The Return of the Commodore 64!
I never owned a Commodore 64, I was a Commodore Amiga player when I was younger, and I remember those days with great pleasure. Games like Walker, Project X, Body Blows, Lemmings, Clockwiser and many classic others like Another World, Flashback and Cannon Fodder still echo in my mind with the ‘click-click-click’ of the double-but-still-single button joystick. I even remember a certain sibling would hog the damn thing playing epic marathon sessions of Sensible Soccer. So I had some mixed feelings of joy and regret when I heard about the return of the Commodore 64. Joy because it reminds me of the old Amiga days, and regret because I never got a C-64 and wish that I had, so that I could fully embrace its return with the deep nostalgia that it deserves…
Still, the new C-64 looks very cool, in a retro way.
At first glance it appears very similar to the original, with the same chunky keyboard and retro asthetic and feel. Upon closer inspection, especially toward the ports on the back and side, there appear to be more than initially meets the eye. I’m not really surprised, but still find that it looks odd having modern ports on such a retro piece of technology (Though to be honest, it wouldnt get very far in todays world with an antenna pass through or even scart port on the back). Commodore have clearly put some effort into bringing the machine upto modern day standards, at least in the connectivity department. I even see what looks like a HDMI port on the back, but it looks like a very PC-like back plate around the ports. I’d be interested to find out more about whats inside, but would not be surprised if there is an x86 Intel or AMD processor lurking there.
With some more investigation, there is also a choice selection of media card ports on the right side of the unit, suggesting that perhaps games (ROMs?) can be loaded from SD cards.
Somehow I get the feeling that the new revamped C-64 delivers the retro experience to the modern age, despite not physically seeing one. Lets hope the firmware or Operating System supports more modern offerings too.
Here’s hoping for the new Amiga to come out soon with similarly retro feel, though from details on the site, the ‘new’ amiga looks distinctly modern.
There are more details of the ‘new’ C-64 and upcoming Amigas on the Commodore USA site.
And here is a video from the Commodore Site:
FollowKMan 