munnki
08 Apr 2011, 07:34 AM
It was one of the most successful home computers of the eighties and now it's making an unlikely comeback. A new version of the Commodore 64 is set to be released this summer, featuring entirely modern innards including a 1.8ghz dual-core Intel Atom D525 processor, Nvidia Ion 2 graphics chipset, 2 GB of DDR3 memory and your choice of a DVD or Blu-ray drive.
Best of all, the revived machine will feature exactly the same design as its 8bit predecessor, right down to the beige body and rather spongy keyboard (you can see more images on the Commodore USA Facebook page). The old cartridge port and joystick interfaces will be gone, though, replaced with HDMI and USB connections. Users will also be able to install Windows 7, although the machine will ship with Linux and will eventually get its own Commodore OS 1.0, complete with an emulator to play classic C64 titles. The new device is apparently on sale now, and orders are being taken at the price of $595 (£364), although at the moment, the company's website seems to be struggling to cope with the amount of interest a PC in a brown plastic box is generating.
Source (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/apr/07/commodore-64-returns)
Well... I think this may be an epic fail on behalf of the investors and although I wouldn't buy one now (you can play the games online with an emulator now) this was the first computer I had at home.
I remember having to type 'Load ""' into the screen and then pressing play on the tape. Going to make a cup of tea while the game loaded. Then playing Wonderboy for hours. I even made a bad attempt at learning to program on of this (C64 Basic - peek and poke were the commands you needed and a maths copybook with squared paper for the bitmap graphics)....
I don't think this new release will work...even with the high-spec they're boasting...but it would be nice to see one in action... just to remember the blocky keys and intro bluescreen (which showed up on one of the GTA games in the loading sequence...)
Ah...memories...
Best of all, the revived machine will feature exactly the same design as its 8bit predecessor, right down to the beige body and rather spongy keyboard (you can see more images on the Commodore USA Facebook page). The old cartridge port and joystick interfaces will be gone, though, replaced with HDMI and USB connections. Users will also be able to install Windows 7, although the machine will ship with Linux and will eventually get its own Commodore OS 1.0, complete with an emulator to play classic C64 titles. The new device is apparently on sale now, and orders are being taken at the price of $595 (£364), although at the moment, the company's website seems to be struggling to cope with the amount of interest a PC in a brown plastic box is generating.
Source (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/apr/07/commodore-64-returns)
Well... I think this may be an epic fail on behalf of the investors and although I wouldn't buy one now (you can play the games online with an emulator now) this was the first computer I had at home.
I remember having to type 'Load ""' into the screen and then pressing play on the tape. Going to make a cup of tea while the game loaded. Then playing Wonderboy for hours. I even made a bad attempt at learning to program on of this (C64 Basic - peek and poke were the commands you needed and a maths copybook with squared paper for the bitmap graphics)....
I don't think this new release will work...even with the high-spec they're boasting...but it would be nice to see one in action... just to remember the blocky keys and intro bluescreen (which showed up on one of the GTA games in the loading sequence...)
Ah...memories...