The Commodore 64 @ 30

[Brad]

Spectrums loaded 5x quicker than the commodore machines (1500 baud) so it could load RDR2 from tape in less than 20 years.

[capcom_suicide]

Spectrums loaded 5x quicker than the commodore machines (1500 baud) so it could load RDR2 from tape in less than 20 years.

The roms on C64 and Zx were amazing for the time though How big would they have to of been to store 100gb...?

[capcom_suicide]

Bonus question! What would a 110gb rom have cost? I must be reading this inncorrectly, but if this page and my maths are right, £173 Million in 1983?

https://jcmit.net/memoryprice.htm

[Brad]

430,000 x 256KB chips needed at $599 each = approx $258million so that sounds about right yeah!

[dvdx2]

For some reason, I never got around to uploading this piece I filmed for the BBC back in 2012 for the Commodore 64's 30th anniversary... anyhow, here you go heh... enjoy!

Saw that back in 2012; brilliant!

[Anpanman]

Yeah but the commodore machines could start and stop the tape deck themselves!!!

Opened up my 1541 floppy drive last night and I see it has a 6502 in there. It's basically another Commodore 64 in there, minus the VIC and SID chips lol. It's also absolutely enormous and basically the slowest floppy drive unit ever made. I'm missing a 6 pin DIN serial cable so can't test it fully yet.

I had the 1541 and also the 801 printer, it was a beast, weighed a ton and could only print in 'draft' mode at a speed barely faster than handwriting.

Great days though, happy times.

[ZipZap]

To load Red Dead Redemption 2 (105GB) from tape on a Vic-20 or C64 would take just over 95 years and would come on a BASF C50,000,000 cassette, or - more likely - 135,000 C60s.

If you bought the 1541 drive you could load it in a little under 12 years.

I do the maths so you don't have to.

With a decent fast loader, you can load 64k from cassette in about 3-4 minutes, or from disk in less than 10 seconds. I probably still wouldn't recommend 105GB of course

Rather than using a stock drive, take a look at the 1541 Ultimate which plugs into the cartridge slot and allows you to load disk, cassette or cartridge images from a USB device. It's an incredibly well designed piece of hardware, with pretty much 100% compatability. It's also currently in stock, which is rare (usually you have to pre-order an wait for weeks!) https://ultimate64.com/Main_products

[Brad]

Cheers. Yeah getting an actual 1541 was a pretty dumb move but it was cheap and cosmetically good and I always wanted one. Will get one of the many solid state alternatives though for practical use. The Ultimate 2+ is the kiddie but quite expensive; currently thinking of the pi1541 as I have a spare pi 3 I think.

[Golgo]

I backed the Zzap64 2019 Annual campaign and as part of that they've made a new game called 'Sizzler'. Here's the Kickstarter lead showing off the clamshell and the loading screen. They absolutely nailed the art, the feel and the sounds of the era. The loading screen music nearly had me in tears, it was worthy of Galway or Hubbard. Any nostalgia-hounds should take a look:

[Mayhem]

I was helping playtest the game so... yeah... it's challenging in an old school way, and not one you're going to beat in a hurry.

[112]

On a totally off topic, but slightly related note, I just found out that the composers of the phenomenal soundtracks to the Last Ninja games passed away not too long ago... Sad news indeed.

Mayhem, you probably know this already, or it may have already been mentioned elsewhere.

But to me Ben Daglish and Anthony Lee’s music in the Last Ninja series, was like Yuzo Koshiro was to the Streets of Rage series... it played a pivotal element to the games lasting legacy...

112

[Brad]

Yeah, all the Commodore podcasts seem to be paying tribute to Ben.

[Mayhem]

Ben had been on/off with cancer for the last 2-3 years, but appeared to be getting better. All of a sudden he took a turn for the worse, and that was it sadly. I've known Chris Abbott pretty much since he launched his first BIT CD, and thus have been able to meet many of my SID heroes over the last 20 years, and get privy info. There's an 8 Bit Concert happening in Hull next May, tickets go on sale this Friday, 80 minutes of orchestral C64 tracks. I believe Chris is trying to get Paul Norman over from the US for it as well in addition to the usual UK composers, as it will feature Forbidden Forest and Aztec Challenge.

I will just note that Ben and Anthony only did the music for LN1. Matt Grey did the music for LN2 and Reyn Ouwehand did LN3/LN Remix, and they are both very much alive still

[JazzFunk]

Aw crap didn't know Ben Daglish had died, very sad. Only 52 as well. One of the true heroes.

One memory I have of the C64 is how smooth-scrolling it was. In my head - even though I know it's illogical - I still feel like it had the smoothest scrolling of all, even when people are having these heated frame rate chats, there's a little mad voice in my head telling me the C64 is THE slickest scroller on the planet, The Slickness King, Bobby Slick, slicker than the Vic...20.

Once I saw Uridium I was blown away and have never been unblown away by it.

[gunrock]

[MENTION=6476]JazzFunk[/MENTION]: yeah, in the most developer's hands the implementation of the hardware scrolling was lush.