Jack Tramiel, Who Gave us the Commodore 64 and Atari ST, Passed Away
I know more than a few of you reading this recognize the above computer, a Commodore 64, and in fact probably played your first Ultima game on said computer.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWulIKrk4dc&w=630&h=350]
These days, when people talk of computing pioneers and the computer revolution of the 1980s, it’s easy for some to forget Jack Tramiel – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are usually the first two that come to mind, but Jack Tramiel is the one that put around 22 million Commodore 64s in homes and offices, which puts the Commodore 64 at the top of the list of the best selling computers of all time.
Jack Tramiel, the man who said “We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes” and who founded the company behind the Commodore, VIC, and eventually Amiga computers (after he had left Commodore), and who would go on to release the Atari ST, passed away Sunday at the age of 83.
He was born in Poland in 1928. He and his family would end up in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. After surviving five years in concentration camps, he emigrated to the US, joined the US Army, and learned about typewriters. Not long after, using his experience with typewriters, in 1954 Tramiel founded what we know as Commodore International as the Commodore Portable Typewrite Company in Canada. Over the next 30 years, he would go on to expand Commodore into calculators when typewriters and adding machines became unprofitable, and then computers when profits on calculators started to decline.
Commodore came out with their Commodore PET in 1977, and not long after the VIC-20 and Commodore 64. Making the VIC-20 and C-64 affordable (under $1,000 in today’s terms for the C-64, under $500 for the VIC-20) would change home computers and video games in a huge way.
Tramiel is partly blamed for the video game crash of 1983 (Wikipedia) (unfairly in my view) because of Commodore entering an aggressive price war in the home computer market, in an attempt to drive prices down and gain market share, while at the same time taking share away from the video game consoles. I think the much bigger problem is that there were too many consoles – 8-10, and too many crappy games for the consoles.
It drove Timex and Texas Instruments (TI-99/4A anyone?) out of the home computer market, which made Bill Cosby sad, but made William Shatner happy.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVX5cyMOGAk&w=630&h=457]
Home computers offered a gaming experience that consoles just couldn’t recreate – could anybody imagine playing the Ultimas on the early consoles like the Atari 2600 and Intellivision?
Ultima I – VI the Commodore 64
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FALlPFLn6UE&w=630&h=350]
I mentioned Amiga, but Tramiel actually resigned from Commodore in early 1984, before Commodore International purchased the Amiga Corporation. The team he put together after he bought part of Atari would quickly release the Atari ST to compete against the Amiga. When I say quick, I mean quick – Tramiel purchased Atari’s Consumer Division in July of 1985 and the Atari ST was announced in January of 1985 and shipped later that Spring.
Forbes has a brief write-up that sums up his influence, with a quote from Martin Goldberg, who is working on a book about the early period of video games and computers (Kickstarter entry):
“His legacy are the generations upon generations of computer scientists, engineers, and gamers who had their first exposure to high technology because of his affordable computers – ‘for the masses and not the classes.’”
In an 1989 interview, available on Commodore.ca, Tramiel described himself:
No I’m not the engineer. I’m a businessman, but I do know what the public wants and I know how to bring technology and people together. And by living in Silicon Valley where the technology was born I know it’s available, I know how to bring like I said people together and sell volume to bring the price down that the average person can afford to buy. In this we’ve made the 64 so successful.
Commodore 64 – 25th Anniversary Celebration (Jump to 17 minutes in)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk&w=630&h=457]
Jack Tramiel Interview (1985) talking about his move to Atari
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NImJFV3wH88&w=630&h=457]
I have to say I’m impressed at how many articles were written about his passing – I’d like to think that he knew he hadn’t been forgotten, even as the world focused on Steve Jobs over the past several years. Tramiel had an entire company that he had to completely transform multiple times – first from typewriters/adding machines into calculators, then from calculators and other electronic equipment into home computers. He took huge risks to get computers into the hands of as many people as possible. He then left Commodore, and turned around and successfully competed with them.
More Information:
– Jack Tramiel – Wikipedia
– “You Don’t Know Jack” – Interview at Commodore.ca
– Watch This: Low End Computers (1985 video)
– San Jose Mercury News – Commodore 64 pioneer Jack Tramiel lived Silicon Valley’s story
– News.Google.com – Search for “Jack Tramiel” and you’ll find dozens of stories.
That’s really sad 🙁
I never was into Commodore, but literrally grew up with the Atari ST with its Tramiel Operation System, and it’s always remained one of my favorite gaming machine.
I wouldn’t be the gamer I am now, nor an Ultima fan had it not been for the Atari ST.
RIP and thanks for changing gaming!
Again a great figure of computer history is gone … just to remind us we’re also getting older !
I discovered computer games with the Commodore 64 in the 80’s and even today I’m still playing games on a real Commodore 64. Very good Ultima adaptations are to be played on the C-64 !
We’re gonna miss you Jack ! Farewell and say hello to Steve Jobs !
Nice article WTFD, and accurate too! Unfortunately some technology sites didn’t mention it at all, or wrote inaccuracies.
The media has always had a love affair with Apple and often ignore everything else – as if Steve Jobs single-handedly did everything. This isn’t a new beef of mine – I was ranting about this 20 years ago. Sigh…
But maybe I’m just turning old…
I think he was ignored outside of the industry for two reasons.
First, Commodore never seemed to really capitalize on their success in the 1980s to carry them on – whether that’s due to Tramiel leaving, I don’t know, but they certainly had the chance – Apple never got into the major price wars and IBM botched their first serious attempt to get into the home market. For a while, Amiga was the best computer in the market.
The second is the personalities – Jack Tramiel was quite a bit older than Steve Jobs (over 25 years older) and he was kind of a blunt, but nice, guy in his image and his interviews. People found Jobs to be a more fascinating figure because of the drama and his attitude and charisma.
Tramiel left Commodore in mid 1984, Jobs left Apple in late 1985. Tramiel turned around and developed the Atari ST to compete directly with Commodore. Jobs started up NeXT. Both Tramiel and Jobs took hand-picked people with them from the companies they had founded.
Uncanny when you think about it.
Reading some of the interviews with Tramiel, It’s really uncanny how Jobs and Tramiel shared similar views on a lot of things about personal computers, it’s just that Jobs had more charisma and a rock-star persona. Tramiel certainly didn’t seem to lack in enthusiasm or drive. Jobs also had a better antagonist in the form of Bill Gates – it made for a more fascinating story.
Arguably Tramiel was more successful if you just want to talk about raw numbers in the 1980s.
There were around 22 million Commodore 64s sold.
There were 5-6 million Apple II-series computers sold.
Be interesting to see the breakdown of Ultima games sold by platform back in the 1980s.
You can thank @uo (Deckard) for this one; it’s his posting.
That’s right! We’ve got multiple authors here now.
Does anyone think the name of the moon Trammel could be a tribute to this man? He and Felucca Day, although Ultima is a bit before Gariott’s time.
I don’t know. It’s possible. Garriott certainly had to be aware of Jack Tramiel since Tramiel was selling so many VIC-20s and Commodore 64s in the early years of the Ultima games. VIC-20 was 1980, C-64 1982. One of Tramiel’s later companies was named “Tramel” so that people pronounced it properly.
The VIC-20/C-64 were the largest platform for the early Ultima games, since Apple IIs sold about a quarter of what the C-64s did.
My first memories of Ultima were C64-based – I remember seeing Ultima IV in a Target retail store and wanting it really bad.
Those were the days when boxes could get you really excited about a game.
I don’t know about Trammel, but I always wondered it Tamriel in The Elders Scrolls was a nod to Tramiel 😛
I meant Garriott’s a bit before Felicia’s time. Saying that Ultima’s before Garriott’s time is crazy.
I was never lucky enough to own a Commodore 64. I has a Vic20 and was envious of those who did. THEY WERE SO MUCH BETTER! XD