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thewayneThis is pretty cool.
Someone bought the remains of the Commodore company for "low 7 figures", hired back original engineers, and reinvented the machine via FPGA chipsets. There are three different models, all in the same basic form factor with the addition of USB and HDMI ports. The original ports are still there, so you can plug in that original CRT display and floppy disk drive that's sitting in an old box somewhere. All of the original games work, and they come with a spiral-bound manual and a USB drive with 50 LICENSED games on it!
The base model is currently $250 and is a plain beige case, more expensive models include a clear case with LED lighting and a founder's case that is spiffier yet, but still quite affordable. You will be charged for tariffs, and that charge may go up or be refunded if lowered before shipping.
The boxes are planned to ship in October but may slip. If you order one now, your card will be charged immediately but you can cancel and get refunded prior to shipment.
To connect to a CRT TV, you need to buy a cable adapter to connect to an edge card, it's designed for HDMI interface. It has 3x USB-A ports, 1x USB-C, WiFi and Ethernet and a MicroSD slot, and a headphone jack. And as expected, two DB-9 joystick ports, the datasette port, and the floppy disk drive port. That's fairly nicely equipped, all in all.
AND, in a shout-out to the originals, it has the original signatures inscribed in the cases and PC boards!
For $250-300, I think I may buy one. I never owned one, and I've considered getting a used one but I've balked at such old hardware. With this being new and warranted hardware, that reluctance is lifted. It would be interesting to do some 'low-level poking into the hardware' programming again, and theoretically I should be able to slave this into a KVM switch to share the monitor around.
https://www.commodore.net/
https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/19/0528234/after-30-years-you-can-buy-a-new-commodore-64-ultimate-for-299
Someone bought the remains of the Commodore company for "low 7 figures", hired back original engineers, and reinvented the machine via FPGA chipsets. There are three different models, all in the same basic form factor with the addition of USB and HDMI ports. The original ports are still there, so you can plug in that original CRT display and floppy disk drive that's sitting in an old box somewhere. All of the original games work, and they come with a spiral-bound manual and a USB drive with 50 LICENSED games on it!
The base model is currently $250 and is a plain beige case, more expensive models include a clear case with LED lighting and a founder's case that is spiffier yet, but still quite affordable. You will be charged for tariffs, and that charge may go up or be refunded if lowered before shipping.
The boxes are planned to ship in October but may slip. If you order one now, your card will be charged immediately but you can cancel and get refunded prior to shipment.
To connect to a CRT TV, you need to buy a cable adapter to connect to an edge card, it's designed for HDMI interface. It has 3x USB-A ports, 1x USB-C, WiFi and Ethernet and a MicroSD slot, and a headphone jack. And as expected, two DB-9 joystick ports, the datasette port, and the floppy disk drive port. That's fairly nicely equipped, all in all.
AND, in a shout-out to the originals, it has the original signatures inscribed in the cases and PC boards!
For $250-300, I think I may buy one. I never owned one, and I've considered getting a used one but I've balked at such old hardware. With this being new and warranted hardware, that reluctance is lifted. It would be interesting to do some 'low-level poking into the hardware' programming again, and theoretically I should be able to slave this into a KVM switch to share the monitor around.
https://www.commodore.net/
https://slashdot.org/story/25/07/19/0528234/after-30-years-you-can-buy-a-new-commodore-64-ultimate-for-299
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Date: 2025-07-19 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-19 06:58 pm (UTC)That's a good idea. I have no idea how comprehensive the manual that's included will be.
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Date: 2025-07-19 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-19 11:21 pm (UTC)Considering the manuals are 50 years old, good chance.
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Date: 2025-07-19 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-20 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-20 05:18 am (UTC)Hugs, Jon
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Date: 2025-07-20 06:23 am (UTC)Pretty cool boxes! They're hoping to strike a deal to release the Amiga as a similar deal - THAT I will definitely buy! That had a very advanced operating system and programming languages.
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Date: 2025-07-20 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-20 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-20 03:46 pm (UTC)Yeah! There's a community still updating the Amiga OS, the combination of the two could be quite something.
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Date: 2025-07-20 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-20 11:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-20 03:44 pm (UTC)I told my parents for years that all I want for Christmas is an Apple. Never had a computer until I got a job and bought a TRS-80 Model III. 24k of ram, 24 column by 7 line LCD display, ran off of 4xAA batteries. Built-in 300 baud modem! Printing was a little hairy: you had this 40 pin IC-like cable end that connected on the bottom that led to a Centronics connector. I got good at straightening pins with a pair of needlenose pliers.
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Date: 2025-07-20 01:14 pm (UTC)My family still has a C64 dating back to the original incarnation of the company, although we lost the original monitor to an accident a decade or two ago.
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Date: 2025-07-22 06:14 pm (UTC)I doubt that the price will drop for these items any time soon, but if they did, that would be even more of a tug to try and get one.
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Date: 2025-07-22 06:23 pm (UTC)I decided that I shall resist the lure. However.... if they do an Amiga....