The C64, returns.

Started by Steve Elliott, June 25, 2019, 23:14:30

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Steve Elliott

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I checked Amazoom and was presented with the same extortionate £200+ price tag :o

Yeah it seems they're holding a few back for those willing to pay the extortionate £200+

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Menkind? - Never heard of it and not a chance of having one of those stores in Northern Ireland :P

A shame, but I thought I'd mention it just incase.

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I shall have to meditate for restraint and wait until somewhere has it for around the proper £99 to £110 price tag ;D

Yes, just check now and again on Amazon for a sensibly priced one.

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Quite looking forward to grabbing one and very tempted to dive into assembler to code some simple games.

Yes that's my plan too.
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Qube

I think I'm going to enjoy a C64 sitting next to my iMac, especially as it can also play Vic-20 games \o/ - Old and the new whereby the old has the better fun games - Wonder if they'll ever produce an Amiga A1200 version? as that would have me bouncing up and down like a kid at Christmas :))
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Steve Elliott

Quote
I think I'm going to enjoy a C64 sitting next to my iMac, especially as it can also play Vic-20 games \o/ - Old and the new whereby the old has the better fun games

Quite a contrast lol.  While I never owned a C64, given the choice at the time I would probably have jumped at the chance to own one; but everybody I knew had a Speccy.  I did at one point own an Atari 130XE though, and that ran very similar looking (and sounding) games to the C64.

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Wonder if they'll ever produce an Amiga A1200 version? as that would have me bouncing up and down like a kid at Christmas :))

Well it's very difficult to get hold of a 'the C64' so I guess they've sold plenty enough to consider another project.  Maybe by then our Assembly Language skills would allow us to move to a more sophisticated machine lol.
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Xerra

Quote from: Qube on December 30, 2019, 05:10:42
Wonder if they'll ever produce an Amiga A1200 version? as that would have me bouncing up and down like a kid at Christmas :))

Fuck yes. Do this. Take my money. Instant purchase for me if they did an A1200 :)
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Steve Elliott

Yep an Amiga replica for me too.

It's ok Qube, they only had the C64 Mini for sale in Menkind.
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Qube

Quote from: Steve Elliott on December 30, 2019, 18:59:26
It's ok Qube, they only had the C64 Mini for sale in Menkind.
That's OK then, I can cancel my flight now ;D
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Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

#51
lol that'll save me some postage.  ;)
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Steve Elliott

The C64 hasn't arrived as promised by Amazon.  They've told me to contact Menkind, which I have.
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Krischan

My current C64 looks like that. A little bit ugly. But... it is an Amiga, too. And an Atari ST. And a Macintosh. And... so what do I use? ;D Hint: it is not emulating, it is simulating the hardware. And costs about the same. A nice toy for nerds.
Kind regards
Krischan

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Qube

Quote from: Steve Elliott on January 06, 2020, 17:17:56
The C64 hasn't arrived as promised by Amazon.  They've told me to contact Menkind, which I have.
Aww, that's a shame :( - What did Menkind say?

Quote from: Krischan on January 06, 2020, 18:16:07
My current C64 looks like that. A little bit ugly. But... it is an Amiga, too. And an Atari ST. And a Macintosh. And...
Cool box, what's it called?
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Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

Quote
The C64 hasn't arrived as promised by Amazon.  They've told me to contact Menkind, which I have.

Aww, that's a shame :( - What did Menkind say?

It should have come 2 - 4 Jan but didn't.  I just tracked it via Amazon and that was the message - contact MenKind.  To be to fair to Amazon they already emailed me to say there was a delay and apologized.  I've just emailed MenKind so will probably get a response tomorrow.
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Krischan

#56
Quote from: Qube on January 06, 2020, 19:41:05Cool box, what's it called?

Let me say first that I don't want to hijack this thread, I just want to mention this other option which is quite cool. It's the MiST, an FPGA board with a case for about 200 Euros. I got mine from Lotharek in Poland. There are a lot of custom Cores on Github you can install on a SDcard.

The great advantage over a software emulator is that it's running on real hardware which means really smooth scrolling like on the originals. You can plugin an original 9pin Joystick, a Mouse and a Keyboard over USB.

But you could need a special VGA TFT as the cores run like the originals only on special frequencies. See here for more details on that issue. I have an old Eizo Flexscan S1921 which runs perfect. I have the old board version, don't know if the newer boards need this, too.

A software emulator may run more stable and supports more games, but this FPGA solution "feels" more like the original IMHO.
Kind regards
Krischan

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Metaverse | Blitzbasic Archive | My Github projects

Steve Elliott

#57
Cool, but does it have a replica C64 keyboard?   ;)

Maybe start another thread for it.  :)
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Steve Elliott

#58
Menkind said "we can't guarantee when we will be able to get the stock in."

So I've cancelled my order.  :(

Also got fed up waiting for the RetroPie guys to get a version out for pi4, so started using my pi3 again instead.
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Steve Elliott

#59
Installed a C64 Emulator (the same one used in 'The 64') on the pi3 via RetroPie so I have arcade emulation through MAME and now C64 Emulation through VICE.  Follow the instructions here, but install from source NOT binary as that didn't work for me (it does take ages).  Also I've heard some people have problems with zipped files so unzip them before copying across to the pi's IP Address via network.  He used a .TAP game which is loading from tape emulation, my first game (Wizball) is a .d64 which I guess stands for disk so was much faster to load.  I've downloaded 6 C64 games so far.

https://youtu.be/u2TwHKVYAZk
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