You can’t throw a 9-pin serial mouse these days without hitting a scaled-down retro gaming system. Two months ago the $80 C64 Mini joined the ever-expanding list.
Like the NES Classic Mini, SNES Classic Mini, and Playstation Classic, it shipped with a bunch of pre-loaded games… 64 of them, to be exact. The original Commodore 64 wasn’t just a gaming system, of course. The C64 Mini can also run BASIC, a nice touch that makes it feel a bit more like the system that inspired it.
The setup looks a little odd, though, since you have to plug in a USB keyboard to your miniature system that looks like a keyboard.
That will soon change because a full-scale Commodore retro system is now in the works. This version will have a functional keyboard, just like the revolutionary home computer the debuted back in 1982.
The company behind this new Commodore is Retro Games, the same folks who delivered the C64 Mini. They will reportedly sell it as THEC64. What’s pictured here is a prototype. The finished product is due to arrive sometime in 2019.
There’s no word yet on what kind of hardware you’ll find under the hood, but I’d expect it to be much closer to what drives the C64 Mini than, say, the wild Core i7 guts that Commodore USA shoved into its C64x Extreme.
I got my first real taste of home computing a Commodore 64, and I’ve got to say that the full-scale device looks way more exciting to me than the C64 Mini.
It was way more than a gaming device in our house. My sister and I spent countless hours tinkering with BASIC programs. My older brother even got into MLX (and later turned his love of coding into a very successful career that has spanned three decades).
via Guru3D
Exactly how it should have been originally released. People want a complete system. Not to go to the store and buy an additional keyboard. And when it came to the Commodore a keyboard was a must.
I wonder if Texas Instruments would come out with a retro looking but updated inside TI-99/4A computer? Hopefully with a newer looking keyboard. The one I had worked but lacked many things newer keyboards have now.
I think that is in the retro cool category.
So let see a average Android TV box a. USB keyboard and a visit to Google play for a c64 emulator.
Or many dollars for a keyboard and a Pi zero rip off.
Mugs and money easy parted
LOL!! The words of a non gamer,android is freeware crap and shotty emulators are not worth even free,you totally miss the point of things like this i see.
Back in the day, I replaced my TRS-80 Model I with the Commodore 64. It was a terrific system that did far more than play games. I was disappointed that Retro Games decided to “console-ify” the C64. Their design choices with the C64 Mini were a bit odd. Having certain keyboard keys as special buttons on the joystick restricted the use of alternative joysticks/gamepads (yes, there are some that do work, but the Logitech F310 is not one of them). And in the end, it didn’t eliminate the need for a full keyboard (virtual or USB)
I bought the C64 Mini because (A) it provided the BASIC interpreter and (B) as a sign of support for their work on the C64. The Mini works fine, and Retro Games continues to improve it with firmware updates, but I’ll be sitting out and wait to see exactly what they do with a full-sized C64.
Looks fun, I just worry these are more novelty and become eWaste
+1