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Commodore: A Company on the Edge

Brian Bagnall

4.20 · Rating details · 577 ratings · 61 reviews

Filled with first-hand accounts of ambition, greed, and inspired engineering, this history of the personal computer revolution takes readers inside the cutthroat world of Commodore. Before Apple, IBM, or Dell, Commodore was the first computer maker to market its machines to the public, eventually selling an estimated 22 million Commodore 64s. These halcyon days were ...more

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Hardcover, Second Edition, 548 pages

Published December 15th 2010 by Variant Press (first published September 14th 2005)

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Nov 09, 2007 Michael rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Herb

Shelves: computing, read_2007

I liked this book quite a bit, but I have always had a soft spot for tech-story books, even the fantasy of the Apple story. The C64 was my first computer at around 9 and I loved it with all my heart. I wrote my college entry essays on it when my peecee broke and was accepted to all of them (errr.... both). The interesting thing to note is that Commodore gets very little credit for revolutionizing the PC industry even though it can be said that they did more for it than Apple and IBM combined. ...more

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Apr 03, 2009 Phil rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book is great. Seriously. 5 stars.

My first computer was a Commodore 64 and we also had an Amiga, so I'm probably biased. There is a lot of revising of history that eliminates Commodore from the personal computer landscape and makes everything be about PC vs. Apple. In the early and mid 80s, Commodore had a lot going for it. The Commodore 64 was the first personal computer to sell 1 million units. The Amiga was light years ahead of everything else when it came out in 1985.

If their ...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Daniel rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is the story of not just Commodore, but the founding of MOS Technology which created the 6502 microprocessor.

This is a better business book than most I've read, because the author is unafraid to make clear judgement calls. When Jack Tramiel did something smart, the author says so. When someone does something dumb, he says so to. For instance, their marketing guy Tomczyk spent a long time negotiating a deal with Nintendo to have Commodore be the American company to port Nintendo's games to This is the story of not just Commodore, but the founding of MOS Technology which created the 6502 microprocessor.

This is a better business book than most I've read, because the author is unafraid to make clear judgement calls. When Jack Tramiel did something smart, the author says so. When someone does something dumb, he says so to. For instance, their marketing guy Tomczyk spent a long time negotiating a deal with Nintendo to have Commodore be the American company to port Nintendo's games to the C64 and release them. He brought the deal to Tramiel and Tramiel inexplicably said no. Result: Nintendo turned to Atari, who became their launch partner, and the games still came out for the C64 but now Commodore wasn't making any money.

You can learn about mistakes to avoid from this book. Other business history books I've read often somehow manage to muddle the story so that it's never clear; I have one about Carly Fiorina's time at HP (widely regarded as disastrous) that doesn't clearly explain what major decisions she made and why, and how they turned out wrong.

Note 1: There seem to be two editions of this book, and the first edition supposedly goes to 1994 (covering the Amiga story and leading up to the time Commodore went bankrupt), but the edition I have (the 2nd ed.) doesn't seem to go that far. It might be worth getting the first edition as well.

Note 2: I didn't realize it, but the 6502 was a ground-breaking invention because it was the first microprocessor that was fantastically cheap enough to be included in mass market consumer devices. Motorola and Intel had somewhat more-capable chips which sold for about six times as much. The tech lead for the Motorola 6800 team suggested to Motorola that they make a low-cost device, and Motorola said no. So the team quit, and moved to a new company MOS Technology, and made the 6502. MOS was able to get their defect rate low enough that the chip could be sold cheaply; they introduced it at an early West Coast Computer Faire, and there was a groundswell of demand. People were buying 6502s for like $20, out of a big jar; and the jar was a visual demonstration that MOS could manufacture the chip in volume, in order to make people feel comfortable about building it into their products. (In fact, only the chips on the top of the jar were good; the ones in the middle and bottom were ones that had failed testing.) The 6502 is, in some sense, the Model T Ford of microprocessors. ...more

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May 12, 2011 Michael rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The introduction to the book sets the tone, when the author laments how most of the other computer histories in books and movies get it wrong, giving too much credit to other companies like Apple for the success of the personal computing revolution. That's a valid point. But As I've started to read the first hundred pages or so, a pattern emerged. The following occurs so many times, we can call the book formulaic:

"Book xxx says that the following thing happened. But it's wrong, and here's a ...more

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Jan 19, 2008 Christopher rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

"BUSINESS IS WARRRRRRRRR!!! WE MUST BECOME THE JAPANEEEEEZZZE!!!" -- Jack Tramiel, CEO Commodore

If I was an engineer back then, I'd happily sacrifice my life as a Commodore Warrior for "Jack-Attack" Tramiel.

Don't believe the revisionist history! Apple is, and always has been, the original evil-empire. They led a revolution? THEY LED NOTHING!!!

Read about how Commodore engineer Chuck Peddle used to school "The Woz" and "Fake Steve" in how real computers were made. Read about a company that lived ...more

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Aug 08, 2007 Rob King rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Computer history geeks

Commodore built some of the landmark computers early in the history of the personal computer. They made the first fully integrated personal computer, the first computer to sell more than a million units, and the best-selling single model of computer ever (the Commodore 64). They were also responsible for the first multimedia computer, the Amiga, and were a mainstay of the digital arts world for over a decade.

So how did they manage to screw it all up? They could have owned the world. The story of Commodore built some of the landmark computers early in the history of the personal computer. They made the first fully integrated personal computer, the first computer to sell more than a million units, and the best-selling single model of computer ever (the Commodore 64). They were also responsible for the first multimedia computer, the Amiga, and were a mainstay of the digital arts world for over a decade.

So how did they manage to screw it all up? They could have owned the world. The story of Commodore is told in "On the Edge", and it's a great story.

In fact, the story is, honestly, the only reason I keep reading. I love the old Commodore machines (especially the Amiga), and I love hearing the story from the perspective of those in the trenches. The book certainly does not disappoint in that regard: there are interviews with dozens of people who worked for Commodore throughout its turbulent history. The interviews are informative and to the point.

Unfortunately, the non-quote writing leaves quite a bit to be desired. The author does not follow standard English professional writing style. For example, he italicizes things that should not be in italics (for example, the University of Minnesota). He also seems to have been writing with a thesaurus next to him. Whenever he quotes someone, he finishes the sentence with a new synonym for "said": people in turn "exclaim", "recall", "muse", and a variety of other actions. It's not bad to use these words when the subtle shades of meaning actually fit what is being said, but someone does not, for example, exclaim "I started working at this company in 1979. It was a bit of a rainy day."

The biggest flaw, however, is that the author seems to occasionally forget to introduce important people. Someone will say something about another person in an interview, and that person magically becomes part of the narrative. It is up to the reader to determine, via context, what relationship that person had with Commodore. The author also forgets critical background information, leaving it as a stumbling block when it is referenced in quotes later in the text (for example, Jack Tramiel, a major player in Commodore's history, was a survivor of the Nazi death camps. This is not mentioned in the narrative, but someone does say "Jack worked in the camps." It's up to the reader to determine which camps).

So, I would say that, while I do recommend this book, it's not because of the writing. The story of Commodore is so good and so integral to the modern personal computer that anyone with an interest in computer history should read it. If you ignore the mediocre writing and the lamentable lapses in journalistic ability, it's a great story. ...more

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Feb 03, 2016 Kevin Wortman rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a thorough account of Commodore through all its computer-producing years. As a former C64 programmer and enthusiast, the accounts of the key personalities and behind-the-scenes corporate drama are fascinating.

Unfortunately, many long passages, especially in the earlier chapters, are verbatim quotes from Chuck Peddle presented without commentary or any countervailing perspective. The text has numerous typos, repeats phrases, and drags in places. The book would have benefited from more ...more

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Oct 13, 2007 Don rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: computer-science

aaaahhh...geeky nostalgia goodness! i went the route of Apple II back in the day, only hands-on exposure the competition (commodore, atari) was at K-Mart. dunno why. Apple II led to the Mac, which was extremely hard to program for (aak, Hypercard)! and was still niche. wonder what life would be like if i grew up hacking away at a commodore or atari machine. would have led to PCs rather than Macs.

anywho, good times those late 70s early to mid 80s. the technology we take for granted today.

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Dec 27, 2013 Stephany Wilkes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

About to re-read this and realized I'd never rated it. Will edit this later but, as a very fortunate child whose DoD-employed grandfather introduced her to the Commodore 64 (hence setting me on the track to a tech career I love, and have always, loved), I highly recommend this. Warning: This recommendation may contain a touch of nostalgia.

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Sep 01, 2009 Jeff Goldenberg rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: computers

A really fascinating and seemingly authentic look at not only the rise and fall of the biggest computer company of all-time, but also of the entire industry upto the mid nineties. Highly recommended reading for those of you who think Apple and the Jobs Messiah are the most important thing to happen to computers.

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Nov 11, 2017 Eion Williamson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

As a child of the 80's nothing was more popular in this time than the Commodore64, iconic product of its time. Fantastic read, as like other corporations in history (i.e. Nokia, Atari) interesting to read how they got it so wrong.

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Oct 08, 2017 Mark Ashworth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I appreciated the depth of the technical details that went into this book, making it easier to understand why certain business decisions were made and how technology development is managed and integrated (or not) with marketing.

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Sep 22, 2017 Themistocles rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, computers

One of the best computer history books out there. Bagnall does a fantastic job in producing a book that is not only great in terms of retro computing, but also manages to be a great business book. Hats off!

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Aug 11, 2019 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wish I'd never given this book away, as it's not in print and, I think, has been split into two larger books I can't afford :(

Amazing story. Jack Tramiel is... a boss?

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May 29, 2017 Pascal Finette rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Interesting story, sadly suffers from poor writing style.

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Dec 20, 2019 нєνєℓ ¢ανα rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A good book for reading and learning history and computers... It was thrilling sometimes...

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Dec 12, 2012 Marko rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

A brilliant book that pretty much makes other books about Commodore redundant. This book is so comprehensive that it's hard to think of what might be missing. This is a book about a very peculiar company and some brilliant people doing brilliant stuff. Commodore did some brilliant stuff, like the sound and video chips on the Commodore 64. I hadn't even realised that the CPU of C64 was actually the same as in VIC-20, C64 just had those chips and more memory, but it was on a totally different A brilliant book that pretty much makes other books about Commodore redundant. This book is so comprehensive that it's hard to think of what might be missing. This is a book about a very peculiar company and some brilliant people doing brilliant stuff. Commodore did some brilliant stuff, like the sound and video chips on the Commodore 64. I hadn't even realised that the CPU of C64 was actually the same as in VIC-20, C64 just had those chips and more memory, but it was on a totally different level performance and price wise to anything on the market at the time. The sound chip, SID, was way better than anything else in anything affordable to normal consumers even though it was a rush-job (like most of the stuff done at Commodore during their peak). The result was a chip that has produced some of the most memorable game music ever and is used to this day.

I also didn't know Amiga wasn't actually a Commodore product at first but the way it was built was reminescant of the way Commodore built some of it's products (PET, VIC-20, C64): by going far beyond what anyone else had ever done. Amiga, at the time of it's release, was an amazing home computer offering unrivalled price and performance. It's too bad Commodore marketing messed the North American market completely and effectively killed the product there. European sales were not enough to keep Commodore afloat in the end. What made Commodore a success at first was the combined price cutting by Tramiel who always wanted to sell at far lower prices than the competition and the engineers who didn't like compromises and were brilliant at what they did. To make such important products required both.

But first and foremost this book is about people. The odd, the brilliant, the obsessed people that made Commodore what it was. From founder and CEO Jack Tramiel who was not a very nice person and ruined a lot of lives but after whose dismissal by majority shareholder Irving Gould Commodore went downhill fast and would have folded a lot earlier without Amiga to the brilliant engineers like Chuck Peddle who created the computer section of Commodore and was then destroyed by Tramiel and the engineers who created C64, Robert Russell and Bob Yannes and many others. These guys were motivated to the point of obsession, brilliant at what they did and some very eccentric, none more so than Bil Herd, a brilliant hardware guy and alcoholic. The stories of some of the antics they made are just brilliant, like how and why Herd punched a hole in the wall of his office.

For someone who spent way too much of his youth playing with the C64 this book is a goldmine of information. For instance, the reason why the 1541 floppy disk was so ridiculously slow is revealed. Commodore was a major factor in bringing computers to home. Much more so than IBM and Commodore easily out-sold companies like Apple during the critical years when the home-market was created (the first three true home computers were TRS-80, Commodore PET and Apple II and the Apple sold way less than the other two). So this book is also a valuable tale of how the computer arrived to our homes. Everyone might have an IBM PC clone now but in the 80's it looked for a while like the future might be in Commodore machines but for some shocking marketing decisions. The whole computer business seems to have changed from brilliant engineers doing brilliant, ground-breaking work to the business-driven model of today where products are changed just enough to make people want to buy it.

The only little thing I was left hoping for was some sort of timeline of the events listed in the book, including the things competition did that was mentioned in the book. Sometimes it was hard to follow the order of the events because things happened in parallel so you might be tossed back several years with a new chapter. Another thing is, of course, that since this book is largely the voice of the engineers that made this happen, the opinions might be a bit lop-sided but this really only bothered me on a few occasions.

For me some of the best gaming experiences ever were with C64 and it's the reason I now work in the computer industry even though I never did do much programming on it. But I, like countless others, were drawn into the computing industry by Commodore. So their legacy is still strong even though the company folded in 1994. This book brings back many memories and also makes you wonder have we lost something while gaining computers with computing powers completely unthinkable 25 years ago.

A company that created PET, VIC-20, C64 and Amiga (they made it a success by creating a cheaper version which made it affordable to many more than the original Amiga 1000) deserves it's history to be told. This book does it and brilliantly. A must-read for anyone who has ever owned one of Commodore's computers. ...more

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May 18, 2015 E Lewis rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. Why? It was a great trip down memory lane. I never had a Commodore, but I grew up (both literally and technically) during the hay day of the Commodore 64. It was great to get a better sense for how Commodore products fit in with classics like the Apple I, TRS-80 Model I, Apple II, TI-94, Atari 400, Atari 800, etc. (I just wish the TRS-80 Color Computer got a little play; that was my machine). In addition, the story of Commodore is an interesting one (lots of greed, I really enjoyed this book. Why? It was a great trip down memory lane. I never had a Commodore, but I grew up (both literally and technically) during the hay day of the Commodore 64. It was great to get a better sense for how Commodore products fit in with classics like the Apple I, TRS-80 Model I, Apple II, TI-94, Atari 400, Atari 800, etc. (I just wish the TRS-80 Color Computer got a little play; that was my machine). In addition, the story of Commodore is an interesting one (lots of greed, incompetence, and good engineering).

To be honest, a monkey could have written a book on this topic, and I would have liked it. Bagnall has done much better than a monkey, but overall I don't think the book was particularly well done. Here's why...

Poorly organized and written. The organization was semi-chronological, but it jumps around a lot. One chapter finishes with engineer X leaving the company, and in the next chapter he has not yet left. There were lots of redundancies. It was often imprecise and/or ambiguous. Many terms were used without definition. Names appeared out of the blue. And on and on. This book presumably did not have an editor (at least not a good one).

Not well researched. Bagnall did a lot of research, but the entire story is anecdotal. After reading the book I have no confidence in my understanding of the story of Commodore. It is possible that Bagnall's lens has only revealed a very biased slice of the story. Most of the material appears to come from interviews with former Commodore employees. The interviews are very interesting, but they come from a small number of (mostly) technical people. In fact, the first have of the 500-plus-page book consisted mostly of quotes from Chuck Peddle. It could just as easily been a book (the first half anyway) by Peddle. The words of the interviewees are taken as fact even when they could have easily been verified. Very little attempt is made to achieve any sort of balance.

Not technical. I'm a geek. I'd love to know about the details of building the many Commodore machine (and the 6502 MOS Technology processors). This book is not at all technical. It never goes beyond describing the RAM of a machine, and doesn't even achieve that level of detail in all cases. The comparisons of Commodore machines with competing products are based entirely on the statements of the interviewees. The author really missed a great opportunity.

Despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed reading the book due to the fascinating (and personally relevant) topic. Yet I would only recommend this book if you can tolerate the above shortcomings. ...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Keith rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Some of the reviews I read of this book lead me to believe it would be more focused on the business side than the technology side. I was presently surprised that I felt it was 70% or greater about the technology. Having had a C=128 and using the heck out of it and having admired Amigas and their uses (but never having owned one,) my look at this book may be a bit biased.

From the technology side: for those who think they know how the personal computer space started, this book provides a different ...more

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Jun 21, 2015 E. Kahn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Fascinating book about the rise of Commodore as one of the major (arguably the dominant) company in the early era of personal computing. The book takes a pretty negative view of company management on the one hand, while underlining how close they were to achieving total domination on the other, which I thought was a bit contradictory. In my view, the most interesting part to the general public will be insight into the decidedly weird and wild CEO Jack Tramiel, the man who shepherded the company ...more

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Feb 01, 2017 Chris rated it liked it

Shelves: own, non-fiction, signed

Somewhat heavy, but meticulously researched, history of Commodore from the takeover of MOS Technology (and the birth of the computer industry) to Jack Tramiel's departure.

Given what happened, it's amazing that Commodore were the success they were (or even that they managed to release any computers at all), and the details have garnered much more respect from me for the engineers who created the 6502 and C64. I am immensely sad that Commodore were wound up, as they were one of the great ...more

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May 27, 2008 Rob rated it really liked it

Shelves: technology, history

This book is an essential remedy to the current revisionist history that would have you believe Apple Computer Inc. is the only innovative computer company that mattered back then. This history of Commodore is so much more fascinating than you might think; the personalities, clashes, and little-known facts kept me turning the pages. As a Commodore fan, I always wondered, "what went wrong?" -- and this book answers that, revealing the internal politics and decision making of one of the true ...more

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May 29, 2014 James Alston rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Nostalgic micro users

A terrifically detailed book about Commodore in its early years of making home micros - PET, VIC20, Commodore 64 and others up to 1984 (so not the Amiga which is covered in the sequel). A lot of effort has gone into interviewing the people involved at the time and what could have been a tough subject to cover is a very readable 500+ pages. I bought it as a nostalgic trip back 30 years as a PET user and a C64 owner in the 80's, and it fulfilled my expectations and more. It would have been nice to ...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Karl Kindt rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011

If you owned and loved a Commodore PET, VIC-20, C64, or Amiga, you have to read this book. That is all there is to it. It is the only comprehensive technical and business history of the company. The writing could be somewhat better. The author repeats himself and occasionally tells things in a strange not-quite-chronological order, but that's okay because you can tell he did his homework--many interviews with various people give multiple sides to the stories and he gets all the technical details ...more

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Jun 30, 2008 Bruno Nadeau rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you feel like geeking out, On the Edge is captivating from beginning to end. Commodore produced the technology that was part of my first contact with computers, which explains part of my attraction to the book. Although the writing could be improved to make reading this brick a smoother experience, the quantity of information pasted in from interview material is phenomenal. Fun read, which made me boot my C64 one more time.

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Nov 08, 2012 The Geekster rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, computers-networking

The ups and downs of a now largely unknown PC company. Anyone who ever owned a Commodore PC or anyone who remembers this company and who were around back then will like this book. This company could have had it all. Read the background of the great engineers and people who develop great products in the PC world and the crazy management that ran the company. Their PC crushed the Sinclair, Atari, Tandy computers and put the hurt on Apple and IBM. A must read for computer geeks.

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Nov 15, 2011 Karen rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Rob King's review below does a good job outlining the issues in the writing. I thought I was really a poor reader for a while, thinking "Wait, who is this guy now? Did I miss his intro?" but I quickly realized that the author simply didn't introduce them at all. The incorrect punctuation and italics, as well as the spelling errors, really detracted from the reading for me. It's a shame - the material is stellar but I still ended up putting the book down halfway through.

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May 22, 2008 Michael rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Everything you ever wanted to know about Commodore but didn't know to ask, from their early domination of the personal computer market (including Apple, who nearly sold out to them) to their disintegration in the 1990s. Incredibly detailed. Fascinating to me because my family owned a host of computers including the C64. My main caveat is that the book is horribly, horribly edited and that it badly needs an index.

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Dec 13, 2013 Jeremy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Fascinating facts, competently written, poorly edited. The structure is roughly chronological with some overlap, which made it a little hard to follow the sequence, as each chapter did not exactly follow the last. Lacks an index.

Those Commodore machines were way better, way cheaper, and way earlier than you might think! And working there sounds like everybody's worst fantasy of a technology startup.

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Jun 24, 2013 Gerard Braad rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I actually read the ePub as provided by the publisher. This book describes the rise and fall of what was the largest computer company during/before people knew what a personal computer was. Commodore created the first home computer and this book tells how it started with the PET, and what eventually led to the million units sold C64... and how they acquired Hitoro/Lorraine which became known as the Amiga. I enjoyed the writing style a lot; detailed and passionate.

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About Brian Bagnall

Brian Bagnall

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Brian Bagnall is the author of numerous computer titles, including the Commodore Series.

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.