Floppy Days 155 - Interview with Karl Hornell, C64 Developer, cartoonist, author

Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast

Interview with Karl Hornell - C64 Game Developer, Cartoonist, Author

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays

Sponsors:

• 8-Bit Classics

• Arcade Shopper

• FutureVision Research

Hello, and welcome to episode 155 of the Floppy Days Podcast for September, 2025! I’m Randy Kindig, your host for this podcast, where we talk about the computers that got many of us started in our careers and which still hold a lot of interest for us today.

This month, I’m bringing you another interesting interview with someone who at an early age started developing commercial-grade software for the Commodore 64, which started him on an amazing trajectory with his career in software development, cartoonist, and more. His latest efforts include branching out into writing science fiction, which we will also discuss today.

The person I’m referring to is Karl Hornell (Her-NELL).

It’s also an interesting story around how this interview opportunity came to me. I’m not used to getting contacted by an ad agency. This one indicated that their client, Karl, had just recently published a book and was looking for ways to advertise the book. They suggested that Floppy Days would be a great fit based on Karl’s background and could be beneficial for both. I was skeptical at first, as I always am when I receive unsolicited, possibly spam email. However, once I researched Karl’s background it became clear that he was an accomplished Swedish developer for the C64 back in the day, with some notariety. I felt his background might indeed be of interest to you, the listeners, and so happily agreed to interviewing Karl for the podcast. I hope you enjoy Karl’s story and will consider taking a look at his new book.

New Acquisitions and What I’ve Been Up To

• Atari Bit Byter User Club (ABBUC) - https://www.abbuc.de

• VCFMW - https://vcfmw.org/

• Atari TT030 at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_TT030

• David Anderson’s Timex Sinclair sites:

• https://andertone.com/

• https://www.timexsinclair.com/

News

• Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer - https://archive.org/details/stan-veits-history-of-the-personal-computer/mode/2up

• David Greelish’s YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@TheComputerHistorian

• Early chapters (1-9) of Stan Veit’s book via audio - https://www.classiccomputing.com/CCPodcasts/Stan_Veit/Stan_Veit.html

• Floppy Days YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@floppydayspodcast

Upcoming Vintage Computer Shows

• Tandy Assembly - September 26-28 - Courtyard by Marriott Springfield - Springfield, OH - http://www.tandyassembly.com/

• Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 17-19 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/

• Chicago TI International World Faire - October 25 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - https://www.chicagotiug.org/home

• Ami West - November 1-2, Sacramento, CA - https://www.amiwest.net

• World of Commodore 2025 - December 6-7 - Admiral Inn, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - https://www.tpug.ca/world-of-commodore/world-of-commodore-2025/

• Vintage Computer Festival Montreal - Jan. 24-25, 2026 - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC - https://vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/

• Vintage Computer Festival SoCal - February 14-15, 2025 - Hotel Fera Events Center, Orange, CA - vcfsocal.com

• Indy Classic Computer and Video Game Expo - March 20-22 - Wyndham Indianapolis Airport Hotel, Indianapolis, IN - https://indyclassic.org/

• Schedule Published on Floppy Days Website - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSeLsg4hf5KZKtpxwUdQgacCIsqeIdQeZniq3yE881wOCCYskpLVs5OO1PZLqRRF2t5fUUiaKByqQrgA/pub

Interview Links

• Karl at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_H%C3%B6rnell

• Vic-Rapport Magazine (Wikipedia) - https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIC-rapport

• “Generation 64 - How the Commodore 64 Inspired a Generation of Swedish Gamers” by Bitmap Books - https://amzn.to/3YUUlQ5 (affiliate link)

• Karl Hornell’s Applet Center - http://www.javaonthebrain.com/

• Retro Gamer Magazine #130 with Karl interview - https://archive.org/details/retro-gamer-raspberry-pi-buenos-aires/Retro%20Gamer%20130/page/92/mode/2up

• “Singularity Minus Twelve” book - https://amzn.to/3S8Yr3r (affiliate link)

• Savage Dragonbert - https://wiki.savagedragon.com/comics/savage_dragonbert_full_frontal_nerdity_01/