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Commodore - Back In The Hardware Biz At Last?
Aphrika writes "Commodore is back in the hardware business [via current owners Tulip Computers] and this time they're taking on... Apple? Due for release in August are three MP3 players; the eVic, fPet and mPet. The eVic is a 20GB (hence the name) hard drive-based player, while the mPet and fPet are closer to the Muvo/iRiver styled flash players. They'll also be hoping you pay a visit to the Commodore World Music Store once in a while to stock up on tunes..." We also recently mentioned Commodore's 'TV Game' and ROM-store projects over at Slashdot Games.
I was a C=64 owner and fan back in their day which was my youth. Ironically today I'm a Linux zealot and Mac lover and go no where without my iPod.
I'm torn. I feel ashamed because of it. Bastards.
Get both. :D
The fPet is a music CARRIER..
That reads like "Standard USB thumbdrive" to me, definitely not a player. I'd still get one because of the logo.
this is of course a marketing ploy to draw on the vintage name of commodore, and might i say a damn good one; if i didnt have an ipod i'd buy from them right away!
/(o^_^o)\
Let's not forget that one can hate his government, but love his country.
But will it have 64 kilobytes of RAM?
It's not Commodore, it's just the name.
It's like if I started calling my garage Digital Equipment Corporation and started selling pet rocks, it doesn't have anything to do with a VAX.
I guarantee this will go nowhere. There's no market for yet another mp3 player. Sheesh. Plus Commodore never gets anything done anyway.
I was a fan, owning Vic-20, C64, various Amigas, all of which I still have. Then they died. They have yet to come back and probably never will. Stop beating the dead horse, morans.
there server is hosted on one of their mp3 players....
This makes about as much sense to me as using the GE brand name to sell fresh carrots.
And how in the world does the name eVic imply 20GB of storage? Is it something in another language (like vic means 20), or was the poster meaning that the eVic was supposed to compete with the iPod based on similarities in the way they are capitalized and the lengths of the name?
None of this makes any sense. They should sell C64s today for hobbiesests and nostalgia. They could be very tiny, still use a TV, be tons of fun. Or make another hobbiest platform. But... MP3 players? Like the market needs more MP3 players.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Does that mean we'll get iTunes for C64s now?
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
I wonder if the server is also a Commodore 64, slashdotted after 3 comments!
And all your base are belong to us, Slashdot editors!
But on topic, I think this is great! Nothing quite like reviving an old computer brand name to rekindle the embers that we thought were long dead. I foresee that Atari will be back with their own portable media player; then we'll see the iAmiga, followed by the eAtari, followed by Apple's own iPod-GS, and then even IBM will join the fray with a portable player called the iPC-jr, complete with cooling fan and proprietary bus that won't take anyone else's add-on harddrive.
Heck, I might even get big hair and a skinny tie, too!
I find this really sad. Those products look terrible, and re-using the old commodore brands (Vic, PET) just makes it that much more sad. Though, it's not *that* sad, because Commodore stuff was never really that good (the Amiga had its moments though).
They need to fire their copywriter ASAP, that's for sure:
With this USB 2.0 data&music carrier you can easily extend your pc, notebook or mac with an extra storage harddisk.
PC, notebook, or Mac? What if I have a Mac Notebook do I have to order two? Is it really a hard disk?
The stick can be used for copying, store and move data...
The English can be used for speak and write words!
Exclusive Commodore design!
Yes, we used both red *and* blue plastic on this bad boy! Ka-ching!
you can enjoy listening hours and hours to all your favorite songs with just one battery!
Wow, just one battery! Folks, portable music doesn't get any better than this. Hell, even my car works with just one battery!
The player is including a neck cord,
It's including a neck cord with what? Its tax forms?
Just connect the camera to the docking, drag the made photos to the storage device and you can make new photos again!
Hey, I hope nobody finds my maid photos.. my wife will kill me. I better not connect the camera to the docking as they suggest. And besides, when my memory card fills up, I do what any smart person does! I buy a new camera to hold more pictures!
Beware the docking..
... a new venture from Jack Tramiel, assuming he's still alive, than someone who just bought or co-opted the Commodore names.
Tramiel was a master, a guy who could read the market in real time and act quickly and ruthlessly. He was Commodore.
The eVic is a 20GB (hence the name) hard drive-based player...
Um, am I missing something here? How does the name eVic in any way imply 20GB of space???
Do not read this sig.
They bought the Commodore name some years ago and have just now revived it for an unrelated line of hardware.
So this isn't really Commodore -- why should anyone care?
I want a handheld C64 system. No, not a Game Boy Advance emulating a C64. An actual handheld C64 gaming system. Maybe with a little keyboard a la the Zaurus. And I want it under $100.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Will it be able to play old C64 games as a bonus, and if not who is going to hack it so it can.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
This one was /.'ed on the first reply!
Maybe they should host their site on one of these newfangled 933Mhz C64's
-- In Soviet Russia, radio listens to YOU!
*checks calender* nope. Still has got to be someone's idea of a sick joke.
CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
The yet to be released SlashDot model.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
About Commodore International B.V.
Commodore International B.V. is a daughter company of Tulip Computers. The CommodoreWorld concept is developed in cooperation with a number licensee-partners amongst others Yeahronimo N.V. and Ironstone Partners Ltd. Through this joint effort Tulip Computers and its partners will strengthen their power to act and will limit the financial risks connected to the development and production of new products considerably. In addition the introduction of new products and /or services will be much quicker.
About Ironstone
Ironstone Partners Ltd is a commercial vehicle created and funded by a number of individuals with a combined experience of over 100 years in the global games and media industries. Ironstone has offices in both the United Kingdom and Canada. Ironstone focus itself on projects in the worldwide games- and multimedia industry.
Commodore is a very strong brand with worldwide recognition introducing a solution what will bridge the consumer's eGap. An eGap is the entertainment Gap in the life of a consumer...
Seems possible that some new people bought the rights to use the commodore name.
And why is this corporate info written in Engrish?
It would help if they could keep their site up long enough to see the darn things. Are they running it on a Vic-20???
Sound waves should be free!
I'm really surprised that they're introducing something like this, so late in the game. Sure, the market for digital music players may be growing fast, but there are a lot of others in this market, too.
There doesn't seem to be any indication of price, but I think they're going to have a hard time grabbing any kind of market share at all unless these things are cheaper than air... since the feature list for the eVic [what kind of name is that, anyway?? short for Victrola?] looks fairly standard, they're going to have to compete mostly on price.
One potentially useful feature would be the recording capabilities, assuming the interface allows live monitoring of levels. The specs mention bitrates for "music" and "voice" recording, but with a 20GB hard drive in there, it would seem reasonable to have the option to record uncompressed as well.
...music like this and specifically these, of which, of course, the format is the SID :D
Although you'd need something like this to play them.
And, just because I thought it interesting, apparently, these are the best ever C64 game tunes:
* Monty on the Run
* R-type
* One Man and His Droid
* Spellbound
* Ocean Loader v3.0
* After the War
* Ghouls 'n' Ghosts
* Kinetix
* Auf Wiedersehen Monty
* Bionic Commando
I mean seriously folk. It looks like a FrankenPod.
Now it is functional.
"Commodore presents the new portable jukebox with 20 GB of storage space for all your favorite music tracks. The Commodore eVIC musicbox is one of the most complete jukeboxes around, including high quality headphones and a small dockingstation to connect for example speakers or a digital camera. Just connect the camera to the docking, drag the made photos to the storage device and you can make new photos again! "
BUT DAMNNNNNN!!! is it Ugly.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
I'm holding out for a new version of the Commodore Laptop. THAT was a chick magnet.
Seriously though, as much as I would like to see the old name again I sold my C64 for an Atari XE model. It was a great PC and ironically was built after Jack Tramiel (former head of Commodore) bought Atari.
On a possibly unrelated note, I loved my Commodore 64 so of course I clicked on the link for "C64 DTV". This crashed my Mozilla. Since the people who hacked on old commodores are probably more likely to use Mozilla than IE, this worries me.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
There should be a requirement that websites wanting to incorporate the word "World" in their name be able withstand (at the very least) a late-evening Slashdotting.
The way their current bandwith tolerance looks, iTunes-level traffic would not only crash their server, but also burn down the office it's kept in.Just once I'd like someone to call me 'Sir' without adding 'You're making a scene.'
Commodore lives? Holy crap.
Gregory Casamento
## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
The mp3 player market is now a commodity market, which means the focus is of user friendliness and style, not features. There is precious little to choose between the various horizontally-opposed players; what sets the iPod apart is its style and its user interface. Your average consumer isn't going to care about the name Commodore. They will want to know whether the thing works and looks better than an iPod.
I am a believer of momentum and curves.
NO!!! If this is true, you didn't have to tell me! I was better off not knowing. Damn Slashdot.
The first time I heard real digitized music come from a computer was from my Commodore 64. It was a screwed up version of Kung Fu Fighting. It would play about 45secs just about the time he kicks in and says "Everybody was Kung Fu...." then you would here this BLAAHHHHHH. I think the file was corrupt. Did anyone else have that same file? I kept listening to it over and over because I was amazed that such digitized audio could come from the 64. (This was pre Amiga)
"If you have done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways" -- hhgg
Get a Slashdot-proof web site.
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
Wow.. I have an ipod.. .but for nostalia purposes alone, I'd use the Pet - back in early public school, monochromo monitors and all, I remember pets. We had two pets. Tape drives... and Games. I'd stay in from recess and develop my video game addiction on these things... Buying a pet will be like paying tribute to my first teacher in the school of geek.
Lord forgive me for jumping to the defense of a computer that's been dead nearly 20 years. But somebody's gotta answer this.
I forget what Apple IIe's cost around 1985, but they were well over a grand; actually I think close to two grand...unreachable if you were a high school student mowing lawns. On the other hand, you could get a Commodore for $200, and a disk drive for another $200, plug it up to a TV and you were set.
Additionally, the graphics and especially the sound were much better on the C64 than the Apple IIe. The Commodore had a SID chip, which was polyphonic (I think) and offered four different kinds of sound envelopes. You could even tweak the ADSR...all this on a computer that was released in, what, 1983? The Apples and their tinny speaker sure couldn't do that, not without some expensive add on sound card anyway.
I remember a friend who lived down the block who had an Apple used to always be furious that the same games looked and sounded so much better on my cheap computer than his expensive one.
I think for the time, Commodore made amazing hardware and practically gave it away relative to what others were charging. Really odd to see them dissed over something like this.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
Commodore is a single entity under law. As a corporation, or more literally, as an "embodiment", it can sue and be sued, hold property and so on as a single legal entity.
In other words, stop using the plural. It's just wrong. Commodore is not the Borg.
They found a use for some old inventory and are running their webserver on a C64.
Interestingly, that's at least the second webserver to be made for a C64 - when I searched for it I was thinking of another one, which did not implement TCP/IP and had all the requests and responses sent over RS232 or something like that.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Just the latest example of brand necrophilia.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I'm curious if these are even being made by Tulip, or if they're just placing the Commodore brand on some cheap Taiwanese imports.
And if Commodor beats out Apple, then good for them.
I suggest you read Slashdot
I think the name Napster actually has a negative effect on them, because people go to get more free music and figure out they have to pay. "Hey, this is bullshit!!"
iTunes on the other hand never was a place to get free music, so it doesn't have that negative vibe.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
or Tulips on your organ?
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Eeek! Well, at least it was before they were really evil. LOL
/ roms.html)
Apparently there was an Easter Egg in Pet BASIC:
(from http://www.portcommodore.com/commodore/pet/petfaq
### COMMODORE BASIC ### - Upgrade ROMs
Commonly known as the 'Upgrade ROMs' sometimes referred to as 2.0 or 3.0 ROMs depending on who you ask. Occupy $C000-$FFFF
Most Original ROM bugs were squashed. Now includes a tiny ML monitor and IEEE-488 disk operability, also PEEKing to upper memory was permitted. Easter Egg - enter WAIT 6502,x to see 'MICROSOFT!' displayed on the screen x number of times.
(PETBASIC Easter Egg) WAIT 6502,3 MICROSOFT! MICROSOFT! MICROSOFT! Wouldn't that be ironic if they move towards DRM?
This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
Doesn't take long, does it? Anybody got a mirror yet?
Soulvation
2. Jump (Excerpt)
Kriss Kross
3. Hart verloren
K3
[...]
Jump? I mean... wha..?
I'm a 2000 man.
Something along the lines of the C64 only with the reliablity of modern hardware. Perfect for hobbyists. Perfect for learners.
Perhaps they should take on those guys making that vaporware Phantom console?
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
Hopefully they will come up with an LCD that will play all of the latest scene demos. Hopefully it will play the PAL versions cuz the NTSC suck. Also,I year to play Congo Bongo and Gorf on an mp3 player
God No
Its just not fair...
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Pet means fart in French, and Vic means fuck in German.
Search your feellings.. You know it to be true!
"The Wright brothers were the first to fly with a heavier-than-air machine, but boy did they have a lousy plane"
OFF TOPIC, OSDN.com has been banned from slashdot!!! Read it now (time is 01.JUL.2004 0430 GMT)
"And so the Trekkies were executed in the mannor most befitting virgins - thrown into volcanoes" - Futurama
Why should you feel ashamed by hooking up again with a C-64? As lite as Linux has gotten, certainly you can find at least one flavor to satisfy your taste?
I mean, come on, I remember when the TRaSh-80 was around and used a tape recorder for persisting data or TI-99/4A which you could be paid for $0.50 in its final days. It was selling for $49.50 at K-Mart and there was a $50 rebate from Texas Instruments.
All of this is nicer unless you want to "adopt a mainframe" (someone begs & pleads for someone to come get a mainframe and give it a good home (usually basement or garage) before it's towed away. I think the CFO would not find the sharp spike in the electric bill very funny when she sees it, providing it doesn't blow something on the way to the house first.
I'm guessing it would be in the neighborhood of contest to see whose houses stand the greatest chance of being seen from Jupiter. (In a recent year, one of the houses said their December bill was $5kUS more than average.
Marc Barrett, if you're out there, somewhere, reading slashdot, now would be the perfect time to chime in with a rant about everything that's wrong with these products. Please, just once -- for old time's sake?
So did the Apple, if you remember. In fact, it could be said that Apple's devotion to Microsoft BASIC is the reason we have Windows today.
The basic premise is this: in exchange for the rights to license AppleBASIC from Microsoft, some pinhead (who had been tasked with the deal because Jobs didn't think the Apple II had a future) gave the software company full rights to the Macintosh look and feel. Viola! Windows, all nice and legal -- and basically for free.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Either their site has been slashdotted, or their webserver is running on a C=64.
Behold my felow Commie brethren! The chicken lips live! Err, sorry, I know this post doesn't have anything substantial to say, but as someone who cut their teeth in the world of computing through the ranks of VIC-20, C64, Amiga 500, and finally Amiga 3000 users, it gave me warm fuzzies seeing the ol' Commodore logo on a product once again. Having been a die-hard Amiga enthusiast (read: fanatic) and hating the original company's aptitude for clutching defeat out of the jaws of victory, it's nonethess nice to see the name resurrected, even if it has nothing to do with the original ]()()L machines of the 80's and early 90's. (hmmm, wonder if the new mp3 players support custom Copper lists!?)
Sad indeed, so it looks by all accounts its using something from windows media player. and what looks like some thinly veiled OEM mp3 players. There seems to be a total lack of technical info on their 'music store', I suppose its now the current fad to throw up a web music store and sell some players and thru a brand name you bought at bankruptcy auction in order to generate some capital.
Am I the only one that sees this as cynically as the rebirth of Atari?
I think the most ironic part is that you need WMP (with optional Commodore skin) to play your purchase from the Commodore music store. I wonder if they have the Amiga version ready yet?
How many people remember the cool digitized music on the C64? A couple stick out in my head:
:)
Bomb the base
Flesh 4 fantasy
I'll have to find these now that the songs are stuck in my head once again!
I remember the demos coming into North America from Europe were fricken awesome. The screen would flash and stuff which looked really neat, but in hindsight I almost wonder if it was a slight timing difference due to different outlet voltages (?).
While Microsoft got the rights to the look and feel legally, they didn't get the rights to the security, functionality, and sheer usability. Basically, they got the rights to make crap look pretty.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
.... does it run linux?!
[see subject] ;-)
408 -- Request Timed Out
"Ah, another visitor. Wait a while... wait FOREVER!"
How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
"At Last"...like we've all been waiting ;)
Advice: on VPS providers
The VIC name in VIC-20 actually referred to the GRAPHICS chip inside the machine! The graphics chip in the Vic-20 was the VIC-1, and the Commodore 64 had the VIC-II graphics chip!
So why did they call this the e-VIC when it is a SOUND device? It just makes no sense.
The e-SID, maybe.... but not the e-VIC.
There already is a hobbyist Commodore out there called the Commodore-1, and it's got nothing to do with Tulip.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Does the TV Game thing play Stroker 64?
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
Apple sells something that only costs 100 dollars?! Where do I sign??
Not more than you need, just more than you want
I agree this IS a marketing ploy using the vintage status of the Commodore name. While also negating Apple's high end status. Apple and Commodore are alike in vintage/hip factor, but the opposite in associated quality and performance. I predict Commodore will market for something like the "OldStyle" of the MP3 players. Punk Rock baby. Smooth move Commodore. I hope no one buys this crap.
can I war dial with it?
....heh..seriously I have the Commodore 64 and it was great. I preffered playing games on the Commodore over Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Colleco, that shitty Intellivision (wow did that one suck). Even when Commodore was on its way out, it was a superior gaming platform to PC's and Apples up until the early 90's when Doom and Castle Wolfenstein hit the scenes as well as the maturing console game platforms.
can I scan for 950-0488 codes with it?
can I get cracked Zero day Warez WITH trainers?!
can I? can I? CAN I?
I still have a Commodore 64. Its in a box and I haven't touched it for years. I can't bring myself to throw it away.
http://loudcity.net - Keeping Internet Radio Legal, Afford
my gosh!!! Ace of Base! I had that MOD too! I got it from a local BBS back in the day. It took me almost an hour to download the stupid thing, only to discover it employed a shamefully large amount of looping... wasn't the whole song at all. But boy, do I wanna hear 'potatojuice' and 'the Ren and Stimpy song' again ^_^
Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
it's just the little rubber feet for an iBook, don't get too excited ;)
Viola!
I thought the Macintosh wasn't supposed to play music...
If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
i guess that's why the packaging on this mp3 player changed.
If they used one of those Via micro-ITX boards in a modern version of a C64 (built-in keyboard, big damn-heavy external power supply, and CardBus), and sold it w/ TV out for ~$250, then we'd be celebrating the return of Commodore!
Make it w/ 64 MB for history's sake, and have a 128 MB version <grin>.
The difference is this time around, that the iPod is controlling a lot more features than Walkmans of the earlier time - AND has patents around the manner of control, so that no-one else can quite duplicate the ease of use. Instead they have to come up with something better... which has yet to happen after many, many $$ have been poured into the attempt!!
I'm not sure how I feel about this aspect of patents, but you have to admit it gives the iPod some legs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
PET? Commodore still thinks of even using that name? If anyone remembers the PET was a product commodore came out with called the 'Personal Electronic Transactor' strange that they'd use the same acronym on a product much later...
I have a bunch of genuine (no, I'm being quite serious!) Commodore Security patches, in excellent condition. $30 and one's yours. Email me at Jay Ell Bee at Tee Double-You You Dot Net. :)
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Buapo004 : I remember saying "no" twice.
(18:02:21) Buapo004 : So technically this is my third chance.
(18:02:33) Gordon Shanley: "ho-ho-ho" like Santa Clause. How utterly pagan!
(18:02:50) Buapo004 : Let me ask you a question.
(18:02:56) Gordon Shanley: Perhaps Leonard would be interested?
(18:03:15) Buapo004 : Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
(18:03:43) Gordon Shanley: I do not like that song, it taints the youth.
(18:04:13) Buapo004 : Heh, that's from the 1989 hit-film "Batman" starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.
(18:04:15) Buapo004 : Good movie.
(18:05:11) Buapo004 : I love movies.
(18:05:39) Gordon Shanley: Does this remind you of what will happen when you die? http://lego.porn.evilplan.org/drewlego6-5.jpg I pray not.
(18:06:35) Buapo004 : That's the third link you've sent me.
(18:06:43) Buapo004 : That I haven't looked at.
(18:07:00) Buapo004 : Anyway. Back to movies.
(18:07:07) Buapo004 : What's your favorite movie?
(18:07:15) Buapo004 : Last Temptation of Christ counts, remember.
(18:07:30) Buapo004 : I will also except Jesus Christ Superstar.
(18:07:36) Buapo004 : *accept
(18:08:11) Gordon Shanley: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
(18:08:24) Buapo004 : Ah, one of my favorites.
(18:09:20) Gordon Shanley: I like the part where evil Hitler signs Indy's book.
(18:09:31) Buapo004 : Would you have been wise enough to choose the wooden carpenter's cup? Or would greed have overtaken you, and chosen one of the more jewel-laden gold cups.
(18:10:05) Buapo004 : That's perhaps the best scene in the movie, besides the part where he walks across the camoflauged stone walkway.
(18:10:05) Gordon Shanley: I would have peed on dad to wake him up.
(18:10:51) Gordon Shanley: Actually, I believe it was Christ's cup in a slightly different sense.
(18:11:11) Buapo004 : Now you're getting plain JUVENILE!
(18:11:17) Gordon Shanley: The residue caused the foaming. Immortality is in all of our bladders.
Much like Atari, somebody bought the rights to commodore's name and is now making a product that has little or nothing to do with the original's spirit or function.
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
Are they running their web site on an old C64? It should be done loading in the other tab I have open by Christmas.
Don't you think it's even a little possible that we're the audience they are targeting here?
Not everyone can just go ahead and compete with the iPod right away, and there's plenty of us nerds around to create a pretty good business for these guys if we buy these things. Then, if it does well, who knows.
Everything that exists doesn't have to appeal to everyone or sell a billion units to be successful.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Maybe I can ask Tulip for cash for my 400 shares of Commodore stock. It's crazy, I get notified once per year by some bank that I have a balance $0.0125 for the value of my stock. They lose money by telling me that.
Actually, I was talking about the OS upgrades. Tiger looks to be a very shiny turd indeed. Dare I say best operating system ever? I might.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
What amazes me stayed at 1MHz, and was able to sell machines. The Apple I, released in 1976, was a 1MHz machine. The Apple II debuted in 1977, at 1MHz. The Apple II+ (my first computer, may God rest its soul) in '79, at 1MHz. The Apple IIe in '83, at 1MHz. The Apple IIc in '84, 1MHz. The Apple IIe Enhanced, at, you guessed it, 1MHz. That computer wasn't discontinued 'till 1993, for crying out loud.
Mind you, the Apple IIc+, Apple IIGS, and Macintosh were introduced during that timeframe at higher clock rates, but still, for 17 years, they sold a machine at the same speed. What the hell happened to Moore's Law?
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
The C64 blows away your 8088 with a dumb terminal CRT. What could you DO with that thing? Use Wordstar and print on your dot matrix printer?
The C64 was an incredible little machine. Yup, only 64K of memory, and you could only really use 32K of it. It was only 0.98Mhz. And people did amazing things with it. Full color graphics, three channel synthesizer (which people are still using in audio gear; long live the SID!) and easy connectivity to things like joysticks, modems, and even mice. You know, there's a reason Commodore sold millions of them.
Take a look at some of the C64 demos that folks STILL MAKE at www.scene.org (check out the past few assembly archives, and other parties,) and watch the video of some guy doing a live DJ set with a C64 (assembly 03).. then tell me the C64 is a Plastic K-Mart computer. Show me an Apple II demo or even a PC jr demo. Oh wait, there aren't any, because they weren't good enough to do anything except play Oregon Trail with the beeper speakers. 'BEEEEP. You win.' yay.
So do yourself a favor. Go download the VICE emulator, and then download some C64 demos, or even some of the wonderful games you can find at www.c64.org. Maybe you can see what you missed all those years, looking at your monochrome screen and listening to your computer beep at you.
It's not always about K's and Mhz. Thought people would have learned that by now.
Shit, even the TI99-4a was better then the early IBM PC's.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
I'm a Linux zealot and Mac lover and go no where without my iPod.
If you're a Linux zealot, then you like open source, so how can you use a portable music player that doesn't support ogg Vorbis?? And it only has 8 hours of battery? Rio Karma Baby!!!
Sorry, i know this is off topic
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
Look, I made fun of my VIC20's memory capacity when I had one and I lept to the C64 as soon as I could. C= trademark holder, WTF makes you think I am nostalgic for that name? I adored my 64, but I was sick of my Vic.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Getting nostalgic in my older years I found this site with a bunch of commodore commericals:
m me rcials.htm
http://www.commodorebillboard.de/Commercials/Co
But the one they're missing is the one with that jingle 'I'm playing games with my 64!'
The reason I want that one is my friend was actually in that commerical and it would be cool to see it again.
oh. i'm a mac user myself, and was over-estimating the cost of the little rubber feet.
turns out they're only $5 a piece at ibookparts.com
i can't wait to see what tiger has in store.
slightly OT - but don't forget the other great C64 contribution to music: the Sidstation. A synthesizer that uses the SID6581 sound chip as its heart.
As a long devout Commodore user, who had made his way through multiple C64s, and a huge array of Amigas, I find it almost criminal to view this new site. What next, are they going to release an "A-a-a-a-a-a-amiga"? (in the style of the ebay scam Powerbook thing). Not only is the grammar on that site shockingly bad, but the only thing on there that has ANY resemblence to the Commodore brand is a crappy joystick with 30 games that no-one would want to play. Where's Wizball? Where's The Last Ninja?
So, basically, they are attempting to wipe out all of Commodore's history post-C64, and jumping straight to MP3. Why? Because they don't have the rights to the Amiga (thank god). Want to see what's happening with that little flagship? Go here - a darn sight more interesting than that little bandwagon of naffness.
I find it really depressing when some company buys a legacy name (such as Infrogrames did with Atari) and begins peddling merchanidise using that name, hoping for the retro-cool aura surrounding it to bring it sales.
I do agree that no-one has seemingly really tried to do "better" interface-wise - but that's because of an odd blindness that almost everyone seems to have that "better" IS more features! Even many Slashdot readers seem to think the iPod is all about fashion without realization that without the interface it has it probably would be lost in the crowd by now.
That just adds to my point tha the iPod has a lot longer legs than the Walkman. First a company has to realize what makes it great - then the hard work begins on actually making something better! I'm not so follish as to believe the iPod is the realization of the ultimate music player interface, but I do have to wonder how long it will be before someone bests them, given that Apple is also working on the same problem at the same time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Every school had them . Why ?
Why not save and go with Commodore 64 ?
Apple owned the schools.
But can it play SID files?
What I want is a portable audio player with .sid-support. And here we finally have a player from "Commodore" but still no luck...
but who do I have to stab in the throught around here to get an am/fm tuner integrated into a device like this? Seems pretty silly that I can buy a phone/camera/video game but i can't buy a machine that plays mp3 and the radio.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
If you spell that word wrong again, I'll express my anger with violins.
I loved my C64 back in the day (even wrote some games for it back in the day (scroll all the way down)). I also did some 3D stuff on the Amiga 4000 with the video toaster. There really was a lot of fun to be had on those machines.
But it kind of makes my skin crawl that a group of completely unrelated people are marketing completely unrelated stuff under the commodore name. I don't know exactly why it bothers me, but it does. Maybe because it's such a blatant attempt at manipulation?
I don't know. But I sure loved the machines and software back in the day.
Cheers.
An mp3 player with a little 320x240 screen running C64 in a chip. And a rom with say 64meg of c-64 games (ie all of em) would sure rock!!! Especially if it plays SID files too.
Sure those games look crap on a big tv/monitor, but on a 1inch screen they wouldnt look that bad and be actually very playable still (assuming you map the right joystick ports to the buttons)
The WinCE based c64 emulator was slow-assed, and discontinued (any new ports out there?)
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Okay, how about the real question...
Will they be bringing back Pirates?
I ferment meat and I'll have the food groups wired...
Yes, this is true. One of the better things Microsoft has produced? :-)
Martin
... Ogg Vorbis at quality -1 gives a nominal bitrate of 56kbps, and sound quality that compares well with ordinary cassette tape. If you're listening on shitty wee personal stereo headphones, this will be perfectly adequate. It even sounds not too bad through decent speakers.
... didn't they have to rename the VIC-20 in most of Europe, because "vic" is a rather vulgar word in Germany for "penis"? IIRC it was labelled the VC-20, but I'd need to check in my loft next time I'm up north.
Player Drive w/20GB 1.8"HDD, 1200mA Chargeable Nicole-Lithium Battery
Nicole Lithium, hmmmm...
if it's really white with red hair, I'm sold.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
The g64 is going to be commodore's 64GBytes of memory computer to commemorate technology making it possible for them to make a home system that has 2^20 (a.k.a. a binary million) times the memory capacity as the c64 which was a huge wow for its time. A million times! You heard it here, first!
Demonstrant's Open Source Tools
That's the question.
Add to that list using the name "SCO" for litigation purposes...
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
You are right: Commodore is just an office furniture builder from the 1950s. It is MOS Technologies who made the C64, and it's Amiga Inc. that made the Amiga.
From C='s site: "In 1976 Commodore borrowed three million dollars from Canadian financier Irving Gould and purchased MOS Technologies, an American manufacturer of semi-conductors." and "In 1985 Commodore bought Amiga Inc. and the company was renamed Commodore-Amiga."
Commdore has never been much more than a name. (No flamebait intended.)
Yeah, but Funny mods don't give you any karma, bozo.
... USB datastick thingies.
Anyone know where I can get them at a good price, in that quantity?
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
...to you when you fail to pay your rent
When I were a lad, VIC stood for Video Interface Chip. Why didn't they make a portable video player and call it the Video Interface Companion or something. Highly crass. Note also that Tulip/Ironstone don't own any copyright on C64 firmware, so any C64 emulators they make will be as illegal as any on the net. Níall.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Oh, it's the good ol' days again...
Invading defenseless 3rd world countries, and ol' chickenlips.
I knew there was a reason why my final Cartridge 3 is still in the drawer of my desk.
64K RAM SYSTEM 38911 BASIC BYTES FREE
READY.
PLAY
SYNTAX ERROR
READY.
PLAY *.MP3
SYNTAX ERROR
READY.
LOAD *,8,1
And a lot of people think they are still on that path.
Martin
Not at all, I'm afraid.
In many countries, trademarks expire prematurely if they have been out of use for a while. This sounds like yet another effort to save the PET and VIC trademarks (if they are) as "assets" for their respective holder - and it's not the first time we see this type of thing happening with the "Commodore" brand - surprisingly "low-tech" computer accessories ("concept holders", "CD trays" etc., you get the idea...) with that name as a label have been surfacing in the stores every now and then for years.
If at first this doesn't seem to make any sense when computers haven't been sold under these labels for years, just imagine that company lawyer talking along the lines of "so you can still claim its 'yours', send a cease&desist letter and/or sue e.g. for their earnings 'made by infringement' whoever uses the same or a similar name for some other product in this category."
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo....
(sound of falling)
Of course, like Microsoft, they were much better at commercialising the technology than their rivals.
...bearing the name "commodoor", they existed when Commodore was still a big name (and still do).
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Lucky bastard...all we could afford was was a lowly C=24...
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
I am so getting tired of the eThis and iThat. I have a suggestion to these marketing types coming up with the names. How about fYou.
Nifty. But as long as they don't have the best of Ron Hubbard or these guys, then I really don't see the point.
The story I heard is that Commodore paid a one-time fee to use Microsoft Basic (Version 2.0) essentially forever with no further payments to Microsoft. This was very early in the development of the industry and Bill got what he thought was big bucks for the transaction. Turns out that Commodore got a huge bargain compared to what Microsoft was later able to charge everybody else (on a per computer sold basis). That was a hunk of the reason computers like the Vic-20 and the Commodore 64 could be considerably cheaper than other computers of the era. Unfortunately it also made it difficult for Commodore to come up with improved versions of Basic without giving up that cost advantage. Bottom line: Jack Tramiel (then head of Commodore) was one of the few people in the computer industry to outsnooker Bill Gates on a business deal, and Vic-20/Commodore 64 owners used Microsoft Basic while contributing essentially nothing to the Microsoft empire.
I thought it was more down to the result of the Apple vs Xerox court case, after all Lisa (fore runner to the Mac) was basically just a rip off of Star.
I'm convinced I saw something that looked like a pair of cheap mobile CB radios carrying the red-and-blue C= logo in some snail-mail spam brochure two months ago or four. For all I know the Commodore brand has been back for a while now.
Ah, nostalgia! I remeber being a kid in the school computer club. We split into two groups according to what kind of computers we owned, kind of like sports fans. There were people who had Apple ]['s and those that had Commodore 64's, who were nicknamed "commies". It was sadistically funny, considering the cold war.
Just like Atari. Kinda silly that these companies fold, then the names go through many hands before being tacked on to a different company. Nothing wrong with that, but don't even vaguely insinuate that there's any connection with the original company.
Thought I have been throuhg many machines indeed, The Apple II has a special place in my heart. That said, while the C64 definitely had better sound than the Apple II (or 8-bit Atari), the 128K Apple IIe/c with "double high-res" graphics (DHR) surpassed the C64 in highest resolution and came fairly close when it came to game/color modes.
The C64's highest res is 320x200 while the highest Apple II DHR res is 560x129 - in black & white. DHR also allowed 140x192 in 16 colors. The C64 may have allowed all 16 colors to be displayed in its highest res mode, 320x200, but I am not certain.
The C128 graphically surpassed DHR though, offering full 640x200 res and an interlaced 640x400 on C128D's I beleive. The Apple IIgs was graphically more in the class of the Atari ST / Amiga, and surpassed the 8-bit Commodore, easily on this front, as well as on the audio front. There is no computer with 8-bit sound that has audio mode advanced than the Apple IIGS with its 32-oscillator Ensoniq DOC chip (the precursor of the GF-1 audio processor used in the famed, 16-bit Gravis UltraSound).
Ok...enough about all that.
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
20GB for music files is sooo 2003.
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/pearse.html Read up .. I think he definitely deserves a mention whenever history of early flight is brought up.
This is blatant FUD. Those little feet only cost $25 dollars for 4 which is perfectly in line with similar quality PC laptop feet
Ah high Quality feet!
Bleep
Microsoft is releasing their own MP3 player. The basic case design may be familiar to iPod users but Microsoft has put their own spin on the controls and display.
You can see it here
http://rspress.home.comcast.net/Winpod.jpg
Well, not exactly true. Actually, not true at all. First off, Apple traded a few million dollars in stock for the right to bring their programmers -- already well versed in graphical user interfaces, having done work on them in college -- to the Xerox PARC, where he saw a prototype system with NO relation to the Star. In fact, this system didn't even have a file management UI. Apple invented that, and it was Xerox who stole quite a bit of the UI that eventually showed up on the Star, thanks to the close ties between Apple and Xerox. Besides the concept of visual file management, Apple also invented the concept of icons that WERE things and could have actions performed on them...in the Xerox model, icons DID things, like physical buttons. Windowing existed solely to permit multiple command lines.
Apple "won" the Xerox case because what Xerox was doing -- moving a cursor around on a screen and manipulate windows and buttons -- they didn't invent, anyway. It had been done in colleges for years.
Apple vs. Microsoft, on the other hand, was a big deal. Apple HAD invented something new. They HAD created a new interface. But, in hopes of getting Microsoft as an application developer for their new OS, they accidentally licensed them core technologies and were vague enough to infer that they'd licensed the whole system. A more vitriolic and pro-mac argument can be found here.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
I remember having a C64 with a music player that did MIDI, MOD, and other file formats. It all fit on one floppy disk. I turned my C64 into a Jukebox. Now Tulip has turned a Vic-20 or C64 into a MP3 player.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
almost everyone had MS BASIC on their 8 bit system, even Radio Shack and Atari.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
My Commodore PET 2001 from circa 1980 still boots up faster than my multi-GHz PC.
Of course, they both boot up into a Microsoft product...
It was pathetic, but it was a PC Clone. Other Commodore PCs were called the PC-XXX but basically were just like the Commodore Colt.
Commodore made PC Laptops too!.
Commodore's last attempts at the PC Market.
Too bad they were not enough to save a company that was bleeding millions.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
My P900 runs a C64 emulator. And a Sega Masta System Emulator. And a gameboy emulator. All I need now is a joystick/keypad.
blah blah blah.. they are not selling anything to do with c64! However, if you read their product lists -- besides the players they are selling some hardware that is a "C64" in a joystick. if you look here --> http://www.commodore.net/site/DesktopDefault.aspx? tabindex=5&tabid=45&itemid=2&sitemid=9&prod=17&cat =1
Also if you look these devices have games for download (portable Mp3 players).. if you notice the games are C64 games when you go to the section of downloads.
--> http://www.commodore.net/site/DesktopDefault.aspx? tabindex=5&tabid=45&itemid=2&sitemid=9&prod=16&cat =1
I like the old games, but I don't think I would want to pay for them. They are over 20 years old now ;).
This is supposed to be news for nerds, except there are not too many nerds here because I don't think people read the website or the articles.
Simply -- Stuff the matters.
-Ron
the QVC home shopping channel markets these things... QVC resides in the West Chester PA facility originally built for Commodore Computer Co.
Yes... and AmigaBASIC was a rip off of AppleBASIC, everything done by Micro$oft.
I remeber the features quite well...
- the interpreter was the biggest file on the whole AmigaOS 1.3 distribution
- it was the slowest BASIC interpreter for AmigaOS
- and it was not compatible to AmigaOS 2.0 and newer
Microsoft - where do you want to crawl today?
"I thought it was more down to the result of the Apple vs Xerox court case, after all Lisa (fore runner to the Mac) was basically just a rip off of Star."
I thought Apple almost bought Xerox. That's the impression I got from Sculley's book. Then again, I read that several years ago and Sculley couldn't even distinguish between Atari and Commodore when referencing them as Macintosh competitors.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
I think you are wrong - $100 is for one rubber foot. It's $500 for all four.
www.voiceofthehive.com - Beekeeping and Honeybees for those who don't.
> I was a C=64 owner and fan back in their day which was my youth.
Whipper snapper. In my day we used a Vic 20.
The Truth About Slashdot
$100 x 4 = $500 ?
Must be that new math.
The extra $100 dollars is for a stylish flourescent plastic packaging they come in. It's called the iBag, and is designed with the macintosh user in mind - using the thumb and the forefinger to open it instead of the much inferior "Two hands plus teeth" method used by PC bag makers.
www.voiceofthehive.com - Beekeeping and Honeybees for those who don't.
because I thought it was some sort of Babelfish translation. That copy IS horrible
Oh, you mean the Airport Extreme (802.11g) card I just ordered? $79 + tax, free shipping (just departed Taiwan).
The C64 did allow you to use all 16 colours in high-res mode (320x200), but only 2 colours per 8x8 pixel area. You could switch to multi-colour mode, which would give you 4 colours per 8x8 pixel area.
With some judicious use of the colour memory (where high-res and multicolour graphics modes sourced their colour definitions), one could indeed use all 16 colours in a single graphic.
And while the C128 could theoretically do 640x400 graphics, there was no support for the graphics modes of the 80-column display chip, and the documentation was almost non-existant as well. One could hack it in machine code, but it was hell (and trust me, I've tried it, and I was quite a 6510 assembly wiz).
Mart"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
$100 for shipping and handling? *shrug*
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
You need to be reading your Apple II History, not just Folklore's Mac history.
The relevant parts of how Applesoft BASIC came to the Apple II:
Back in 1975 and 1976, Microsoft was producing BASIC interpreters for nearly every microprocessor that was produced, in hopes of licensing or selling their BASIC to those who built a computer around that chip. In mid-1976, Microsoft's first employee, Marc McDonald, was given the job of creating a version of BASIC that would run on the then-new 6502 microprocessor, even though there not yet any computers that used that processor. They became aware of Steve Wozniak's efforts in designing his 6502 computer (the Apple-1), and one of Microsoft's programmers called Steve Jobs to see if he would be interested in a BASIC language for this computer. Jobs told him that they already had a BASIC (remember that Wozniak had been writing BASIC interpreters before he even had a computer on which to run them), and if they needed a better one, they could "do it themselves over the weekend".
Even without a potential customer for this product, McDonald worked on this BASIC, using a modified 6800 microprocessor simulator (the 6800 had an instruction set that was similar to the 6502). For several months Microsoft had their 6502 BASIC sitting on a shelf, unwanted and unused. But by October 1976 they finally had a contract to put this interpreter into the new Commodore PET computer that was being designed. This would ultimately become the first time that BASIC was included with a computer built into the ROM, rather than being loaded from a paper tape, disk, or cassette. However, the contract Microsoft had with Commodore was no good to them at that time, as far as income was concerned; it stipulated that they would not be paid until some time in 1977, when the computer was to be finished and ready to ship. With income and cash reserves running dangerously low, Microsoft was given a reprieve by none other than Apple Computer.[12]
Apple was receiving increasing numbers of requests by users of the Apple II for a floating point BASIC. Integer BASIC (which Wozniak had also at one time called "Game BASIC") worked well for many purposes, and a skilled programmer could even make use of the floating point routines that were included in the ROM of Integer BASIC.[15] However, the average Apple II user was not satisfied with Integer BASIC, especially as it made them unable to easily implement business software (where the number to the right of the decimal point is as important as the one to left). Wozniak tried to make modifications to his Integer BASIC to make use of the floating point routines, but at that time he was also hard at work on designing the Disk II interface card, and his efforts on creating a floating point BASIC fell further and further behind. Consequently, Apple's management decided to go back to Microsoft and license the 6502 floating point BASIC that had been offered to them in 1976.
In August 1977, Apple made a $10,500 payment to Microsoft for the first half of a flat-fee license that they were able to negiotate. Typically, Microsoft would license its BASIC on a royalty basis; they would be paid a set fee for every copy of BASIC that went out the door -- in this case, with every computer that was sold. The fact that Microsoft was willing to concede and let Apple license their 6502 BASIC on a flat-fee basis is a reflection of the financial straits that Microsoft was under.[13] The version Apple licensed was almost identical to the MITS extended BASIC that Microsoft had previously written for the Altair 8800.[4],[5] At Apple, Randy Wigginton was assigned the job of incorporating into Microsoft's BASIC the graphics commands that were unique to the Apple II.
And, how they kept from getting bent over by Microsoft:
A significant part of the story of Applesoft and Apple Computer occurred in March of 1985. At this time, Apple was still struggling to get the new Macinto
There was an easter egg in the Apple //c, too, you know...
//c. You can't tell whether it's Revision 0 or Revision 1, as the only difference in 1 is that a modem bug is fixed.
Since these first IIc's had nothing emulated in slot 5, the firmware authors immortalized themselves by making a "ghost" peripheral appear to be present in that slot. Entering this Applesoft program:
]100 IN# 5: INPUT A$: PRINT A$
and running it would print the names of the authors. (They used a decoding scheme to extract the names, character by character, so a simple ASCII scan of the ROM would not show their little trick). This "feature" had to be removed in later revisions of the IIc ROM, because an actual disk device was added then to slot 5. [4], [5]
You can actually use this to ID a
Also, the IIGS had an easter egg, where you'd actually get audio of the developers.
A feature that was added to the ROM 03 firmware that was entirely fun, instead of functional, was accessed by a specific key-sequence. If the computer was booted with no disk in the drive, a message that said "Check startup device" appeared, with an apple symbol sliding back and forth. At that point, if the user pressed the keys "Ctrl", "Open Apple", "Option", and "N" simultaneously, the digitized voices of the Apple IIGS design team could be heard shouting "Apple II!" Also, the names of those people would be displayed on the screen. If running GS/OS System 5.0 or greater, the user would have to hold down the "Option" and "Shift" keys, then pull down the "About" menu in the Finder. It would then say "About the System". Using the mouse to click on that title would cause the names to be displayed and the audio message to be heard.
I will simply suggest you all contact Tulip for precise information about plans to come since this is just the early stuff.
There is stuff that goes on but I am certain there is more stuff than just the USB devices and MP3 players or even the C64DTV.
Just wait and see.
(Hint: There is more stuff than that in plans and discussions but make "serious" suggestions will help. Thank You)
PS: Last note - Don't make final decisions yet. It may suprise you.
I will not be allowed to discuss what they be.
I simply will ask to not make final decisions yet. Just keep your eyes out.
Damn, I am old...
I'd like C= to become the Apple of the PC world. I want them to make tremendously nifty PCs, like Sony, except not craptacular.
I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
+++ATH0