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Commodore 64 gets retro re-release

Bullet Club

Member
Commodore 64 gets retro re-release

Full-sized version of the 80's gaming goliath set to launch December 5

Courtesy of Retro Games and Koch Media, the Commodore 64 is the latest classic console to receive a re-release.

Set to arrive on December 5, 2019 at a retail price of £109.99/€119.99, TheC64 is a full-sized replica, complete with keyboard, modernised to work with HD televisions.

Pre-installed on the console will be C64 classics such as California Games, Paradroid, and Boulder Dash, along with Attack of the Mutant Camels, Hover Bovver, Idris Alpha, and Gridrunner.

TheC64 will also come with 2017 shooter Galencia pre-installed, plus classic text adventure Planet of Death.




"We are delighted to be working with Koch Media once more to bring back even more of the most loved retro games ever on two of the most iconic home computers of all time, and which now has a full working keyboard", said Retro Games managing director Paul Andrews.

"TheC64 full size is a re-imagining of the classic C64 computer and the second in a planned series of products on the way."

This announcement joins the growing list of retro re-releases hitting the market, such as the NES Classic and SNES Mini, the PlayStation Classic, and the upcoming Sega Mega Drive Mini and Intellivison Amico.

Andrews was previously a director of Retro Computers, a company that was working on a handheld release of the ZX Spectrum.

However, he resigned from the company in 2016 following "irreconcilable differences" with the Retro Computers and its other directors.

After months of controversy, the delayed ZX Spectrum Vega+ landed with backers, only with a limited number of the promised games available resulting from a licensing issue.

Source: Games Industry




Do a new Amiga next please.
 

Bullet Club

Member
THEC64 INCLUDED GAMES LIST

Alleykat, Anarchy, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Avenger, Battle Valley, Bear Bovver, Boulder Dash, Bounder, California Games, Chips Challenge, Confuzion, Cosmic Causeway, Cyberdyne Warrior, Cybernoid II, Deflektor, Destroyer, Everyone’s a Wally, Firelord, Galencia, Gateway to Apshai, Gribbly’s Day Out, Gridrunner (VIC 20), Heartland, Herobotix, Highway Encounter, Hover Bovver, Impossible Mission, Impossible Mission II, IO, Iridis Alpha, Jumpman, Mega Apocalypse, Mission AD, Monty Mole, Monty on the Run, Nebulus, Netherworld, Nodes of Yesod, Paradroid, Pitstop II, Planet of Death, Psychedelia (VIC 20), Ranarama, Robin of the Wood, Silicon Warrior, Skate Crazy, Speedball 2, Spindizzy, Steel, Street Sports Baseball, Street Sports Basketball, Summer Games II (includes Summer Games events), Super Cycle, Sword of Fargoal, Temple of Apshai Trilogy, The Arc of Yesod, Thing Bounces Back, Thing on a Spring, Trailblazer, Uridium, Who Dares Wins II, Winter Games, World Games, Zynaps
 

Omali

Member
Touched by the hands involved with the Vega?
Alarm bells are ringing....

To be fair, Andrews left the company in 2016 when the Indiegogo was still ongoing and the product was still certified as ready to be manufactured. The problems with the company after that (not paying licenses, bullshitting about production, etc) were from the con artists who were brought in to mismanage and enrich themselves.
 

Dr.D00p

Gold Member
They should have given it higher specs for new games to be developed on it...kind of like an C64 Pro/X :)

Still very limited but good enough to produce some really great modern day 8bit games.

12Mhz CPU mode, 256K RAM, 128 colours, 128 sprites & 8 channel stereo sound all running at 320x200 resolution.

...the retro programmers could produce amazing results with those specs.
 
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JSoup

Banned
It's a home computer, not a console.

tenor.gif
 

AndrewRyan

Member
If someone can lend me a 1541 drive I'll release a few games I wrote as a teen -- assuming the disks are still readable. Used to know this machine inside and out, all its internal chips and their most useful addresses memorized. It was a glorious machine and since they were identical you can do some amazing hacks.

I consider the Raspberry Pi (version 4 out yesterday!) as sort of the modern equivalent in terms of a learning platform but even more incredible with all its electronic capabilities.
 

Shotpun

Member
THEC64 INCLUDED GAMES LIST

Alleykat, Anarchy, Attack of the Mutant Camels, Avenger, Battle Valley, Bear Bovver, Boulder Dash, Bounder, California Games, Chips Challenge, Confuzion, Cosmic Causeway, Cyberdyne Warrior, Cybernoid II, Deflektor, Destroyer, Everyone’s a Wally, Firelord, Galencia, Gateway to Apshai, Gribbly’s Day Out, Gridrunner (VIC 20), Heartland, Herobotix, Highway Encounter, Hover Bovver, Impossible Mission, Impossible Mission II, IO, Iridis Alpha, Jumpman, Mega Apocalypse, Mission AD, Monty Mole, Monty on the Run, Nebulus, Netherworld, Nodes of Yesod, Paradroid, Pitstop II, Planet of Death, Psychedelia (VIC 20), Ranarama, Robin of the Wood, Silicon Warrior, Skate Crazy, Speedball 2, Spindizzy, Steel, Street Sports Baseball, Street Sports Basketball, Summer Games II (includes Summer Games events), Super Cycle, Sword of Fargoal, Temple of Apshai Trilogy, The Arc of Yesod, Thing Bounces Back, Thing on a Spring, Trailblazer, Uridium, Who Dares Wins II, Winter Games, World Games, Zynaps

I recognize few of those games I played as a child, but the best of them is not on the list:

Barbarian_%28Palace_Software%29_-_Gameplay.png
 
If someone can lend me a 1541 drive I'll release a few games I wrote as a teen -- assuming the disks are still readable. Used to know this machine inside and out, all its internal chips and their most useful addresses memorized. It was a glorious machine and since they were identical you can do some amazing hacks.

I consider the Raspberry Pi (version 4 out yesterday!) as sort of the modern equivalent in terms of a learning platform but even more incredible with all its electronic capabilities.

Do you live in Australia?
 

dirthead

Banned
I think this kind of thing is more interesting than shitty emulation boxes (if it's just going to be an emulator, why not use my superior PC that's been able to do it for 20 years?).

Also, it would be so interesting if you could manufacture these old machines using modern fabrication processes. Eg. make a 10nm Motorola 68000 CPU that could be clocked to like 200mhz and still run cool and release some pimped out Neo Geo where games don't slow down (Neo Geo games are surprisingly tolerant to overclocking...they don't seem to break at all). Would be really fascinating.
 

Darak

Member
Unfortunately, this is still a crappy emulator box. I may still be interested in this, but only if the keyboard can be hacked in some way to drive a real FPGA reproduction of the machine.

Also, it would be so interesting if you could manufacture these old machines using modern fabrication processes. Eg. make a 10nm Motorola 68000 CPU that could be clocked to like 200mhz and still run cool and release some pimped out Neo Geo where games don't slow down (Neo Geo games are surprisingly tolerant to overclocking...they don't seem to break at all). Would be really fascinating.

That's not really possible due to the economics involved. Custom chip production is extremely expensive and only makes sense in very high volumes. Retro computers would probably sell only a few hundred units at best due to nostalgia, though. It makes more sense to just build the thing inside an FPGA (despite the FPGA technology's limitations, you can still clock your parts pretty high compared to the originals; FPGA-based Amiga accelerator cards will give you a 68k with about 100Mhz performance).

There are multiple projects about producing enhanced retro machines and I find them pretty interesting (the 8-bit guy from Youtube is building one). The biggest problem with those pimped-up retro computers is software. There's just not a lot of interesting things to do other than running a few compatible games (the Neo Geo sounds exceptional, old software is usually pretty tied to the CPU speed). You'd need a compatible OS and BASIC, and writing one is pretty hard. At the end of the day you'll find no new software or things to do with the new machine, and writing new software for them is not that interesting. I mean, once the thing is not really a C64, as you add things like 256 color modes or a 200 Mhz CPU, the effort required puts you deep into indie software company territory. Why not write your game for current machines instead, something like Shovel Knight or the Wadjet Eye adventure games?
 

Zog

Banned
I had so much fun programming Basic on the Commodore 128 but I never got around to learning ASM. I wonder if you can do that on this.
 
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H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
They should have given it higher specs for new games to be developed on it...kind of like an C64 Pro/X :)

Still very limited but good enough to produce some really great modern day 8bit games.

12Mhz CPU mode, 256K RAM, 128 colours, 128 sprites & 8 channel stereo sound all running at 320x200 resolution.

...the retro programmers could produce amazing results with those specs.

12 MHz would take it past 16 bit territory (the 68000 ran at 8MHz in the Atari ST and 7ish in the Amiga, similar in the consoles) and the RAM would be way short of the standard 512k of the early 16 bit computers before 1mb became standard (and likely would struggle with 128 colour screens). Basically what you've got at that point is an Amiga 1200 with too little RAM and low res. It really wouldn't fit the era.
 

Agent X

Member
The official North American release of the full-sized TheC64 will occur on November 5, 2020.

They haven't announced the game lineup for the North American version. The European and North American versions of TheC64 Mini had a few differences in the included games.
 
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