C64 back in the classroom

[RobertB]

     Last year I had a PET 4032 in my classroom.  The students would say, "What's that?", and I would say that it was a 32-year old computer.  They would say, "Where is the mouse?", and I would say that you have to use the cursor keys on the keyboard.  They would say, "Does it connect to the Internet?", and I would say, "Not easily here at school".
     This school year I brought back a C64 system to the classroom in full working condition.  It was a classic breadbox from 1984.  I fixed the keyboard so that it now has all of its keys (the 8 key was missing).  The brown 1541 has the twist-turn disk drive door handle.  The monitor is a white Magnavox.  I cleaned up the C64 casing, disk drive casing, monitor, and Epyx joystick.
     The students have been trying out this wonder.  With a little bit of my help, it didn't take them too long to figure out how to load a disk and run the programs.  Using the joystick came pretty naturally, even though they grew up using touchpads, Playstation/XBox controllers, or PC mice.  Of course, on the C64 they'd rather play fun games than educational programs.

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          http://videocam.net.au/fcug