# Commodore 64

121 Hacker News commenters recommended Commodore 64 and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 41 years (18 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Remembered as an affordable home computer whose built-in BASIC, manual, graphics and sound got a generation programming and gaming; critics note a weak CPU and new-model firmware lock-down attempts.

## Why people recommend it

- Taught a generation to program (12 comments): "Booting directly into a programming language REPL (in ~2 seconds, I might add) was a great signal that the C64 was ultimately for programming" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48948253)) "One great thing about the Commodore 64 was that it came with BASIC, but most importantly, it came with a manual!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46467763)) "I'm also the curious type who learned how to program just because the book was there next to the C64 game tapes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46586858))
- Strong graphics and sound (5 comments): "It had color, graphics at good resolutions, fantastic sound, a decent keyboard and a good form factor, great peripherals, and excellent expandability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946589)) "The price + graphics and sound (out-of-the-box) was what really made the difference for me and self-learning." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48951965)) "The C64 was the first modern, affordable, multipurpose consumer computer with decent sound and graphics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946351))
- Affordable, great value (5 comments): "The price + graphics and sound (out-of-the-box) was what really made the difference for me and self-learning." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48951965)) "The C64 was the first modern, affordable, multipurpose consumer computer with decent sound and graphics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48946351)) "personal computing didn't become truly affordable until the Commodore 64 came along in the 80s" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46855650))
- Great games (4 comments): "Commodore 64's let you play games and do other stuff (write docs/print, make music, make art) they jump started a generation of us onto computers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48945801)) "the games on the commodore was that many of the games were closer to the arcade than what you got with the early NES cartridges could do" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46281093)) "These days I have more fun messing with Amigas, C64s, and cheap emulation handhelds than big modern games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48934675))

## What people warn about

- Weak CPU for programming (3 comments): "It wasn't a good platform for programming, but it still made me fall in love with computers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49535316)) "Who cares about a multiply instruction, when you could have sprites and 3 voice sound?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274073)) "decades of art and innovation programmed on that "terrible" CPU" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45982529))
- Firmware lock-down on new Ultimate (2 comments): "Now, after the fact, they want to lock the FPGAs of already shipped devices to only accept Commodore-signed firmware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47813550)) "That he tried to lock down before getting backlash from the community?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49178133))
- Graphics quirks: scrolling, palette (2 comments): "The C-64 gives you only one offscreen row or column to repaint every coarse scroll" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47012784)) "the palette is a bit wonky so a lot of colors are hard to represent well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488003))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Commodore Amiga](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amiga.md): 60 recommend
- [ZX Spectrum](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zx-spectrum.md): 31 recommend
- [TI-99/4A](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ti-99-4a.md): 26 recommend
- [Commodore Amiga 500](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amiga-500.md): 20 recommend
- [Sinclair ZX81](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sinclair-zx81.md): 18 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Commodore+64+computer&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Commodore 64", https://hackerapproved.com/p/commodore-64/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).