Commodore PET Smartphone Comes Loaded With C64 and Amiga Emulators 62
Mickeycaskill writes: Commodore is launching an Android-powered smartphone that lets 1980s gaming fans play their favourite retro titles. It runs a custom version of Android 5.0 Lollipop and lets you play both old Commodore 64 and Amiga games with its preinstalled VICE C64 and Uae4All2-SDL Amiga emulators. Configurations vary between 2GB and 3GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB of storage, with a 5.5 inch display and 1.7GHz processor included in all versions. The Catch? It's only available in France, Germany, Italy and Poland to begin with, but other markets are set to follow.
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Re:woo (Score:5, Informative)
Commodore, as a company, has not existed for a very, very long time. This is simply the product of companies buying or licensing the trademarks. And no, it isn't meant as a business for the long term. It's simply cashing in on the trademark's nostalgic value while it still has some value.
As an aside, this isn't the first Commodore phone. If I recall correctly, they were selling office equipment before they were a computer manufacturer. One of their products was a rotary phone.
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I used to have a Commodore Vic-Modem (300bps) that came with a rotary-dial phone that had the Commodore name printed on the front of it. The phone was actually made by Norhern Telecom, so it wasn't an actual Commodore-manufactured phone.
To use that modem you dialed the number on the telephone and then flipped a switch to engage the modem.
I just now found a picture of that setup here: http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics... [zimmers.net]
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i'm not a fan of this particular endeavour. the brand is going to suffer as a result. ANYTHING with mediatek inside will not get its OS upgraded to another major version of android. mediatek is fickle like my wife during her period. one month they behave like a completely closed source company, only releasing binary version of android for manufacturers, the next month they sponsor XDA Devcon 14 and release source code for Android One devices, a month after that they once again completely ignore GPL.
in my ex
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Oh, hell no! (Score:3)
Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there still a company called Commodore which owns this stuff? I assumed it was long since dead and gone.
Honestly, sell it as an app .. I'm sure you don't need a custom Android to emulate a frigging C64 on a modern smart phone.
At least, I sure as hell hope a 1.7 GHz "octa-core" processor is up to that task. I mean, we're talking 35+ year old technology for crying out loud.
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Yes. Be afraid, very afraid.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/03/commodore-usa-goes-extreme-stuffs-a-2-2ghz-quad-core-i7-into-it/ [engadget.com]
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Yet another smartphone?
If Commodore wanted to make a smartphone that ran Android, they should have gotten a decent vaping device and added the phone to that. That way, one can have their vape stick and text in one unit (due to the large battery required.)
Nostalgia is nice, but Commodore is 25-30 year old technology. Trying to capitalize on people wanting to rehash C64 and Amiga days is like trying to stoke the demand for Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer albums... a few people might buy it, but definitely not mill
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Yet another smartphone?
And of course "it runs a custom version of Android". Sure make yet another smartphone but do we need another fork of Android for it? Why can't they just preload their emulators onto a stock version of Android?
This "custom version of Android" rubbish is just code for: if it isnt successful it will be abandoned and users wont get updates. Make it a stock version and add your applications and support for specific hardware on top so that users can upgrade to the latest version of Android when Google releases it
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I like the idea of a smartphone maker paying the devs over at CyanogenMod a fee to write a rev tailed for them, and let CM guys do the writing, while the smartphone maker just has to do a "blessing" of a release.
Win for everyone, as once the phone is obsolete, it still gets support and updates.
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And of course "it runs a custom version of Android". Sure make yet another smartphone but do we need another fork of Android for it? Why can't they just preload their emulators onto a stock version of Android?
This "custom version of Android" rubbish is just code for: if it isnt successful it will be abandoned and users wont get updates.
Isn't this where everyone piles on and insists you'd be happy if you bought a Nexus?
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Is there still a company called Commodore which owns this stuff? I assumed it was long since dead and gone.
There is a zombie of a trademark still shuffling along. The original company itself is long dead and has remained buried.
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The Commodore brand is now only a brand.
It's been whored around quite a lot.
Remember that awful MicroATX PC in a C64-shaped box that came out a while back?
Same deal.
When will people stop being surprised about brand whoring...
I mean, look what they did to the Care Bears.
the other catch.... (Score:1)
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WTF are you talking about? A 5.5" screen running at 1920x1080?
That's pretty much standard these days.
Honestly, I see people carrying around giant Samsung 7" phablets all the time.
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It's a good thing there are still people like you out there. If people couldn't keep their phones in their pockets think of all those mall-kiosk workers who repair cracked screens that would be out of a job! They would have nothing to do besides aimlessly wander up and down the isles... it would be Mallrats I tell you, Mallrats!
Seriously, keeping a smartphone in a pocket is stupid.
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In a pouch that clips to my belt. Not very stylish, I know but hey.. I'm already married, not trying to impress the girls. I can wear a shirt that hangs down and covers it 1/2 the year anyway.
My front pockets are for my wallet on one side, keys on the other. Nothing goes in the back ones for me to sit on unless it's thin like a piece of paper! I also keep my leatherman in with the phone giving me two reasons to keep wearing that.
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I've been keeping smartphones in my pocket since there have been smartphones and have never had a problem.
Of course, I also have a phone that's the size of a phone, not some dumbass mini-tablet that was made as thin as can be apparently just to make it more fragile and drive up replacement part sales.
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Re:Where Do I Plug In My Cassette Drive?? (Score:5, Funny)
I remember it as more like "Step 4. Wait 37 minutes for it to fail, Step 5. Try again."
I certainly do NOT miss loading stuff from cassette tape.
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This was a PET, the ,1,1 is irrelevant, relocating LOAD option was introduced in the VIC-20. There is a process to relocate programs from the VIC or 64 to the start of BASIC on the PET:
http://www.portcommodore.com/d... [portcommodore.com]
Glory days (Score:2)
Oh, man. I almost want one of these. I learned to code on a C-64 back in Jr. High and High School.
You kids get off my lawn.
There is only one thing I need to know.... (Score:2)
Not so fast ... (Score:5, Informative)
Android Police did some digging [androidpolice.com] and (ignoring the fact that the Commodore name is currently owned by the creditors of Asiarim Corp - who created a new company called C= and have done nothing more than make a website for it back in 2013) it looks to be a carbon copy of the Orgtec WaPhone.
On the upside, it does have some Amiga emulators loaded onto the phone - but you can easily get them from Google Play yourself.
TL;DR? It's unlikely to be Commodore, its a heavily marked up skinned phone and uses the MediaTek MT6752 chip - so you should probably keep away.
I appreciate the name anyway. (Score:2)
.
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iPhone with Apple II Emulator (Score:3)
Re:iPhone with Apple II Emulator (Score:5, Insightful)
All that great old software is best left in memory. Trying to use them again is like trying to watch your childhood favorite TV show.
I will never again be young enough to appreciate 'Speed Racer' or 'Star Trek'. Same is true for Apple ][ games.
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I will never again be young enough to appreciate 'Speed Racer' or 'Star Trek'. Same is true for Apple ][ games.
I will never be too old to appreciate 'Star Trek' as a valued relic of the era, to appreciate the fact that Spock and Uhura's kiss is not considered risque any more. I will never be too old to appreciate how 'Star Trek' boldly took the racism bull by the horns with the hilarious half-black half-white aliens.
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Can't watch it. Soap opera/court drama with bad special effects, even for the day. There are about 3 good episodes.
Forbidden Planet has aged well. 2001 not too badly. Other than that old 'scifi' mostly sucks.
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Interesting, I find old Star Trek MUCH more compelling than 2001. 2001 is SO PONDEROUS! The 10 minute docking sequences backed by classical music! kill me!
Forbidden Planet is goddamn awesome.
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2001 has it's problems. It was clearly made for people living in 1969.
But ST? Just a terrible bunch of cliches. Might as well watch the second season of Farscape. ST even had a space hippies episode. At least they skipped the space hill-billies. 'Lost in Space' was better, had better special effects and a somewhat coherent back story.
Of course the subsequent ST spin-offs were even worse. Started and ended with a god damn court drama. As you say 'kill me!'
3 gigs of ram? (Score:5, Funny)
3 GB of ram is 2 GB and 1,016 MB more RAM than I need for anything I run on my Amiga. (That's presuming 2 MB of CHIP RAM separate from the Fast RAM.)
Heck, with that much RAM I could multitask every title and application I ever had. *glances over at rack of 3.5" floppies in bookcase
C64 was a computer (Score:1)
From the article, "Commodore, best known for its Commodore 64 games console,..."
WTF.
Re:C64 was a computer (Score:4, Funny)
From the article, "Commodore, best known for its Commodore 64 games console,..."
WTF.
None ever expects the Commodore 64 Games System. It's primary weapon is games, obscurity.. it's two primary weapons are games, obscurity and lack of keyboard... it's three primary weapons are games, obscurity and lack of keyboard.
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Amongst The C64GS's weaponry are, games, obscurity, no-keyboard, a Europe only release and fanatical devotion to Jack Tramiel.
Can't the Commodore name finally die for good? (Score:2)
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The main reason the Intel-based Commodore/Amiga/whatevers never made it to market appears to be that the guy running the company died.
The Commodore name still has a lot of cachet outside the US. It's also not been 'gone' as long overseas; someone licensed the name for a line of TVs and consumer electronics, for instance.
I thought the 'VIC-20' MP3 player was clever, at least; it had 20 gigs of storage.
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Wouldn't be an Amiga emulator without them.
How could a PET phone not include a PET emulator?
Can this be used with HVAC equipment? (Score:1)
I've been contracted to replace an older system. :)
Games console?! (Score:4, Informative)
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Go read up on the C64GS [wikipedia.org] before you make sweeping declarations. :P
Granted, the article is wrong - the GS was damn obscure, and the real C64 was indeed a real computer. But there was a console.
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The article refers to a "Commodore 64 games console." There's no such thing.
Considering the basic hardware design that became the C64 was originally envisioned as a game console, there are TWO game consoles based on C64 technology.
The first being the Commodore Max/Ultimax of 1982 (that's right, it was released BEFORE the C64), basically a C64 with less RAM, no serial or user port, and a membrane keyboard. It was Japan only, but apparently at one time they were planning on releasing the thing more widely. What probably happened is that manufacturing costs of what became the full
Meh (Score:2)
Sorry, but I'm not interested. I'm a huge Commodore fanboy, but the logo isn't even in colour. If you're going to try to cash in on the trademark you bought, at least do it right.
I'll stick with running VICE and UAE on my openpandora, thanks. It has a keyboard, which makes it awesome at emulating computers with keyboards.
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Sorry, but I'm not interested. I'm a huge Commodore fanboy, but the logo isn't even in colour. If you're going to try to cash in on the trademark you bought, at least do it right.
I'll stick with running VICE and UAE on my openpandora, thanks. It has a keyboard, which makes it awesome at emulating computers with keyboards.
The C64 logo might have been in color but the Commodore PET logo was not...
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IIRC the C64 logo wasn't in colour either, I think it was in metal. I can't be bothered checking any of my C64s right now since they're all in boxes (I'm in the process of moving), but I think it was a shiny silver colour.
But, 90%+ of the time I have seen the commodore logo printed (e.g in a manual) or displayed onscreen, it's had the distinctive blue and red colours. Those colours are as much part of the brand identity for me as the C= logo.
But my point is not about making it look like the machine - this p
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Ok, but why ? (Score:2)
Load "Phone",8,1
Loading Phone
Phone Ready
Run