- Benchmarking Basic on Vintage Computers (techtinkering.com)
There are a few machines I’m quite interested in comparing so I decided to create a simple Basic benchmark to get an idea of their relative speed. The benchmark tests 7 aspects and is inspired by qsbb, which is included with the qlay Sinclair QL emulator. The Basic source code for all the machines tested is available in the GitHub repo. I chose Basic because it was available on all the machines I wanted to test and because the versions I created for each machine would require few changes.
- Commodore 64 (Wikipedia)
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling desktop computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing the number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$595 (equivalent to $1,990 in 2025). Preceded by the VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kibibytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware.