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MEGA65 – highly advanced C64 and C65 compatible 8-bit computer

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Re: MEGA65 – highly advanced C64 and C65 compatible 8-bit computer

#51

Post by rbanffy »

gardners wrote: post #37
rbanffy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because it means no one outside of hardcore enthusiasts will buy one I can imagine a version based on an emulation using a small ARM with the same physical keyboard and box, minus (or maybe not) floppy. The board is costly, and they expect to sell a finite number of units, so they need to recover the cost of the plastic injection tooling within that batch. Having future versions based on emulated hardware would ope…

A small ARM cannot emulate the MEGA65's 40MHz CPU or 81MHz pixel-clock VIC-IV video controller, unfortunately.

I seriously doubt an RPi 4 class multi core device with a GPU can’t do that or, at least, precisely emulate a Commodore 65.

Re: MEGA65 – highly advanced C64 and C65 compatible 8-bit computer

#53

Post by pgeorgi »

TeaDude wrote: post #19

I'm buying one because I have problems but I sincerely think there should be a cut down version. Especially one without a floppy drive (What if you don't actually have any old floppies and just want a cool embedded games platform?) I mean, I'm not seriously expecting this to be the next big computing platform but I do think that a lower barrier to entry would help adoption.

They're already planning a spin on the "C65 Classroom Computer", as seen at https://www.forum64.de/index.php?thread/102560-wo-kann-man-d...

They also have issues sourcing functional refurbished 3.5" drives, apparently the idea is to potentially move away from the built-in drive entirely after those 1400 units they're building right now.

Re: MEGA65 – highly advanced C64 and C65 compatible 8-bit computer

#54

Post by [deleted] »

billyjobob wrote: post #5

My issue with this is the price. Not because it’s not worth it, but because it means no one outside of hardcore enthusiasts will buy one, that means very little software will ever be developed for it. Also I find the presence of the floppy drive in 2021 ridiculous. Yes the C65 had one - but that was a prototype machine from 1990 that was never produced. There’s no c65 software available on floppy disk, so no reason t…

[deleted]

Re: MEGA65 – highly advanced C64 and C65 compatible 8-bit computer

#55

Post by vintermann »

blue1 wrote: post #6

Yikes! I've been waiting for this, but 793€! I understand the reasons. Quality parts, small run, etc. But then I wonder: suppose I am so crazy to buy one. Extremely cool, certainly. But then? I stopped writing C64 software 27 years ago. Fondly remembering POKE 53280 is one thing, but doing that again...?

Demo coding maybe? I always admired the heck out of demo coders, and wanted to be one myself.

But then probably real vintage hardware is more appealing.

Re: MEGA65 – highly advanced C64 and C65 compatible 8-bit computer

#57

Post by 0xmarcin »

I am slowly moving off my retro computing hobby. The last straw was recent chip shortage and crazy prices. I bought myself a copy of "The 8088 Project Book" and I wanted to build the presented 8088 breadboard computer. Guess what? The only factory that was building compatible 8088/8086 chips caught fire (Renesas factory fire). I had to order 20 year old chips for the price x2 of the new chips. But not only that, some chips are either unavailable or crazy expensive due to a lot of recent interests in retro-comp.

In other way, the hobby became unreasonably expensive for me. So I decided to move my interests into FPGA. The fun is almost the same, but the cost is way lower (you only need to buy a good board and a book, and you are set up). I started with this extremely simple IDE: https://github.com/FPGAwars/icestudio

As for this build, I have mixed feelings about using FPGAs to revive old computers. Can't we create something new out of it? It would be fun to have a _modern_ FPGA based SBC with easy to program graphics (memory mapped) and with simple device interface (I think USB is way too complicated for hobbyists). Just something powerful enough to create games, yet simple enough so that teenager can write a simple OS in his spare time.

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