The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore
July 3, 2008I finished the book entitled “On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore” a few weeks ago and I wanted to share some insight into the book’s content.
Back in the late seventies and early eighties, there was a lot of heavy and dirty competition between the fledgling computer companies of that era. Because many of the hardware engineers and executives from different companies knew each other, often the competition rose to personal attacks not often seen today. This aggression is evident in the books written by these people or the journalists who are trying to capture the tension during the personal computer revolution. Brian Bagnall’s book reveals many interesting tidbits of information, although some were easier to extract than others as the stories often overlapped and flip-flopped. In certain chapters, the text feels very biased and the passages from former employees are often rife with bitterness and frustration seeping from their words. These emotions actually helped to propel me into the book, since it seemed like I had something invested in finishing it, just like they invested their time and even their life to building those wonderful machines. Some of the people involved (like Chuck Peddle) were obviously still licking their wounds even after three decades. They’ll claim indifference, but if the quotes are at all accurate, there’s a seething tension which becomes obvious as the book plays out. You will walk away from this book feeling a much deeper connection to your favourite Commodore machine, be it an Amiga 2000+, Commodore 64, or the Commodore PET to name just a few. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the technological developments during this time period and the people who made it happen.
Categories: Books, Retro
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