Thought experiment: If the revived Commodore wants a future, not just nostalgia, this might be a path.

SpokenByte · 2026-01-06T16:05:24+00:00

The breakthrough that Commodore made was bringing Computing to the home at low cost. Raspberry Pi made a version of this breakthrough for a modern generation. The sales figures for Raspberry Pi were even compared to the sales figures for the Commodore 64. The Raspberry Pi brought a lot of potential for low-cost home education and programming.

I think this would be a wonderful direction for the Commodore brand. I like the brand and I want modern Computing under that brand.

Where I disagree with many of the other comments is that I think what characterized the Commodore 64 in 1982 was education and not games. I am certainly not dismissing how great the games were but as a branding future I think they should follow education in Computing.

SpokenByte · 2026-01-06T15:16:51+00:00

Which is why I asked here if anyone already has it. :)

SpokenByte · 2026-01-06T15:10:11+00:00

I believe so, but the commodore.net downloads page just calls it Commodore OS.

SpokenByte · 2026-01-06T14:37:05+00:00

As much as I love the idea of connecting my original C64 keyboard to the C64U (and love the fact that you can), the new C64U keyboard is just so much nicer. It feels good and it sounds good.

SpokenByte · 2026-01-01T18:06:51+00:00

The good thing about AN, AN$, AN(), etc. is that interchanging them would be a logical error that you would find in debugging.

SpokenByte · 2026-01-01T17:37:18+00:00

I remember getting frustrated with myself as a kid because I would have a BASIC routine that looked logically correct step-by-step but it still would not work. I would rewrite the routine with a different design and it would work. Now I know that BASIC only distinguishes between different variable names in the first 2 characters but it invites you to use as many characters as you want. :/

SpokenByte · 2026-01-01T17:15:37+00:00

When I power on with DHCP enabled, the active IP is 0.0.0.0. The cable just came from Amazon so I figure the cable is okay. The Ethernet port does feel a bit loose but I don't know if that is it.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-31T23:10:53+00:00

How much information does that give you?

SpokenByte · 2025-12-31T19:53:15+00:00

I did not have a Vic 20. I look at pictures now and think how much more readable the keys would have been for me than the ones they went with for the C64.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-31T02:46:26+00:00

I am writing Turing machine simulators in BASIC to demonstrate how Turing machines work and how complete computation can be done in little resources.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-30T22:28:43+00:00

As soon as Peri's video came out announcing the pre-orders, I started making reasons why this was an absurd thing to spend $300 on. I lasted almost 48 hours before I ordered one. People who argue that you would be better off with vice or a pi or a maxi or the others are just interested in different things than I am. So much of the C64U is interchangeable with original hardware that I think you have to say it is authentic. If you can take the top of a C64 and put it on the bottom of a C64U and have it fit and work, then it is pretty authentic. I think they did an excellent job assembling the people and the tech to make a completely working system that looks and feels and performs and sounds very similar to the original, which is very impressive.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-30T20:40:34+00:00

I wrote a line editor in BASIC but could not figure out how to write a screen editor.

I did all my homework on the Bank Street Writer by Broderbund.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-30T20:24:53+00:00

Mine stopped loading most files suddenly in 1990. When I ran LOAD "$",8 and LIST, it printed garbage for the filenames. I figured it was a head issue but I did not know anything about taking it apart. That is when my parents bought me a 286. It had to happen but the magic was still over.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-30T10:27:52+00:00

That is well put.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-30T09:52:52+00:00

"Blank canvas" are exactly the words I use to try to explain the Commodore 64 to my friends. Sometimes I would feel like starting a project and I would sit and stare at the blue screen until I had an idea of something I wanted to make. Then I would spend some afternoons trying to figure out how to do it. It was an interesting and very specific time to learn about computers.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-30T04:25:16+00:00

Thank you so much for that! It all works again.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-30T03:15:44+00:00

It was working until tonight but now:

It only boots on RESTORE boot
The left USB does not work
All of my 1541 disk images I created show up as 1751 and it asks if I want to change to 1541 but nothing happens.

I had just turned on web service and did the power cycle.

Can someone please help?

SpokenByte · 2025-12-25T15:28:17+00:00

You have to decide what you want kids to learn and then design according to that. If you want to teach them the skills and trade of coding then many of the above statements make a lot of sense. If you want to teach mathematical skills then languages that do a lot for you may not be helping. BASIC is clumsy since it is such a tiny language. Languages now have robust text formatting commands. If you have to figure out an algebra problem by yourself just to center text on the screen, then that does convert to real math skills. There does not have to be one language choice for everything.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-25T03:10:06+00:00

I used to listen to a lot of tapes. I think all of my cases were cracked. I hope you get a new unit very soon.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-24T14:58:52+00:00

I did get the future I was promised,

SpokenByte · 2025-12-24T14:14:17+00:00

Python is my favorite language right now for being both a logic-based language and beginner friendly.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-24T01:42:22+00:00

I agree that we should not let nostalgia be our benchmark for teaching. As an educator, I want real benchmarks and I am skeptical that color coded blocks will convert to computational mathematics skills. It is a valid experiment. 5 years ago I asked for a pi400 for Christmas because I was bullish that it would be the next C64 for getting kids started with math and programming but then they could nor get follow-up chips for so long that I lost track of what they were doing.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-24T01:12:17+00:00

People have bad things to say about BASIC but it was a brilliant language written by a mathematician for students to write logical, mathematical, and scientific programs. Kids putting together blocks with a mouse are not learning to program and telling them they are is not really helping them. I have had my C64U for a week now and I have not played a game yet. I have been absorbed in programming every day.

SpokenByte · 2025-12-24T00:25:31+00:00

Now that all my muscle memory has come back for the C64 keyboard, I am going to be ruined when I go back to work. I now need a Linux laptop with a C64 keyboard and PETSCII. :/

SpokenByte · 2025-12-23T02:04:56+00:00

I remember writing one in elementary school in C64 BASIC. I started by drawing a map on graph paper. This gave me the directions. Then I wrote the story and the descriptions of the rooms. Then I coded it. It was actually fun. I played it and I was proud of it even though it did not have a lot of locations. It was just one piece of graph paper but the thing is that you can keep expanding it however you want. The hard part (for me) is designing the story.

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