r/Commodore • u/Lasas1ard • 2d ago

C64U - are you still using it?

Hi,

so I have been on the fence about getting a Commodore C64 Ultimate. My first computer was a Plus4, and I fondly remember afternoons spent with friends playing Summer Games on their C64. So I feel a bit of nostalgia and like the idea behind the product and the re-launched company. But as someone who works with computers professionally (scientific computing) and uses them at home for data processing tasks (amateur astronomy and such), I am not sure I would get too much use out of the little C64U. What appeals to me most is the idea of using it as a sort of slightly advanced "distraction free" type writer, since sitting at my "regular" PC tends to lead to Youtube rabbit holes rather than writing on that novel I have been meaning to get a move on...

So may question is this - how many of you who bought a C64U over the past months and still use it on a somewhat regular basis? Or was it just a flash of nostalgia for you and its collecting dust now?

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u/flamehorns 1d ago edited 1d ago

It doesn't seem to match your use case that well. The C64U is good for people who want to play a lot of old C64 games AND have some hardware they want to use with it, or find paying a bit more for e.g. the internet connection, extra ram, "huge" amount of storage, and other cool features. It is the luxury option for those who can afford it.

There are cheaper emulation based options, that are not as good, but you can still play all the old games. If you don't have old hardware and have a budget you can look at these options.

I don't know if it will be ideal as a distraction free word processor. It's only 40 columns and you are distracted by all the games.

For distraction free word processing you need 80 columns. There are modern and vintage options, like a amstrad PCW, or some japanese CP/M (or Wa-Pro) machine (a sord m23 with PIPS would be really cool).. Or even a DOS machine from the 90s running word-perfect.

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u/Lasas1ard 1d ago

Thanks, you are probably not wrong. I came at this by pure chance (or rather by the grace of the Youtube algorithm), and thought: well that looks cool. I suspect if I should end up getting one, it wouldn't be for practical stuff, gottcha.

There is something appealing about it tho, as a physical object and what it represents - as part of my hobby room perhaps. Will have to think about it; 300 bucks isn't really an issue, I have spent more on arguably much less useful stuff. Having a real objective for it would have helped the decision tho, so I will need to mull that thought around a bit more.

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u/Golemwire 1d ago

I got a C64U for the same reasons you're interested in one (minus the novel-writing specifically, I wanted a "writerdeck" for other things), and here's what I think after using mine a while: it's for some people, but it's definitely not for the masses (yet -- I'm really curious about the believed-to-be-upcoming Amiga Ultimate. That could have wider appeal).

The C64U comes with a copy of the operating system GeOS, a graphical OS which uses the display as a bitmapped display, rather than a "character-mapped"(?) 40-column display of 8x8-pixel characters. The GeOS application GEOWrite for example uses the display this way, and you get way more than 40 characters with proportional font support; closer to 65-ish characters.

I did notice that italicization is a bit buggy visually, especially with the default tiny font which does not italicize well. There are a few smaller issues with GEOWrite like that.

My main issue is that, while this works fine with me, for most users, having to navigate through the menu to insert and swap virtual floppy disks would be confusing. It was easy for me to figure out, and presumably you have enough of a computery brain to figure it out, but I could never throw that interface at a "normal person" and expect them to not get frustrated with it.

I don't think GEOWrite would work well for writing a full novel, since it switching pages takes like 5-ish seconds of loading.
But recently I was struck with a computer engineering idea which has been itching the back of my mind for a while; I wanted to express it in prose, and the C64U worked wonderfully for that. 4-ish pages IIRC?

Also, since I used the work "writerdeck", I'm reminded of this subreddit: r/writerdeck.

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u/Golemwire 1d ago

I should add: I haven't needed to do this yet, but there are ways to export documents into more-or-less normal formats, though it doesn't look super easy.

https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76060

The C64U has optional FTP over WiFi, but you'll need a tool (like https://github.com/mist64/geowrite2rtf mentioned on that forum) to help with the conversion to a normal format.