The Commodore 64 Returns

March 24, 2010 8:52 AM

The Commodore 64 - arguably the most influential PC in history - is back. They've beefed up the specs a bit.
posted by Joe Beese (102 comments total)

okay. i'm convinced. where's the "add to cart" button?
posted by 256 at 8:55 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

pricepricepricepricePRICE!
posted by shmegegge at 8:55 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

It will run OS X? I'm sure Apple has other ideas.
posted by TrialByMedia at 8:57 AM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

So, somebody who paid to license the Commodore brand name is making a computer?
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 8:58 AM on March 24, 2010 [26 favorites]

Yeah, that caught my eye too. I'm sure you could Hackintosh it, but I doubt it's going to be a factory option.
posted by kmz at 8:58 AM on March 24, 2010

OMG, I love it! I hope it comes with a revamped dot matrix printer and green striped paper. My life (and my hand drawn Zork maps) will be complete!
posted by iamkimiam at 8:59 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Wow, looking at this graph, it seems that 1987 really was the inflection point for PC sales. I wonder what happened that year?
posted by Afroblanco at 8:59 AM on March 24, 2010

10 ? "C=64 RULEZ";
20 GOTO 10

RUN
posted by entropicamericana at 9:00 AM on March 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

Afroblanco: "Wow, looking at this graph, it seems that 1987 really was the inflection point for PC sales. I wonder what happened that year?"

Leisure Suit Larry is a series of adventure games written by Al Lowe and published by Sierra from 1987 to 2009.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:00 AM on March 24, 2010 [26 favorites]

I'm gonna buy one and duct tape it to an iPad.
posted by ardgedee at 9:01 AM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

10 PRINT "TRS80 REPRESENT"
20 GOTO 10

RUN
posted by DU at 9:01 AM on March 24, 2010 [14 favorites]

Does it come with a built-in DVD rewinder or am I going to have to purchase a 3rd party one?
posted by griphus at 9:02 AM on March 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

10 PRINT "DORKS"
20 GOTO 10

RUN, RABBIT, RUN....DIG THAT HOLE
posted by spicynuts at 9:04 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

DETHTROY HIM MY ROBOTTH!
posted by dirtdirt at 9:05 AM on March 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

But will typing SYS64738 do anything on this new-fangled version. If not, then, no thanks.
posted by papercake at 9:06 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ethernet? FUCK THAT SHIT. HESMODEM1!

I guess you have to imagine Dennis Hopper saying it.
posted by jquinby at 9:07 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

OK, so it's an awkward keyboard with a computer stuffed inside. Aside from that and the name, what's the appeal?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:07 AM on March 24, 2010

I'm disappointed. I was at very least expecting it to run a beefed-up GEOS or maybe AROS.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:07 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

As long as they release new versions of Jumpman, Archon, and M.U.L.E. to go with it, I'll be buying one.
posted by hippybear at 9:09 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm disappointed. I was at very least expecting it to run a beefed-up GEOS or maybe AROS.

They imply it can run AROS.
posted by zarq at 9:10 AM on March 24, 2010

LOAD "BRUCELEE",8,1
posted by charred husk at 9:10 AM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

So, somebody who paid to license the Commodore brand name is making a computer?

Essentially. It looks like this, flying under a different name. Thank you, Slashdot.
posted by kid ichorous at 9:10 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I was going to guess that 1987 was the year Wargames ("hey, I can break into stuff with a com-pu-ter?") came out, but that was actually 1983(!). My second guess was Weird Science ("whoa, I can make supermodels with a com-pu-ter?!") but that was 1985.
posted by DU at 9:12 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

If I could daisy-chain this to my old disk drives and run all my old floppies, I'd pre-order one right now.

Impossible Mission? Maybe if you're Lazy Jones, but I'm a H.E.R.O.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:13 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

looks like a laptop that has been decapitated. That is assuming that the screen is the head of the laptop.
posted by djduckie at 9:13 AM on March 24, 2010

General advice for when someone tries to sell you a happy piece of your past: they don't have it.
posted by gurple at 9:14 AM on March 24, 2010 [18 favorites]

kid ichorous: "
Essentially. It looks like this, flying under a different name"

Cagey mutherfuckers won't even let you see the price without giving away your e-mail address. I don't trust dudes like that.
posted by charred husk at 9:14 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Impossible Mission? H.E.R.O.? Brucelee?

Play Archon or Go Home.
posted by absalom at 9:14 AM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

So actually, they've been making this exact same computer for quite a while now, just someone with the license to the Commodore name has decided to plonk the name on it.

Wonderful.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:14 AM on March 24, 2010

I have no comment on the new one, but I grew up on C-64 -- all the fun playing Quest for Tires and Frantic Freddie...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 9:15 AM on March 24, 2010

LOAD "INTERNET",8
LOADING
READY
LIST
10 SYS(2075):REM CRACKED BY THE PURPLE SHAFT
█

posted by egypturnash at 9:15 AM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

Wow, looking at this graph, it seems that 1987 really was the inflection point for PC sales. I wonder what happened that year?

A really long article by the same author. The charts in this don't really have the same inflection point, and the last page has a chart that covers the last 35 years.
posted by smackfu at 9:16 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

> it seems that 1987 really was the inflection point for PC sales. I wonder what happened that year?

Among many other factors, WordPerfect 4.2 shipped in '86 and its feature set was powerful enough to replace dedicated word processors, so a lot of businesses and law offices were finally able to replace massive, expensive proprietary equipment with DOS PCs without significant loss of functionality.
posted by ardgedee at 9:18 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

No SID? Pfffft.
posted by Jode at 9:19 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

It's not a real C64 without a RUN STOP key.
posted by brandman at 9:19 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

OK, who decided it was a good idea to put USB ports on the BACK? This drives me NUTS.
posted by vortex genie 2 at 9:19 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Where do I insert my Wizard of Wor cartridge or my Dunzhin tape?
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 9:19 AM on March 24, 2010

Well I've got my new wallpaper picked out already.

OMG, I love it! I hope it comes with a revamped dot matrix printer and green striped paper.

I think that running with the theme it'd be a laser printer with a driver mode that lets you emulate the dot matrix look.
posted by skintension at 9:24 AM on March 24, 2010

Folgen!
posted by gompa at 9:27 AM on March 24, 2010

If they put the " (double-quote) character so that it's accessed by Shift-2 again, I'm gonna punch somebody.
posted by barnacles at 9:27 AM on March 24, 2010

Also: Can I create some sort of retro-singularity by running Bradbox64 on it?
posted by griphus at 9:29 AM on March 24, 2010

Will it come with the happiness and promise of my youth pre-installed?
posted by bicyclefish at 9:29 AM on March 24, 2010 [11 favorites]

I know a guy who still uses a dot matrix printer. He was a lot like this guy- he didn't know anything and was unwilling to learn anything about computers, didn't want to spend any money on anything new, and was still using Netscape 4 as of last year. I don't know how he did it.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:30 AM on March 24, 2010

Will some kind of easter egg run if I type LOAD "$",8,1?
posted by JaredSeth at 9:33 AM on March 24, 2010

"We are hard at work here trying to solve the problems of world hunger & global warming; not to mention finding a way to achieve international peace and the cure for all the horrible ailments that beset mankind.

On top of all this, we are diligently and fervently entrenched in the negotiations that will allow us to place this cute little logo nameplate on our all-in-one computer."

Nice note on the "news" link. Why does this seem, totally, like something half-assed?
posted by wah at 9:33 AM on March 24, 2010

Tandy 1000EX Never Forget.
posted by aerotive at 9:33 AM on March 24, 2010

Where do I insert the tape cassette?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:38 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

It's just a laptop with a full-sized keyboard and no screen.

Meh.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:39 AM on March 24, 2010

I had a Commodore 64. I ran Fast Hack'em and played Bard's Tale on it, and explored BBSes with a 300 baud modem. It hooked up to my tv so I didn't need a second screen in my room. It was a great computer and only cost $200.

You're no Commodore 64.
posted by brain_drain at 9:42 AM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

looks like a laptop that has been decapitated

Delapitated.
posted by adamdschneider at 9:44 AM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

This happens every few years. Someone buys the currently dormant Commodore brand and decides to monetise it by slapping it onto some OEM crap. A few years ago, there was an ugly-looking MP3 player (a beige brick with a small blue-lit monochrome LCD) named the "e-VIC-20". I think there have been generic Windows PCs with the Commodore brand and chickenhead logo slapped onto them, but they didn't name them the "Commodore 64".
posted by acb at 9:46 AM on March 24, 2010

I know a guy who still uses a dot matrix printer.

Actually, I kind of miss them. Get a new ribbon and hook up one of those fuck-you big boxes of fanfold paper, and you were set for like a year. That was awesome.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:50 AM on March 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

I'm still holding out for a VIC-20.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:52 AM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

TI-99 4A
posted by stenseng at 9:52 AM on March 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

But does it run OS/2?
posted by grouse at 10:07 AM on March 24, 2010

I love the way they tried to make the website look like it would have done when the C64 was around*. That was intentional, right...? Please tell me it was intentional.

Oh, and if anyone shows my boss the "slide.com" animated nightmare on the front page of that site, I will hunt them down and murder them with a well thumbed powerpoint manual.

* in my defence, the C64 finally died in 1992, I think...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 10:14 AM on March 24, 2010

PR#3
10 FOR A = 0 TO 40000 STEP .25
20 PRINT TAB(26 + 25 * SIN(A))
30 PRINT "COMPUTER AGE"
40 NEXT A

That got me a job once. Apple ][.
posted by drmanhattan at 10:17 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

They imply it can run AROS.

Yes, but no thanks to them- AROS has already been designed to run x86 processors, they're just bringing that up because they know that a few people are going to be wondering "will it run Commodore anything?". I bet they aren't even supplying AROS drivers.

Commodore as it exists now has played no part in the industrial design of this computer- they just slapped a different logo on it, classic brand engineering. You might as well take a Kia and stick a Tatra or an AMC logo on it- the name doesn't make it so.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:19 AM on March 24, 2010

This thing is no more a Commodore 64 than a fish is a toaster.

It's a generic PC, stuffed into a crappy keyboard case, made by orphans in China for thruppence-'apenny a day.

Poor, poor Commodore. I'm sick of seeing CBM's name, and brands being dragged back up from the grave as some schmaltzy marketing gimmick time and time again. For god's sake, LET IT LIE!
posted by metaxa at 10:21 AM on March 24, 2010

Does anyone remember a company doing this before? I distinctly remember a magazine blurb saying that a company called Web Computers had bought the rights to the name. Every few years since then, I've searched around for it to no avail.

I think it would be a mistake if they didn't include some old C64 games for nostalgia value. And maybe BASIC and LOGO emulators too.

Also: RCA ports. Wasn't the defining characteristic of the C64 the fact that you could run it on a TV?
posted by roll truck roll at 10:21 AM on March 24, 2010

dunkadunc: "Commodore as it exists now has played no part in the industrial design of this computer- they just slapped a different logo on it, classic brand engineering. You might as well take a Kia and stick a Tatra or an AMC logo on it- the name doesn't make it so."

To me, that's the most interesting part of the story.

In order for the commodification of computers to become complete, it would have to reach the point where they could be marketed solely with nostalgia.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:25 AM on March 24, 2010

Cagey mutherfuckers won't even let you see the price without giving away your e-mail address.

Search for Zero Footprint PC in Google Product Search and you'll see four prices from two vendors ($799.95, $899.95, $1,199.00 and $1,314.95). Not cheap. I'm sure I've seen MicroATX hacks for DIY zero footprint PCs, but I can't find any now.

See also: 64HDD, updating the C64 to use modern computer devices.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:25 AM on March 24, 2010

thruppence-'apenny a day.

Three pennies a penny a day?
posted by grubi at 10:26 AM on March 24, 2010

One of the reasons I try not to get into Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux arguments is because I got so burnt out in Jr. High school from all the Commodore vs. Ti-99 vs. TRS-80 CoCo arguments.

(The CoCo puts them all to shame but good luck convincing those filthy Commodore owners)
posted by bondcliff at 10:26 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

it would have to reach the point where they could be marketed solely with nostalgia

Works for Triumph and Harley Davidson motorcycles.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:26 AM on March 24, 2010

grubi: No, just thruppence 'apenny. (three and a half pence, for those not enamoured in pre-decimal £ sterling nomenclature)
posted by metaxa at 10:35 AM on March 24, 2010

It's nothing without a 6581 SID chip.
posted by Foosnark at 10:38 AM on March 24, 2010

Needs an integrated Epyx FastLoad cartridge, so I can load Raid Over Moscow and Blue Max in record time.
posted by porn in the woods at 10:44 AM on March 24, 2010

That ugly-ass thing is not a Commodore 64.

Anyway, I can get a Commodore 64 on my phone any time i want it.
posted by Artw at 10:49 AM on March 24, 2010

dude, I LOVE emulators!
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 10:50 AM on March 24, 2010

also

I know a guy who still uses a dot matrix printer.

Actually, I kind of miss them. Get a new ribbon and hook up one of those fuck-you big boxes of fanfold paper, and you were set for like a year. That was awesome.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:50 PM on March 24 [3 favorites +] [!]

*GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* What was that? *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* I'm printing out my 3 page essay for class *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* I'll be with you in about a half hour *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND* *GRIND-GRIND*
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 10:51 AM on March 24, 2010 [13 favorites]

Sad to see CBM's name slapped on this thing. The Eee Keyboard is way, way cooler.
posted by zsazsa at 10:54 AM on March 24, 2010

bondcliff, I've owned a C64, CoCo, and TI (and a few others). On what grounds did the CoCo beat the 64?
posted by jdfan at 10:56 AM on March 24, 2010

entropicamericana and DU, you both forgot:

30 END

You guys are sloppy!
posted by mazola at 10:59 AM on March 24, 2010

at least with dot-matrix you could make never ending banners...
posted by whimsicalnymph at 10:59 AM on March 24, 2010

PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS PENUS
posted by anazgnos at 11:03 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I would have made it the original poop brown with the rainbow logo.
posted by LakesideOrion at 11:08 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you look at the Commodore 128, it's surprisingly modern.
posted by smackfu at 11:29 AM on March 24, 2010

As much of a warm fuzzy feeling as reading the words "Commodore 64" gives me, this is a PC. I feel the same bewilderment I do whenever whoever currently owns the Amiga trademark announces a NEW AMIGA!!!! ... I get all nostalgic and go and read the specs only to discover it's just a PC.

It's an x86 PC! No COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2, no SID chip, just a PC.
posted by usonian at 11:31 AM on March 24, 2010

Somewhere around my house I have a Vectrex, fully functional with two controllers, four working cartridges and the little plastic screens that each game comes with to make it look like the vector graphics radiating from the centre of the screen are in fact the sun.

That console is about 25 years old and still running. I am a big fan of Solar Quest and Space Wars. 1.5Mhz processor, 1kb RAM, 8kb ROM. Badass.
posted by longbaugh at 11:35 AM on March 24, 2010

On what grounds did the CoCo beat the 64?

All of them.

Good day sir.
posted by bondcliff at 11:37 AM on March 24, 2010

Ethernet? FUCK THAT SHIT. HESMODEM1!

Heh... my C64's user port had an RS232 adapter which in turn had a commercial Racal-Vadic modem attached to it. Talk about old school.
posted by crapmatic at 11:45 AM on March 24, 2010

I'm totally running AmigaOS4 on mine. Where do I get the kickstart ROM??
posted by LordSludge at 11:53 AM on March 24, 2010

The C64 is the greatest computer of all time! Well, to me anyways, but that's partially because I grew up with it. Got mine when I was about 5 and used it heavily for the next 8-10 years. I still have it, and it still runs! I turn it on occasionally for the nostalgia.

See also: 64HDD, updating the C64 to use modern computer devices

Not exactly new, though. I had a HDD for my C64 back when it was still my main computer. Of course, I went from C64->386/16, to give an idea of how long I held on to my Commie.

I had all kinds of peripherals: voice recognition hardware module, the aforementioned HDD, a home-built light pen, graphics tablet, of course all sorts of joysticks and game controllers...

This thing of course is no C64. At the very least, it should dual-boot into C64 mode!! (emulator running under windows/linux/whatever doesn't count).
posted by wildcrdj at 12:11 PM on March 24, 2010

I used a C64. I knew the C64 well. The C64 was a friend of mine.

Silver colored PC, you're no C64.
posted by atbash at 12:35 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

On what grounds did the CoCo beat the 64?

The grounds of the caves of Daggorath.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:46 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm all over this like color on a TI-99!
posted by sourwookie at 12:46 PM on March 24, 2010

I went straight from the Vic-20 to the Amiga 500, so this generates less nostalgia for me than my demographic would suggest :)
posted by Toecutter at 1:02 PM on March 24, 2010

Looking at this it's obvious, yep, this is just a laptop, branded as a desktop (and thus not needing batteries), branded as a Commodore.

But what would a Commodore computer look like nowadays? The C64's BASIC ROM would choke if you gave it 2 GB of memory to address. The processor was a 6510, only capable of addressing 64 kilobytes. And it'd have all custom-created chips inside, probably the descendants of the Amiga's custom graphics chips. To make something like those these days would not be a simple matter.

What, really, would a computer akin to a C64 but upgraded to today's specs really look like? Requiring POKEs to create graphics? With a command-line shell, or at least a version of GEOS, by default? I say it is not easy to figure out what a C64, scaled up to modern technology, would look like. (It's fun to speculate on though. I'd be doing more speculating if I wasn't already late for work at I type this....)

At the very least, I'd say it'd run Python out of the box. Maybe with an interactive Python shell at startup. That might be fun to hack on. It wouldn't, however, be a mass-market thing like the original machine was.

(Side note: people forget that, towards the end of its life, Commodore did make a couple of PC clones. Under the hood, of course, they were nothing like a Commodore or even an Amiga.)

By the way, if the thing is running Ubuntu out of the box it's probably an inexpensive machine, and it doesn't look like that bad a system overall. The Commodore branding name might be enough to convince people who had a C64 as a kid to have a try with a non-Windows operating system.
posted by JHarris at 1:15 PM on March 24, 2010

Although I have the fondest memories for my ][+, I still became friends with people in elementary school specificially because they owned C-64s and I could play games with more than 5 terribly-bleeding colors and decent sound.

/Disk ][ still rules, PR#6 foh-evah
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:55 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I still have my good old unbeefed C64 in my office. Not only I enjoy having it there for nostalgia's sake, it's actually quite useful for demonstrating certain concepts (like the correspondence between binary numbers and pixels appearing on the screen) in a very clear and stripped down way. Plus when I'm bored I can take tables of numbers generated by Mathematica for my research and turn them into impressive bursts of noise on the SID chip. And the keyboard has the quote mark in the proper place (shift-2).
posted by Wolfdog at 2:51 PM on March 24, 2010

The nerve of some people, talking about their TRaSh-80s in a C=64 thread.
posted by entropicamericana at 3:16 PM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Never had one of these, but I had an Amstrad CPC6128 (well, my dad did, but it sorta became mine). Shortly after we bought it we took a trip over to Singapore and while I checked out the fucking awesome toy stores (we're talking Robotech figures out the wazoo) dad had managed to track down an Amstrad software, uh, "retailer". I went there with him one day and it was in this huge deserted shopping mall, I think called Lucky Plaza or Happy Plaza. This plaza was massive, four or five levels as I recall, I guess I'd compare it to Chermside in Melbourne or, I don't know, the Beverley Centre or Bluewater or something. And empty, or near enough. We wandered for about twenty minutes and walked past maybe three or four stores, all of them selling dodgy stuff like leather coats and Rolex watches (dad bought a bunch of them and I got one, it was actually a great watch, just with a rubber watchband which eventually broke away, leading to the watch smashing to pieces on the ground). I was just a kid and this massive, empty shopping centre scared the shit out of me. I don't know if it was brand new, or condemned. It didn't have any age to it. It was just there.

Anyway, the Amstrad shop. Just a an office with a desk with a computer on it, and a mysterious door into a back room. We went in and the helpful little Singaporean man nodded and smiled and brought out this fucking massive binder of photocopied pages. What you had to do was go through the binder and on each of the pages it listed ten or twelve pieces of software, mainly games, with a short almost-English precis, and you just put a tick next to the ones you wanted. Dad went through and ticked what seemed like a thousand different things. The man nodded and smiled and told us to "come back three day".

We came back three day, after getting fucked around for an hour by the cabbie. The smiling nodding Amstrad man nodded and smiled and we were presented with six or seven big plastic double-rowed floppy disk lockboxes, I guess with maybe forty disks apiece. Each disk had two or three games or applications on it. Dad paid whatever the price was - it certainly wasn't much - and off we went. He seemed pleased. I was slightly bemused because I hadn't really gotten into the Amstrad just yet, I was primarily interested in physical toys - Transformers and the aforementioned Robotech. A few days later we were back in Australia. Dad took the boxes into his little house office - he was retired from civil engineering by then, and wanted a project, I guess - and worked his way through the treasure.

A while later he called me in and asked if I wanted a go. I shrugged and said "okay". He sat me down at the computer, just the blue operating screen in front of us. He selected a disk from the pile, telling me that out of the hundreds of disks only a few of them worked. That still left us with a lot. He put the disk in and told me to type "cat". I hunted and pecked and hit enter and the disk directory listing came up. "Pick one," he said. I typed "run who2" and the drive buzzed for a bit, then a black screen with some text popped up. A midi - or whatever - of the theme from "The Great Escape" started playing. It was "Who Dares Wins II". Dad handed me the joystick. I don't think I stood up from that chair for another four years.

And watching this who2 video, I don't think I ever finished it either.
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:23 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Thought this might be something to do with the contiki OS.

Was disapoint.
posted by davidgentle at 4:28 PM on March 24, 2010

Wow, looking at this graph, it seems that 1987 really was the inflection point for PC sales. I wonder what happened that year?

80386 processor introduced in '86. In '87 IBM making PC clones companies business more viable by shooting themselves in the foot trying to introduce micro-channel architecture, MS Windows 2.1 released in '88. 3.5" HD floppies in '87. Etc...
posted by BrotherCaine at 5:43 PM on March 24, 2010

Fuck this fake nostalgia-mongering shit. When will we get an original-style Macintosh that has little feet on it and will follow you around like the one in Bloom County?
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:24 PM on March 24, 2010

I still have my VIC-20, C64, C128, A1000 and A1200, and they all work. At home we didn't have a non-Commodore computer until 1999. Why would anybody buy this fake when they can get the real thing cheap on ebay ? Also, the guy in the article is high if he thinks an Apple 2 is better than a C64.
posted by rfs at 9:04 PM on March 24, 2010

A short while before this, Arthur Dent had set out from his cabin in search of a Commodore 64. It was not a quest he embarked upon with a great deal of optimism, because he knew that the only source of Commodore-related nostalgia on the entire ship was a benighted piece of equipment produced by Commodore USA.

It claimed to produce the closest possible experience of beheading your friend in Barbarian after faking a retreat for whoever cared to use it. When put to the test, however, it invariably produced a generic Intel-Microsoft experience that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a Commodore 64.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 1:43 AM on March 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Which reminds me: a pretty decent rendition of Barbarian in Flash.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:43 AM on March 25, 2010

.
posted by greensweater at 6:02 AM on March 25, 2010

it seems that 1987 really was the inflection point for PC sales. I wonder what happened that year?

It was the year I hit puberty and stopped caring about Quo Vadis and Nodes of Yesod. Mystery solved.
posted by Hickeystudio at 8:03 AM on March 25, 2010

Touch pad?
What a pity.
posted by Goofyy at 3:23 AM on March 26, 2010