Ordering a Commodore C64 Tomorrow?

[sunairco]

The Commodore 64 is back. I'm not sure why many of the geeks are salivating over the retro "coolness" factor in net buzz. I guess the next one is either going to be a TRS-80 clone or an Atari 800. A few years ago, someone redid the IMSAI or MITS Altair as a clone chassis...now that was way cool!


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/t...e_skin;content

[betts]

nope. i already got a linux box.

[peggygee]

The Commodore 64 is back. I'm not sure why many of the geeks are salivating over the retro "coolness" factor in net buzz. I guess the next one is either going to be a TRS-80 clone or an Atari 800. A few years ago, someone redid the IMSAI or MITS Altair as a clone chassis...now that was way cool!


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/t...e_skin;content

Ahh, remember them all fondly, the VIC 20, the Commodore 64, the Commodore 128.

It's deja vu, all over again.

[Quiet Reflections]

I might have to get one of those. I still have my original 64 and 128.

[Stavros]

I wrote my PhD on a BBC Micro...box-type structure just smaller than the average garage..those were the days! And I am glad they are GONE! I read an article on it in the (UK) Guardian and anyway I don't like the retro look...

[iamdrgonzo]

Will you also get the 1348 5.25" floppy drive?

Its a must.

[Dino Velvet]

Pac-Man and Space Invaders will be arcade perfect++ on this new machine.

[betts]

Pac-Man and Space Invaders will be arcade perfect++ on this new machine.

Almost any old box can run MAME to emulate those and hundreds of other arcade games.

[sunairco]

I don't know if anyone looked at the prices. The top tier unit with the Blue Ray DVD and WiFi is over $900. When you figure this platform is not easily upgraded not to mention hardly ergonomic with the raised keyboard, that's a lot of gelt for a curio just to have bragging rights.

"
I wrote my PhD on a BBC Micro...box-type structure just smaller than the average garage..those were the days! And I am glad they are GONE! I read an article on it in the (UK) Guardian and anyway I don't like the retro look... "

Agreed! I remember the BBC in the stateside mags. I don't think anyone imported it. I tried writing several of my undergraduate papers on a TRS-80 using Electric Pencil and later Scripsit. Professors weren't keen to accepting a draft quality document from a 9 pin dot matrix printer. It wasn't until I bought an Osborne and also a Morrow MD3 writing under Word Star and later New Word and a Qume daisy wheel printer that I was able to generate an acceptable document that I wrote my graduate thesis. That daisy wheel printer sounded like an airplane taking off...and slow. I never owned any of the game computers. Only one before the TRS-80 was an 8080 S-100 Byte-8 kit that I used a modified Klienshmidt Teletype machine with and a paper tape preferator/repreferator for storage. To use a Shutgart 8" or Percom 5 1/4" floppy drive with either the Byte or TRS-80 would have cost between $800 - $1200 for the drive and enclosure not counting another $300-400 for an expansion card or interface respectively. To think the same drives fell below $50 by the time the IBM PC came out! Sorry no allure for the retro, just a lot of bad memories.

[sunairco]

Their new site is up. http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_TronVideo.aspx Looking it over, their VIC Slim looks very intereresting and quite affordable for the barebones unit. Enough so, I'm seriously considering suggesting getting one to test with one of my maritime customers as a replacement for some aging laptops acting as dedicated terminals. The C-64 prices are absurd by comparison just for the novelty.