The story of Commodore and the 8-bit generation | Leonard Tramiel | TEDxMidAtlantic

With his father, Leonard Tramiel helped create the Commodore, one of the first personal computers. He also led Atari after his father bought the company in 1984. In this sit-down interview with TEDxMidAtlantic curator Dave Troy, Leonard shares the story of the Commodore, Atari, and why science education is more important now than ever.
Fresh out of graduate school, Leonard Tramiel joined his father and two brothers when his father bought Atari from Warner Communications in 1984. For the next 12 years, Tramiel was involved in the development of Atari’s products as vice president of software, managing an internal group of a dozen programmers while interacting worldwide with software developers and contract programmers. Since retiring from Atari at age 42, he has been concentrating on advocating science education.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@galier2]

I find it always funny and ironic, that the 16 bits successor of the C64 was the Atari ST and that the Amiga was in fact the evolved heir of the Atari 8 bits.

[@simonscott1121]

I always viewed the ST as a 16 bit spectrum........ framebuffer and buzzer tied to a CPU :)

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

@@simonscott1121 you are not wrong on that view. Still when the programmers knew what they were doing the games were really good even when ported on an Amiga.

[@nickolasgaspar9660]

Tramiel's "supermarket" marketing had a huge negative impact on Jay Miner's older but superior 8bit machine. Fortunately for everyone, Amiga 's success came with a delay but it was huge. Now, the home-brew community is setting the record straight by using the power of the Atari 8bit hardware in new games and demos.

[@NuntiusLegis]

@@nickolasgaspar9660 Of course more new software is written for the C64, to set that straight.

[@shoham00]

This is awesome! A super influential guy from my youth, and yes, Commodore products certainly started my career in computing.

My first computer was Commodore 64 and I wrote my first programs in Basic. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be an IT guy if I started with PC, Windows and Java.

[@gabrielpalacios1123]

My Commodore 64 made me a conscious user of technology and define my profession.

[@Storm_.]

I think this guy was paramount in the production of the Atari Falcon, my favorite computer. It would be amazing to hear him talk about that machine.

[@carlsmith8593]

Everyone should learn _some_ coding as part of a curriculum in computation (as we're attempting in the UK). Most programming skills are specialist, but there is a subset (similar to Crockford's Good Parts of JavaScript) that everyone should be taught. Unfortunately, many students will not pick up much of it, but that's true of maths and the hard sciences too. We still try.

[@Mr_ToR]

He should have mentioned the so-called Porsche design CBMs which I believe were the best-looking computers of that era. Even this day, they still look pretty amazing. They are de-facto future-retro :-)

[@lew5142]

I had to look it up. I agree!

[@robwebnoid5763]

Here in late 2021. Designs by Porsche was a rumor. No Commodore products were designed by them, most of the machine cases were designed by Ira Velinksy. Now, Commodore may have asked Porsche for design ideas, but may be been turned down due to expense, as Porsche is an "expensive" branding, which that design consultation itself could also be a rumor. But yeah... no.

[@backinthegame34]

It was the best of times, the beginning.

[@RISCGames]

Couldn't agree more with how Jobs meant what he said and successfully managed to infuse that ideology into all of Apple products.

[@SteveLeicht1]

I wonder why, if Tramiel could take over Atari, why couldn't he wrest control of Commodore from Gould?

[@pcernuska]

steve-o l Because Gould owned 20% of CBM plus had shares in few another companies that CBM owned money back then so he had quite a leverage over Tramiel moreover Warner Bros wanted to get rid of Atari division that was loosing a lot of money each day after US console crash in '83 so it was much easier task for Tramiel to acquire Atari than get rid of powerful Gould.

[@SteveLeicht1]

@@pcernuska Thanks for the info.

[@paulscottrobson]

Gould owned a large chunk of Commodore and had the other shareholders under control. Jack didn't like it, but Gould could do what he wanted - it would be interesting to hazard what might have happened if (say) Gould had provided sufficient cash to make the PET when it was in heavy demand, or even if Tramiel had stayed on and the TED series had been sold as designed - cheap Sinclair competitors. Atari was basically bust when Jack took it over and the owners were desperate to get shot of it. Very little of Atari other than the name and a few engineers and developers that were kept on.

[@neilloughran4437]

Does anyone have a clue about the statement regarding Atari STs not having a floppy disk drive (9.50 or so) ? Was this referring to the later Mega ST models? Or is he being very literal about "floppy" as the 3.5" disks were not floppy like the 5.25 models.

[@lcmotorvehiclerepair3961]

He was talking about the Atari ST Book (a laptop). That didn't have a floppy drive.

[@enricotigani8944]

Silicon Valley = paradise of Reverse Engineering

[@mrb5217]

Calling this video the story of Commodore is a real stretch.

[@Lunarplex]

Well, it got you here so it’s purpose is served 😁

[@mrb5217]

@@Lunarplex Clickbait, that's a pretty low bar

[@toneranimation]

"I could ask you about Commodore and your father but Android or iOS?! OMG you met Steve Jobs once?"

[@Unix2816]

Look im not gonna lie, why did the dude say at 2:14 Mostek and not MOS Technology ? ngl man, Mostek was a competitor of MOS Technology and both were founded at around 1969

[@NuntiusLegis]

That mistake is easy to make - Mostek - MOS Tech. LT set it straight politely just by using the full name "M.O.S. Technology" early in his answer.

[@Unix2816]

@@NuntiusLegis understandable

[@MegaGeek82]

Jack trammiel is gone so I don't know to who I can ask these quesion ! In a world where no one speack with each other I have question, In your on mind Vau braun was guilty or not ?

[@diegopava]

Is this the family that destroy Atari?

[@thealaskan1635]

Yep

[@Feierabend666]

He is from the family that saved Atari and gave the company the ST line.

[@tessjdt]

Time Warner killed Atari

[@deltakid0]

@@thealaskan1635 where did you guys get that idea?

[@PauloConstantino167]

THIS MAN GAVE ME WHAT BECAME MY LIFE. but really, nah

[@American-Motors-Corporation]

Well I can tell this is definitely from Communistifornia!!

[@davidgagnon3781]

I had the same thought.

[@EuropeanQoheleth]

Hyperbole much?

[@American-Motors-Corporation]

@@EuropeanQoheleth awww you're triggered! Well bless you're heart!!

[@Sl1pstreams]

Leonard Tramiel is an instrumental pioneer in computing. Much of what we have today is due to his work at Commodore and Atari; he did very well for himself as well. How much money do you have? I bet it’s far less than him.

[@American-Motors-Corporation]

@@Sl1pstreams funny thing is you idiots think I'm against Tramiel, I'm not. But you can definitely see where's he's from. Of course it's mostly an act given that they're all about business and ruthless about it! Nothing wrong with that, problem in business today is we don't have many people who are treating business as war like jack did! Notice the price fixing? The prices aren't really set to compete. They're all within a few bucks of one another on most products! Leonard was greatly instrumental yes, however, Chuck peddle did the real work. When it came to computers, Leonard was the guy who explained it to his Dad and convinced him to give it a chance. Though he had already told Chuck that he would give it a go. So not against them at all. Commiefornia is what I'm against!