THEC64 is back on Amazon UK

After the announcement of TheSpectrum by Retro Games Ltd (RGL) et al, Amazon UK has THEC64 Classic edition back in stock.

THEC64, an excellent recreation of the famous and well loved Commodore C64 home computer, is back on Amazon.co.uk again, proving my earlier conjecture as just that. What do I know anyway? It is currently retailing at £119.99p, and according to some reports on some social media sites, this can be shipped to North America, where there seems to be some interest in procuring these systems.

Whilst this recreation of the C64 has a slightly imperfect keyboard according to some purists, that is from a purely aesthetic point of view of course (it's actually pretty good to type on), it is packed with 64 pretty well recieved games (of course, those might not be your favourites). If you update to the latest firmware, you will get a more complete experience. The latest version of THEC64 [firmware] includes support for the powerful Commodore RAM Expansion Unit, can use any USB mouse as a 1351 mouse, and will support many Four Player adapted and modified games. One favourite of mine is IK+ Gold, which allows three humans to compete in this Karate chopping classic. IK+ was developed by the late, great Archer MacLean, who sadly passed on 17th December 2022 (RIP).

Initially, my conjecture was that RGL's THE400 Mini was competing in a similar consumer space to THEC64 as they are fairly similar machines from the same era or generation (roughly) of the home computing revolution.

THEC64, with it's working keyboard and 64 included games already has many of the best Atari XE/XL games available for it, and many more titles too. This made THEC64 look much better value than THE400 Mini, especially when you add in that THEC64 can also play nearly all (if not all) VIC-20 games as well. So, more games, emulating a comparable computer from the same era of home computing, and two systems in one for not much more money. Bargain! But it seemed like it was slowly being discontinued to make some space for THE400 Mini.

What I think has now got THEC64 back into production is the announcement and pre-orders for TheSpeccy. Although many may not know it in North America, the C64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum platforms were [some may say] fierce competitors in the UK in the 1980s. Clearly, a lot of people have already added TheSpectrum to their Christmas lists for 2024, but this isn't a mini console with a cosmetic, non-working keyboard. It is complete with a fully working keyboard including the rather curious one touch BASIC keyword entry system. Seeing the orders stack up for one system from RGL has very likely reignited interest in the other. Of course, THEC64 Mini has always been available, as far as I can tell, but that doesn't have a working keyboard out of the box. All I want now is for a flamewar to start with endless arguments over which is better... THEC64 or TheSpectrum. Of course, we all know the answer to that one, don't we?

THEC64 is currently unavailable in the UK

The popular THEC64 Classic edition, with its working keyboard, is reported as unavailable in the UK and North America

I have pondered the future of THEC64 platform, especially with Retro Games Ltd (RGL) being behind this modern days Commodore C64 clone, along with THEA500 Mini (Amiga-based) and THE400 Mini (Atari 400/800/XE/XL based) consoles. The latter is competing in what I see as the same space as THEC64. Thankfully, THEC64 Mini is still readily available, and you may find new units in the UK for under £40.00p. So, what is going on?

My conjecture on this is that THEC64 classic is no longer economically viable to produce. Inflation has devalued the British Pound Sterling and US Dollar, with THEC64 typically retailing at around £119.99p - £129.99p, whereas THEA500 Mini's initial retail price point was £119.99p, and THE400 Mini is a penny shy of £100. We know that the world is fraught with dangers now, and some would argue on the verge of another World War, and that has increased shipping costs. All models of THEC64 (along with all of RGL's products) are manufactured in China, and for us in what is called "the West", our Governments have been somewhat hostile, or let's say unfriendly to the one place that we've exported nearly all of our manufacturing to. Not a great plan, one might say.

In my view, THEC64, or more specifically, THEC64 with the latest firmware, is very good value at its typical price point when compared to the other machines from RGL; for about the same price as THEA500 Mini (at least when THEA500 Mini is not discounted), you get essentially a fully working computer that mimics and emulates not just the famous C64, but also the VIC-20, and one that may boot straight to classic mode just like a real C64 or VIC-20. It has 64 built in games, which were nearly all pretty well recieved from the computer press of the 1980s and early 1990s, and more free games when upgraded, and it includes a much improved microswitched joystick that to me feels authentic.

But if you can put up with a non-working keyboard, or providing your own keyboard, and you have a better solution to THEJoystick included with THEC64 Mini, then THEC64 Mini is a steal at the moment. I regularly see it online and in Game stores retailing at under £40.00p. So what you have a keyboard that isn't correctly mapped? And who cares about playing VIC-20 games anyway? We all know that the C64 is where it's at, right? So, for the time being, and I would say the foreseeable future, if you want THEC64 then it's a Mini you'll have to purchase. I don't know the availability of the Mini in North America, but it's certainly available in Europe.

THE400 Mini - The Atari 400 platform recreated. My initial thoughts.

Retro Games Ltd (RGL) have partnered with PLAION to bring the wonderful world of the Atari 400, 800, 5200 and XE/XL range to life in a now famous mini form factor. THE400 Mini using modern days connections like HDMI and USB, will soon be available (and may be pre-ordered now) in "console" form.

The famous Atari 400, along with its "more serious" and compatible 800 model, were initially announced in December 1978 by Atari to follow up on its successful 2600 Video Computer System. It offered many advanced features for a personal computer of that era, and eventually launched to retail in October 1979. Until then, Commodore, Apple and Radio Shack had been slogging it out for dominance in this fast growing personal computer market. Atari entering this fight was significant, and the 400 model was pretty formidable, especially when it came to computer graphics.

Offering high resolution graphics of up to 320 x 192 pixels, utilising hardware sprites, and having a palette of 128 colours, all through a standard television set, meant that this computer was going to be good for playing video games. And its 40 x 24 character display made it equally good for the applications of the day. Being powered by the popular 6502 Central Processing Unit (CPU) at 1.8Mhz, which [in raw Mhz] was faster than both Commodore's and Apple's offerings (I won't compare this to the Radio Shack's TRS-80 as comparing a 6502-based processor to a Z80-based processor is folly). From 1980 through to around 1986, the Atari 8-bit computer range had some seriously good entertainment software produced for it, by then upcoming and staple video game developers like Activision, Epyx, Datasoft, and Atari itself.

From around 1986, the Atari 8-bit personal computer platform began to fade, even with improvements made to the compatible XE and XL range, which could display 256 colours and had a few more graphics modes. Commodore, with its C64, largely won the home computer war, and this model wouldn't die until around 1992. Remember that the C64 competed against (in many ways) more technically capable machines like the Commodore Amiga or Atari ST for over half of its commercial life. To still be a relevant in 1990 was quite a feat.

What I find most interesting about the announcement of THE400 Mini is its price point. And I'm taking nothing away from its perfect replica form factor.

THE400 Mini will be pre-loaded with 25 licensed games, and will provide a way to load your own legally purchased or public domain software by "side-loading" tape, disk or cartridge images. Knowing RGL as I do, I'm certain that it will support THE400 through firmware updates based on user feedback, so you will be able to buy with some confidence. I note that other "Mini" console producers do not offer this. Releasing a new firmware update is timely and costly, and provides RGL with no additional revenue.

I think the promised feature to "rewind" your gameplay by up to 40 seconds is interesting, and I guess this may be more convenient than the "saved game states" on THEC64 or THEA500 Mini. It is the price point of £99.99 that I think makes THEC64 Mini and even THEC64 Classic, or THEVIC20 (if you can find one) look very good value indeed.

THEC64 Mini launched at £69.99, and included 64 licensed games. It has since had several firmware updates, adding more games of varying quality to the carousel. Like THE400, THEC64 allows you to side-load any tape, disk, or cartridge images of software that you own. It includes one joystick and all the necessary cables to get you started. Although some will say that the joystick included with THEC64 Mini wasn't good quality, the joystick included with THE400 won't be worth £30 more. So, THE400 has more USB ports, but THEC64 Mini can use a cheap USB extender. One thing I don't know is if THE400 will include a decent USB power adapter, but looking at both THEC64 Mini and THEA500 Mini, it is likely that it will not, though it may require lower power consumption and/or not run so hot as some versions of THEC64 Mini.

THEC64 Classic and THEVIC20 launched at £119.99 (some sources say £109.99), which included an improved joystick (especially on THEVIC20), with a fully working and correctly mapped keyboard, more USB ports and a USB power adapter, and all of the necessary cables to get you started. All firmware updates to THEC64 Mini also work on THEC64 Classic, and THEVIC20. So, you legally have over 64 games if you have the latest firmware version, and many good features that some C64 fans will love, like being able to emulate the Commodore Ram Expansion Unit (REU), or the ability to play four-player adapter games, like Bomb Mania, from Protovision.

Aside from entertainment software, you have much more choice of other types of software too. I could write many pages just about the GEOS operating system, which by itself had all kinds of productivity, utilities and so on. The Commodore C64's library of games alone certainly exceeds the cumulative totals of all models of the Atari 8-bit personal computer range. And THEC64 Classic can also play VIC-20 games too. A lazy estimate is that owners or THEC64 Classic and THEVIC20 will have at least 10,000 software titles to pick from. As you might have guessed, these are not that difficult to find these days, and even after the commercial demise of the C64, there has still been lots of software released for it considering that it was a commercially dead platform for at least 15 years after 1992.

Could this therefore be a sign that THEC64 platform is about to be discontinued? Or will hard-nosed consumers simply make a cold decision that, because many games on the Atari 400/800/XE/XL had comparable versions on either the C64 or the VIC-20, or both, that THEC64 Classic or Mini is simply better value? If the latter is the case, this may mean that THEC64 has, at least, another year at retail in it.

All of this means, at least to me, that THE400's success is in the balance, although I'm sure that many people will be pre-ordering this right now. RGL already have a product that will fit many gamers who were around from ~1981 through to the early 1990s - or those people who don't want to mess around with a Raspberry Pi and spend time configuring it with this or that emulator. The Atari 400/800/XE/XL was only a significant player for about half the 1980s, with the 5200 model only really a footnote in all of this. The VIC-20 was significant from 1980-1984, and the C64 from 1982 through to the end of that decade. But is the Atari name enough to carry this new product? And will it at least sell as well as THEC64 Mini when you are paying more to get less? Time will tell.

A side note to this is that it kind of reminds me of when Commodore launched its Plus/4 model in 1984: the Plus/4 was too similar to the C64 in many ways but without a better sound chip, and although it could display more colours, it could not do hardware sprites like the C64, and did not use the most common joystick type. Okay, so the Plus/4 was meant for a different market, to compete at the low end with the Sinclair/Timex machines, but somehow it ended up launching at $299USD. By the time of its launch, the C64 was certainly no more expensive than this, and had already started to have a second user market, and had a vaster software library. It all sounds too familar.

But all of this said, I'll probably be purchasing THE400 Mini myself because it looks like a lovingly created Mini console with a beautiful aesthetic. Because I guess a fool and his money really is easily parted.

Edited by Mike Mee. Many thanks for your help Mike.

BMC64 is free, so how much does it cost?

This sounds like a bit of a stupid question. How can something free cost any money? The reason that I ask this is because I was speaking on a Discord chat group recently and a common statement that people make is that the Bare Metal Commodore 64 (BMC64) emulator is a better thing than THEC64 and THEC64 Mini. Of course, such a solution that one could build oneself would be better in many ways. One could presumably customise all of the settings to enhance the user experience, including I assume choosing which SID chip to emulate, or even have two SID chips emulated, and so on. On THEC64 platform, one doesn't have nearly as much control, not without hacking anyway.

Another reason for BMC64 being better [than THEC64 platform] is that it is free. I was specifically thinking of BMC64 kits that one may purchase when I made the point that THEC64 has likely sold a lot more units than these kits. The counter argument was that BMC64 is just software that one could install on a Raspberry Pi, so it's free like a Linux operating system is free. But how much would one need to spend to use BMC64?

If you're reading this and you've already made an investment in a Raspberry Pi then you may stop reading here; BMC64 isn't going to cost you any more money than you've already spent. But what if you don't already own a Raspberry Pi, and want a dedicated piece of kit just for Commodore C64 software? Is THEC64 or Mini a good solution compared to something for free?

Well let's look at costings for a BMC64 solution first. Assuming that BMC64 will run on any Raspberry Pi currently available, you're probably looking at spending around £30 - £40 GBP for the cheapest Pi, which I assume has the lowest specification. So we'll say £30 with postage. And then of course you'll want a keyboard, so there's another £10 - £15. And if you don't mind playing games with a keyboard rather than a controller or joystick, that's it. It's then just the time it takes to set up. So, you're looking at spending between £40 and £55 for this option, and that's if you don't already have a spare USB keyboard lying around. That's good value, but it's certainly not costing £0.

Like for like, THEC64 Mini is currently for sale here in the UK via Game outlets for around £40, at least in my local store in the West Midlands. Okay, so you don't have a keyboard included with the Mini, but do have a controller. I know THEC64 Mini joystick isn't the best version, but it's still a fair comparison for the cheapest BMC64 option. Set up time for THEC64 Mini is usually no more than a few minutes, whereas BMC64 may vary depending on how much one wants to configure. THEC64 Mini does include 64 games to get started with, and all of these are licensed games. THEC64 Mini has a custom housing, fewer USB ports and no included PSU. It requires a 5V 1amp USB charger, which will be another £5 - £10. Both solutions allow you to add your own software, but THEC64 platform is limited to USB 2 flash drives formatted to FAT32, though this is more than adequate for C64 games.

THEC64 Mini is nicely packaged. I genuinely had a warm fuzzy feeling when I initially opened my first THEC64 Mini. The guys at Retro Games Ltd did a really good job with the industrial design and packaging. I won't have that same feeling opening the packaging for a Raspberry Pi, but this may be different for you.

The suggestion in the chat wasn't for this cheap option, but to consider a Raspberry Pi 4000, as that includes a keyboard and a mouse. This is currently around £100 in the UK. How does that compare to THEC64 Classic?

THEC64 is currently retailing in the UK for around £120, it is housed in a stylist casing which matches the size of the most common C64 casing in the UK, and includes a fully functioning and properly mapped keyboard with a joystick controller. Again, everything on THEC64 is fully licensed, and the bundled joystick is much better than the THEC64 Mini joystick. At £120, this isn't costing significantly more than a Pi 4000 solution.

So whilst one may save some money with a Raspberry Pi, is BMC64 a better solution? Well that depends on what you mean by better. THEC64 and Mini work out of the box, and THEC64 has a fully mapped keyboard with a pretty accurate casing, and both run at 50 or 60FPS like the original hardware (depending on your region or what you're used to), and with no sound drift nor frame skipping like on some emulators especially running on lower specification hardware. There is an issue on some modern displays if you specifically want a 50Hz refresh rate, but I assume that this will be the case for a Pi anyway.

Whilst THEC64 emulation is more limited than with a BMC64, those things that are missing [from THEC64] are very marginal use cases. For most people who just want to play games, THEC64 is pretty good. If you are a more serious user and more invested in the C64 platform then BMC64 is very likely a more suitable option. It isn't for everyone though, like Linux isn't for everyone either.

This reminds me of the arguments that people used to have (maybe still do) between Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Linux is free, and yet you still need to spend about the same money as a Windows-installed PC to run it. Also, I've never known anyone to actually pay for a copy of Windows by itself as this cost is usually included with the computer, and that cost isn't necessarily significantly cheaper without a Windows installation. And more serious computer users probably want to build their own system anyway, and make their own choices of operating systems and other software installations.

So I don't own a BMC64 (or any bare metal emulator) solution, and at this point spending some money to get one isn't for me. I have got to an age now were I want things to work out of the box, rather than using my time with various customisations and setting, and wasting my time with any trouble shooting for when things go wrong. I already did that in the 1990s and early to mid 2000s with my Commodore C64 and C128 and all of the Creative Micro Designs hardware that I was using.

THEC64, regardless of what faults that it may or may not have, works. It's actually well supported and has seen regular updates for it, though I suspect that v1.6.1 will be the last firmware update for THEC64 as the remaining missing features, such as using a custom Kernal or emulating more than one drive, are very marginal use cases that most people who want to play classic games won't care that much about. Again, your experiences may differ here. Maybe it's essential that you have a custom Kernal installed, or have two SID chips emulated, for instance.

On that note, I'm off to play a few games of the absolute classic Wizball, and ponder the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

THEC64 and SuperCPU emulation

This is a question that I see in various places: "can the SuperCPU be emulated on THEC64/THEC64 Mini?", and I usually respond even though some people insist that I don't know what I'm talking about. I mean, how could I know more than they do anyway? The Raspberry Pi is likely able to emulate a system more powerful than a C64 with a SuperCPU, so THEC64 Classic and Mini (which many people wrongly assume is just a Raspberry Pi) must be able to do it. Right?

To establish the long answer, the short answer to which is "no", I'll firstly adumbrate my credentials so you, dear reader, will have some confidence that I do know - in a small way at least - what I'm talking about. Let's start at the beginning for me, my rekindling of my Commodore C64 hobby (some may say obsession).

I left School in 1993, and was working at the local Bacon Factory in the freezers before I'd officially left. It was around this time that I saw a magazine on the shelves called Commodore Force (CF), and shortly afterwards, I noticed that Your Sinclair (YS) was still just about going. I started buying CF and managed to get the last two issues of YS along the way. The first issue of CF that I picked up was no. 8, and was an avid reader until the end. I then had to switch to the other CF (Commodore Format). This was the year that I got back into the C64 platform, and not too long after this, I learnt about GEOS and the excellent hardware from Creative Micro Designs, Inc.

Despite my love of computing, I studied Health and Social Care, and around 1996 or so, I started working for Social Services. It wasn't until 2002 until I got my first computering job, that being the weekly Retro Computer Mart column for Micro Mart (MM) magazine.

On 4th May 2004, I started as a staff writer for Retro Gamer (RG) magazine, then published by Live Publishing on a business park just outside of Macclesfield, in Cheshire (UK). This wasn't "real" computering. I wasn't then a Computer Scientist. But I did know enough about the Commodore C64 platform specifically, and Commodore's 8-bits more generally, as well as some Sinclair machines, to pass myself off as a sometimes good enough writer for printed matter magazines, back when printed mattered.

The gig at RG didn't last too long (I wasn't then much of a writer, and still now am not significantly better). Anyway, around mid-2005 I started working with a guy called Paul Andrews, and shortly after that I was interviewed for an open freelance job by Darren Melbourne. The interview was somewhere in Manchester City Centre. His company was Ironstone Partners, and he spoke to me about an agreement whereby I'd work to track down any holders of intellectual properties, copyrights and trademarks to mainly Commodore but also other 8-bit software. I knew that this was something that Paul was doing, so I declined, but pointed Darren in Paul's direction. Eventually, they both worked together to bring THEC64 Mini, THEC64 Classic, THEVIC20 and now THEA500 Mini to the world. These machines probably wouldn't have happened had I took on Darren's offer in the first instance. So, you're welcome.

Between 2005 and around 2007, I did some other freelance writing for gamesTM (gTM) magazine and a few articles for RG. Returning to RG was quite stifling. Whereas I had a pretty free hand under Martyn Carroll's editorship (too free, in fact), it was quite the opposite with Darran Jones at the helm. I'd worked with Darran briefly for gTM, and I don't dislike him personally. But what he wanted from me wasn't what I wanted to do, so my second time at RG ended pretty quickly and there's no reason for me to write for this magazine again. Just a brief example here, for one of the issues I had to write one page guide (~600 words) about an Atari VCS-2600 PC emulator. I think it was called Stellar. I could have written it in about 60, and I think I managed to write six or eight steps for this guide. It was nearly all a work of fiction. None of the steps I described worked - at least not on my PC, although were mentioned briefly in the documentation. I'm guessing that Darran didn't check my guide step-by-step to ensure that it was factually correct, or didn't care. Either way, there was no point continuing, and that's before I tell you about the remakes that I "reviewed".

It was 2009 when I finally started my journey through the realm of Computer Science, thanks largely to Manchester Metropolitan University, but also briefly the University of Derby and Birmingham City University. All through this time, and up until I think 2014, I continued my freelance work for MM. But in 2012, I started as a PHP developer, and along the way I've done some C, ObjectiveC, C#, and of course JavaScript.

After 2014, there wasn't much for me in "retro" computers. I was no longer writing for MM (way too busy with developing web applications and websites), and had (and have) no reason to write for gTM (now defunct anyway) or RG. I did make some enquiries to try and rekindle my writing, but nothing happened, and some of the newer publications that had appeared between 2005 and 2014 were run by, edited by, or owned by people who I knew that I couldn't trust. The one thing I wanted to do, and still want to do, is to make some software for the SCPU platform, but am just a novice at 65x based machine language, and there is currently no good C compiler that can build 65816 binaries and executables.

Anyway, around 2016, I first learnt about THE64 Computer, and this project changed course somewhat due to the Kickstarter (or Indigogo) funding goals not being met, but THEC64 Mini did happen. Honestly, I wasn't keen on the original designs of THE64 Computer, so it was for the better in my opinion. I picked a THEC64 Mini up in 2017 I think, and shortly after Paul Andrews was in touch. He wanted me to help with testing of THEC64 Mini US Launch and sent me a test machine that I could test various versions of the firmware developed by Chris Smith. I spent a lot of time testing and noticed some anomalies that had not been discovered. One issue that I found was whilst testing with Turrican. It was a good game to test because it's quite easy to complete, but also technically very good, and enough to show any shortcomings of the emulation. After a certain amount of time into playing Turrican, I noticed sound drift that was quite obvious. Chris could not recreate the bug, so I recorded it for him so that he developed a suitable fix.

When the Covid-19 lockdown hit, I was put on the furlough scheme through my employer at the time. This wasn't great for me. I got very bored, and very quickly. So, around April 2020 I started looking for a new job. I eventually found employment at a company called Low6. I would not ever recommend working for this company as a developer or in any technical role, for reasons that I will not divulge here. It is the only job - not just developer job, but any full-time job - where I've only lasted three months. I think that says enough.

Shortly after leaving Low6, Paul Andrews found out that I was unemployed. I think it was through Facebook. He asked me for my CV and I was soon interviewed by Chris, and although the work was on a rolling monthly basis, I was offered a job at Retro Games Ltd (RGL). Of course, working on THEC64, a recreation of the best personal computer of the 20th century (and perhaps ever), who would turn that down?

I was lead tester and worked to introduce Scrum and Agile methodologies and QA processes. I worked on the firmware upgrades for all models of THEC64 to the January 2021 update, and shortly afterwards there was no more work for me at RGL. My work there was done. I also did some work on THEA500 Mini but found that the hardware was much more difficult for someone who hadn't used an Amiga of any description since the 1990s (remember that I upgraded to a C64 in 1993, leaving the Amiga platform behind).

You could say therefore that I know the Commodore C64 and C128 pretty well, not an expert, but good enough to do real testing and give accurate feedback and advice to help improve the user experience of THEC64 Classic and Mini. And, owning two CMD SCPUs, two RAMLinks, two CMD HDs, and three or four FD drives, I know the SCPU pretty well too. So here's why THEC64 Classic and Mini will not emulate the SCPU.

Firstly, RGL is meticulously in licencing all software (which SCPU emulation would be part of the firmware, so it would require licencing). Now, we know who owns the rights to the SCPU and other CMD hardware, but licencing will either be difficult to obtain, or expensive. So even if this was possible, this won't be in a firmware upgrade for THEC64 as all firmware updates have been released at no cost to the user, so far at least.

And secondly, THEC64 isn't just running an off-the-shelf version of VICE. It is a proprietary version of it. Some of it is of course open source. But not all. It has to be this way so that the user experience is good on the host hardware (which again isn't just a Raspberry Pi).

Sure, you may be able to hack a unit to run the XSCPU64 emulator. This may work well on THEC64 Classic. But on the Mini, I think you'll have at least sound drift issues that I experienced with Turrican on the bundled 'stock C64' emulator, or have to run the SCPU emulation at 25 or 30 frames per second (rather than 50 or 60). I suspect both compromises will have to be made. RGL won't add features that don't work well on all models of THEC64 for the obvious reason that the Mini is by far the best selling model. I suggest using VICE on an old PC rather than getting an inferior experience from hacking THEC64 Mini to emulate some of the SCPU 64 v2. You may use the joystick from THEC64 with VICE these days on your PC, so you can just pretend it's THEC64. Some people assume that there's no practical difference between VICE on a PC (say WinVICE) and THEC64 anyway.

On a personal note, it's great that this question keeps popping up. It shows that, regardless of what the C64 scene thinks about the SCPU, general users are curious about it. Even if it is only to play Metal Dust, which as you will know from my other blog posts, isn't the only game to play on this nifty C64 upgrade.