Indiegogo: THE 64 – Computer and Handheld Console

[Puni/Void]

Hi,

New Commodore 64 computer and handheld console project at Indiegogo.

https://oldschoolgameblog.com/2016/0...dheld-console/

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/t...console#/story

[Locutus]

So what hardware does this run on actually?

[Amigajay]

Both links go to the same blog post!

[Zapotek]

looks fishy..

no real pictures on the campaign page, flexible funding, no spesific information regarding hardware, no games ready atm.

"We are already speaking to a wide range of rights holders with regards to including their games on THE 64 ™! "

"The core research and development of THE 64 ™ consoles is complete, and we have working prototypes ongoing, concept case models, and software waiting to go into production as soon as practical."

And backers are supposed to get their hands on it in december? Handhold version in april next year?

It sound to good to be true (which means it probably isn't).
Their intentions might be good, but this is something I would never ever give money to up front. There are so many uncertainties.

[Retro-Nerd]

Some kind of RasPi device or similar and Emulation. Quite pointless, especially the handheld (a lot of C64 games needs a keyboard).

[Puni/Void]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Both links go to the same blog post!

Fixed.

[demolition]

They do mention that they were involved with the C64 DTV, so perhaps this is based on that design?

[alexh]

It's nothing to do with the people behind the C64DTV hardware as they already said via facebook they are not involved.

It's going to be a modern SoC with a custom OS & emulator

[demolition]

Originally Posted by alexh

It's nothing to do with the people behind the C64DTV hardware as they already said via facebook they are not involved.

I'm not on FB, but am just relating to what they write on Indiegogo:

THE 64 ™ project is being designed, built and marketed by a team of people who are utterly passionate about the Commodore 64 ™ and retro gaming. The team were previously involved in bringing to market consoles and products such as the C64DTV ™, and the Nintendo Wii ™ C64 ™ games.

I can't see how this can be interpreted in any other way than they were indeed involved with the DTV?

[Locutus]

Originally Posted by alexh

It's going to be a modern SoC with a custom OS & emulator

Okay, i'm sure you can just read that as Linux + ViCE then.

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Locutus

Okay, i'm sure you can just read that as Linux + ViCE then.

Sounds like it yes. I think it should be able to boot to the BASIC prompt in 1-2 secs, so they need to find a way to do that. Regular booting of a Linux is definitely not a good solution, but there are ways they could solve that.
I would have preferred that it was a custom ASIC or FPGA implementation of the full C64 hardware so it could interface to regular peripherals. This is one of the reasons that the DTV has a following.

[tomcat666]

Originally Posted by alexh

It's going to be a modern SoC with a custom OS & emulator

Where did you get that information from ? Link ?

[Anubis]

I've seen this somewhere else (link for kickstart) and IMHO whole things is open for different interpretation and somehow just sound goofy and fishy...

[ma693541]

Remember Commodore USA and it's CommodoreOS???
It was shut down when the main man behind the project got sick and died. I still have disc 1 from that OS, Linux + Emulators, but i want disc 2 too, but no one share it over the .torrent network.

[Amiga1992]

Oh look, another nostalgia-driven, stupid C64 crowdfunded project.
We can all make our own handhelds with a Raspberry Pi Zero. Pretty sure this kickstarter will use a similar solution.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by ma693541

Remember Commodore USA and it's CommodoreOS???
It was shut down when the main man behind the project got sick and died. I still have disc 1 from that OS, Linux + Emulators, but i want disc 2 too, but no one share it over the .torrent network.

Disk 2??

http://archiveos.org/commodoreos/

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by Akira

Oh look, another nostalgia-driven, stupid C64 crowdfunded project.

Quoted for truth.

[ma693541]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Disk 2??

http://archiveos.org/commodoreos/

Yes, there was a disc 2 in the main project with a lot of extras on it.

[Locutus]

That makes my eyes bleed

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Some kind of RasPi device or similar and Emulation. Quite pointless, especially the handheld (a lot of C64 games needs a keyboard).

Might be FPGA, but yea.. I don't have a good feeling about the campaign. Flexible funding is a risk that usually needs pretty convincing arguments, but here they are very quiet about the hardware, which is not very re-assuring.

Regarding the games on the Handheld, a lot of games only need keyboard for getting past menu, select this or that.. for that, I guess a virtual keyboard could do.