A Commodore 64 For The New Millenium

samdu writes "The CommodoreOne is now available for purchase. The C=1 is a reimplementation of the Commodore=64 in an ATX form factor, 65c816 processor running at approximately 20 MHz, VGA out, an updated SID (with backward compatibility), 32 MB of RAM, standard IDE, PS/2 ports, and a 64 compatible cartridge slot. Let the hobbying begin." We've run previous stories on related efforts.

What is this good for?

[norculf]

The subject says it all: who in their right mind would want such a thing?

Emulation

[ergo98]

Just as I wouldn't go out and buy a classic arcade console, but rather would run MAME, why would someone want this when the 6502 can be completely emulated [google.ca] very well? Emulation isn't an option when extreme performance is required, but I'd wager that a modern Ghz+ would emulate a 6502 and subsystems at a speed greatly outpacing a actual 20Mhz 6502.

No Thanks

[Amsterdam Vallon]

A classic's a classic, and there's no denying that.

New millenium this, new millenium that, but to me and many like myself, there'll only ever be one Commodore [ebay.com].

*nix.org [starnix.org]

Re:What is this good for?

[repetty]

I've read that there's a healthy community of people who still write C64 software both in the US and in Europe. They get off of work coding on modern computers and then go home and challenge themselves with writing the most efficient code possible -- a novel and comparitively low priority in current software development. Think of it as building a ship in a bottle. One could build the ship outside the bottle, but where the fun it that? --Richard

Aside from the 'cool' factor. -- why?

[nurb432]

Sure its cool, and would be fun to mess with, but if its more then a box of parts in cost.. why??

I can build a C64 for almost nothing, even if i didnt have 3 in the garage somewhere...

Hell you can do this on a single programmable chip these days.. now THATS really cool.

Does this mean we will see a 'modernized' atari 8bit as well, or an ST...

Economics

[GeorgeK]

This product seems to ignore economics. In particular, it would be less expensive to buy a standard PC and then emulate the Commodore 64 (and also be able to run lots of other standard software).

Perhaps their team could have used one more person with a business degree, and one less engineer, to figure this out....

.

Re:Emulation

[Neck_of_the_Woods]

I will tell you why I own some older arcade classic coin-ops. Mame is great and all, but when you have an original you have and original. Something that has more to it than just the gaming value.

I can tell you from the way people go "holly shit do those work!" when they walk into my shop and see original Galaga, Centipede, and Sinistar arcade games running . Those games have personal attachment to them. They bring back a time in my generations history that they loved.

Everyone always plays them all the time. There is nothing like hearing "I HUNGER! RUN COWARD!" and the simple sounds from Galaga and people having a good time at those machines. The analog feel of the controls and the battle for the high scores with everyone that plays the games.

It is just something about the classics that make you love them, be it your time with them, or the memories that you have. Sometimes you just can't make something old better with new stuff, it peaked and you can't recreate what the old games have with new equipment.

Just my views....

Cross-development is like a ship in a bottle

[yerricde]

Think of it as building a ship in a bottle. One could build the ship outside the bottle, but where the fun it that?

Actually, ships in bottles are built mostly outside the bottle with jointed masts. Then the ship is stuffed in the bottle, and the masts are raised.

Likewise, modern programs for underpowered systems (Palm, GBA, retro consoles) are developed on PCs using cross-compilers and emulators and then moved to the target system for testing.

"I don't want one, therefore it's a bad idea."

[sczimme]

This sort of comment pops up all the time on /. and elsewhere. Just because you don't want something doesn't mean that someone else must be crazy to want it. Not everyone thinks like you do (or I do, or anyone else does).

If you don't want one, or think it's a dumb idea, then don't buy one. Problem solved.

This is not meant to be a troll or flamebait, though it will probably be modded as such.

Re:What is this good for?

[repetty]

I certainly find that most software customers aren't the least bit interested in efficiency.

They want... FEATURES!!! ;->

Re:Economics

[drinkypoo]

The difference is, the F22 is today a screaming, top-technology fighter jet, where today the C64 is too big to be a doorstop, and too light to be a boat anchor.

This is silly. It's nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. Users would be far better off with a similar machine based on a 68k chip (coldfire if you want to go new; 68030 or '040 if you want to be old school about it) which would be cheaper and faster, have a full MMU, have a 32 bit flat address space, et cetera.

Now, I'm not going to tell anyone not to be silly, but it seems like an inane waste of money. It would be better IMO to provide a PCI card with sockets for SIDs and your FPGA, and hardware to emulate the C64 CIA more closely, for around a $100 price point. Then you could just slap it into your PC and go, using your PC's hardware to do all the video and whatnot, using your PC's memory, using your PC's processor -- rather than requiring users to build a whole new system. In fact, it seems entirely likely that if you were to buy all the supporting parts new, even if you got fairly cheap hardware it would still cost more to buy peripherals, monitor etc than to buy the system. That seems silly to me.

If you yearn for the days when computers sucked that much ass, use a real C64. This is just wanking. If you're going to have something modern, you might as well have something which is ACTUALLY modern, something more like 2GHz than 20MHz.

And of course, if you are using this to get real work done, you're a nobk. Zilog sells development boards with a CPU in this class for fifty bucks. It never ceases to amaze me that the crappier a computer commodore made, the more of a following it had. People loved the Amiga to death, but I actually think there are more C64 addicts than Amigans these days, and I'll never understand that. If you couldn't emulate the C64, it would make more sense.

Re:Economics

[JoeCommodore]

You fail to see the full market here, software emulations can be pretty lame, though they get the gist of the machine down quite well, there are always some nasty comprimises, such as inability to access some port (like serial to run modems, etc.). Not everyone interested in the C-One are game players (and even if they are they probably may want to use a 64 joystick over some PC gamepad), some people still do serious work on the 8-bits and would like to have a machine with a 65xx compatible processor as well as IDE, PS/2 ports, gobs of RAM etc. You can think of it like a 'BASIC stamp extreme' if that makes more sense to you...

It all starts with the 64 emulation but if you read the specs, it keeps going and c64 is just one configuration possible.

For me the Commodore fan it's the 64 with all the stuff I wish I had that I don't know how to connect to the 64. Sure there are hard disks and other interfaces out there to expand the 64, but these are built-in and not only that 20x the speed (very fast indeed), plus extended video and sound features... Old school video games have a new platform to be re-invented on.... :-)