C64 Reproduction Unit

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scotland
Posts: 2561
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:33 pm

C64 Reproduction Unit

Postby scotland » December 22nd, 2016, 12:13 pm

An Indiegogo campaign says its going to ship their unofficial Commodore 64 reproductions in the Spring of 2017. It would be nice to have new retro C64s, but I would hesitate to pre order without investigating. I know nothing about the project,but maybe the folks at Atariage or here do. One has to compare to a raspberry pi or an android emulation box or even just emulating on a PC. An issue with C64 is that almost everything is 3rd party, unlike an Atari or Nintendo retro console.

Here is the website.
http://the64.computer

Looks like $150 for a desktop version and more for a handheld.

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Rookie1
Posts: 705
Joined: August 6th, 2015, 7:42 am

Re: C64 Reproduction Unit

Postby Rookie1 » December 28th, 2016, 7:45 am

Thats pretty cool. I wouldnt mind having a C64 again. I got one at thrift shop that was attached to the local dump when I was 13 or 14. Man, I wish I still had all the stuff I bought from there. Lots of Nintendo, Atari, and Intellevision stuff there back then. All for dirt cheep. :cry:

It doesnt look like they met their goal, but are still taking pre-orders. How does Indiegogo work? Do they still get the money if they dont make the goal?

Alucard1191
Posts: 476
Joined: November 16th, 2016, 12:55 pm

Re: C64 Reproduction Unit

Postby Alucard1191 » February 2nd, 2017, 12:02 am

I'm really hoping a working 8-bit computer like a C64 comes into my wife's store soon. She just took ownership of a big thrift shop and I've already replaced my NES with one and I have many old games, ducktales being the best/most valuable game. (Lots of lesser known disney games, all of it came in from the same donation) I've been saying I've been wanting an older computer on here for awhile... but I'd honestly want a working authentic one over a reproduction. Like many people have pointed out, emulated software rarely is 100% right, (even if it's 98% right... it's still not there) and there is just something about experiencing something really aged. Putting a needle down on a record player, holding an atari joystick, rewinding a cassette tape, switching between discs on an old floppy drive... there is something really neat about that in small doses.

Anyway, rambling aside, I'm really hesitant with many of these new retro remake systems. Example: The company I just left on Saturday was a vacation rental company, I took care of 51 cabins around here. One of them has the $2100 "Dream Arcade" machine, which has tons of games, a trackball, 4 joysticks. (This thingy here http://www.dreamarcades.com/tables.shtml?gclid=CjwKEAiAq8bEBRDuuOuyspf5oyMSJAAcsEyWehaeH4c5IJlYAsgjkHaGDc_-l2A1Y6a5oFStqFChERoCRCDw_wcB) The games run great, sound is awesome... but the controls really aren't great no matter what you're playing. I was the first person to play on it, (installed and set up the thing in the cabin) and I played numerous games, and the joysticks lagged and had genuinely bad directions, (diagonals were really rough) and the trackball really sucked. Made playing missile command and centipede something I couldn't even attempt. This machine was over 2 grand and it isn't perfect. My godfather has an original centipede arcade though, it's close to 40 years old, and it still works perfectly.

So... yeah. I guess I just am nervous about dumping 150 into something like that when I can possibly get an original for free at my wife's store or for cheap at a garage sale this summer.


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