It’s hard to argue with nostalgia, but you can toss a bucket of cold facts over it. In the case of the recent rescuing of the Commodore brand from the clutches of relabeling of generic electronics by [Perifractic] of Retro Recipes, we got [The Retro Shack] doing the proverbial bucket dumping in a new video. Basically the question is whether the fresh Commodore 64 offerings by the new-and-improved Commodore are what you really want, or need.
The thing is that over the decades many people have created all the bits that you need to build your own classical C64, or even buy one off-the-shelf, with people like [bwack] having reverse-engineered the various C64 mainboards. These can be populated with drop-in replacements for chips like the SID, VIC-II, CIAs and others that are readily available, along with replica cases and keyboards. If you crave something less bulky and complex you can run a bare metal C64 emulator like BMC64 on a Raspberry Pi, or just run the VICE emulator on your platform of choice. There’re also options like the full-sized TheC64 and Ultimate 64 Elite II systems that you can buy ready to go.
Basically, there is a whole gamut of ways to get some part of the C64 experience, ranging from emulator-only to a full hardware DIY or pre-assembled format. Each of which come with their own price tag, starting at $0 for running VICE on your existing system. With so much choice we can only hope that the renewed Commodore company will become something more than Yet Another C64 Experience.
that starlight edition looks excellent.
After the introduction, 20 second jingle and advertisement I got too bored and stopped the video. for anyone else, I recommend to at least skip the first three minutes.
Content starts at 1:35.
Buy one if you want. I spend more money on coffee.
If the video is about shopping for a cheapest Commodore 64, it’s fine. But if it’s about the revival of Commodore, it misses the point. The Commodore 64 is the first product they had ready to sell, and it absolutely makes sense to start with it. But they have much of the original Commodore team back on board which should mean there will be other stuff… It’s all there in Perifractic’s last couple of videos and probably known to all people here if not to the author of he video at hand.
Also, it’s not about nostalgia either. A quote from Peri summarises it nicely for me:
“Do you remember how tech felt in the late ’90-ies and early 2000s? Sort of “techno optimism” they called it. It was retro futuristic, fresh, inviting. No popups and overflowing inboxes and boring black rectangles that all looked the same and took our attention away from our loved ones. All that transparent tech and metallic clothing symbolized and reflected clarity, hope and freedom. Social media stands for the opposite: toxicity, distraction, addiction and harm. It just all went wrong. Technology that was meant to help us, we became enslaved to it. It just went too far.”
Depends on what you mean by “they have much of the original team on board”
I wouldn’t expect any direct involvement from any ex commodore employees for developing new products. I know they want to do something under the Amiga name, but they don’t have the money to develop anything from scratch
Fwiw the ultimate 64 is great, I’ve had one for years and I was going to upgrade and this package is a much cheaper way of doing it
It all feels like people with too much money cosplaying as Commodore.
The 1541 ultimate and U64 are fantastic modern extensions of the C64 hardware, peak C64 experience. if this makes it more affordable, I’m all for it. I’m not pre-ordering anything though, see how the reviews go and buy after the dust settles. these hardware crowdfunding things always get delayed 6 months, a year, 2 years.