I read this short article on IGN... and was taken by surprise: http://gear.ign.com/articles/116/1160181p1.html "The new Commodore 64 is set to release later this year and will come in five different configurations, ranging from $250 to $895, with the cheapest configuration serving only basic functionality and the most expensive sporting an Intel Atom D525 1.8GHz Dual-Core processor, NVIDIA ION2 GPU, 4GBs of memory, Wi-Fi support, Blu-ray drive, and 1TB hard drive. It will also support full 1080p output via HDMI and feature a variety of other connection options. " At first i thought this was some elaborate April fools joke... but the article was just posted today.. And then this: http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64.aspx :drool:
Its very real, but I think they're hoping to use the Commodore 64 name to sell machines as opposed to the thing being an actual C64. Seems the thing just has a C64 emulator without bothering to put in interfaces for tape drives, cartridges and such which would have made it pretty damned awesome.
Thought so. I couldn't se the link because it was down. I mean, why a C64? If Sega made a PC and called it The Saturn, with a built in Saturn emulator, would I buy it? No, not at all. Marketing is very strange or should that be people have very strange thinking when purchasing products?
I wish it was a joke, but the company's been doing this for years: they've released MP3 players, desktop computers and even DVD-Rs with the Commodore logo hoping people would buy them because of that. Obviously this... thing has nothing to do with an actual C64 (that would've been a lot cooler). Love how they talk about 1080p HD playback and then right in the next paragraph they have the thing about playing 8-bit games, though. BTW, look at the main page, they have "VIC-20s" and an entire line of "Amigas" too.
My original C-64 is one of the ones with the weird single-bit RAM errors, and I've been looking to replace it for a while. I would buy this nettop emulator thing if it had some kind of hardware that made it compatible with the 1541 floppy drive.
I, for one, really like this, and think it would look fucking awesome for a media centre / emulator / entertainment PC. My only issue with it is the fact that there isn't many USB retro-looking joysticks. I grew up with the C64 and it was awesome. This one looks pretty cool too. But how expensive is it?
Too expensive since the article says it's $895 for the most expensive model...I guess you'd have to decide if paying extra for the C64 case is worth it, but you can get a similar/more powerful HTPC for less. I have one of those USB Competition Pro sticks. It works perfectly as a facsimile for an old computer joystick.
I love the way that this company has absolutely nothing to do with Commodore outside of a logo and designs licensed off whoever owns the Commodore marque. Interestingly, there's also a completely unrelated company called Commodore Gaming who ALSO have a license for the logo and handles the C64 emulators for Wii and iOS, as well as previously doing a line of gaming PCs. http://commodoregaming.com/
That stick is indeed sexy. I have an old C64 which no longer works, and, well, there's not much of a point in repairing it, as all my software was stolen by a "friend". I could use that case if I could somehow make the keyboard work with it...
I grew up with commodore computers in my house, vic 20, C64 and amiga, so I've been following this one.. The computer comes with a Linux OS installed with an optional emulator. You hold some key when it boots and up comes the original C64 (emulated which isn't hard in 2011). Now are you able to load every c64 game on an sd card and run it through the emulator? Who knows. You can also install windows into it and the "promised" new commodore operating system. Yep they are writing their own OS to come later. Its all very insane but honestly I love that case and seriously am considering picking one up. What I'd really want though is a state of the art amiga dual booting Amiga OS and Windows. Now thats a first day buy.
Man, thanks for reminding us all what a fucking mess the Commodore thing has been ever since they originally went bankrupt in '94.
I loved the C64 back in the day, but there was no denying that it was one UGLY piece of kit. So it begs the question, why would anyone want an ugly bread bin like that in their home? Ewww
Yup. And I worked for them - developing the Wii C64 Emulators/Games :thumbsup: And the unreleased Amiga emulator....shame they canned that as they had some great games licenced.
Bah, they should have made it with 2 cursor keys with the weird down and right and up and left with the shift key and the F keys should be on the right set of keys rather then a bunch of nasty multimedia keys....
