22. Commodore 64 for the Beginning Beginner
The Commodore 64's commercial lifespan saw the release of a large selection of programmer's guides, reference manuals, and how-to books intended to educate new buyers on how to operate the computer and to promote the wide range of accessories and software available for use. The previously reviewed C128 Introductory Guide is a great example of Commodore's admirable track record in offering high-quality first-party support documentation of this sort, though not all of this documentation came from CBM itself. Recognizing a tremendous potential audience for this training material, many third-party publishers also commissioned similar guides to cash in on the growing wave of popularity afforded to early 80s home computing.
Commodore 64 for the Beginning Beginner is one of a series of novice guides to several 80s home computers and was authored by Flora Russ and Matthew J. Foley for publisher Enrich/Ohaus. If none of those names sound familiar.. well, same here. There look to be equivalent guides for computers such as the Apple II, TRS-80, Atari 8-bit, and TI-99/4A. Despite the extent of this collection, computing doesn't appear to have been Enrich/Ohaus' specialty - a Google search in the present day turned up a single book on multiplication and a whole slew of science lab equipment, most notably a line of various weight scales and balances.
The book faithfully adheres to the expectations of its title and offers a 100-level rundown on connecting the C64, interacting with its version of BASIC, and working with cartridges, cassettes, and disks (including fastload/wedge routines). It also goes into core computer concepts such as input/output, how the C64 stores and retrieves variables and program listings from memory, and how it displays information on the screen and plays sound via the SID chip.
The technical highlight of the book is a program around 15 lines long that draws a PETSCII kaleidoscope. It's not exactly the most ambitious code, but it does look pretty.
Due to the book's origin in a series covering multiple computing platforms, its text can feel a bit generic compared to publications that are more likely to have been written ground-up for the C64. For example, past the requisite few typos found in almost any guide of this sort, there are also several examples of very odd, un-Commodore syntax throughout. The LET statement used in the code examples to declare variables feels like a holdover from other platforms that isn't needed in C64 BASIC, while a few GOTO statements point to the wrong places, implying that code may have been recklessly lifted from similar examples in other Enrich/Ohaus books without the required proofreading.
As chapters progress, the book unfortunately starts to become defined by what it's missing rather than what's included. The book sticks to PETSCII and character graphics exclusively and doesn't cover sprite graphics at all, which I guess isn't a "beginning beginner"-level topic, but deserves some mention within a rudimentary guide as a huge selling point of the C64 versus previous CBM hardware. If the author can (briefly) explore the arcane workings of programming the SID chip in BASIC, they can at least teach us to send a pixelated spaceship across the screen while they're at it. The C64's user port similarly gets no love, nor do peripherals such as modems. Though the effort to keep the selection of topics down to the absolute basics is admirable, I felt there should've been some discussion of these items, even if it was only in the form of an FYI to advise of their existence and purpose. For a book designed to quickly get newbies acquainted with the C64, the reader walks away with an incomplete conception of its capabilities.
If the above paragraphs don't make it clear, this book is a touch-below-adequate at best and completely inessential under any circumstances. Though the tutorials are helpful, there's nothing that hasn't already been covered in dozens of other, better instructional books, and nothing special or unique to make this one worth your precious time.
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