What you may need to know.
1. The Commodore 64 was first released in 1982 and went on to earn the Guinness Book of Records world record as the highest-selling computer of all time. It also held the record for the longest time for games to load, probably.
2. In 2018 the C64 Mini was released. Half the size of the original, it came preloaded with 64 classic games and plugged straight into the telly but it had a fake keyboard. If you wanted to practice your Basic programming skills you had to plug in a USB keyboard.
3. Now a full size replica of the original is available with working keyboard and an improved joystick. It’s a lovingly created facsimile, right down to the font and PETSCII characters on the keys.
4. Some of the preloaded games have been copied over from the C64 Mini and some new ones have been added, but most are obscure titles. If you want to play The Last Ninja, Bubble Bobble, Maniac Mansion, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, Ghostbusters or Barry McGuigan World Championship Boxing you’ll have to download and install them the old school way (LOAD”*” ,8,1).
5. And that’s the problem. If you want to play old school games, just add an emulator to your PC, Android or even a Raspberry Pi. There’s no reason to plug a large, plastic, mostly empty box into your TV beyond a nostalgic pining for 8-bit games.
Kieran’s verdict: Emotional attachment to the games from your childhood, much like the Commodore 64, is something best left broken and gathering dust in your mam’s attic.
“Download”?
The “old school way” was a cassette tape, no?
We were a Spectrum 48k household.
We did have a Commodore 64, but none of us were into the programming thingy (unfortunately) and so we, myself and my sister and 4 brothers, convinced Mum n’ Dad to sell the C64 to buy a S48k.
They complied, and put an ad in the Galway Advertiser.
The following week, the doorbell rang and I answered the door. It was a prospective buyer, a man with two wee boys younger than I.
The buyer, well, even as a wee lad, under 10 I think I was, I did recognise straight away… none other than Michael D himself :)
“LOAD”*” ,8,1”
Wow! That brings me back! I had a VIC 20, and was so jealous of my friend who got the 64! I He got the Commodore tape deck (Datassette, I think) while I had to make do with a standard tape deck. Those were the days when the sounds of modem hook up was so much more familiar, even if it was only trying to load your version of Space Invaders!
I love nostalgia, but not so much that I would get one of these. In fact, my old VIC is probably somewhere in my shed, still :)
‘LOAD”*” ,8,1’?
If memory serves that was for loading off a 5.25″ floppy.
Now weren’t you fancy?
That came later :)
It was the standard BASIC LOAD command, and it worked on the cassettes, too. But you had to pay attention if not using their system or one programme ran into the next, and you started overwriting the code if you did not hit STOP in time. Learning to log your counter points, and reset correctly was important :)
When I moved on to discs was on an old 2-drive Transtec machine, with green screen, where I first encountered the game Adventure. LOTS of time lost there, both in and out of the game !
That would be a “SHIFT” and “RUN STOP” from me
+1 :-D
Had a C64 and an Amstrad CPC 464. Good times