"Commodore: a Company on the Edge" released! (fwd)

[RobertB]

----------------Original message----------------
From: Brian Bagnall
Date: 29-Nov-2010

Hi everyone.

I’m happy to report that my new book, Commodore: a Company on the Edge, is now available from VariantPress.com. This is a heavily reworked edition with about 40% new material. Before starting this project I made a list of everything that I would have liked to include in the first edition. The main areas I wanted to work on were: more interviews to fill in gaps in the story, reorder the material chronologically, and add more period photographs. It was very important to me to put all this material in the right order so readers could read a coherent, chronological retelling of Commodore history. This time you can relive the Commodore experience in real-time.

Originally, the goal was to keep the same page count as the first edition. That turned out to be overly optimistic. After 15 new interviews and a lot of new stories, plus numerous pictures, there was no way to make it all fit. As a result, the story has been split in two. The first book ends in 1984 when Jack Tramiel is forced out of the company and the next book will focus on the Amiga years and Commodore’s eventual demise.

There are many new firsthand interviews:
Brian Dougherty â€" GEOS developer
John Feagans â€" PET developer
Andy Finkel â€" Commodore game developer
Bill Gardei â€" C65 systems engineer
Neil Harris â€" Commodore game developer and marketing
Manfred Kapp â€" Commodore cofounder
Dale Luck â€" Amiga developer
Bill Mensch â€" 6502 and 65816 designer
Dick Sanford â€" Chief Financial Officer of Commodore
Bill Seiler â€" PET, VIC-20 systems engineer/surfer
Kit Spencer â€" Commodore’s marketing guru
Yash Terakura â€" Commodore Japan engineer
Michael Tomczyk â€" VIC product manager and marketing
Plus additional fact-checking interviews with Chuck Peddle, Bil Herd and Bob Yannes. I did get a chance to talk with Jack Tramiel briefly but didn't get any new material from him unfortunately.

I don't want to ruin too many surprises, but I will mention a few things. First, thanks to John Feagans, an avid photographer, the book is populated with outstanding period photographs. One of the biggest surprises for me was finding out that current Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata started his career programming VIC-20 games for Commodore Japan. The book digs deeper into actor William Shatner’s association with Commodore and reveals some interesting tidbits. There is also a firsthand account of the horrifying PET Jet disaster. Lots of new changes like that.

The book will be available in stores in about a month. If you need it for Christmas, you can get it immediately from my publisher, Variant Press, which distributes signed copies from its website.
http://www.variantpress.com

[airship]

Just received notice today that my copy has been shipped!

[RobertB]

     Last Friday I ordered my book from BarnesandNoble.com and received it yesterday.  Price -- 35% off the cover price plus state tax plus shipping, making it just over $24.  A quick look at the book revealed some interesting differences from its 2005 predecessor.  As noted from other sources, this book leaves out the Amiga years of CBM, emphasizing the Commodore 8-bit computers up to 1984.  The Amiga will be covered in another book, entitled, "Commodore: the Amiga Years", and a cover of that is shown on p. 547 with the ISBN of the future book and the tagline, "Their story will be told.  2012".  Even without the Amiga content of its predecessor, Commodore: a Company on the Edge is equal to the older version at 561 pages.
     On the copyright page, this book is listed as the second edition (the first being the 2005 book).  On the page facing the copyright page, Brian has reduced the number of thank-you's to two people.  There are approximately 1/3 more photos in this edition and not small "thumbnails" of Commodore computers which started each chapter of the older edition.  The copyright page gives photo credits to Raymond Feagans, Neil Harris, Yash Terakura, and Dave Haynie.  There are more photos of the CBM buildings and shows that CBM attended.  The Amiga-related photos are out, supposedly to reappear in the Amiga Years edition in 2012.
     The Introduction and the Prologue are exactly the same as the older edition.  Not the same are the exclusion of the bibliography and the inclusion of an index, which makes it very handy to look for information in the new book.  For example, when I looked for information on actor William Shatner's association with CBM, I easily found the page numbers in the index (and more pages to him are devoted in this new book).
     Whereas, the older edition had the first two chapters -- MOS Technology 1974-1976 and The Acquisition 1975-1976, the new book has four beginning chapters -- Microprocessors 1973-1974, MOS Technology 1974-1975, Selling the Revolution 1975-1976, and The Acquisition 1976.  The downloadable Chapter 1.5 .pdf of the older version has been absorbed into the new edition.

          More comments later,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

Whereas, the older edition had the first two chapters -- MOS Technology 1974-1976 and The Acquisition 1975-1976, the new book has four beginning chapters -- Microprocessors 1973-1974, MOS Technology 1974-1975, Selling the Revolution 1975-1976, and The Acquisition 1976.

The first 2 chapters of the older edition covered 36 pages; the new edition with its first 4 chapters covers 63 pages.
     Here are the rest of the chapter titles in the new edition:

Chapter 5 - The Prototype  1976
Chapter 6 - The Demo  1976-1977
Chapter 7 - Igniting an Industry  1976-1977
Chapter 8 - Building a Factory  1977
Chapter 9 - Trinity  1977-1978
Chapter 10 - Storming Europe  1978
Chapter 11 - Race for the Disk Drive  1978
Chapter 12 - New Headquarters  1978-1979
Chapter 13 - Business is War  1979
Chapter 14 - Color Computers  1979-1980
Chapter 15 - Turning Japanese  1980
Chapter 16 - Small Computers  1980
Chapter 17 - Powerless Struggle  1980
Chapter 18 - Big in Japan  1980
Chapter 19 - Mass Destruction  1980
Chapter 20 - Return of the Curse  1980
Chapter 21 - Failure to Launch  1981
Chapter 22 - The Friendly Computer  1981
Chapter 23 - Mass Distribution  1981
Chapter 24 - Entertainment  1981
Chapter 25 - The Vic-40  1981
Chapter 26 - The Unveiling  1981-1982
Chapter 27 - Commodore 64  1982
Chapter 28 - Delay of Game  1982
Chapter 29 - Selling the Revolution  1982
Chapter 30 - Encore  1982
Chapter 31 - Commodore Mania  1982-1983
Chapter 32 - New Projects  1983
Chapter 33 - Ted  1983
Chapter 34 - Marketing Interference  1983
Chapter 35 - End of an Era  1983-1984
Chapter 36 - Dismissing the Founder  1984
Epilogue
Index

          Merry Christmas!
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug

[RobertB]

     Because the new book ends in 1984 with the dismissal of Jack Tramiel, there is no write-up on the C128, the Commodore LCD, or the C65.  Those computers should be covered in the next book, "Commodore: the Amiga Years".
     The Commodore Plus/4 is the last computer mentioned in this new edition, in a section which is reorganized and somewhat rewritten from the original.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
          http://www.sccaners.org

[RobertB]

     With the release of the new motion picture, "Tron: Legacy", I looked back at the old and new editions of the book to see the comments that were made of the original Tron movie.  The 2005 edition had a paragraph with Michael Tomczyk's observations about the movie on p. 282.  The 2010 edition has that same paragraph on p. 420, but on the next page, there is an extra paragraph of trivia --

"Bally-Midway released an arcade game of Tron. It was a huge success, earning more than the film release. Unfortunately, the game was off-limits to Commodore because Mattel purchased exclusive home rights for the Intellivision. 'That wasn't one of the ones they offered to us,' says [Andy] Finkel. 'We would have grabbed it otherwise. They didn't have the right to license the home computer rights, since they did the game under a license from [Disney].'"

          And in the 2010 edition, the index lists Tron (1982),
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
          http://www.sccaners.org

[Hydrophilic]

Wow, you seem to really like this book   You're starting to make me want one, although I'm sure I'd never find the time to read it... I would much rather CREATE software/hardware for Commodore than READ about it (interesting as it may be).

Now Tron was an awesome game at the arcade, and now we know why it wasn't available for the C64.  I might have to download an Intelivision emulator to check out the competition.

I remember Beach Head II had a part where you throw discs around and it reminded me of the Tron game, but I can't think of anything that came close to the speeder bike race... unless you count one of those BASIC type in programs... don't know which magazine I got it from, but it wasn't good enough for me so I "improved it".  Still completely lame compared to a "real" game from a professional software house.  I'll see if I can find it for laughs...

[RobertB]

Wow, you seem to really like this book

It's not perfect, for example, it skips over anything about the Educator 64 (though it does delve into Commodore educational software).

You're starting to make me want one, although I'm sure I'd never find the time to read it...

Do like I do... read a little bit everyday. 

I would much rather CREATE software/hardware for Commodore than READ about it...

It's always enlightening to see from where we've come in order to have the wisdom to see where we're going.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
          http://www.sccaners.org

[RobertB]

Those computers should be covered in the next book, "Commodore: the Amiga Years".

At last night's New Year's party at Amiga engineer R.J. Mical's house, I met Amiga engineers, Leo L. Schwab (who worked on the CDTV) and David Junod (who was at CBM from 1989-1994 and stayed there, even past engineer Dave Haynie's departure date).  They had not been interviewed by Commodore book author, Brian Bagnall.  I gave them Brian's e-mail address and urged them to contact him so that they could give him any insights into CBM.

          Happy New Year!
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug
          The Other Group of Amigoids
          http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
          Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
          http://www.sccaners.org