First official C64 in 36 years

[JDW]

I was born in 1971 but never grew up with Commodore. Still, I've always been rather enamored by them. Many school friends I had back in the early 80's had them. And while my first home computer was the 128K in 1984, I still was extremely excited to see the factory tour video below I locked-in in my order for the beige model a couple months ago. And as of this writing, nearly 11,000 orders for the machine have been process, which is pretty incredible.

https://slapsoft.com/c64_sales.html

 

[ESM-NL]

C64 was my first computer expierence when I was 11 in 1984. My brother had one. And I have it now since years. Most played games: Frogger and Fort Appocalipce.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I'm glad these exist, but my preferred Commodore is still the 128DCR, and I have plenty of spares. It is the finest 8-bit computer Commodore ever made.

 

[Scorpio_ny]

I grew up with the C64 when I was younger (and other other systems). These are great but I already had built a 64 from scratch with a new PCB and some modern replacements for some of the custom chips. I have another PCB that I have to put on a schedule to build.

 

[akator]

^ That's obviously the ideal scenario, to have what's essentially a brand new C64 with original or equivalent hardware. Unfortunately, I no longer have the physical ability to accomplish that (or any of the other incredible motherboard remakes for Macs that I would love to have). For people with advancing decrepitude like myself the C64 Ultimate is an exciting option. Considering the features and everything it offers, the C64U is a good price as well.

 

[muse]

I built a SixtyClone recently with mostly pulled original chips.

Those are fun to build.

 

[Scorpio_ny]

I built a SixtyClone recently with mostly pulled original chips.

Those are fun to build.

I had also built as well a couple of years back. They were fun to build. Here is my build with full mechanical keyboard:



I am building a second soon with all modern replacements for the custom chips

 

[Kai Robinson]

Rob did a fantastic job of the clones. It's because of his work with the A500++ project that led me into learning sprint layout, and later the reloaded boards...

 

[Volvo242GT]

Our first home computer was one as well. Got it in the summer of 1985 at the Bellevue, WA KMart. Never got a dedicated monitor for it. Always used it with one of our Zenith TVs. We did add a 1541 and an Okimate 10 printer in December of that year. Pretty much remained set up that way until 1989 or so, when it received both a parallel interface to allow usage of my old Epson MX-80 printer and a 1571 floppy drive. By then, my father was the one mainly using it for taxes and other business-related things. I was already using my Stealth GS at the time. We finally sold the system to a used computer shop north of Seattle in 1991. He had switched to a Kaypro IBM XT clone.

Anyway, nice to see that they've brought back the C64.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Interesting you were using a 1571 with the 64. I think the 1571 is superior in every way to the 1541, particularly in terms of reliability, but sadly no burst mode without a 128.

 

[muse]

For compatibility its not so great, so most prefer the 1541 over the 1571 in c64 mode.

We didn't get a 1541 until a year or two after we purchased a c64. So we put up with tape loading as we did ( in Australia and the U.K ) which wasn't too bad in the later 80s with all the nice loaders featuring SID music, flashing borders and sometimes mini games like "Invade-a-Load".

I recall how disappointed I was when we first recieved our 1541, loading was damn slow. Of course I compared it to the Disk II speeds on Apple II systems in school that I was used to.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I'm going to beg to differ with the compatibility issue - never had a problem with something that would run on a 1541 but wouldn't on the 1571 (or, for that matter, on the 128DCR), even including copy-protected titles. This one runs V-MAX! and Rapidlok games without a problem and those schemes in particular are extremely picky about behaviour and rotational speed. I know there were intermittent allegations back in the day but no one ever said what failed. What did you run that did?

Yes, a huge improvement when we got an Epyx FastLoad. Always hated when a game forced me to disable it.

 

[muse]

It handles most track loaders but not all, some demos won't work on a 1571. Edge of Disgrace is one of the demos I tried which works fine on my c64+1541 combo.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Ah, well, didn't do much demoscene stuff. I imagine current demos are better about that.