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New Book on Commodore’S First Computer, the Bil Herd — AKA “The Animal,” He PET

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New Book on Commodore’S First Computer, the Bil Herd — AKA “The Animal,” He PET Fort Worth Dallas Atari, and Nintendo. Designer of New Book on Commodore’s first computer, the Bil Herd — AKA “The Animal,” he PET. His relationship with Jack designed the ill-fated Plus/4 Commodore Tramiel eventually soured with computer and later went on to disastrous consequences. design the Commodore 128. Known About the Book to wrestle executives in the hallways September 2005 Robert Yannes — Frustrated of Commodore. Responsible for The Spectacular Rise and Fall of musician and synthesizer aficionado. many holes in the walls of Commodore tells the story of Designed the Commodore 64 and Commodore headquarters. Commodore through first-hand its famous sound chip, the SID. accounts by the actual Commodore Jay Miner — Brilliant ex-Atari engineers and managers who made Al Charpentier — Chain smoking engineer responsible for the Atari the company. From their entry into computer graphics pioneer and 800 computer. Co-designer of the computers in 1976 until their demise architect of the VIC and VIC-II Atari 2600. Inventor of the ground in 1994, the Commodore years were chips. breaking Amiga computer for always turbulent and exciting. Commodore. All his projects were Commodore had astounding success Thomas Rattigan — One time co-designed by his faithful dog and with their computers, including the President and CEO of Commodore official Commodore employee, Pet, the Vic-20, the Commodore 64 computers who saved the company Mitchy. and the incredible Amiga computers. from bankruptcy, only to collide Although other companies received with financier Irving Gould. On his George Robbins — Designer of the more press, Commodore sold more last day with Commodore he was low cost Amiga 500 computer. computers than either Apple or IBM, forcibly removed by security guards. Lived a bohemian lifestyle at with a strong following of Commodore headquarters and computer fans. never left the premises. Cast of characters Dave Haynie — Carried on the Amiga legacy by developing the Jack Tramiel — The pugnacious, Amiga 2000. Stayed with volatile founder of Commodore Commodore until the bitter end. computers. Once described as the scariest man alive. And many more… Irving Gould — The financier About the Author who rescued Commodore from ruin in the late 1960's. As the Brian Bagnall is the author of Chairman of Commodore and several computer books for largest shareholder, he was McGraw-Hill, Prentice-Hall often his own worst enemy. PTR, and Syngress Publishing. His latest book, Core Lego Chuck Peddle — Mindstorms Programming, has Uncompromising inventor of been translated into French and the legendary 6502 Japanese. He is also a frequent microprocessor, used in contributor to Old- computers and video game Computers.com. systems by Commodore, Apple, Author’s Promise Brain Cramps Throughout the development of this book, I have strived to keep my personal opinions out of the writing. Question: If you could live forever, would you and why? It was my goal to express the opinions of those who were there. I also strived to be fair and balanced to Answer: “I would not live forever, because we should those who were unable to give interviews for the book. not live forever, because if we were supposed to live This includes majority shareholder Irving Gould, who forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live has since passed away, and Jack Tramiel. (Tramiel’s son forever, which is why I would not live forever.” —Miss Leonard was interviewed to represent his father’s point Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest. of view.) When people gave damning comments about someone, I made an effort to see the other point of “Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids view and present it fairly. all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and http://www.commodorebook.com/ death and stuff.” —Mariah Carey AmigaMCCC News MCCC P.O. Box 813 Bedford, Texas 76095 http://www.amigamccc.org “I’ve never had major knee surgery on any other part of September Calendar my body.” —Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward. September 12 — Amiga By-The-Loop Chapter 7:00 pm — Grand Prairie Public Library “Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the 901 Conover Drive, Grand Prairie lowest crime rates in the country.” —Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC. September 12 — MCCC Board of Director's Meeting Approx. 9:30 pm — Location TBD “That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I’m just the one to do it.” —A September 24 — Newsletter Deadline — 7:00 am congressional candidate in Texas. “If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.” —Bill Clinton, President” …More on the web.
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