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Commodore PET Smartphone Comes Loaded With C64 and Amiga Emulators
Mickeycaskill writes: Commodore is launching an Android-powered smartphone that lets 1980s gaming fans play their favourite retro titles. It runs a custom version of Android 5.0 Lollipop and lets you play both old Commodore 64 and Amiga games with its preinstalled VICE C64 and Uae4All2-SDL Amiga emulators. Configurations vary between 2GB and 3GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage, with a 5.5 inch display and 1.7GHz processor included in all versions. The Catch? It's only available in France, Germany, Italy and Poland to begin with, but other markets are set to follow.
The 80's called and want their mobile phones back.
Is there still a company called Commodore which owns this stuff? I assumed it was long since dead and gone.
Honestly, sell it as an app .. I'm sure you don't need a custom Android to emulate a frigging C64 on a modern smart phone.
At least, I sure as hell hope a 1.7 GHz "octa-core" processor is up to that task. I mean, we're talking 35+ year old technology for crying out loud.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Android Police did some digging and (ignoring the fact that the Commodore name is currently owned by the creditors of Asiarim Corp - who created a new company called C= and have done nothing more than make a website for it back in 2013) it looks to be a carbon copy of the Orgtec WaPhone.
On the upside, it does have some Amiga emulators loaded onto the phone - but you can easily get them from Google Play yourself.
TL;DR? It's unlikely to be Commodore, its a heavily marked up skinned phone and uses the MediaTek MT6752 chip - so you should probably keep away.
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I remember it as more like "Step 4. Wait 37 minutes for it to fail, Step 5. Try again."
I certainly do NOT miss loading stuff from cassette tape.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Commodore, as a company, has not existed for a very, very long time. This is simply the product of companies buying or licensing the trademarks. And no, it isn't meant as a business for the long term. It's simply cashing in on the trademark's nostalgic value while it still has some value.
As an aside, this isn't the first Commodore phone. If I recall correctly, they were selling office equipment before they were a computer manufacturer. One of their products was a rotary phone.
Perhaps this will prompt Apple to add an Apple II Emulator to iOS 9. Should then open up the Apple Store to all that great Apple II software.
3 GB of ram is 2 GB and 1,016 MB more RAM than I need for anything I run on my Amiga. (That's presuming 2 MB of CHIP RAM separate from the Fast RAM.)
Heck, with that much RAM I could multitask every title and application I ever had. *glances over at rack of 3.5" floppies in bookcase
This was a PET, the ,1,1 is irrelevant, relocating LOAD option was introduced in the VIC-20. There is a process to relocate programs from the VIC or 64 to the start of BASIC on the PET:
http://www.portcommodore.com/d...
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
From the article, "Commodore, best known for its Commodore 64 games console,..."
WTF.
None ever expects the Commodore 64 Games System. It's primary weapon is games, obscurity.. it's two primary weapons are games, obscurity and lack of keyboard... it's three primary weapons are games, obscurity and lack of keyboard.
The article refers to a "Commodore 64 games console." There's no such thing. The C64 was a fully user-programmable computer which also played games. The link in the article for "Commodore 64 games console" brings you to an article about a totally unrelated computer, the ZX Spectrum. Nerd rage engaged.
I used to have a Commodore Vic-Modem (300bps) that came with a rotary-dial phone that had the Commodore name printed on the front of it. The phone was actually made by Norhern Telecom, so it wasn't an actual Commodore-manufactured phone.
To use that modem you dialed the number on the telephone and then flipped a switch to engage the modem.
I just now found a picture of that setup here: http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics...
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
The failed loading was basically due to the tape heads being misaligned.
And the woeful speed was also fixed by tape turbos... but again, took third parties to do it.
Also decent data compression wasn't widely used. Most of the data being saved was uncompressed.
With aligned heads, decent data compression, and fast tape turbos.... it became completely possibly to jam around 60 decent games onto a single C90 cassette. .... but by that time, the world had moved on.
READY.
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