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Commodore 64 TV Game for Sale
KodaK writes "The Commodore 64 Direct to TV is on sale at QVC. QVC bought all available units (250,000 or so) so, for now, this is the only place you can get them. This is a full C=64 in a joystick form factor with 30 games included, meaning you can hack this sucker to add a keyboard and/or other IEC peripherials (like a disk drive). The full BASIC ROM is included. Buy one now and impress your friends. BTW, this was developed by Jeri Ellsworth, the engineer responsible for the C-One. Cool stuff." We mentioned the development of this earlier.
You mean my Vic-20 based games console is already out of date? But it had "Blue Meanies From Outer Space" on it!
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
I feverishly search the list of included games.... No M.U.L.E.?!?!! Useless!
Can you really 'add a keyboard' and 'disk drive', etc?
To do that, I would think this device would need a lot of exposed I/O hardware, i.e. pins, etc.
I suspect that rather, this is all embedded in some sort of an ASIC or FPGA.
Can anybody add more info?
"What's the frequency Kenneth?"
After all, MAME cabinets are a pain to build, and are limited to a few free designs. With this, and a switch box, I can legally play all of my favorite arcade games from those arcade-in-a-stick controllers, and now all of my C64 favorites. Here's to hoping that they do the same for the Apple IIe series, because I can't wait to play Wizardry again "Jump down, turn around, and kill a bunch of wights"...and so on.
Remove the spamfreak to speak.
Without that I'm not interested. Playing a game where you get to be a pigeon that shits on cars was the best part of my childhood.
Only in a Slashdot fantasy can a Slackware install turn into several hours of sex . . . . .
http://www.exsorbeo.com/
(It's a Rockstar GTA3 San Adreas farcicle promo site, ICYDN)
Someone had to do it.
I've searched the relative links but I can't find the list of games included. Can someone post them here?
Extra hot grits, please.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
Impossible Mission is just crying out for a modern day remake. Excellent game that was ahead of its time. Highly recommended if you have the patience for yestertech graphics.
My poor C64 has long since went to the land of wind and ghosts thanks to poor storage and rough handling, but a good 90% of the gaming I did when I was in grade school was done on it.
Jumpman, Space Taxi, Beachhead, Law of the West, Silent Service, Impossible Mission (with the cheesy digitized voices), Ghostbusters (with the even more cheesy digitized voices), Law of the West (shooting little kids for backsassing you = fun), Qix, California Games, etc. etc. etc.
Man, I want one of these things now. I run a C64 emulator, but this is cool just for nostalgia value.
..when they put an Amiga on a joystick. A tiny little fat agnus would be quite funny.
Nice idea. Too bad you can't use an AC adaptor in place of batteries. Any idea what the battery life on these units are anyway?
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
Problem I see with this is that if you break the unit by 'waggling' to much, you've got a heftyish replacement fee. Maybe that's why QVC are sellin em in packs of two.
On the hardware front, hope it is hackable to a degree, I'd like to see some of the Rowland Twins (or ACP) masterpieces like Creatures, Creatures 2 (LOVE those torture chambers) and Mayhem in Monsterland.
And Park Patrol and Wizball and.....snip!
Shaped like a Competition Pro joystick. I used to like this stick, but I wonder how it holds up now, having played extensively with the XBOX-controller.
Cool, is this like a sequel to Temple of Apshai?
First CRPG I ever played.
(apparently an optimized version)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Yes, I mentioned Law of the West twice.
It's that good, because anyone could finish it. Just shoot everyone as they walk out onto the street, and boom, you win!
...I remember thee well. I always had trouble getting my little brother to give up the C64 he got from my uncle's basement, so maybe this little toy is just what I need to repolish my old BASIC skills. I used to write prime number generators on these things, then let them run for days to see how quickly they could reach 1 million, then try to optimize them. Just how hackable is this thing? Could you easily hook up a keyboard? What about a cassette tape reader?
Has anyone hacked the Atari-in-a-joystick version? I want a level editor for Adventure!
--
make install -not war
Now there's been plenty of ads disguised as stories on slashdot before, but actually including the text Buy one now and impress your friends is a little ridiculous.
... she's (the engineer, that is) hot, too. Or at least seems that way from this picture.
Mod me offtopic if you must, but the fact is that should give hope to nerds everywhere who bemoan the fact that there are no female geeks out there who are actually attractive.
Of course, Ms. Ellsworth has probably had a boyfriend (or girlfriend, as the case may be) since she was about 14. People who are that smart who look like that are single for about 5 seconds (unless they choose to remain so, which takes them out of the running anyway).
+++ATH0
Can someone post a link to the keyboard hack and any others that are avaiable?
If I cant start loading raid on bungeling bay before dinner, go have some food with mom and dad, then come back in, cross my fingers, and hope its ready to play... I dont want it!
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Archon, M.U.L.E., Bruce Lee...
And it's been 20 years, and I still can't get that damn Forbidden Forest theme song out of my head.
Damnit, it doesn't include the game I most wanted!
There used to be an old Spy vs. Spy game for the commadore 64. (Yes the MAD magazine spy vs spy.) I used to LOVE that game. Its a shame this system doesn't have it. I also had frogger for the commadore 64. Its missing too.
I do security
I believe by making the C64 and its SID audio chip open source it would benefit a lot of households in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Iceland that do not have a home computer.
With the dedication, foresight, and marketing-savy of the Open Source Developer Community they could create new custom applications for the C64 such as HDTV media centers, 24-track mixers, webmail appliances, state firewalls, and of course bioryhthm generators. These are elusive markets that have escaped Microsoft, OS/2, United Linux and the fairly-sucessful BeOS.
By using the powerful processor and the ability to POKE and PEEK values in the registers directly, highly efficient code could be generated which would allow us to wrestle away from the stranglehold that Gateway and Alienware have on the blade server market.
Which is nice.
Wearing pants should always be optional.
Paradroid, Impossible Mission... good. No Raid on Bungling Bay? Not sure if I can justify the purchase.
Other classic consoles are also available including Atari, Activision, Nameco.
Possibly the creepiest startging game voice ever. Darnit - not a day goes by where I don't think about that game and the fact that I could 'do' everything in the game EXCEPT figure out how to win! "A solution exists" was no help to me when I didn't know the objective. Of course - a manual might have helped but those were the free-for-all software days where anyone with a disk drive could copy as long as they could tolerate "replace disk A with disk B" about 7-8 times.
It need's to be in a Wico Command Control, or "the Boss" to truly recreate the experience.
Anyone remember those sticks? Solid steel shaft, heavy duty construction, bad-ass leaf switches inside. They were every bit as durable as an arcade stick, hell probably moreso.
Hell, I still have a Command Control that's going on 25 years old. Still as good as the day I got it.
Compare to those "arcade sticks" they sell for PS2/XBox, etc. Cheap plastic pieces of shit that are broken inside a couple weeks. Look inside and see the cheapest microswitches Radio Shack can offer.
I know there are a couple on the market that are made with real arcade components, but they cost a bundle.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
The joystick looks like the classic Kempston Competition Pro 5000. Anyone know if it's got the same rugged microswitches that used to be in these?
Worst BBC News Stories
I got fed up a few years back of the sheer amount of consoles i had sitting under my tv (nes, snes, mega drive, mastersystem, saturn, N64), the wires were getting some what cumbersome. These individual controllers go a long way to solving the problem but the best solution now adays seems a unit like the xbox or a tiny computer. to be honest i wouldn't play any new games on it, bit of a retro fan, i would mainly stick with emulators, offers a host more functionality, i.e. saving games, screen shots, four player support, and you can more or less drag and drop games as and when you like. For the moment my 300+ cartidges and cd's are very much retired to the loft. Is there really a need for these fancy game console controllers for anyone with a reasonable budget?
"all through my house i set up traps, it seems like the rats have a map, so now i feed the rats crack" - Donald D
No seriously my old C128, packed up and sitting in my closet kicks butt. I still have the add on tape player. hell i still have some games, no tapes tho. I would unpack it and play it a little, but im afraid of braking it.
I'd love to see a beowulf cluster of these (n/t)
I never had a C-64; I was an Apple IIe youth. But I had a blast with my friend's C64! It had some kick-ass two player games.
But how do you play two-player games with one stick? Is it possible? Now that I really only play networked games I prefer human competition.
This is awesome because of the technical merits, but also because the developer isn't your run of the mill parent-mooching-freak.
She's an attractive woman.
And, no, she doesn't want to date you.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
Can it be long before we get an Amiga verion? That would be cool.
Great stick, nice hand feel, good tactile feedback (loved those clicky microswitches).
One shortcoming: The steel in the stick didn't go all the way up, so the plastic had a tendency to get fatigued and break where the steel ended-- particularly quickly if you played games like Decathlon and Track & Field.
I've been thinking about upgrading.
./ from my decrepit AMD Athlon(TM) 64 box (which I'm about to trash). My next comment will be from my super-ultra-modern-high-tech Commadore!!!!!!!111
The QVC sales guy says this will run Duke Nukem Forever, this is fucking awesome!
It will take a NVIDIA GeForce 6600, right?
This will be my last comment on
So no IK+, no Mission Elevator, no Blue Max, and no Ghostbusters, no Super Wonder Boy in Monster land. Why should i buy this one again? Oh yeah, and no Space Harrier or Chase HQ.
Or did she do something else to create this thing?
..
And are all the pins/ports available or is 'attaching a keyboard' just not an option here...
Something like this could be put into a 1541 disk drive
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Just kidding... if they have Raid on Bungeling Bay on this thing, I'm totally buying it!
The CB App. What's your 20?
Provided that these prove wildly succesful, the C-64 installed base will increase by a cool 1/4 million. I know there is still a lot of folks out there that use their C-64 on a regular basis, mostly for games (but not only).
What are the chances that a small software company ("one-man band") will find some financial interest in developing C-64 software? Same goes for hardware: I guess you could make an adapter to hook your existing carts and C-64 periferals to this thingy.
Sigged!
One can only dream....*sigh*
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
no wireless. Lame.
As described at this link:
1 &selm=3a64f407.187354086%40news.mindspring.com
http://c64upgra.de/c-one/s_specs.htm
I recall the SID chip, it was the most powerful music/sound generator chip (built into a microconputer) at the time. Here's my story on it:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=
Tag lost or not installed.
Clamdigger is the best game ever! Tyrone calls you up, you know - in the game - and he says "I can dig more clams than you, stupid!" And you gotta say "Nuh-uh, boy," And y'all gotta race down to the beach with your buckets and your shovels, and the object of the game...is to find parking.
Another Visitor! Stay a while, Stay forever!! http://www.classicgaming.com/rotw/visitor.au
John Carmack fan, browsing at +5 since 1999.
When can we expect a version that comes with 30 different Linux distros preinstalled, so interested folks don't have to meddle with these live CDs anymore? Oh, wait, it would cost 30 x 699 US$ then, right?
While reading this my trusty C= SX 64 decided it was time to die. Is this some kind of sign from an obscenely cruel god?
Buy one now and impress your friends
:D
If you're friends get impressed with a Commodore you (and you're friends) need to get out more often.
Here is photo of Jeri in homage to first love processor of many of the middle aged /.ers.
Many more of Jeri at amiga.org site.
Now I'm the grandest Tiger in the Jungle!
I think my brother may have coded it out of a "Kit" but anyway we always called it "Droid"... you were this guy with a rocket pack and you had a gun... there were like 3 levels then it loops around and has faster enemies on the first level. you can shoot a bird that is fying and he turns into a cooked turkey and hits the ground and if you get it you get points. The first level was all green, the second was red, and the third was blue and had killer flowers on the bottom platform. I figure I might as well try to steal this post to answer childhood questions.
It's just going to be too weird to play a C=64 game that doesn't say
+_+ CRACKED BY THE FANTASTIC FOUR +_+
*** CALL OUR BBS FOR MORE! ***
*** TWO LINES! 1200 BAUD! ***
*** JOHN IS A HOMO! HAHAHA! ***
when it starts up. What will the kids of today think about classic gaming? That people actually paid for their games back then? I mean, if we're going for authenticity, let's go all the way, people.
Please, think of the children.
Trust me, for Paradroid alone it's worth it. Or at least worth seeking out the rom and an emulator.
Though Karateka and the Archons are sorely, sorely missed.
..Possibly the best game in the history of computing, ever.. for the Vic-20..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Duh of course I meant IMPOSSIBLE MISSION - not that silly movie that stole the name.
So when can we expect mods to cell phones?
Please include Bruce Lee.
Also, I remember the Germans were pumping out lots of p0rn stuff for C64.
Any chance to get the dirty Smurf version?
Anyone remember that utility that would make the 1541 belt out a tune by vibrating the heads?
neatest thing!
You could use that on the cellphone vibration device.
If it doesn't include Mech Brigade http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=693 then it's not worth bothering with.
You do realize that Mission: Impossible was a TV show from the sixties, right? Who stole what now?
What's wrong with her? She's slender, has long brown hair and big green eyes and a pretty smile.
(The grandparent's link is not the only picture of her available, incidentally.)
+++ATH0
I find it interesting that QVC bought the initial run of these. It may be of interest to readers here that QVC Studios/HQ happens to be on the very sight where Commodore Business Machines was once based.
I remember around 1991 I played a really neat game on an apple called Ranger Rescue, or something similar. You flew a helicopter on a side scrolling display, then you retrieved your fallen compatriot and flew back. The game was really interesting, I probably have the name wrong.
"brxref
I thought "Now that's interesting! What's next? KMart Amigas? WalMart PackardBells?" I want a ColecoVision wristwatch!
"He who throws mud, loses ground." - proverb
Grab a copy of Vice, download the .d64 file, and realize that the puzzle fragments you have to find make up a punch-card that you will use to exit the facility.
Though I personally recommend Power64 for your retro gaming needs, it does kind of need a Mac.
does it run... oh nevermind.
Is it absolutely necessary to have a sig. ?
http://protectedfromreality.com/BennuAtari2600/
not out yet, but I heard it had a usb port
Does anyone know if this thing is cycle exact (so hacking it to play more demanding games and demos would work) ? Also, does the TV screen show the borders properly, or does it chop them off ?
I ran into Jeri at a conference recently and we talked about why certain games are available (or not).
Its often an archeology problem - figuring out who owns the copyrights and getting them to respond.
For example, most of the Bally/Midway games that I was involved with at DNA (Dave Nutting Associates) are in this limbo. My contract with Midway had the game rights reverting to me, and we think that Dave's contract with Midway has the same thing, but he lost all the paperwork, so he does not know for certain. Thus we cannot assure potential distributors that the title is clear. (I actually kept my contract in a file box I was able to dig out, so MAME has Robby Roto).
Its too bad - because we would love to see Gunfight (the first game on a frame-buffer system), Sea Wolf, Gorf, Wizard of Wor, and a host of other titles available on MAME and neo-retro systems like Jeri's.
-- Jamie
Stay a while! Stay forever! And get zero Christmas shopping done and piss off wife!!! Will do!
Wife: "Are you ready to go yet? What are you doing in the attic?"
Self "Uh...yeah. I'll be ready in a little while. I have to find something real quick."
Hour later
Wife: "We are going to miss all the good sales! Aren't you done yet?"
Self: "Not yet. God I haven't seen one of these old cable boxes with the little switch doo-hickie in forever. Load "*",8,1
TV: "Stay a while! Stay forever!"
Wife: "Good god."
Garage door opener: "Open"
Bzzzztttt....Aaahhhhahahahhahahhhhhh
Jump Jump Jump....Bzzzzzttttttt...Aaaahahahahahahhh
Sheer bliss.
While I'm thinking of these things, if anyone wants to meet Jeri Ellsworth in person, try the C64DTV, have a chance to win one in a raffle and enjoy a blast from the past, come to the World of Commdore. Yes, the most important event on any Commodore geek's social calender is back after an unfortunate hiatus. December 4, 2004 in Toronto.
stay awhile..... staaaaaaay foreeeeeveerrrrrrr!!!!
I'm sure QVC is happy it was featured on /.
http://www.lemon64.com/reviews/view.php?gameID=74 maybe you mean Airborne RAnger?
Most of the games are dogs but Sword of Fargoal? Man, was I ever addicted to that game. I played it so long a few times that the C-64 was as hot as the power supply.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
Maybe it was: FORT APOCALIPSIS.
It was very addictive and hard finish. I didn't finish it yet!
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
I've completed the game, but my version had an issue that killed the player when a robot fired off the left hand-side of the screen. Could either be a bug, or a copy-protection that somehow got tripped.
I've also played Impossible Mission 2 - while the robots have been improved, it feels that there's less strategy in the game because you don't exactly have to search everything.
Clear and ready to go ! Setting it up tomorrow first thing in the morning (Already night time, here in West. Eur.)! Still have the 1541 AND the games AND the joysticks. All in working conditions! Int Karate kicks aaaassss ! Too bad i can't put my hand on Boulder Dash anymore, though...
So there you go - support your local C64 cracking crew. Even though I have a real C64, I might look at this for the convenience when the PAL version hits Europe. But please...Way Of The Exploding Fist! Ghosts'n'Goblins! One Man And His Droid for the music, the Monty Mole stuff...
Cheers,
Ian
Was I the only one who went with the TI 99 4/A instead of the C64/Vic20 at the time? I still have my system -- cartridges and tapes. When is someone going to make a port like this for the TI?
Homer no function beer well without.
Do these things have real SID chips and Filters inside ? If so it would be worth buying a bucket load of these things for those chips alone.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
all this time I tought AOL created that game
that my first computer can now fit in the palm of my hand and run on 4 AA batteries?
Just get a used Dreamcast for $20 and emulate everthing, C64, Atari 800, 2600, 5200, Apple, NES, Genesis, Gameboy, MAME and more.
I'm a little young to be in on the joke. Is this that infamous song?
MIDI file
Ahh...but my SYM-1 had way more class than your KIM-1. WUMPUS, anyone?
I thought I seen these on sale at Urban Outfitters last year for ~$30.
I have a very small mind and must live with it.
-- E. Dijkstra
Aliens, Project Firestart...
:)
ahhh.... the old times...
The game is actually called "Rescue Raiders." It was also one of my favorites.
Ok, if I understand well, I can hack this machine, add a keyboard and get...
...a C64 as we know it, which I can buy at eBay.
Why would I want to do that? Hacking stuff is cool, but in this case, what's the gain?
Z
ok, perhaps not. but it was pretty cool.
Some day when they come out with an XP3200 in a joystick, you'll hear them scream "I can't believe they didn't include HL2 in this thing."
I've got 101 mod points and you can't have them!
No Suicide Express? No Mega Apocalypse? Monty On The Run? Delta? Rambo? Lightforce? Thing On A Spring? The Ocean loaders?
Guess I'll just have to make do with the remixes
You must think in Russian.
Don't worry! There's Blue Meanies From Outer Space for the PC now!
Yeah. So, one weekend I was really bored, wanted to do an oldie game remake and remembered the BMFO game I used to have on cassette...
Where's the submit button??
just hearing about this brings a tear to my eyes
good times...good times
Anyone ever found an emulator that can play Blue Max?
Damn, wish I'd kept my old tapes now. I wrote a bunch of games for the C1P because, being 12 I was too poor to actually buy any (I spent every penny I had saved for 2 years to buy the C1P (I saved my lunch money and worked at a used car lot washing cars on weekends)). I did a few chase em games, a half finished space invaders in assembly, a car driving game in assembly, and a 3D maze game using the in-built graphics and a 2D view of the maze which (ahem, due to my small and young brain required you to draw the maze in 2D first) - maze traversal algorithms were a little ahead of me at the time. Only now do I realise I was a huge dolt throwing that machine out after it died (around 1990) and scraping the tapes. Doh!
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
I miss Spy versus Spy.
Best video game ever.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
You're kidding right? $27 is less than the then cost of a decent joystick anyway. And have you looked at the prices of PC joysticks recently?
Acrhon and mail order monsters comes to mind.
;)
;)
There are several others. I am suprised no one had moded this beast yet and added a little portable screen. It would make a great hand held system.
A portable Amiga 500 would be great too
I want to buy one
The University of Washington's Society of Physics Students has one in stock. Feel free to drop by the lounge (b52?) if you feel like you need a game. Mad props to Ed for tracking it down. (I've since graduated, but as of August, it was chillin' there, waiting for gamers.)
I'm surprised nobody caught this yet, QVC's headquarters has been the Commadore complex ever since they bought it from Commadore's backrupcy sale.
There is a PC emulator for M.U.L.E.
JM
Oink, Oink!!
damn, guess I won't buy it.
Man I loved that game as a "kid" (run, OH S***T! stop running, for the love of god stop running (thud) )
I vaguely remember an area in this game that
had this large computer screen with a"chessboard"
like puzzle you had to solve.
I was looking forward to this thing for months and these are the games they include?!?! I hope they at least fixed the bug that made Impossible Mission impossible to complete.
There is one room with a big blue square thing you could "search" by pushing forward. It was distincively different from the rest of the searchable furniture in two ways:
1 - It says "Nothing Here" immediately without waiting.
2 - It doesn't dissappear off the screen when it says "Nothing Here".
When you find that room with that odd bit of furniture, make a mental note of where it is. That's the end of the game exit. Once you have all 9 password letters, then you go 'search' that weire unsearchable item, and that ends the game.
(The manual for the game mentioned this, so it's not like it was some super secret thing they were trying to hide.)
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Here we have a picture of Jeri's "hot-grits smile" being completely ignored by a geek who's more interested in the super cool C-ONE "reconfigurable computer" she invented.
How do we know this?
+++ATH0
Jeri Ellsworth will be demonstrating the 64DTV and talking about its development at the World of Commodore in Toronto on December 3rd.
Do you have the tech info on how to do this? Pin connections, etc? That would be cool. Even better, we need access to the serial port, (if available) so we can load our own programs. Does anyone have this data, or can provide a link thereto?
;)
PS: I just got the confirmation e-mail from QVC that it's on its way. This is one of the few times that I will NOT be waiting for the warranty to expire, before opening the thing up.
Willie...
Priceless.
honnold.org - sometimes-rock band, all the time awesome forum
http://www.mymorninglight.org/ham/J64.htm
Willie...
By using the powerful processor and the ability to POKE and PEEK values in the registers directly, highly efficient code could be generated which would allow us to wrestle away from the stranglehold that Gateway and Alienware have on the blade server market.
Made me laugh!
-kgj
-kgj
I have visited the website selling these sticks and to my dismay they only ship to US or Canada, and not to Europe. :(
I even tried to order one using an mail address in NJ that ships the goods directly to me, using an jet carrier company to no avail. :(
But then I used my friend that is in US, 'cause of school and he comes home this x-mas and asked him to bring atleast two stick packs here, and he said he will. :)
-- Kimme Utsi