The Return Of The 64

Pushtrak

P
From the article:
Commodore USA is a new company that has licensed the Commodore name from Commodore Gaming, which makes games for PCs and consoles. The PC company is trying to invoke the glory of the Commodore 64's past to promote the new PC. On its Web site, the company shows an image of the old Commodore 64 with the caption "you loved us then," and then an image of the new PC, with the caption "you'll love us again."
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We loved you then... Er, the "you" I use there would be Commodore Gaming. Commodore USA coming along and throwing money at it doesn't really entitle them to take credit for the work of the past in my book.

I don't know what age I was, but had some great times on the C64. I know it was before I got a NES. And I remember playing a teenage mutant ninja turtles game and a side scrolling shooter, Midnight Resistance. Other than that, I can't really remember anything about the console other than the load times.

Anyway, in response to this new product, it'll have to be at a competitive price point. To state the obvious.
 

DraQ

D
Pushtrak said:
Commodore USA coming along and throwing money at it doesn't really entitle them to take credit for the work of the past in my book.
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QFE.

The only thing C64 and this have in common is integrating the computer and keyboard in a single package. Then again, laptops do the same, but with added monitor and battery making them entirely portable.
 

Alien

Alien
Pushtrak said:
From the article:

We loved you then... Er, the "you" I use there would be Commodore Gaming. Commodore USA coming along and throwing money at it doesn't really entitle them to take credit for the work of the past in my book.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
It would be like Microsoft taking the credit for Apple's ideas ... ... ... Oh they do already :eek:
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
Pushtrak said:
We loved you then... Er, the "you" I use there would be Commodore Gaming. Commodore USA coming along and throwing money at it doesn't really entitle them to take credit for the work of the past in my book.
Click to expand...

That is very true Pushtrak, but perhaps some of the old Commodore team is involved in the project? I mean why bother going to all the trouble of trying to secure the name "C64" in the first place? I find this puzzling :confused:
 

Sir.Tj

The Moderator who shall not be Blamed....
Volunteer Moderator
Sir.Tj
It's a nice looking little machine, but it seems almost pointless, it just lloks like a laptop without the screen to me.

I assume it will also be quite harde to upgrade as well due to the small form factor. on the website's configure page all you can change is the processor!

Shame really, seems they are just using the name to try and sell more units, interesting thought the range of OS's it can run including AmigaOS.
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
Actually TJ, it does have more options, listed here http://www.commodoreusa.net/products.html, possibly even the graphics card may be upgradable depending on what could be done with the mini PCI slot or if the original graphics card is surface mounted or not. The mother board looks like something you might have found on Dave Haynie's desk at Commodore during the early 90s! So who knows?

Also had a look at some more pictures of it here http://www.commodoreusa.net/gallery.html, looks very much like how a modern day A1200 might look rather than a C64.

I am intrigued as to how it would run an Amiga OS. If classic OS, it would have to be through emulation, unless there is a 68060 hiding someplace on that cramped motherboard :rolleyes: Maybe that PCI slot could be used for an "68000 based Amiga card"? Talk about history looping back on itself! :p

Although for most,as many of you have rightly pointed out, this machine will be pointless. However,I think it still might have possibilities, if it's really as cross platform friendly as the web site claims it is and have various options for expansion via its ports, but of course it still has to see the light of day first and be at a reasonable entry level price, for example, cheaper than a PS3 would be a start for a base unit. I have to admit though, you tend to get a bit jaded when you have seen too many "all in one, do anything" false dawns and speaking as an Amiga fan, I've seen quite a few over the years. :eek:
 

zmurf

zmurf
Alien said:
Agreed.
It would be like Microsoft taking the credit for Apple's ideas ... ... ... Oh they do already :eek:
Click to expand...
Well... everyone imitates each other and claim their implementation to be the original one. Apple does it against both Microsoft and other companies, and Microsoft does it against both Apple and other companies.... So imho they are all equally bad.

Geraldine said:
Now all I need is the return of the new super powerful Next Gen Amiga, then I will be happy;)
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The Next Gen Amiga is already here. The first one is available now... the other one will hopefully be released this year:
http://acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=2
http://a-eon.com/6.html
They run the newest version of AmigaOs. AOS4.1.1
http://acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=software&pid=1

There are also a new hardware implementation of the Amiga 500 (The MiniMig), and new A1200 compatible hardware is on its way (Natami).
http://acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=3
http://www.natami.net/
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
Hi Zmurf
Very impressive work going on there. Thank you for providing those links. :cool: So there is 3 to choose from. Need to have a good think about this. So far the Natami sounds appealing, but when will it be available?
 

zmurf

zmurf
@Geraldine:
Well... the developers of the Natami claims to be in the finishing part of constructing a fully working developer board. As far as I understand this developer board will be available this year. The developer board will probably be quite expensive though.

As I have understood it the goal of the Natami project is to achieve something that reminds of the "Commodore64 DTV" ( http://pepm.bluedomino.com/c64dtv/ ), while the developer board is going to be more of a complete computer system.

There is also a FPGA computer called C-One available ( http://www.c64upgra.de/c-one/ ). This computer have an accessory that let you use the open-source core from the Minimig, so you can use the C-One as a Amiga 500.
There is also a project to implement AGA support in the Minimig core, so it will be Amiga1200 compatible. This is done for the fpga based multi arcade system "Replay" (http://www.fpgaarcade.com/index.htm).
Hopefully the Replay version of the Minimig core will be able to be loaded into the C-One also. One of this solutions will probably be the most affordable choice if you just want a A1200 compatible system.

The biggest problem with the Next Gen AmigaOS 4.x systems is that they are not classic Amiga compatible. They use a UAE based emulator to play old Amiga games and so on. So if you are interested in playing old Amiga games I guess that one of the new classic implementations is the best way to go. Otherwise you could as well just install WinUAE on you PC...
 
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Geraldine

Geraldine
zmurf said:
The biggest problem with the Next Gen AmigaOS 4.x systems is that they are not classic Amiga compatible. They use a UAE based emulator to play old Amiga games and so on. So if you are interested in playing old Amiga games I guess that one of the new classic implementations is the best way to go. Otherwise you could as well just install WinUAE on you PC...
Click to expand...

Very true Zmurf, that's why I am interested in the Natami, either that or try and fix the dead 060 in my A4000. I have not tried the new Amiga OS, all I know is the classic 1.3, 2.04 and 3.0. If I get a new system, it will have to be fully classic compatible, which means a 68000 series CPU must be inside it somewhere. The Natami seems closest to that.
 

zmurf

zmurf
Yepp.... my own thought is that if the Replay AGA compatible Minimig Core is released for the C-One I will get one of those. Otherwise I will get a Natami when that is released.

But for me there is no hurry. I Have four fully working Amiga systems, where to most expanded one has a Blizzard 1260@50Mhz, 64MB RAM, network, DVD, 16GB CF-hard drive, USB and 24bit scan doubler. :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/k.peter.mattsson/Amiga1200Extreme#
 

Geraldine

Geraldine
Thats a nice 1200 Zmurf! :cool:

Think I will wait too and just get another 060 from here http://www.vesalia.de/e_68060.htm?slc=uk
Then all I need to do is send my Cyberstorm somewhere to get it fitted, I still have my Cybervision card for it too.

Think I will try the Amiga boards, maybe someone somewhere knows a reliable place in the UK. Could be time to upgrade it too, with 3.1 Roms and also noticed you had Workbench 3.9, might give that a go too. :)
 

zmurf

zmurf
Yepp... A good old Amiga with WHDLoad (http://www.whdload.de) installed and KGs WHDLoad packages (http://kg.whdownload.com/kgwhd/) is mighty fun!
:D

A good place to buy amiga stuff from is Amigakit (English site: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/?currency=GBP&currency=GBP)

And as you maybe already are aware of, Freescale still produce the mc68060. If that is the only thing that is broken on your CS card?
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps...060&tab=Buy_Parametric_Tab&fromSearch=false#2
 
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