just found this C64 remake on the net, only in the US for now, it seems
"It's back... and better than ever! The new Commodore 64 is a modern functional PC as close to the original in design as humanly possible. It houses a modern mini-ITX PC motherboard featuring a Dual Core 525 Atom processor and the latest Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset. It comes in the original taupe brown/beige color, with other colors to follow."
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO what a ride'
The problem with this particular regurgitation (apart from the price tag) is that while it may look great on the outside, it's not a C64 under the hood. But people won't realize that until the moment that they turn it on.
The way I see it, Commodore USA are hoping to make a quick buck on peoples nostalgia.
An opportunity missed. They are trying to appeal to retro-geeks, and they miss out this detail???? Thing is, you can probably get most old school emulators working on it (it has a built in c64 one already), but when you come to play the games you have the same problem you face with a standard PC.....decent options for controllers. d'oh!
There was a thread about this machine a couple of months ago on this board already. Frankly, I don't get why people are so negative about it. As Chris pointed out, this remake was obviously developed by a huge C64 fan... and of course it is more expensive than a run-off-the-mill computer you can pick up everywhere. Just like any other PC that comes in a designer case! Personally, I think this machine looks stunning and I have to say I am really tempted to order one (along with the USB version of the Competition Pro). I do perfectly understand others don't want to spend their money for what is basically an elaborate retro facelift, but as Chris put it in the thread above: "how is the world not better for it existing, as a choice?"
The problem will be - most likely - that this baby won't sell enough units for a version 2.0 to see the light of day. Anyway, as tempting as this unit looks, I can't shell out the money for it.
Tech blogs all over are running off with this story and its actually pissing me off, there is no actual substance to the reports.
They are not saying anything, that you couldnt read about if you simply visited the official site.
They all say the "Commodore 64" is back, which is not true.
Only one tech blog, mentioned that the hardware was rushed to meet the deadline of the TRON tie in, and the Commodore OS v1.0 is not even ready at launch, which to me sounds like a skined Linux Distro.
Everyone seems to see the dark side of the spectrum only as it seems
There is no perfect way for such a resurrection, for the price you can build 2 working PCs yourself and it will be hard to make a decent C64 mode without a SID chip, aye - but at least someone has made a real step instead of dreaming, hasn't he?
