A story today about the possibility that a prominent California Republican was once a co-founder of the Commodore 64 warez group Fairlight caused an uproar on Slashdot today.

Reading it brought back some memories.

I'm sure pretty much everyone who cares has already seen this on Slashdot or wherever, but I found this blog entry from one of the designers of the Atari ST fascinating.

It's been said that Ed Roberts of Altair fame was the last person to get the better of Bill Gates in a business deal.

But I'll say it was Jack Tramiel.

So I got this Xbox really cheap. When I got it home, I found out why--the DVD drive wouldn't open. It's a good thing I didn't pay much for it.

I found an article today telling why plastic cases discolor with age.

Executive summary: It's the nature of the material it's made of.

So I'm reading On The Edge, a longish book that tries to tell the story of Commodore properly, including the people who made it happen, and the companies it bought along the way.

I'm glad the story got told.

So, I got my hands on a working Nintendo NES and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out cartridge. I used to play that game at my cousin's, about 20 years ago. It's addictive.

I saw an MSNBC article this week about people using the original Playstations (not the later streamlined version pictured at the top of the article) as high-end CD players.

Radio Shack is selling a Hummer racing game that's based on Jeri Ellsworth's C64-on-a-chip design.

A number of people have spent the past few months figuring out how to turn the Radio Shack game into a full-blown C64. There is a FAQ available.

Well, the 20th anniversary of the release of the venerable Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) passed this week. And with it came discussion of how the NES saved the videogame industry after the disastrous Atari 2600.

I have to admit I was scratching my head as I read this stuff. Did the people writing it live through both of them? By what measure was the 2600 a disaster?

As someone who spent way too many hours after school in front of both of them when both of them were new, it seems to me like this is like arguing whether The Beatles were greater than Elvis Presley.