commodorez:

Doug Crawford & Chris Fala demonstrated Commodore 8-bit machines performing similar tasks to Arduinos (or any other microcontrollers).  I always like the VCF East exhibits that mix the retro with the modern to provide perspective and a point of reference for the younger generation.

Starting with a PET 4016, working its way through the VIC-20 and C64, all though the C-128.  Oh, and with an SX-64, C16, C64C, C128D, and Plus/4 thrown in for good measure.  Each machine was interacting with hardware just like an Arduino counterpart – both machines did the same thing.

For the most part, the demonstration machines were simply running banks of LEDs in unique configurations.  However, the C128D was hooked into a 40 column composite display, an 80 column RGBi display, and a tiny 20 column vacuum florescent display, all operating at the same time.

Everything was running BASIC, operating on simple peeks and pokes to interact directly with the user ports for I/O.  BASIC does a fantastic job of providing a non-intimidating coding environment for first time programmers. 

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