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Tulip to Relaunch C64
Ola "4pLaY" Jensen writes "The Dutch PC manufacturer Tulip who bought the Commodore brand name has decided to finally do something with it and re-launch the C64 in some form. Exactly what it will be is still a puzzle in my mind but from reading their news it seems to be a PC with some OS flavour with a C64 Emulator." I spent many hours on a C64 when I was in elementary school, and this brings back a lot of memories.
So... what kinds of things do we REALLY expect from a newly-introduced machine?
:)
- DRM! No, you won't be able to play any of those old C64 games. You'll need to wait for the secret-key-signed versions... that is... until this version's DRM is cracked
- Dolby 5.1! Now you too can play those Bruce Lee games, and Jumpman, in fantastic 3D sound
- 24 bit colour! Okay, so you only get 16 colours total, but... you get a fantastic choice of exactly what shade of red you'd like
- super-basic... does away with basic keywords and reprograms each of the graphic character sets to be a word all of its own
- Games on tape are replaced with a CD rom... AUDIO CD roms
- Keyboards no longer a couple of inches high... now a couple of feet high! Who needs a desk!
- And other fantastic improvements...
You could probably fit that c64 computeing power in a watch AND provide an LCD screen capable of rendering the stunning CGA style graphics all at a reasonable price and footprint... It would actually be a lot of fun to hack around with... I might see if I can do it myself if they don't. :)
The only problem is, you can get a C64 and pretty much any game ever written for it on Ebay. A basic computer with cables starts around $10. I mean, Commodore sold, what, 22 million of 'em? Games are $5 each, other accessories are in the $10-30 range.
Something we DO need to get a modern version of is Tandy's portable disk drive - Those things cost a fortune. I paid $40 for a drive in questionable condition, because it was the first to be seen on Ebay in weeks and those gauranteed to work cost $80+.
Besides, there's something to be said for using the original. Despite the free availability of emulators, people consistently pay thousands of dollars for an Altair 8800 or Imsai 8080. I would if I could afford it.
The custom synth chip made for the C64 is in short supply, in fact from what I understand there arent any bulk ones left. It's the basis of some pretty neat modern synth projects including the SidStation, and the amazing DIY project The MIDIbox Sid. You might wanna check out this interview with Bob Yannes the designer of the SID chip.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
I skipped lunch for 13 years, saving my lunch money to buy a 5-1/2 diskette drive for my C64. And when I bought it, I was so cool, I got laid almost every night. Hurrah for the C64.
Got a Symbian Series 60 phone (Nokia 3650, 7650, Ericsson P800)? Well then, go here for a C64 emulator. Works well on my 3650.
Cheers,
Ian
If you want VICE, an excellent, essentially perfect, C64 (and C128, and some other CBM-machines) emulator, then it's here.
I still use it about once a week when I feel nostalgic - while the graphics of C64 games totally suck, some of them still have better gameplay in my opinion than many of today's.
Plus there's some games I had in primary school that I've never completed (or looped, for those games that don't really end).
It's about 2 to 4 times faster than a real C64 on my now-ancient 400MHz PC.
I remember laboriously translating 6502 assembly into DATA statements, by hand, when I was learning to program in the 80s - the C64 BASIC was so unutterably pants (yes, it was made by MS), that people jumped to assembly to get anything non-trivial done. Then I got a C128 with a built-in assembler.
Choice of masters is not freedom.
It works like this. Bunch of people sit around saying, "wouldn't it be cool if...", and soon come up with a bunch of ideas. Unnoticed, the hard facts of reality gather round and start to ask for attention. "But will it sell?" "Does anyone actually want it?" "Did you check the current market for this product". >SPLOIT!SPLOIT!wicked thoughts.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Been there, done that.
/Pedro
http://c64upgra.de/c-one/
"Currently there are about 300 commercial websites that use the name Commodore or Commodore 64 without having a license from Tulip. Tulip will not allow unauthorised use of the Commodore brand."
So the thanks to all the people who have kept the name alive, archived all the old software and created amazing new programs and hardware is a kick in the face in the form of a cease-and-desist? Forget about VICE or CCS64, now you must use (and pay for) the "official emulator".
Is this really the only way Tulip could reclaim the money spent buying the Commodore brand?
If you could actually *read* you'd see that they want to sue about 300 commercial sites which are using the commodore trademark, then release the only "official" C64 emulator (and work towards shuttig down distribution of any other emulator), work with one software distributor who currently holds many rights to a lot of games and in general give up up the buttocks to every project which currently keeps the C64 "alive"
-t
Said SystematicPsycho, "Is there an 80's home entertainment rebirth going on? First it was the atari 2600, now the commodore 64." Yes, I think there is a rebirth going in progress because the people that remember are to the point of having more disposable income than sense. Technology that makes it relatively easy to do helps too. Who else played Jumpman till their thumbs were red & swollen? Anybody else think they were so cool for finding and changing the strings in Oregon Trail to start out with $100,000? Fun stuff...
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
Hmm, in some form. . .
Maybe that means they will try and start competing, after all, 64 bit processors are IN!
-> Fritz
Spooooon!!!!!
In my playground, Spectrum owners ranked lower than BBC Micro (Model B) owners. The BBC owners were only just below C64 owners, and mainly because the C64 had some US-import games (the british games were much of a muchness.)
The BBC's higher-res was far more valued than the spectrum's higher color count, especially since many people still had B/W TVs (!), and the fact you had the same home computer as your school's computer made life easier.
Sure, the spectrum had colored blobs, but you could actually make out what the characters were supposed to be on the BBC and C64
The BBC owners could and did download games from their TV (BBC TV), and they actually had keyboards and the only non-sucky 8-bit BASIC. Plus, the sheet-metal BBC case was way cooler than the flimsy C64 and Speccy.
We all laughed at the poor sod who bought a VIC-20 a year AFTER the C64 came out. It was an early lesson in don't-beleive-a-salesman for him and his parent...
I'm sure someone will manage to get it running some flavour of Linux. In the mean time, I'll be happy to run Contiki on my real C64 - unless someone can come up with a linux-distro for it that is.
If this 'new C64' turns out to be naught more than a reasonable standard PC bundled with an emulator and some repackaged software, porting Linux to it should be as hard as placing the Knoppix CD in the drive and booting it up...
Personaly, I would think it would be great if they brought back to life some of the old hardware - the VIC was an interesting grapichscontroller with it's independent sprites, and the SID could make music like no chip has before or after.
If you're a youngster and wish to learn more about one of the most influential micros in the early 80's, you may want to look at Marko Mäkelä 8-bit server. His document page is a treasure in it's own right.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
back in those days you had to buy a reset button as expansion for about 2. it was plugged in the back slot of the c64.
i remember collecting all these POKE commands you had to enter for some sort of cheat after a soft reset and getting back into the game with a SYS command.
and still, if im playing games on my box im using emulators. c64 was, is and will be my favourite home computer. those times just rocked!
and yeah, i still got the holer for the 5.25" disks so you could use them from both sides.
buying reset buttons and using holers on floppy disks, heh nostalgia... who is with me?
There's a danish band called Press Play On Tape that makes music based on old C64 games. The music's very good.
You should especially check out their "Game Boy Band Video" (downloadable from the band's website) - it's hilarious!As a dutch citizen I have seen many Tulip computers through the years. The company has been on the brink of bankrupcy a number of times. To divert this they have tried to reuse the commodore brand name previously.
I'm not quite sure when it was. Even google
(= god) couldn't tell me. It was probably somewhere around 1995