thanks to a Kickstarter[1])
(The first edition was published as one volume, called "On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore"; it covers the entire period up to the bankruptcy in '94 in 561 pages, while "A Company on the Edge" covers just up until 1984 in the same 561 pages)
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1462758959/commodore-th...
- If you want Commodore, there's On the Edge by Brian Bagnall http://www.amazon.com/On-Edge-Spectacular-Rise-Commodore/dp/... and its half-a-second-edition Commodore: A Company on the Edge .
- A few books on computer / computing / internet history:
1953, Faster Than Thought, B.V. Bowden (British 1940s & 50s) https://archive.org/details/FasterThanThought
1984, The Home Computer Wars (Commodore, Atari, Apple) https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Wars http://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Computer-Wars-Commodore/dp/09...
1985, History of Computing Technology, Michael Williams (Abacus to IBM360) http://www.amazon.com/History-Computing-Technology-2nd-Editi...
1985, The Great Telecom Meltdown, Fred Goldstein (USA deregulation) http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_On...
2001, The Universal History of Computing, Georges Ifrah (Egypt to 1970s) http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-History-Computing-Comput...
2002, Electronic Brains (UK, US & Ukraine soon after WWII) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/electronicbrains.shtml http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Brains-Stories-Dawn-Compute...
2008, Geeks Bearing Gifts, Ted Nelson (rants & factoids) http://www.amazon.com/Geeks-Bearing-Gifts-Ted-Nelson/dp/0578...
2010, Commodore, A Company on the Edge, Brian Bagnall (war stories from 6502 through C64, no Amiga) http://retroasylum.com/commodore-a-company-on-the-edge-revie... http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-Bagnall/d...
2011, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976, John Harwood http://www.west86th.bgc.bard.edu/book-reviews/interface-ibm....
