The Return of Commodore?

[KlaxonCow]

Aw, c'mon lads. Tanking the company based on a product nobody wants being pushed by a mental CEO is very very Commodore.

Good point. Well, I guess he really is keeping the dream alive.

[venusian]

Just been over the Apple thread in Shiny Things.

We need only a C= tablet and we can all become Commodore PC, phone and tablet Wankers, just like the Apple folk. Although we won't be able to post about it on here from any of them...

[MattyP]

Aw, c'mon lads. Tanking the company based on a product nobody wants being pushed by a mental CEO is very very Commodore.

Absolutely Commodore true to form!

Also the thing with tech and smartphones etc the problem isn’t the device it’s the mindset. It’s all a choice thing with what you consume. Getting a device won’t stop you doing anything it will frustrate as the world communicates using apps on devices these days. I have a simple dumb phone (new Nokia 6310) to try and disconnect a bit. Doesn’t work. Easier just to manage notifications etc on a smart phone then exercise a bit of self control. Still love the little Nokia though more of a nostalgic link to the past than a practical tool for today’s living though.

[Thoughtcat]

Hi guys, long time since I was on here... just today took delivery of my Commodore 64 Ultimate - this seems to be the thread for it. Having fun reliving the machine, even down to connecting it to my actual telly (eventually got a Commodore monitor back in the day and had assumed the Ultimate would use a VGA so that I could set it up on my desk along with my normal gear).

It comes with a number of games but just wondering if anyone knows if more titles are available for purchase somewhere? I haven't quite got to grips with it all as yet, but hoping there's a store somewhere online. I'd definitely buy Llamasoft games if there are any plans for same... no idea how time-consuming it would be for Jeff to create versions which would work on the Ultimate. Or do they just work?? I don't have any of my old games or peripherals.

Any other tips/suggestions/links please let me know

Cheers
Richard

[jawafour]

Hi guys, long time since I was on here... just today took delivery of my Commodore 64 Ultimate - this seems to be the thread for it...

Hey, Thoughtcat, I don't have an Ultimate myself buy it does look to be very cool. It's lovely to see a fresh, accessible way to play C64 stuff today.

...It comes with a number of games but just wondering if anyone knows if more titles are available for purchase somewhere? I haven't quite got to grips with it all as yet, but hoping there's a store somewhere online. I'd definitely buy Llamasoft games if there are any plans for same... no idea how time-consuming it would be for Jeff to create versions which would work on the Ultimate. Or do they just work?? I don't have any of my old games or peripherals...

I believe that any standard C64 game will run on the Ultimate. You can connect up an old Commodore tape deck or disk drive (I recognise that yours have long gone!) and use original media... or use digital copies loading from a USB flash drive.

Digital versions be downloaded from a number of Commodore retro sites; I'm not sure if we are allowed to quote them here but, as an example, sites such as C64.com allow "abandonware" games to be accessed...

Simply access the site via a PC, download the abandonware file(s) onto a USB memory stick, plug that into the Ultimate and away you go.

And some publishers still publish new C64 games today on tape, disk and digital. Examples include https://www.protovision.games/ and https://www.psytronik.net/ .

Hopefully these various paths will get you right back into C64!

[Misfit]

I don't have one either, but as said above you should be able to get anything C64 easily enough off the web and run it on your new toy.

Jeff put all the old stuff in the public domain ages ago, you can download their C64 games (and other systems) on their llamasoft/Minotaur Project website:

http://minotaurproject.co.uk/lc-8bit.php#3

If you feel like supporting the guys then buy one of their new games, or the Jeff Minter Story (on all major systems):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2236 ... ter_Story/

[KlaxonCow]

I do have a C64 Ultimate.

It's a cycle-accurate recreation of the C64 on an FPGA, and this basically means that it's as close to the real thing as you can get, yet it has all the extra modern conveniences as well.

You could hook up real old Datasette and disk drives and joysticks to it, and it works just fine. But it's also modern hardware, so it has a built-in RAM Expansion Unit (REU) that can go to the full 16MB, and it can become a "SuperCPU"-enabled C64, running at 40MHz. Through the built-in menu, you can load games from modern USB sticks - one was included with the C64 Ultimate that pretends to be an old-school cassette - and SD cards too.

But, yeah, it effectively is a C64, to all intents and purposes. But just a modern recreation of it, that has all the modern extras - HDMI, USB ports, Ethernet / Wi-fi, built-in menu for settings and loading games from USB / SD card - included as well.

So, you know, anywhere where you can get C64 software - be that original cartridges (because, yes, people still make new C64 games and supply them on cartridge) or old tapes and disks (if you happen to have the old original tape player and disk drives) or the various sites around the Internet that have C64 "abandonware" (and let's be frank, you can probably download things from the Internet that you're technically not supposed to - but, of course, after 40 years, there's also a lot of software that the original authors / publishers no longer protect / care about, as it's not as if you're going to lose out on millions of dollars if 3 or 4 people are "pirating" your 1983 game).

But, yeah, the C64 Ultimate is effectively just a brand new Commodore 64. A few "modern" tricks under its hood, but the FPGA emulates the original hardware almost perfectly that you can hook up old disk drives, stick in a disk that somehow still works from 1984 and - hey presto! - just works.

(In fact, the one complaint you could have about the C64 Ultimate is that it's too perfect a recreation - tapes and disks still take ages to load, because it's really loading them the same way the C64 used to do - but there are freeze cartridges and "fastloader" ROMs and things to speed that up, if it does start getting too nostalgic for the days of sitting around for minutes for something to load. Because, yes, the recreation is good enough that even "freeze cartridges" work with it and, in fact, there's a bunch of those built-in and included with the C64 Ultimate, if you look through the various menus.)

[Thoughtcat]

Nice one, thanks guys!

[grue]

This may bring a new Commodore Amiga closer by a bit.

https://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2026-08-00028-EN.html

https://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2026-08-00022-EN.html

Amiga Corporation today announced two agreements concluded within a few weeks of one another. Amiga and Commodore International Corporation have recognized their respective rights. A settlement with Hyperion Entertainment BV resolves a contractual dispute and replaces its 2009 agreement with Amiga.

[KlaxonCow]

He might still be a mad bastard, but Peri Fractic does listen.

So he's used the sales success of the Callback - like, whatever I personally think of it, they have shifted 10K units of the thing - to redo one of his trademark AI ads with real people. And, in fairness, he simply says that, honestly, they didn't have the money until they started selling these things, which seems like a legitimate excuse...

[venusian]

I've ordered a Callback. You can thank me later.

[Whiteball]

Don't know how true it is (if at all) but I heard they are announcing something new soon?
Anyone got any idea?

[KlaxonCow]

Well, there's been movement on securing all the rights and such to the "Amiga" trademarks - I believe it's a mutual peace deal, where the Amiga guys can use the word "Commodore", if the Commodore guys are allowed to use the word "Amiga" and so forth, ending all the legal contention between them - so, by rights, we should have a Commodore Amiga Ultimate.

(As the Amiga has always been a more tricky prospect, because the rights to it all got split up from Commodore and sold to multiple different parties.)

https://amiga-news.de/en/news/AN-2026-08-00022-EN.html

Amiga and Hyperion announce out-of-court settlement (Update)
In a detailed press release, Amiga Corporation announces that it has signed two landmark agreements in recent weeks: one with Christian 'Perifractic' Simpson's Commodore International Corporation (CIC), and another out-of-court settlement with Hyperion, which replaces Hyperion's original contract from 2009.

CIC licenses software and documentation for Commodore's 8-bit computers from Amiga. In return, Amiga is permitted to continue using the Commodore trademarks in a "historical or descriptive context," such as old documentation, copyright notices in existing software, or as symbols on a keyboard.

The agreement with Hyperion does not change the status of AmigaOS 4 - which was never a point of contention, according to Amiga - but it does specify exactly which code and trademarks the Belgian company is permitted to use [under license from Amiga, editor’s note].

But this is Peri Fractic, so it's likely to actually be an anti-social-media Commodore-branded toaster and kettle set instead. Which will inexplicably sell like hot cakes anyway.

[Loada]

Just got an email saying they've licensed the TAC-2 joystick - you can preorder on the Commodore website now. Quite a good idea - I wonder if they'll pickup any others (Konix Speedking, Zipstick would be nice!).

I remember the TAC-2 being pretty good back in the day (very clicky!) - they were less common in the UK.

[KlaxonCow]

The ad for the new joystick:


For the purposes of my own nostalgia, we need a Quickshot II with the trigger and hat on the stick itself. And, sure, though I never owned one, I remember the Konix Speedkings from playing over at a mate's house who had a couple of them.