The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like • Hacker News Board

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#21

Post by spc476 » Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 10:49 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #8

Yuioup wrote: post #2

Page is unreadable on a tablet.

Getting quite tired of comments like these. The web was made for computers, not for tablets. If tablets are dumbed down and handicapped to the point that they can no longer partake in the web your beef is with the tablet manufacturer or the browser vendor. Either one or both has all the tools at their disposal to fix these issues. All the webserver does is serve up a bunch of data, the interpretation of that data is…

Page was unreadable on a desktop computer. To read the actual content, I had to disable Javascript, and disable CSS rendering (Firefox: View->Page Style->No Style). Otherwise, any interaction with that page resulted in the Beach Ball Of Death, as my computer struggled to keep up.

Perhaps it's my own fault though, for not using an 8-way 64-bit core machine with 64G RAM to view a site for a hypothetical machine from the late 80s.

EDIT: It also looks like the main home page is attempting to load every font from webfonts.fonts.com. At the very least, it references 271 external fonts. It also takes 1.8M of HTML to render some 4K of text.

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#22

Post by f_allwein » Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 10:49 PM UTC

_pRwn_ wrote: post #12

is this guy aware of the Mega65 Project ( http://mega65.org/ ) which actually already has working machines, a case and is on the brink to begin mass production?

> this guy

girl, actually.

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#23

Post by ageofwant » Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 11:32 PM UTC

I appreciate the 80's hardware ethic, as well as the 'art by constraint' philosophy. But I do see a place for devices where those constraints are just programmed into into a modernish FPGA - no silly scouring old warehouses for obsolete parts - way less routing, fraction of the size pcb etc, all the 80's angst. The words of a Philistine perhaps, but I do think we can get the constraint and creativity benefits without the hardware headache, and I'm saying this a EE.

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#24

Post by hotsunnyvale » Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 11:34 PM UTC

These are very exiting times! Old machines and old custom chips can be re-imagined on FPGA (and then custom ASIC given enough demand) if NOS isn't available. Seeing artists work within the constraints of these 8-bit games to make new games that push the limits of the technology beyond what anyone thought possible (like moving video).

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#25

Post by sehugg » Sun, Jun 10, 2018, 11:50 PM UTC

An actual Commodore 256 was designed, but never built, thank goodness: https://dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-256-the-8-bit-that-never-...

But they did release the CBM 256, with an optional 8088 or Z80 daughterboard: http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/cb3s.html

Oh, to be a fly on the wall at all of those meetings of computer manufacturers where they asked the engineers "why can't we run PC software too?"

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#26

Post by TaylorAlexander » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 12:01 AM UTC

f_allwein wrote: post #22

_pRwn_ wrote: post #12

is this guy aware of the Mega65 Project ( http://mega65.org/ ) which actually already has working machines, a case and is on the brink to begin mass production?

> this guy girl, actually.

Always bothers me how common it is for people to gender everything male.

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#27

Post by gbraad » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 12:11 AM UTC

After reading http://blog.snapeda.com/2018/06/06/building-the-commodore-co... I doubt pretty much about this. Besides, we had the C-one which IS a successor and more...

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#28

Post by Aardwolf » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 12:34 AM UTC

Is making a good sid chip clone something within reach of hobbyists today?

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#29

Post by narrator » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 12:43 AM UTC

How about building a machine to run TempleOS natively? The crazy guy who wrote it says explicitly that the OS was meant to implement the commodore 64 ideal of one big flat address space and no memory protection, everything is rung 0, no protected io, etc.

Re: The C256 Phoenix Project aka What Commodore 256 could have been like

#30

Post by ashleyn » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 12:51 AM UTC

narrator wrote: post #29

How about building a machine to run TempleOS natively? The crazy guy who wrote it says explicitly that the OS was meant to implement the commodore 64 ideal of one big flat address space and no memory protection, everything is rung 0, no protected io, etc.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with this engineer's nostalgia for the kind of systems I first learned everything on. When Terry compares TempleOS's design inspirations to the C64, I know exactly where he's coming from. I've thought once or twice about writing a 64-bit DOS in Rust but just couldn't justify the time and trouble.