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Commodore 64 resurrected with new, modern guts but classic look.

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facattack

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Reborn.

The new system, which also starts at $595, is a little more modern: it's got a Dual Core 525 Atom processor, an Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset, 2GB of RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), a 160GB hard drive, and built-in Wi-Fi. On the left side of the keyboard there's a slot or tray-load DVD (upgradeable to Blu-ray), and on the right side there's a multi-format card reader, along with a USB 2.0 port. The rear features four additional USB 2.0 ports; mouse and keyboard PS/2 ports; DVI, VGA, and HDMI ports; Ethernet; and support for 6-channel HD audio. It runs Linux, but you can install Windows if you like.
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-1 for using the limp-wristed Atom CPU.

How many C64 peripherals does this box support? Probably zero.

Any PCI slots (or other than USB expandability)? Doesn't look like it.

Other than being a C64-shaped Object, I don't get it. Sort of like those CD players in mockup old windup phonograph cases. All looks--is only mediocre on the inside.

Would you buy a 5150 mockup with no slots floppy support or expandability running a so-so modern CPU? Why?
 
I gather that you have to download C64 games off the internet to play them. Or maybe they will be released on CD in compilation form? IDK.
 
Can this thing please fade cheerfully into obscurity sooner rather than later, so I can stop reading about it. This thing is LAME (in allcaps!).
 
I love the looks. Hopefully would love the feel. Love the "spirit" that they're trying to channel. Hate the hardware.... Atom? WHY? For the price - or add to the price - use a better cpu, keep the airflow going, and investigate Peltier plate cooling options.

Heat, I could see in the AIO systems, I guess... but if they go that way on their Amiga remakes... I'll figure that they're just wasting our time and trying to turn a buck off of the name only.
 
Abbub said:
Can this thing please fade cheerfully into obscurity sooner rather than later, so I can stop reading about it. This thing is LAME (in allcaps!).
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AMEN! (also in allcaps ;-) )

But they sure have a lot of folks doing free PR for them...
 
Quite honestly I hated typing on the original breadbox C64 (no wrist support) and prefered the C64C (have both versions currently). Which brings up the point, C64 and 1541 disk drives are still readily available for next to nothing and the cable you need to dump pirated images (available all over the net) to real disks to play is common and also cheap. If you want the feal of the real thing you can get it for under $100, if you are just going to use an EMU any machine made in the last 10 years will be fine why spend $600.

About the only thing I can think that would be worth paying for is a NEW C64 with features like VGA, extended basic, USB for mice and storage, Super CPU for GEOS work, connectors for all the old original carts and drives, and ethernet booting into real C64 mode. Extended and reliable new machines.
 
As I have written before: for their sake, I really, REALLY, REALLY hope they will be able to deliver a product to customers who ordered one, so not everything goes up in smoke and mirrors. Even if nobody committed a payment and thus would lose any money over it, the whole thing would turn out to be a fiasco of rarely seen magnitudes if it fails. Disney also would be very displeased after granting them advertisment space in their DVD releases.
 
facattack said:
My bad. I thought it was cool... :(
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No bad; it is kinda cool in a way although a lot of folks don't see the value (or even the point ;-) ).

But so far there's been lots of hype and mentions on a lot of forums but nothing really tangible, so folks are getting a little skeptical...
 
It would be pretty cool at a lower price... (can't wait to see how many people jump down my throat for daring to suggest that) and if it could play original C64 carts, which I originally thought was part of the plan, but apparently didn't make it to the final product.
 
From what I gather, on the inside there are mass-market Chinese products with little or no customized hardware. It is all put inside a case moulded to resemble a Commodore 64 and a similar keyboard layout. If this device had come with some interesting, unique hardware, I'm sure most of us would have been drooling instead of poking fun.

Say for example that Commodore USA would have made a deal to include a Chameleon (another overpriced C64 peripheral just to be launched) or just about any FPGA based solution with legacy ports for joysticks, disk drive, perhaps a multi bus to which you could connect a cartridge reader. Next to all that stuff the board should include an X86 compatible PC, so instead of the regular software emulation you can run on just about any PC, you had some interesting hardware. I'm not sure if those FPGA cores are much more exact or better than what a modern CPU can emulate in software though, but it would be an unique product that applies to the most active vintage gamers/computer users. Also with all that extra hardware, the current price tag would be reasonable.

As the product sits now, I think most of the buyers will be those who once used to have a C64, moved on to PC's 25 years ago and for nostalgia reasons thinks this is a good buy. Nothing wrong with those, there probably are more people who remember a C64 than those who still occasionally use one.
 
The only thing I kinda hope is they aren't making money from people who think they want to support Commodore or Amiga. Unless I'm wrong about this but other than Amiga, Inc allowing them to use the name at some point there is no business correlation other than the abuse of the name. Kinda like it's hard to tell if one truly wanted to support Atari.. the name has been leased out and while I think there still is an Atari proper somewhere the name is spammed across a large variety of unrelated and non-atari items.
 
Overpriced low mid-range PC in a novelty case, sold by a company that's been nothing but douches to those of us in the CBM/Amiga community. Please don't give them money, they're planning on going after the Amiga next.
 
Barythrin: The company name Commodore is rightfully owned by Commodore this or that. They have in turn licensed Commodore USA to use their company name in order to sell these PC's. You also have (or had?) Commodore Gaming which sold roomy PC cases embossed with the chickenhead logotype. All those products are legitimate, compared to some crap that flooded the market in the late 1990's.

The brand name has shifted ownership something like this:

1. Commodore themselves went bankcrupt in 1994

2. German company Escom bought the Commodore brand while Amiga Inc got the Amiga part. Escom produced bog standard PC's with the Commodore brand, logotype bastardized with lower "d" replaced by small capital "D".

3. Escom sold or somehow transferred the Commodore brand to Dutch company Tulip. They licensed some MP3 players and other products with silly names like "eVIC" and "mPET". It was around here they began to hunt down illegal uses of the brand.

4. Tulip eventually transferred the brand to Yeahronimo or however their name was spelled. It was during this period Ironstone, Mammoth Toys and most importantly Jeri Ellsworth got involved with the C64DTV.

5. Yeahronimo decided to rename themselves Commodore, IIRC. For some while I believe Tulip also bought back the brand/company, but I can't recall all the details.

6. Today we have a company called Commodore International (this or that) if I recall correctly. They obviously license the brand to whoever has ideas about products relating to the brand.

So if you think of Commodore as the company once led by Jack Tramiel, later by Irving Gould et. al, had their own development and production facilities, they went down more than 15 years ago and are no longer possible to support. However a few patents, trademarks and some intellectual properties still seem to lie in the company so anyone who wants to support the people who think is a good investment to put money in a classic brand that otherwise would've been history many years ago, this is one way to go.
 
carlsson said:
From what I gather, on the inside there are mass-market Chinese products with little or no customized hardware. It is all put inside a case moulded to resemble a Commodore 64 and a similar keyboard layout. If this device had come with some interesting, unique hardware, I'm sure most of us would have been drooling instead of poking fun.
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From the pictures I've seen, it's just an ordinary mini-ITX motherboard inside. You can buy a comparable (if not identical) board on Newegg for under $200. It's a little better than the $99 Atom D525 boards because it has the Nvidia video on it, so it's an upper-tier Atom board, but still an Atom.

One could build something comparable at home by cutting holes in a real C-64 case to fit a mini-ITX motherboard inside, and building an Arduino-based controller for the keyboard. The result would look even more like a 64. I'd do it with a dead machine, of course--there's no point in hacking up a good, working 64. There are plenty of dead 64s that fell victim to Commodore power supplies over the years still out there.

To me, the novelty of having a PC in a 64 case is worth something, but I'm a guy who used to build 486s into IBM 5160s for the novelty of seeing Windows 3.1 and/or Windows 95 running on what appeared to be a PC/XT. I like retro boxes that can run modern software. I'm just not inclined to pay $595 for one. I understand you can get just the case and keyboard for $250, but that's a little pricey for me too. I can modify the real thing into something with comparable functionality for less than that.

Obviously there's some interest in it. But there are a lot of people interested in certain cars who never end up buying them, too. I'm sure a lot of people who buy Honda Accords like Ford Mustangs better, but the Accord is cheaper and more practical. So the interest may not translate into the dollars that the current owners/licensees (whichever the case may be) are hoping for.

carlsson said:
As the product sits now, I think most of the buyers will be those who once used to have a C64, moved on to PC's 25 years ago and for nostalgia reasons thinks this is a good buy. Nothing wrong with those, there probably are more people who remember a C64 than those who still occasionally use one.
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No doubt there are. I run into some of my Commodore buddies from time to time, in person and online. Some of us still have some of our Commodore gear but most of us don't. I still have mine, but admittedly I spend a LOT more time talking about the machines than actually using the one I have that still works. I grew up with a bunch of guys who learned about computers on C-64s and 128s, and we're all NT or Unix sysadmins or developers now. All of us moved on, but all of us still remember those machines too.
 
Well I know one thing, if they don't sell many now and go bust - they'll be pretty neat collectibles in 20 years.
 
You still need an external monitor anyway, so why not just take one of those dead C64 cases, put a C64keyboard/joystick>USB or PS/2 converter in it, plug it into the minitower under your desk running a background VICE and pretend the display in front of you is a 1084 monitor. ;-)
 
I suspect the stiff price is at least in part due to having to cut a new injection mold for that classic C64 look shell (which I've been told is an expensive proposition.)
 
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