Perifrantic makes an interesting point in anticipation of critics that will chime in to assert “this will never be the original Commodore.” In his defense, the retro tech enthusiast says “what if we got 47 trademarks from 1982, or original Commodore engineers back, original executives, assistants, ROMs, Amiga? I mean, at some point, it does start to become the real Commodore, right?”
An interesting thought. I’m sure like many here, the C64 was what sparked my interests in gaming, computing, and technology. It even went a bit beyond that to influencing my tastes around music, design and aesthetics, and is probably one of the major reasons I’m working in digital today. Keen to see what they do for the nostalgia.
Peri's approach is built around his Hollywood production experience: you don't have to be the real thing, you have to be believably close to the real thing. IOW, verisimilitude.
And that's exciting, that's the path to a lot of creative answers. It's a good response to the shareholder-centric corporate idiom: don't look at the balance sheet as the game. Look at the people and the assets as elements used to stage a show, and put on a show that people want to believe in. And it's a good answer for the AI-saturated landscape we've entered: make products that are very similar to the best ones of the past.
Adding noise to the signal here, but "Don't look at the balance sheet as the game. Look at the people and the assets as elements used to stage a show, and put on a show that people want to believe in." is a quote I want to remember forever.
I guess the big question is how well is the Mega65 doing.
Those folks put a lot of time and energy to come up with a modern C64-esque computer experience. From the BASIC in ROM, an actual floppy disk, memory mapped video, and an “all in one” form factor.
Supposed to be a nice machine, I have not been following it recently, I assume it performs and is reliable.
It checks all of the boxes, I just don’t know how successful it is.
If they can sell me something for $500 or less that will let me shove in original cartridges or floppy disks, I am cash in hand. If they can’t, they go away.
Cartridges I can understand, as they are hardware, but why floppy disks? It's just data and it's better to back them up to a more reliable format anyway.
I can't wait for the new Commodore calculators, filing cabinets, telephones, and typewriters!
(All of these were actual Commodore products, a couple of which I have seen in the wild. The computers that we all know and love only represent half of the company's history.)
Would be cool to have a C64-inspired line of Linux laptops with a custom C64-themed distro of Linux, rock-solid drivers, and an app store of well-tested applications.
As I understand, the really interesting parts of Commodore (the MOS designs) were lost forever when they shut down the first time.
As far as anyone knows, the IP from MOS, the designs for all the chips, are just gone forever. Not that it matters that much though, I think the most interesting chips have already been fully reverse engineered
Discussion yesterday (92 points, 44 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44408459
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44408459
Perifrantic makes an interesting point in anticipation of critics that will chime in to assert “this will never be the original Commodore.” In his defense, the retro tech enthusiast says “what if we got 47 trademarks from 1982, or original Commodore engineers back, original executives, assistants, ROMs, Amiga? I mean, at some point, it does start to become the real Commodore, right?”
An interesting thought. I’m sure like many here, the C64 was what sparked my interests in gaming, computing, and technology. It even went a bit beyond that to influencing my tastes around music, design and aesthetics, and is probably one of the major reasons I’m working in digital today. Keen to see what they do for the nostalgia.
Peri's approach is built around his Hollywood production experience: you don't have to be the real thing, you have to be believably close to the real thing. IOW, verisimilitude.
And that's exciting, that's the path to a lot of creative answers. It's a good response to the shareholder-centric corporate idiom: don't look at the balance sheet as the game. Look at the people and the assets as elements used to stage a show, and put on a show that people want to believe in. And it's a good answer for the AI-saturated landscape we've entered: make products that are very similar to the best ones of the past.
Adding noise to the signal here, but "Don't look at the balance sheet as the game. Look at the people and the assets as elements used to stage a show, and put on a show that people want to believe in." is a quote I want to remember forever.
I guess the big question is how well is the Mega65 doing.
Those folks put a lot of time and energy to come up with a modern C64-esque computer experience. From the BASIC in ROM, an actual floppy disk, memory mapped video, and an “all in one” form factor.
Supposed to be a nice machine, I have not been following it recently, I assume it performs and is reliable.
It checks all of the boxes, I just don’t know how successful it is.
If they can sell me something for $500 or less that will let me shove in original cartridges or floppy disks, I am cash in hand. If they can’t, they go away.
Cartridges I can understand, as they are hardware, but why floppy disks? It's just data and it's better to back them up to a more reliable format anyway.
It's part of the charm. :)
I can't wait for the new Commodore calculators, filing cabinets, telephones, and typewriters!
(All of these were actual Commodore products, a couple of which I have seen in the wild. The computers that we all know and love only represent half of the company's history.)
A friend has a Commodore filing cabinet. It's not anything fancy, as a filing cabinet goes, but it does have the Commodore name on it.
I received a vintage LED Commodore calculator as a gift a few years ago. I guess it's time to move it from the closet to my desk.
Would be cool to have a C64-inspired line of Linux laptops with a custom C64-themed distro of Linux, rock-solid drivers, and an app store of well-tested applications.
Best we can do is an overpriced SBC in a decorative case running VICE.
(/s)
I'll have to start keeping up.
As I understand, the really interesting parts of Commodore (the MOS designs) were lost forever when they shut down the first time.
As far as anyone knows, the IP from MOS, the designs for all the chips, are just gone forever. Not that it matters that much though, I think the most interesting chips have already been fully reverse engineered