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TheC64 Full Size - Pre-orders Open for USA


StephenJ

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10 hours ago, leech said:

Agreed.  I have an 1541 Ultimate II+ on tge way!

I've been kind of looking at that, but doesn't look like it support C128 disk images?  Or does it?  I'd really rather have something that targets 1571 than 1541 as I'm more interested in CP/M support than full gaming compatibility.

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9 hours ago, nadir said:

I've been kind of looking at that, but doesn't look like it support C128 disk images?  Or does it?  I'd really rather have something that targets 1571 than 1541 as I'm more interested in CP/M support than full gaming compatibility.

I'll have to look again, pretty sure it supports d71 and d81 files, but only to read them? 

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I'm not sure what the nature of the first batch of Maxi 64s was on Amazon selling as Prime - NTSC or PAL. So, I'm not sure if this was a second wave of Prime items that just sold out on Amazon or *the* one and only NTSC batch.

 

In other news, I can't believe some guy is trying to sell a Mini on eBay for $163. I think I paid $35 for mine.

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4 hours ago, Swami said:

I'm not sure what the nature of the first batch of Maxi 64s was on Amazon selling as Prime - NTSC or PAL. So, I'm not sure if this was a second wave of Prime items that just sold out on Amazon or *the* one and only NTSC batch.

 

In other news, I can't believe some guy is trying to sell a Mini on eBay for $163. I think I paid $35 for mine.

They can only try. Minis are still $35 on Amazon.

 

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34 minutes ago, nadir said:

I really wish there was some kind of multi-cart out with all those games on it for actual hardware for a price like that.  I'd order that right away.

There are multiple solutions to get this functionality on real hardware. You could try something like a Kung Fu Flash cart, which lets you store games in multiple formats (program, cart, disk images, tape images) on an SD card, and select what you want from its menu and run it. Or you could use an SD2IEC solution which lets you put whatever you want on an SD card and it plugs into the IEC (disk drive) port and the 64 sees it as a floppy drive. You load its menu program, and then you can navigate to what you want to run, select it, then go out to the C64 and load from it as device 8 like it was a real disk. 
 

Both of these solutions are actually cheaper than a TheC64, if you could even get one. LOL

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9 minutes ago, TimsterAA said:

There are multiple solutions to get this functionality on real hardware. You could try something like a Kung Fu Flash cart, which lets you store games in multiple formats (program, cart, disk images, tape images) on an SD card, and select what you want from its menu and run it. Or you could use an SD2IEC solution which lets you put whatever you want on an SD card and it plugs into the IEC (disk drive) port and the 64 sees it as a floppy drive. You load its menu program, and then you can navigate to what you want to run, select it, then go out to the C64 and load from it as device 8 like it was a real disk. 
 

Both of these solutions are actually cheaper than a TheC64, if you could even get one. LOL

I'd looked at the SD2IEC stuff out there and wasn't impressed.  The Kung Fu Flash cart OTOH sounds like *exactly* what I want, but somehow I'd never run across it before!  Hope I can get one for NTSC still!

 

**edit**

 

Ugh, sounds like NTSC is considered beta and may not work with some images.  I live on the wrong continent, the PAL people get all the good toys.  :(

Edited by nadir
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An old school 1 MB EasyFlash would hold a fair number of games too, at least some 30-35 titles after compression.

 

 

My current configuration:

 

Archon                  41475
Assembloids             16384
BC's Quest For Tires    16384
Bomb Jack               31192
Boulderdash II          22543
Bruce Lee               40472
C64Anabalt              16384
C=2048                  16384
Commando                30338
Decathlon               16384
Deflektor               33202
Delta                   48822
Fairy Well              16384
Ghosts-n Goblins        33228
Giana Sisters           37590
Gyruss                  16384
H.E.R.O.                16384
IK plus                 47687
Imp Mission             38698
M.U.L.E.                39342
Micro Hexagon           16384
Monster Buster          16384
Motor Mania             16384
Nebulus                 40013
Out Run                 38739
Pac-Mania               28166
Pit Stop II             31533
Powerglove              16384
Revenge of Doh          34733
Space Action             8192
Spy Hunter              16384
Super Bread Box         16384
Tapper                  26736
Tetris                  29912
Trailblazer             20744
Up n down               16384
Voivod Attack           16384
Yie Ar Kung Fu          33865
 
Edited by carlsson
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The bulk of commercial titles of which I am aware were on tape or disk. Therefore, unless someone puts some time and effort into a project to cartridge-fy them, which has its own obstacles, your best bet is something like the Ultimate 1541 or SD2IEC.

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I think the majority of games you'll find online are cracked, single filed versions where applicable, i.e. PRG that happen to be contained in a D64. Sometimes a game needs more than one file but generally speaking any solution that takes PRG/P00 should be usable if you want simple action games.

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/29/2021 at 9:19 PM, evg2000 said:
  • Supports common file formats, including D64, D71, D81, CRT, T64, PRG, and P00.
  •  

https://store.backbit.io/product/backbit-commodore/

I ended up buying one of these.  Nice device overall.  Bought it knowing it would only work in C64 mode on my C128, but am still a little disappointed that Elite 128 doesn't work.  I'd really hoped the I/O for it was done in slow mode so would be OK, but alas...  Guess I'm stuck playing that in VICE.

 

Any places like AtariAge for Commodore software?  There's tons of hardware I'm finding out there, but no software.  There's got to be people making/selling Commodore software someplace right?

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8 minutes ago, nadir said:Any places like AtariAge for Commodore software?  There's tons of hardware I'm finding out there, but no software.  There's got to be people making/selling Commodore software someplace right?

Have you tried Psytronik (https://psytronik.bigcartel.com/products), The Future Was 8bit (https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/shop/commodore.html), or Doublesided Games (https://doublesidedgames.com/)? I’ve spent WAY more on C64 home brew from these sites over the last 6 months than any mortal person should. LOL

 

Being in the US and having a majority of the C64 home brew scene happening in Europe is not great on the shipping, but there are just so many games to choose from…! ?

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24 minutes ago, TimsterAA said:

Have you tried Psytronik (https://psytronik.bigcartel.com/products), The Future Was 8bit (https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com/shop/commodore.html), or Doublesided Games (https://doublesidedgames.com/)? I’ve spent WAY more on C64 home brew from these sites over the last 6 months than any mortal person should. LOL

 

Being in the US and having a majority of the C64 home brew scene happening in Europe is not great on the shipping, but there are just so many games to choose from…! ?

I'm not even sure how that's different than it was back in the day... at least during the life of the Amiga / ST, it was definitely more lively of a scene in Europe than the USA.  Then again, I'm fairly certain those of us in the US have a tendency to pick the worse technology.  Even if it isn't necessarily the cheapest... Like beta vs vhs... IBM/Apple over... well everyone else... even the Sega Master System, which was far superior to the NES mostly caught on in South America far more than it did here.  (Though I think that's more about Nintendo's Microsoft-like business practices than anything). 

 

Hell, I ordered AmigaOS 3.2 from Germany, because the one store based in the USA still hasn't listed ROMs for sale...

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2 hours ago, nadir said:

I ended up buying one of these.  Nice device overall.  Bought it knowing it would only work in C64 mode on my C128, but am still a little disappointed that Elite 128 doesn't work.  I'd really hoped the I/O for it was done in slow mode so would be OK, but alas...  Guess I'm stuck playing that in VICE.

 

Any places like AtariAge for Commodore software?  There's tons of hardware I'm finding out there, but no software.  There's got to be people making/selling Commodore software someplace right?

Is it me or is the C128 considered the bastard child of Commodore, and while I think it's a wonderful machine (outside of the crappy bars on the VIC-II output), it really does seem to be one of the most neglected 8bit computers around.  Not much really utilized it outside of GEOS, when it could have had a lot more support.  Then again the 130XE didn't seem to get a whole lot of direct support either, and it does make sense as sure a lot of people have greater than 64kb of ram now (though back in the day WAY too many Atari 8bit games were made for 16 or 48kb) most things still are written for 64kb in mind.  Not to mention little to no love for VDCs.  Doesn't help that the C128 has less video memory for the VDC than the C128D...

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2 hours ago, nadir said:

Any places like AtariAge for Commodore software?  There's tons of hardware I'm finding out there, but no software.  There's got to be people making/selling Commodore software someplace right?

itch.io has new commodore games

there is a thread in the backbit forum of old games that are tested to work on the bacbit.

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3 hours ago, leech said:

I'm not even sure how that's different than it was back in the day...

OMG so much all of this.  Although I ordered OS3.2 from Amiga on the Lake as I can burn my own ROMs.

1 hour ago, leech said:

Is it me or is the C128 considered the bastard child of Commodore

I am with you on most of this.  I absolutely used the hell out of my 128 (with a 64k VDC RAM upgrade,) before moving to my 128D, for GEOS, but while the commercial side of software lacked a bit, I did use a lot of freeware and shareware programs for things like DESterm for BBSing and other telecom needs, QWK-RR for off-line BBS message reading and replying, Zed for text editing, among some other stuff.  I did also use CP/M mode quite a bit for programming.  I have also more recently become aware of the number of business titles which were available for the 128, and I think, adding my analysis to the myriad which already exist, that really was the target of the 128: for people who wanted a business-capable computer that could also dress down for the games.  Unfortunately, that market was already pretty well claimed by IBM and Apple, and anyone else who tried to step into the ring had a mighty fight ahead of them.

 

Anyway, not to get to far off-topic, I am still considering one of these, but so long as the only outlet is Amazon or getting ass-skewered on eBay, I will likely have to import one.

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2 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

OMG so much all of this.  Although I ordered OS3.2 from Amiga on the Lake as I can burn my own ROMs.

I am with you on most of this.  I absolutely used the hell out of my 128 (with a 64k VDC RAM upgrade,) before moving to my 128D, for GEOS, but while the commercial side of software lacked a bit, I did use a lot of freeware and shareware programs for things like DESterm for BBSing and other telecom needs, QWK-RR for off-line BBS message reading and replying, Zed for text editing, among some other stuff.  I did also use CP/M mode quite a bit for programming.  I have also more recently become aware of the number of business titles which were available for the 128, and I think, adding my analysis to the myriad which already exist, that really was the target of the 128: for people who wanted a business-capable computer that could also dress down for the games.  Unfortunately, that market was already pretty well claimed by IBM and Apple, and anyone else who tried to step into the ring had a mighty fight ahead of them.

 

Anyway, not to get to far off-topic, I am still considering one of these, but so long as the only outlet is Amazon or getting ass-skewered on eBay, I will likely have to import one.

I could burn my own roms as well, just too lazy too.  Also thought it odd that OS3.2's serial number was on the outside of the packaging...

 

I've upgraded my VDC to 64k, now to find stuff that uses it :P  Was trying GEOS, but then ran into a snag with d81 not working like normal disk images on the Ultimate1541 II+... Kind of sad that the other platforms were perfectly capable of doing the application / business side of things, but businesses locked down to specific applications, and if your platform didn't have THOSE EXACT applications (didn't matter if programs had compatibility) then you for sure couldn't use those for business... Atari tried at least with creating an office Suite for the ST.  Atari Works is pretty decent too.  Not sure why Commodore never bothered.  Maybe they did on the C128?  The Amiga had nothing from them...

 

Yeah, I'd like one to mess around with, though don't really need it, now that I have a U64, C64 and C128 all working.  Then again, when has that stopped me from buying yet another old computer :P

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1 hour ago, leech said:

Also thought it odd that OS3.2's serial number was on the outside of the packaging...

I wondered about that.  I saved the label just in case it was important.

 

1 hour ago, leech said:

I've upgraded my VDC to 64k, now to find stuff that uses it

Maverick, but who needs to make copies of copy-protected games, anymore?

 

1 hour ago, leech said:

Then again, when has that stopped me from buying yet another old computer

The classic angel on one shoulder and devil on the other.

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