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.

Comments

Re:What games are included?

[cockroach2]

It's the "Learn More" link. The games are:

* Bull Riding
* Championship Wrestling
* Cyberdyne Warrior
* Cybernoid
* Cybernoid 2
* Eliminator
* Exolon
* Firelord
* Flying Disk
* Gateway to Apshai
* Impossible Mission
* Impossible Mission 2
* Jumpman Jr.
* Paradroid
* Pitstop
* Pitstop 2
* Rana Rama
* Silicon Warrior
* Speedball
* Summer Games
* Super Cycle
* Sumo
* Surfing
* Sword of Fargoal
* Tower Toppler
* Uridium
* Winter Games
* World Karate Champion A
* World Karate Champion B
* Zynaps

Re:Bah!

[phaln]

I'm assuming it's because for years, an update to the original has been in and out of the works. Mot of the games likely come from now-defunct authors, such as Epyx [i.e., Winter Games]. M.U.L.E. enjoys no such freedom at the time being.

More Games

[aoteoroa]

Other classic consoles are also available including Atari, Activision, Nameco.

Re:The Hardware for I/O is all exposed??

[tpr]

The pins for keyboard data and clock are definitely exposed. Jerry was showing them to me a couple of weekends ago. Disk drive conn.? MM, not sure but I wouldn't be surprised. She's _very_ good at this stuff.

Not your typical developer

[Mr. McGibby]

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.

Re:OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

...she really is quite cute, maybe a possible contender for Ms. January in the upcoming "Beautiful Women of Slashdot 2005*" calendar.

* February through December not included

Re:2 players?

[stratjakt]

You don't, at least not simultaneously.

Most games on the list are single player, and Winter Games was mostly turn based, though my memory is hazy.

Re:Bah!

[Horse Rotorvator JAD]

Included Games
* Bull Riding * Championship Wrestling * Cyberdyne Warrior * Cybernoid * Cybernoid 2 * Eliminator * Exolon * Firelord * Flying Disk * Gateway to Apshai * Impossible Mission * Impossible Mission 2 * Jumpman Jr. * Paradroid * Pitstop * Pitstop 2 * Rana Rama * Silicon Warrior * Speedball * Summer Games * Super Cycle * Sumo * Surfing * Sword of Fargoal * Tower Toppler * Uridium * Winter Games * World Karate Champion A * World Karate Champion B * Zynaps

Re:What games are included?

[The Vulture]

From what I've gathered through Google, it was the Atari 7800 version that was impossible, due to some puzzle pieces that were hidden behind terminals (which can't be searched like the other items).

I can say that the Commodore 64 version didn't suffer from this (or if it did, it was rather sporadic) as I've beaten it over a dozen times. In an interview with Commodore magazine (I don't remember when, but it was quite some time ago), the developer of the game stated this his best time for beating the game was about 45 minutes (of real time, not game time).

My best time is somewhere around the 55 minute mark. Impossible Mission II on the other hand took me over six hours to beat, and I've only done it once. Seeing how difficult Impossible Mission II was, I'd hate to see what they would have done for Impossible Mission III...

-- Joe

Re:Ah the C64...

[bennomatic]

You actually don't need this to do that programming. There's a great Java C64 emulator at:

http://www.dreamfabric.com/c64/

Re:AH - Mission Impossible!

[greed]

"A solution exists" was no help to me when I didn't know the objective.

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.

Re:OMG

[gklinger]

Yes, she's a very attractive and intelligent woman. So is her girlfriend (not that there's anything wrong with that) who sports an Amiga bouncing ball tattoo.

I'm sure you can fashion some kind of fantasy out of all that.

Rights to old games can be hard to locate

[jamiefaye]

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

Re:why no AC power?

[Godman]

Easy enough to build one.... Take an AC adaptor that has either adjustable voltage, or is the same voltage as the batteries used. Snip the tube that usually connects to the device off, and strip the isulation off. You should then have 2 bare wires. Just hook these up, positive and negative, to the terminals on the device If it takes more than one battery, its a bit more complicated, and involves wires between each of the terminals. If you do some research on how placement of batteries etc... affects voltage and amps, you smart people should be able to figure it out.