I'm carrying a surprise exhibit for #PaCommEx... can you tell what it is?
That's right! It's the Sam440ep, a rare PowerPC Amiga made by the Italian company ACube Systems!
It still works perfectly, and boots into AmigaOS 4.1.
Compared to a classic m68k Amiga, it feels blazingly fast: windows with soft shadows move smoothly on a high-resolution, true-color screen.
More pics from the first day of Commodore Pacific Expo.
Robert Bernardo kindly provided a monitor and desk space to exhibit my 600 MHz PPC AmigaOS 4.1 running on the Sam440ex.
A 9 year old was typing BASIC commands on the Plus 4 next to me. I introduced him to the one-liner maze generator published in the original user manual of the Commodore 64:
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Afterwards, he started modifying the code, trying different values to see what would happen... much like I did when I was about the same age 🥲
Now this young programmer has his own YouTube channel, and he's coding an adventure game called High Honor:
https://youtu.be/eG9Rp45BepA
The hand-written program listing of High Honor is impressive.
I also scribbled BASIC programs while in school, and I also used squared paper to draw sprites or PETSCII art, but this work is *neat*! 🥹
It's also remarkable that the parents don't know anything about programming. They told me that their elder son asked for a Commodore 64, and they bought it without being too sure what he'd be doing with it.
This is pretty much how I started learning the fun and rewarding profession I'm still doing today.
So I wish both these kids to reach their potential and enjoy their careers 👍
@donncha @bertspace I volunteered for One Laptop Per Child in 2007 because it was a promising opportunity to demystify computing for the next generation of coders.
#OLPC didn't reach the same scale of the #C64, but it was worth trying.
Bernie
Bert
Donncha Ó Caoimh