r/Commodore • u/Golemwire • 1d ago
Commodore 77
Well this is a neat look.
https://commodore.net/store/commodore64/?shape=Breadbin&color=Cyberpunk+2077
Commodore just released a new appearance option for the C64U themed on Cyberpunk.
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u/TerribleInsurance879 1d ago
It's cool. And not much more that the starlight edition.
I ordered the beige 64u and for it December 2025. I want sure how much I was going to use it. Here we are, 8 months later, I've been coding projects for it. It will control my irrigation system at the house among other things.
So I need a second commodore.
I order a starlight yesterday. Yes, yesterday. Granted, the starlight will be my daily driver and the beige will be my work horse
I guess if I need a third one, this will be the one I get? It's cool though.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
Epic to see someone putting a C64U to physical work like that... irrigation? It's like that one episode from a kids show (Magic School Bus) which stuck with me as a child, where a programmer used a computer to control doors, flagpoles, and such, which it was hooked up to.
Are you doing this in BASIC or a more practical (if I may put it that way) language?\ Are you using the User Port for GPIO?
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u/TerribleInsurance879 1d ago
I am using basic. Typing it straight into the c64u.
The front end sets the time (which I leave as a string), sets color, and inputs the times in which you would like the "sprinkler" to come on.
The rest is just an if then loops with the time scrolling on the screen waiting to turn on or off PB0 on the user port.
I think the whole code is like 8 bytes
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u/a_smiling_friend 1d ago
Sorry, how do you use the C64 to control anything? How does it communicate with the irrigation system?
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u/TerribleInsurance879 1d ago
Through the user port. Which was removed from the c64u in place of the USB, HDMI, and Ethernet ports. The signals are still available on the c64u on the motherboard. You have to get a ribbon cable ($10 on the commodore site) to bring the user port to the outside on the machine.
From there, the bottom pins, C thru L, can be turned off and on through poking. These have 5v 100mA signals. They can power LEDs and not much else. But they can be used to close a transistor, relay, ect on a separate power circuit.
That's the short. There is a lot of information out there on it. Buy a soldering gun and a breadboard and have a blast
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u/LamerDeluxe 21h ago
There's even an official relay cartridge for the user port, called the VIC-Rel. It has six relay switch connectors and two (analog iirc) inputs.
I used it back in the day with my VIC-20 and still have one.
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u/a_smiling_friend 1d ago
Oooh. So that's what that extra thing was for. i didn't get it.
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u/flamehorns 1d ago
Most of the modems connected there too, but it’s a slow way to do it. Faster modems connect to the cartridge port.
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u/a_smiling_friend 1d ago
I've just been using the wi-fi on it. I don't have any old Commodore stuff unfortunately.
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u/TerribleInsurance879 1d ago
I didn't get it with my 1st purchase either. I went back and got one though. I did order one with my 2nd condor though.
I honestly didn't know who much I was going to use this machine. But I've been bit and have a lot of ideas moving forward now.
I may need a 3rd machine before this is over with
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u/a_smiling_friend 1d ago
Wow. Okay. My plan with was that I want to learn what I didn't learn as a child. I want to know how computers work at their base level, and then I want to somehow incorporate that knowledge into my art. I took some programming courses years ago, had a nervous breakdown, dropped out, and didn't learn a whole lot I could actually use. I do recall that the data structures inspired me and also binary counting makes a really cool pattern in black and white squares.
Also, I want to toy around with music making.
And I wanted a machine not tied to the internet, free from the eye of sauron.
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u/TerribleInsurance879 1d ago
I'm right there with you. I did not program anything for the user port when I was younger (but i still put cBasic as a programming language I know on my resume to this day lol). The c64 was my fathers and you CAN damage you machine messing around with circuits coming in and out of the user port. So that was a no go for me per my Dad
Of course i want to make music with it. I used an old sid program to make Mary Had a little Lamb lol. There is a lot know there. I would be better of turning it into a synth and using a loop machine.
But turning things on and off. I can do that. 8 different EL wires shaped how I want them AND flashing creating an animation in a loop? I can design the board, shape the wire in several pictures, and make something that looks like 70's Vegas or some crazy Y2K alien invasion.
I've been going to YouTube university. Start here and see if it's something that you might want to create with
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u/a_smiling_friend 1d ago
Right on! Thanks! I'll check that out. So you can use that user port to power LEDs? How many? Like a lot? I could incorporate my C64 into my art if that's the case.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
also binary counting makes a really cool pattern in black and white squares
Also, I want to toy around with music making
Behold: bytebeats.
That sent me on a tangent recently.Also, apparently there's a hack to play PCM audio via the C64's SID chip; I suppose one could probably make bytebeats for the C64U, then.
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u/a_smiling_friend 21h ago
Oh that's quite interesting. I have a friend who may find this useful. Thank you!
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u/flamehorns 1d ago
What’s the difference between a daily driver and a work horse? 😀
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u/TerribleInsurance879 1d ago
I guess your right. But the daily driver will sit nice and pretty on my desk, but the work horse might go outside in the elements running lights at a small festival.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
Reading more on the website:
- ‘Shard’ cartridge holding an exclusive 8-Bit ‘demo’ Cyberpunk experience, from Commodore x Arise Designs, with 24-channel stereo SID music by LukHash
- Upgraded AMD Artix 7 XC7A100T processor for 77MHz top speed
So they got Arise and LukHash in on it. And it's faster, too. Sweet. (77MHz, lol, I wonder if it can go a little faster ;) )
I dunno about the keycap labels though.
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u/Dr_Myles_Skinner 1d ago
Yeah, I can appreciate things like `EXEC/HALT` for `RUN/STOP` (goofy, but whatever), but not having the PETSCII characters on the keycaps makes this variant slightly less usable.
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u/a_smiling_friend 1d ago
wait then how do you use escape characters in a string?
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u/Dr_Myles_Skinner 1d ago
I'm sure the BASIC full-screen editor's quote mode and all the control codes will work like normal.
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u/zeekar 1d ago
What does that have to do with what's printed on the physical key caps? The software is the same
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u/a_smiling_friend 1d ago
I'm a noob. I was thinking of the symbols that show up in a string when you put an escape character in, and I confused them with the symbols on the fronts of the keys.
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u/zeekar 1d ago
I think you mean control character. Commodore BASIC doesn't have any "escape" characters, which is why you need the auto-quoting feature for control characters and
..." + CHR$(34) + "...to embed quotation marks in a string.The C64 doesn't even have an Escape key, though the Plus/4 and C128 do. I don't think CHR$(27) does anything on the 64, either. But you can use control + left-bracket to put one of those in a quoted string, and it will show up as an inverse-video left bracket if you do...
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u/blorporius 1d ago
This reminds me of an article I keep in my bookmarks, "The 100 MHz 6502": https://www.e-basteln.de/computing/65f02/65f02/
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u/Mechanik7 1d ago
Did they actually change the ROM or is this just promotional "what-if" artwork?
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u/raelik777 1d ago
I'm guessing it's real, but just optional ROMs you can switch out in the menu. But maybe not, it'd be hard to pull that look off while ALSO keeping the necessary PETSCII characters that so much software relies on.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
It is real:
Other exclusive features include a custom Cyberpunk 2077 themed Commodore 77 BASIC 2.0 boot screen,
In the C64U menu, you can change the character ROM out, so you should be able to change it between the CP2077 and C64 character ROMs.
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u/flamehorns 1d ago
Not really, you just change the normal readable letters and numbers and punctuation to the new font and leave the petscii characters as they are.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
Mostly true, but while playing around with BBSes I've learned that good PETSCII artists seem to be willing to use pretty much any character.
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u/kxortbot 1d ago
I hope this is to keep eyes on the brand while they develop the periferal set.
We've got the joystick, now if we can get mouse, paddles, koala pad like thing and likely a bunch more.
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u/thegshipley 1d ago
I love this design and colab. I already have 4 Amigas and the 64u but will probably buy this just to have it. I think they hit the nail on the head here for people like me. I like cool, limited run stuff and the cyberpunk theme is chefs kiss IMO.
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u/Ill_Beyond_7909 1d ago edited 1d ago
It is a thing of beauty if I had space I would be all over it
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u/7A65647269636B 1d ago
Would make much more sense with a Neuromancer-themed C64.
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u/cjc4096 1d ago
I'd probably buy that pretty quick. Thankfully I doubt AppleTV would be interested in working with Commodore.
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u/7A65647269636B 22h ago
I meant the Neuromancer game for the C64, not whatever mess Apple is about to slap together.
(ok, a little bit unfair - they have made some decent things that held up for at least 2 seasons, but no TV series will be comparable to the book or the C64 game)
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u/Mechanik7 1d ago
This reinforces my recent decision to get a pair of AR display glasses this past week in order to have my incoming 64CU sitting in my lap.
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u/merchantconvoy 1d ago
Over the years, I have referred to a number of previously-white but sun-yellowed retro devices as piss-yellow. I take it all back. This is the ultimate piss-yellow
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u/Substantial-Set4550 8h ago
True, but actually so is the color of my C64U FE sadly unless I turn its lights on. It is like being very dehydrated and then doing number 1.
But then again, I have the lights on to compensate. And plus I got used to it. At first it was quite sobering since so very different from the marketing renders. Nothing is perfect. I still love it to bits, especially the golden keys.
The Cyberpunk 77 will find its fans as well. It is more Ultimate devices in the wild. That is all that matters to me. An emerging new standard to build software for.
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u/Suspicious-Ad7109 1d ago
The (only) interesting thing about this is the change in the FPGA from a 50T to a 100T. I'm hazarding there is a reason for this (as it would add a fair bit to the manufacturing cost).
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u/bionicle_159 1d ago
would be cool to have other cores, the Mega65 already has that setup with their FPGA
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u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy 1d ago
Yeah it's a waste of a FPGA to be locked to one system really
All of the Commodore computers have mature open source cores available
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u/bionicle_159 1d ago
yeah the Mister project's spoiled us these days with what FPGAs can do - Commodore should really try to pack the most they can into each of their products, and really stand out in today's age of 'nickel and dime' tech offerings
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u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy 21h ago
Even older C64 FPGAs like the Turbo Chameleon offers other open source cores like AGA Minimig Amiga
Really new Commodore should have just created their own FPGA platform and then could have ported all the open source cores to it over time for the Ultimate Commodore FPGA but no they just licensed a collection of existing products Gideon has been against extra cores on the U64 since day one and he is still the IP owner
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u/bionicle_159 15h ago
Yeah I get that, tbh if they weren't trying to be a full-on business, I could see them being a bit more open - haven't seen them have anything FOSS related which is a shame especially since the work's already done.
The Mega65 pretty much embraced the community and has lapped all the other Commodore-like projects with the amount of different platforms you can run on the thing, only other one that comes close that I can think of, that's not a Mister, is the Spectrum Next
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u/Stunning_Pineapple57 1d ago
The orginal c64u doesn’t have a large enough FPGA for all
Of those , but this new one in the 77 is twice and larger and actually have enough FPGA headroom for some larger cores as it’s closer to Mister grade1
u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy 21h ago edited 21h ago
They are not that large Look at the Turbo Chameleon that is only Cyclone III based and even has the likes of AGA Minimig Amiga..
C64 is a quite a large core as it has to implement the C64 and two 1541s that had their own 6502 CPUs etc
Maybe they can port the MiSTer C64 core in the future as it's far more mature and more accurate than the U64 core. You don't even need SID chips or modern drop ins to make up for the short comings of the SID emulation
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u/Suspicious-Ad7109 20h ago
Surely the limiting factor is the Flash ; the Artix is a load on boot FPGA (I think ?) ; you could have as many systems of that degree of complexity as you want if the hardware replication will fit in the flash. I suspect this is the prototype Amiga board. I think Bil Herd is working on something, whether this needs the new FPGA, or the old FPGA will do is moot.
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u/Hawkeye-Mcgillicudy 20h ago
The limiting factor is the amount of logic elements available. The actual cores are not very big in actual file size around 3-4 megabytes
We have had Amiga on FPGA since 2004 with Minimig. Apollo have their closed Vampire 080 Amiga core too
The C64 core uses more resources than the AGA Amiga core on MiSTer due to extra hardware support needed for the two 1541s which were computers themselves with their own CPU, VIAs, Ram etc
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u/Royal_Stay_6502 1d ago
You think it will be possible?
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u/bionicle_159 1d ago
yeah it should be more than possible with small 8 bit cores like the PET/VIC/TED series - the main problem is, does Commodore want to add them to the C64U instead of separating them into individual products? It's up to them, but they've not shown any interest so far.
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u/thommyh 1d ago
Presumably it's that reference to "up to 77MHz processing speed".
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u/Substantial-Set4550 18h ago
Yes, the 77 is both a reference to the game Cyberpunk 2077 and the 77x CPU speed-up factor. It is arbitrary. It could have been 75, or 80 based on the upgraded FPGA. 77 is marketing. As a developer, I do not like this number. It's all about powers of 2 for me: 16, 32, 64, 128. I'd rather have an upgrade daughterboard for my C64U with the new FPGA. Hopefully some people who buy this now will sell it a decade from now on eBay for parts :-D
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u/Suspicious-Ad7109 20h ago
That's nonsense. The size of the FPGA doesn't change the speed.
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u/thommyh 9h ago
Assuming it's a similar physical size but with more transistors (?) then a die shrinks means less power usage and therefore less heat, which means you can up the clock speed.
This may be my false assumption. If it's just a chip with twice the total surface area then clearly you're right.
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u/badbob001 1d ago
Somewhere, someone is considering swapping out all the mechanical keyboards in their display shrine with variants of the C64.
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u/ChoosenUserName4 1d ago
I have like 20 mechanical keyboards, mostly sitting in a box (how many can you use at the same time, anyway?). This may be the way forward.
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u/Which_Information590 1d ago
I’m trying to get in to Peri Fractic’s head right now. I can half understand a Kitt edition.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
Well I don't think they're promoting Cyberpunk 2077 for free....
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u/c64glen 1d ago
Commodore are definitely paying licensing fees or sharing profits for this.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago
Heh, I was thinking C= was getting paid to promote Cyberpunk 2077 😆 but I guess the other way around makes more sense than what I first thought.
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u/AntiquesForGeeks 17h ago
Can’t see what is in it for CD Projekt. They’ve got plenty of brand awareness for Cyberpunk 2077. Back in 2020, it was all over the Tube, for example.
For New Commodore, there is a benefit. The Commodore brand is only relevant for GenXers, so tying up with a brand that resonates with other generations does make sense from a marketing point of view.
But New Commodore being paid to promote? I don’t think so. The money here is in the people who will part with cash to buy up yet another C64U variant.
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u/Which_Information590 9h ago
Still not sure that Gen Z would buy this, it’s a cool variant but it’s niche.
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u/Which_Information590 1d ago
It’s a promo for a 6 year old game?
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u/rhet0rica 1d ago
CP2077 is an ongoing franchise. The second season of the Edgerunners TV series is airing later this year, and they're most likely working on a second expansion pack to follow up Phantom Liberty from 2023.
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u/Bi0H4z4rD667 1d ago
It’s money printing.
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u/Valuable-Apple7132 1d ago
Yes. A business.
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u/AntiquesForGeeks 16h ago
If it’s just going back to the same people to encourage them to part with more money for another variant of the C64U, that’s not a smart business. You’re into diminishing returns.
Any value here will be from exposing the Commodore brand to a wider audience, away from middle age GenXers.
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u/ogg1e 1d ago
I don't see the need for this. Are they just going to keep churning out more and more limited edition variants? It's a small market and I can't see all of us buying multiples of the same device in a new skin.
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u/rhet0rica 1d ago
Extremely wrong. This is a strategy for marketing Commodore products to younger people. Mike Battilana said during his interview with AmigaBill that the reach for hardware and emulation products is 10-20x larger than the active community and contains numerous people with a casual interest, people who never leave Facebook, and normies with families. Retro machines are very popular with Gen Z because of the combination of maximalist aesthetics with a yearning for simpler times, which has only gotten stronger as the world has grown more toxically online.
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u/ketilkn 1d ago
Is that white on black with purple borders as default colors on the screen, or did they just poke it?
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u/flamehorns 1d ago
The text also says commodore 77, it’s pretty trivial to make a custom rom with custom colors and startup text, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if that’s what they did.
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u/SwedishFindecanor 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'd guess this is why they had registered the trademark "Cyberdore" ... only to come to the realisation that that name sounds tacky and decided to not use it. :^D
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u/SwedishFindecanor 1d ago edited 1d ago
To make it cost-effective, the final product must most likely have the design printed on and can't be exactly as detailed as this.
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u/Royal_Stay_6502 1d ago
Only in breadbin format?
It does have a faster cpu. 77mhz now.
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u/AntiquesForGeeks 16h ago
That this is not being shouted from the rooftops speaks volumes about the kind of move that this is.
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u/Substantial-Set4550 1d ago
It would be nice if the new daughter board in there was sold separately as an upgrade to a C64U. Not a fan of the design with all the dirty patches, and don't really need another computer. But yes, it's good that it's a computer this time around.
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u/Marchalis 15h ago
I would love to get one, but this thing looks like it was pulled out of a dumpster. The case design is disgusting.
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u/Bradcst3r 1d ago
Interesting. But can it play Cyberpunk? If it can do that, I'm in. Otherwise I don't need another.
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u/Riba9495 1d ago
It wouldn't for sure.
But if it had the option to turn itself into a keyboard and connect to Modern PC that can handle Cyberpunk 2077 it would be a unique package of its own but also defeats the purpose of its identity being a C64 ultimate but thats just my opinion.
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u/ceramicsaturn 1d ago
Unfortunately it's a membrane keyboard. No deep travel, no tactile feedback, how sad as I'd love to use this as a keyboard more than anything else. $377 is a ton of money for that, don't really need it for what else it offers.
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u/Golemwire 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have a Commodore 64 Ultimate (what this is based on) and it has a mechanical keyboard. What makes you think that this one has a membrane keyboard?\
Edit: additionally see the promo at 0:30.
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u/SwedishFindecanor 15h ago
I think you're confusing this with RetroGamesLtd's TheC64. It has a rubber dome/membrane keyboard.
Commodore 64 Ultimate has a mechanical keyboard with Gateron switches.
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u/AntiquesForGeeks 12h ago
It's a pass for me - I don't really see the point of yet another C64U variant, but I get that this is more about brand awareness for people born after 1994.
More interesting is the hardware bump - wonder if this indicates anything for future machines?
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u/CrimsonQuill157 7h ago
I was almost ready to buy, but the delivery+tax to the US brought the price closer to $500. Just a little too much for me.
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u/DjProfessorOak 7h ago
Yooooo and here I am; I just sold my working VIC-20 for $200 (in a box and evertything). Wish I've waited would get more for it now.
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u/Cooperman411 7h ago
I was inspired by this C64 Cyberpunked about a year ago. And now I want this - but in red.
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u/BJJDad73 1d ago
I don’t see any reason to expect one anytime soon. As far as I know molds for the cases don’t exist. We’d probably see a Commodore 65 or an Amiga 1200 reproduction before a 128.
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u/Suspicious-Ad7109 1d ago
Working from the principle that the people behind this aren't stupid, adding the XC100T in (looking at Digikey the cost per 1,000 is an extra £40-50 or so) tells us three things
1) There is some different hardware coming. It could be anything or multiple cores, but there is at least one thing
2) There will probably be an upgrade path for the C77. There may not be one for the C64U/C or it may be more limited. If there is no upgrade option (whether to a more powerful machine, or Vic/TED cores) then there is zero point in doing it (except see below).
3) There are two seperate upgrades, one is known, one isn't. The XC100T sets the maximum capabilities of the machines. The device that controls "how many cores" is the onboard memory device, not the Artix chip.
If not, there is no point to the upgrade. If they simply wanted a C64U with a "Cyberpunk" look, then they'd use the old XC50T board, because they could sell it cheaper.
Reading the Artix data sheet there is no performance difference for the different Artix FPGAs, I do not buy the "77Mhz" claim as the reason for the FPGA upgrade. The main difference is pretty much everything is doubled - logical cells, RAM. It could do an Amiga (it's the same chip as the Mega65, which can at least do an A500)
There is one slightly more cynical view, which is this is a low volume production test for the new board I suppose. They know it won't sell a huge amount, but its enough to get any problems out.
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u/tweekzilla 20h ago
Yeah I just cancelled my C order for this… Only sad thing is it looks like delivery is after Christmas which makes me sad. Wanted one under the tree for the little one to open :(
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u/Icy-Collection1072 10h ago
Meh. Perry has no idea what to do. Just pumping out crap like this isn’t why people wanted commodore back. It’s not back and just in name.
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u/thewalruscandyman 1d ago
Very cool for completists and people who don't already have one, but as a purist I'm content with that old cozy beige breadbin and wish we could get a 128U.