Discussion
So, I just unboxed the first C64 I've ever owned. It was too expensive for 16-year-old me in 1982, but the C64U costs the same in real terms and I'm not 16 any more.
It also comes with 128Mb of RAM, a 50MHz CPU (emulated in hardware by an FPGA), 64Gb of various C64 software and demos on a "cassette" (actually a USB drive), and has a bunch of 21st century bells and whistles like wifi and an SD card drive emulator.
@cstross My families first computer was the "portable" C64 SX. My dad gave the neighbors an extra wheelbarrow he had and they had just upgraded their computer and offered him their old C64 SX. I loved that machine.
So if the CPU is really an FPGA, and the "field programmable" part is still accessible to you... you could write microcode. :-)
@weekend_editor There's an equivalent Sinclair Spectrum FPGA machine, the Spectrum Next, which has FPGA cores to emulate the Sinclair QL, the BBC Master, and a couple of other computers (I think the C64 is one?)!
@cstross I still have my original C64 for which I took out a loan under oppressive terms from my parents 😏. Serial# is 600
@cstross They really nailed the keyboard.
@cstross Gigabit? That's an illegal unit, sir! 🙂
@cstross Sounds fun, I keep looking at the retro recreations of the computers I had in the 80s and pondering buying one, just for fun, but suspect after playing a little while it would just be gathering dust as I get busy with other things. But still, that tug of nostalgia is damned strong and I do keep looking at them from time to time.. Enjoy!
Have fun, good luck figuring out how to get its keyboard at a height that won't ruin your wrists! Mine ache just *thinking* about typing on top of that thing again.
@anthracite After I'd ordered mine they released a version with a case that used the tooling for the original Commodore 128, i.e. a lot slimmer/sleeker. Dammit.
@cstross @anthracite Yeah, the C64c version has been announced but not available for a bit.
As for how to prevent wrist pain - a thick encyclopedia volume in front of the C64U to be used as a handrest works.
@cstross @anthracite I have the slimline C64 I bought in 1986 for the money I earned from my first summer job (hydropower village gardener) sitting in a box in the basement, retrieved from a barn on my parents' farm last summer.
Haven't had time or space to see if it works yet. Much be to terrified to try...
@cstross Just don't try stuff punched paper tape into the USB slot.
50MHz is a lot more than the (roughly) 1MHz that C64 came with.
Have to google the C64U...
(FWIW my Beeb model B had 2 MHz on (basically) the same CPU).
@cstross very cool, enjoy!
@mwl I will, but first I've got a novel to redraft!
yeah, I know the feeling.
(looks longingly at Soekris net4801destined for Minimum Viable NAS project)
@simonzerafa @mwl I don't think there's a @scrivenerapp port to the C64 …
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