Retro Hardware: "The C64"

I watched a YouTube video with a Brit unboxing this newly available emulator of the C64 and Vic-20.

It really kinda made me long for those simpler days. I guess I am lucky they’re not currently selling in North America or I may well have ordered one.

I used to use a made in Canada assembler on the C64 called PAL, by a guy name Brad Templeton. 6502 assembly was really challenging to write well because of all the 8-bitness, but I was quite good at it once upon a time. And then I got an Amiga to play Settlers and Populous and kinda moved on from the C64. In my nostalgic brain I still remember having far too much fun playing Jumpman and Jumpman II though and Mission Impossible… and all those Infocom text adventures.

@Leo, maybe you should get one of these for your museum? :wink:

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Looks cool, if the keyboard is really C64 quality… Although the included games are a little lame, 3 would interest me. I’d love to see Racing Destruction Set, for example.

OMG racing destruction set! I loved that and had forgotten all about it.

Unfortunately most of these things for me are better as nostalgic memories as any time I’ve gone back to old hardware it’s always been a disappointment.

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I had a friend that had a C64 and a C128. On the 128, we played Spyhunter (the arcade game) all the time.

These have been out for a wile, they run a version of Linux…

Define out, the website says it was just released. You may be referring to the smaller version with a non-functional keyboard. This is a new version with a working keyboard, so you could actually use it for something other than playing the included/pre-loaded list of games.

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There was a full sized c= 64 released a few years ago that uses a version of Linux. I can’t find it now. I will look latter…

Here is the article from 2011. https://www.pcworld.com/article/224722/new_commodore_64_is_finally_here_for_real.html

Yeah, no to that thing… which I don’t know if it even still exists as a product. No one is spending more than a hundred or maybe two hundred on an 8-bit emulated computer. Nostalgia is great and all, but people’s pocketbooks have limits.

Here’s a review and disassembly

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It looks like it really was done by fans of the C64 and not just some back street factory knocking off copies of the C64. The weights, the microswitches, they all add “unnecessary” costs to the price of the system, at first glance, but are probablly one of the major reasons why it comes over as being so close to the original.

I’d have liked to see them get the keyboard experience a bit better, with a real keyboard, as opposed to a membrane, but given the budget constraints, I think they have still done a great job, looking at the video.

He is correct, the colour is correct for the UK model and it does look like they copied the C64 colour, but the VIC=20 size. That said, the C64 does look a bit “truncated” next to the new emulator and the VIC=20 - something I remember at the time as well, I had a VIC=20 and my mates started getting the C64 when it came out, it seemed somehow less substantial than the VIC.