Thoughts on CommodoreUSA

[commodorejohn]

I don't really need to try it to know that it's just another PC running Ubuntu, because that much is confirmed fact. And I'm not giving them any of my money, and I wouldn't pay what they're asking for what they're offering anyway. If I want an Atom D525-based computer with a built-in keyboard, I'll just get one of the new Eees and save myself $250 off CUSA's comparable "Standard" model.

 

[quarkx]

you know, thats so true! if they taught about chuck and all those minds the world would be a better place! I mean, chuck helped a lot of people when he made those early 6502's etc... damnit, without him there'd be no cash points, "intelligent" tills (cash registers), computers, credit card readers, washing machines, microwaves, xbox's, mobile phones, burgalar alarms, tv's, cd/dvd players/recorders etc. Damn them! yes slight change of tune for me... we want OLD c64's not this new ahem, excuse the language! lol

lol i thought u blew computers up and fixed them or erm u did a few months back

OUCH! LOL :wooha::nod: damn you got me there!!!!

actually, i think that (after tons of reflection (and broken mirrors!) i've gone mad and decided to take the p.o.v. that maybe this 64x - actually, this isn't a ref to the old c64, rather a ref to the processor speed as they are 64bit! do its not even a true ref to the old ones! Plus the power light is also the on/off switch!!! SO the way i see this is (as everyone says) this isn't even close to c64ville BUTTTTTT ive decided to get one (hey don't shoot me! it takes no place with my proper real commodores!) im still using the originals!

tell you what folks... I know this will be a bit contrawotsit, but how bout a few of us try em? that way we can DEFINITELY say they are !!! Emulators or not, it may have the same feel! Its like eating stuff that says its meat but its not meat at all (quorn products) you know its not meat but it tastes like it... you don't complain that its not meat even tho it looks like it.. its fake but you eat it without question.

My point is maybe we should bite the bullet and some of us at least try em and perhaps write a review or 3? see the things close up and personal... hate em or not, buisiness con or not, lets at least look? ok, im kinda asking for trouble with this, but have you never looked at something and "poo poo'd" it then later bought it? (say hated the idea of mobile phones and swear by normal landline phones and refused to use mobiles) then two years later you get one!) I think you have... i'd say this is the same!

im not been a turncoat, double agent or a traitor to ye olde commodore, its just after thinking for a loooooong time it seems to be the next step in the c64s evolution.....

Sorry, I don't have a grand to waist "Just to take a look" at something like this. In a year from now (maybe 2 tops) CUSA will just be another fly by night operation that tried to cash in on the C64. Plain and simple, IF they ever ship this things, it will be oddities on E-bay and nothing more.
But, What really is there to actually look at? Its a knock off of a C64 case, and a really under powered computer board inside. The motherboard isn't even a "quality" brand name like ASUS or anything noteworthy.I guess it could be worse and be a "PC Partner or an ECS". The OS? Ubuntu ? That doesn't even closely excite my grandma's dog's fleas to jump up and down. SO JUST WHERE IS THE WOW FACTOR???? Thats what I want to know! Listen, you pay me A thousand dollars US and I will make you 3 of them with GOOD hardware and a Duo core processor, heck we could make 2 6 core AMD's at that price

---------- Post added at 09:27 ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 ----------

Actually, now that the mold is paid for, by switching colors he could make the Vic 20 and C16.
What would be kind of neat would be a net book motherboard in a +4 case, I always like the sleek look of the plus4.

 

[AmiNeo]

IMO, a netbook with Ubuntu is better value for money. Slap some emulators on it, install workbench on WinUAE and slap on a C= sticker and you have something that has more Commodore in it than these things.

 

[lonewolfgeoff]

hmm, true... but im still going to have a look (yea ok, its a lot of £££££ but im going to try!)

 

[hayesey]

To be fair, you can buy just the "barebones" casing for $250 (£150 today) and then stick whatever micro-itx hardware you want in there. I don't think that's too bad for what is quite a funky case.

But I reckon handing over any money to them before they have guaranteed stock and are delivering is pretty risky!

 

[StrontiumDog]

I think the following sums up a lot of people's feelings about CUSA, mine included ...

 

[lonewolfgeoff]

ok, now you can call me a smeg head, a berk, a stupid, or anything above but...

i thought what the hell and bought one of the c64x's!! only £460 inc the delivery not too bad! and its the standard one. now as to someone doing a kinda review on it as a "first hand experience," well im taking that one on now. I know most of you are going to call me a stupid **** (plz excuse that lingo!) but hey, if you don't open the door then how do you know what lies beyond! The glass in the door may let you see whats there but you can't know it till you actually feel it.

Now folks, please understand im doing this for all of us and i am certainly NOT turning my back on my old c64's, vic 20, c16 and amiga's or any of yourselves! Also, i want this to be clear... i certainly respect your opinions and yourselves but maybe, just maybe, this may be what commodore needed instead of becoming a comode!

i started as a definite no way to cusa believer like yourselves, then i thought it over... this is the next gen of commodores, the old company would have been here and done this... would you have turned your back on the original company for doing what they (cusa) did to the original c64? I bet you'd all think as you do now with it? i think i would! My thinking is that the natural progression from bike to a motorbike, old c64 to new c64x... see???

 

[Paul_s]

My thoughts on CUSA?

Bunch of t*****s
Bunch of crooks
Bunch of b******s

Ah now I feel better.

Please remember this forum is family safe. Dave G

 

[AmiNeo]

I really don't think commodore would have done it quite this way. I'm sure more than just the case and GUI would have been their own creation, but I hope it works out for you!

Let me speak for the resonable level headed people here ( of which there may not be many ) and say that nobody is going to call you a 4 star word just for being tempted. If you have that kinda money to chuck around then it's your call at the end of the day.

Do let us know how your experience turns out though, it will make an interesting read.

 

[SaviorX]

congrats on buying an Intel PC in fancy plastics for double the money.

 

[quarkx]

i started as a definite no way to cusa believer like yourselves, then i thought it over... this is the next gen of commodores, the old company would have been here and done this... would you have turned your back on the original company for doing what they (cusa) did to the original c64? I bet you'd all think as you do now with it? i think i would! My thinking is that the natural progression from bike to a motorbike, old c64 to new c64x... see???

That is were well all differ from you, Commodore back in the day, CREATED the computers from nothing (well maybe not the Amiga, they bought that tech). This is not a progression in any way shape or form. There is no evolution here, it is just a company slapping in an "off the shelf part" into a retro looking case
Its like those old dune buggy kits in the '70's or Kit cars today, they take a car (usually a Volkswagen. beetle and slap a nice fiberglass body- looks nice, but not an evolution by any sort of the imagination) Heck, even at one time you could get a Ferrari kit body for them (Hardcastle and McCormick's Coyote X- Anyone?)
A nice kit, but no evolution or next generation Ferrari.

The exact same thing is here, It's a fancy case that has that retro feel, thats all nothing more.

 

[SaviorX]

he seems to foolishly believe that this company is going to flip its profits into making original systems that would have made Commodore proud rather than to simply pay thier salaries and shareholder dividends....

"a fool and his money are soon parted"

Thomas Tusser, English Poet, 1524-1580

 

[commodorejohn]

i thought what the hell and bought one of the c64x's!! only £460 inc the delivery not too bad! and its the standard one.

I'm not going to tell you how to spend your money, man, but...consider what you could have got for that 460 GBP...quite a lot more than what they're offering with the "Standard" model, let me tell you...

but hey, if you don't open the door then how do you know what lies beyond! The glass in the door may let you see whats there but you can't know it till you actually feel it.

I know what it's like because I know what an Atom-based PC is like, and I know what Ubuntu is like. Inferring the specific CUSA experience is simply a matter of combining the knowledge and imagining what it's like to know I paid $795 for something that's only moderately better than my three-year-old netbook :/

i started as a definite no way to cusa believer like yourselves, then i thought it over... this is the next gen of commodores, the old company would have been here and done this... would you have turned your back on the original company for doing what they (cusa) did to the original c64? I bet you'd all think as you do now with it? i think i would! My thinking is that the natural progression from bike to a motorbike, old c64 to new c64x... see???

If Commodore had introduced a PC clone this overpriced and expected us to lick their boots for it, I'd feel the exact same way I do about this: no way, nohow, never.

 

[SaviorX]

they actually did introduce pc clones

but i believe they were reasonably priced at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PC_compatible_systems

the saddest part of this whole story is that at least (apparently) 20,000 have been taken in with this notion of an 'updated' Commodore 64, the machine itself, other than appearance has ZERO to do with being an updated Commodore 64...it is for all intents and purposes a common run of the mill Wintel system that happens to come with a flavor of Linux.....

now...had it booted straight into an updated 64bit version of GEOWorks....i might have forgiven them...

 

[quarkx]

But, the PC clones they had were not "off the Shelf" components, they designed and made the motherboards themselves. (I have a PC 10-2 right here beside me) they also made the Video cards, and I believe the RAM expansions (I will have to open to check), now they could take standard XT cards at the time, but they defiantly were not "Off the shelf" internals. The PC 10 is actually a cool machine.

 

[lonewolfgeoff]

hey hey hey, i know commodore ARE the creators of the first PROPER comps and they did well ace! Well as to been able to afford... a madman and his lack of money comes to mind! im not saying that its a rubbish idea supporting em but... (and i never ever said this so no quoting it elsewhere please!) they ARE going to make their own processors and boards WHEN they are properly established (inside source and i'll get shot for telling!) k? there you wanted to know that folks... new commodores currently ain't new, but they will be eventually! Chuck started this ball rolling... now someone else needs to pick up his ball and carry on!

Lets see what happens ok? we can keep firing off agression at them, but we will eventually (well may!) all come round WHEN they finally make a "home build board and processor" lets see

and yea i'll make a thread with my findings, feelings and general stuff like that, i promise that it will be unbiased. Folks, lets kill the death rate of cusa down a bit... its getting a bit gorey! LOL

 

[commodorejohn]

but... (and i never ever said this so no quoting it elsewhere please!) they ARE going to make their own processors and boards WHEN they are properly established (inside source and i'll get shot for telling!) k? there you wanted to know that folks... new commodores currently ain't new, but they will be eventually!

They aren't. They've tried to do "wink wink, nudge nudge" rumor-building that they're planning stuff like this over on A.org in the past, and that if we just "wait and see" everything will turn out to be far better than it sounds, and then it turns out that, yes, their computer is just a bog-standard D525 board, the OS is Ubuntu with a tweaked skin, etc. If they've hinted about doing custom hardware, it's just another lump in the massive pile of horse feces they've been building up for the past year and some.

 

[sian]

cant comment a lot abut this but

it was sad that cusa seems to have died after its founder did.

is it history repeating its self?

rip Barry Altman int:

 

[ColourWheel64]

I don't want a 64x or anything, but i was wondering...

Can you plug in a C64 cartridge into the 64x? a datasette? a 9pin joystick or mouse? Does it plug into a television? Do the light gun games work? Is the emulation as good as an actual C64?

Not meaning to offend anyone here, but does anyone here prefer a C64 keyboard? Is the keyboard faithful to the original?

Who's idea was it to have two cursor keys? Does the 64x have two cursor keys?

I could never get on with it when I was young. The Amiga one is my all time favourite keyboard. I don't understand the people that love IBM clicky keyboards. I'd like to though.

If the 64x is made well then I think its a good thing. If it makes emulation more realistic then its a good thing. If the keys map to the c64 instead of having to make do with a PC keyboard then its good

god Im tired. Its been a long day.

I hope everyone enjoys their purchases

cheers

*collapses*

...*sends*

 

[lsorense]

The C64x is simply a standard PC in a case that looks like a C64, with a keyboard that looks to be as awful to use as the C64 keyboard was.

For some reason the company known as Commodore USA, believes that the shape and keyboard feel of the C64 was what attracted people to it. They seem to completely fail to grasp that it was the system inside people wanted (I suspect a lot of C64 users would have loved a better keyboard). It's all just a retro look, but not actually retro at all inside.

So all you get is a pretty underpowered PC at a ridiculously high price that you can't really expand because the case is non standard. I really don't understand why anyone would pay for one or even want to use one.

I hope they loose lots of money on this stupid idea and go out of business before they soil the product names too badly.