Should you grew up within the early to mid 1980s, likelihood is that you simply (or somebody you realize) had a Commodore 64 pc. Not solely was it one of many first machines on the gaming scene, it was one of many first mainstream private computer systems, interval. 

Together with the power to load up video video games through cartridge, floppy disk and cassette tape, the Commodore 64 would additionally permit customers to run BASIC and even program their very own video games and functions in the event that they had been so inclined.

Now, the Commodore 64 expertise is again, because of the C64 Mini — a retro console that won’t formally bear the Commodore identify, but nonetheless carries all of its coronary heart. 

That includes 64 built-in video games, the C64 Mini’s library is however a mere drop within the ocean evaluate to the 1000’s of video games that launched on the platform. Fortunately, this crowd-funded duplicate may even run Commodore 64 ROMs, albeit through a course of that is as removed from user-friendly as may be. 

Should you’ve performed the Commodore 64 earlier than, you may in all probability already know whether or not the C64 Mini goes to enchantment to you. Nevertheless, the true query is whether or not that rose-tinted nostalgia is sufficient to justify its $69.99 (£69.99 / AU$149.95) value level. 

Design

Upon unboxing the C64 Mini’s field, you is likely to be struck by how cute the miniature retro console is. Wanting identical to a scaled-down Commodore 64, the C64 Mini sports activities the identical beige coloring and keyboard format as the unique unit. 

Sadly, these keyboard keys are fully non-functional – they do not budge if pressed – and you will have to plug in a separate USB keyboard through one of many C64 Mini’s two USB ports, or use the system’s digital keyboard, as a way to work proficiently in BASIC.

Just like the NES Traditional and SNES Traditional Mini consoles, the C64 Mini is powered through micro-USB — a cable is included within the field, although you may want to supply your individual AC adapter (your common smartphone charger will do the trick).

Together with its included micro-USB cable, the mini pc additionally comes with an HDMI cable, permitting you to output video from the system at a most decision of 720p. Don’t fret – that is greater than excessive sufficient for these sorts of video games. 

On the proper facet of the machine, you may discover the C64’s energy button, which is the one pressable button on the console. Merely urgent the button as soon as does not appear to do something, although – you may have to carry the button down for a second for the C64 Mini to energy up.

Whereas the console itself appears to have been constructed with nice consideration to element and a heaping serving to of affection, the C64 Mini’s accompanying joystick controller is pretty underwhelming.

In use, the joystick feels very stiff and immovable and whereas your actions will largely register on display screen, it simply does not really feel that means in your hand. Furthermore, whereas there are a complete of eight buttons on the controller, lots of them do not actually appear to do something.

Up prime, you’ve the joystick’s two foremost buttons, which really feel spongy and unresponsive to press. To the fast higher left and proper of the stick, there are two buttons which did not appear to supply any performance in any of the video games we performed for this evaluation.

Alongside the underside of the joystick is a row of 4 buttons — the primary one acts as a begin button of types, whereas the final one is used to carry up various actions, together with the power to save lots of or load you recreation (which may be carried out at any time), launch the digital keyboard or exit your present recreation. 

At 1.5 meters (just below 60 inches), the joystick’s USB wire is a good size, though until you are planning to take a seat on the bottom in entrance of your tv to play, you are in all probability going to should put money into an extension cable. 

Performance and consumer interface

Upon booting up the C64 Mini, you may be greeted with various language choices. Nevertheless, the following display screen after this can be very acquainted to anybody who’s performed with a NES Traditional or SNES Traditional Mini console. 

Listed horizontally, every of the mini pc’s 64 included titles are offered with accompanying unique field artwork and a blurb concerning the recreation. 

Right here, you should utilize the joystick to scroll by the seemingly limitless choice of video games which are listed alphabetically, one among which helps you to launch Commodore 64 BASIC, and one other of which launches an applet which shows a thanks to every one of many backers from the C64 Mini’s crowd-funding marketing campaign. 

Video games

Surprisingly, there are loading occasions which accompany the launching of every recreation on the C64 Mini, with some video games taking longer as well up than others. Fortunately, the wait time is nowhere close to that of the unique Commodore 64, the place video games on cassette tape typically took a number of minutes to load… in some situations, solely to fail on the final second. 

The video games themselves look  higher than ever right here, with their simplistic Eight-bit graphics trying sharp and clear — even when performed on a mammoth 65-inch TV. 

Whereas 64 titles is a big quantity to select from, there have been 1000’s of video games launched on the unique Commodore 64, so it is  doubtless that lots of your favourite video games from that period are going to be AWOL. 

It is nice to see classics like Not possible Mission and California Video games available, though different Commodore 64 favorites, resembling Skate or Die, Barbarian and Spy vs Spy would’ve maybe been much more welcome. 

On prime of this, there aren’t any recreation manuals included, so a number of the video games are certain to be totally baffling to those that are unfamiliar with them, or have not performed them for a number of many years. 

Fortunately, the C64 Mini is ready to run Commodore 64 ROMs proper out of the field through its USB port, nevertheless the method of getting these going is not notably user-friendly. First, you may want to accumulate stated ROMs, which should be the right file kind (.d64) and should even be saved to the basis folder of a FAT32 formatted USB drive. 

The ROM file may even should be renamed (THEC64-drive8.d64), that means you possibly can solely have one energetic ROM in your USB drive at any given time. Whereas you will get round this by transferring ROMs out and in of a sub folder in your USB drive out of your PC, however there isn’t any denying that that is an annoying and limiting trouble. 

Identical to within the outdated days, to start out a ROM you may should load up BASIC and kind out a command to load your chosen ROM (LOAD”*”,Eight) after which one other command to run it (RUN). When you have a keyboard related, this should not be too exhausting to do, and you can too use the C64 Mini’s digital keyboard to do that (slowly) through the joystick.

Verdict

Whereas quite a lot of care and a focus to element has gone into the creation of the C64 Mini, we won’t assist however take into account the retro console as one thing of a missed alternative for followers. 

On the one hand, it is cool you can load up BASIC and use the C64 Mini as a functioning (albeit restricted) pc. Alternatively, its strategy to ROM loading, genuine as it could be, feels particularly antiquated in 2018. 

We might have a lot most well-liked an all function built-in emulator on the system that will permit us to immediately load up a whole lot of video games from a related USB drive with out having to leap by a bunch of time-consuming hoops.

We’re additionally upset by the C64 Mini’s joystick, which feels low cost and unresponsive. Lots of the included video games have not aged very nicely, and the disappointing controller solely hampers the gameplay expertise additional.

Nonetheless, there isn’t any denying that the mini pc itself is extremely cute, and in case you’re merely on the lookout for a collector’s merchandise that reminds you of the great outdated days of Eight-bit gaming, there may be some enjoyment available with the C64 Mini — simply do not anticipate to be enjoying it very a lot as soon as that preliminary rush of nostalgia has worn off.