I was born in 1971 but never grew up with Commodore. Still, I've always been rather enamored by them. Many school friends I had back in the early 80's had them. And while my first home computer was the 128K in 1984, I still was extremely excited to see the factory tour video below I locked-in in my order for the beige model a couple months ago. And as of this writing, nearly 11,000 orders for the machine have been process, which is pretty incredible.

C64 was my first computer expierence when I was 11 in 1984. My brother had one. And I have it now since years. Most played games: Frogger and Fort Appocalipce.

I'm glad these exist, but my preferred Commodore is still the 128DCR, and I have plenty of spares. It is the finest 8-bit computer Commodore ever made.

I grew up with the C64 when I was younger (and other other systems). These are great but I already had built a 64 from scratch with a new PCB and some modern replacements for some of the custom chips. I have another PCB that I have to put on a schedule to build.

^ That's obviously the ideal scenario, to have what's essentially a brand new C64 with original or equivalent hardware. Unfortunately, I no longer have the physical ability to accomplish that (or any of the other incredible motherboard remakes for Macs that I would love to have). For people with advancing decrepitude like myself the C64 Ultimate is an exciting option. Considering the features and everything it offers, the C64U is a good price as well.

I built a SixtyClone recently with mostly pulled original chips.

Those are fun to build.

>> muse said:

I built a SixtyClone recently with mostly pulled original chips. Those are fun to build. Click to expand...

I had also built as well a couple of years back. They were fun to build. Here is my build with full mechanical keyboard:
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I am building a second soon with all modern replacements for the custom chips

Rob did a fantastic job of the clones. It's because of his work with the A500++ project that led me into learning sprint layout, and later the reloaded boards...

Our first home computer was one as well. Got it in the summer of 1985 at the Bellevue, WA KMart. Never got a dedicated monitor for it. Always used it with one of our Zenith TVs. We did add a 1541 and an Okimate 10 printer in December of that year. Pretty much remained set up that way until 1989 or so, when it received both a parallel interface to allow usage of my old Epson MX-80 printer and a 1571 floppy drive. By then, my father was the one mainly using it for taxes and other business-related things. I was already using my Stealth GS at the time. We finally sold the system to a used computer shop north of Seattle in 1991. He had switched to a Kaypro IBM XT clone.

Anyway, nice to see that they've brought back the C64.

Interesting you were using a 1571 with the 64. I think the 1571 is superior in every way to the 1541, particularly in terms of reliability, but sadly no burst mode without a 128.

For compatibility its not so great, so most prefer the 1541 over the 1571 in c64 mode.

We didn't get a 1541 until a year or two after we purchased a c64. So we put up with tape loading as we did ( in Australia and the U.K ) which wasn't too bad in the later 80s with all the nice loaders featuring SID music, flashing borders and sometimes mini games like "Invade-a-Load".

I recall how disappointed I was when we first recieved our 1541, loading was damn slow. Of course I compared it to the Disk II speeds on Apple II systems in school that I was used to.

I'm going to beg to differ with the compatibility issue - never had a problem with something that would run on a 1541 but wouldn't on the 1571 (or, for that matter, on the 128DCR), even including copy-protected titles. This one runs V-MAX! and Rapidlok games without a problem and those schemes in particular are extremely picky about behaviour and rotational speed. I know there were intermittent allegations back in the day but no one ever said what failed. What did you run that did?

Yes, a huge improvement when we got an Epyx FastLoad. Always hated when a game forced me to disable it.

It handles most track loaders but not all, some demos won't work on a 1571. Edge of Disgrace is one of the demos I tried which works fine on my c64+1541 combo.

Ah, well, didn't do much demoscene stuff. I imagine current demos are better about that.

Every disk we had worked fine with the 1571. That said, never got into doing demoscene stuff. Nor did I make copies of copy protected software. A couple friends of ours who also had C64s did and would give us copies of their software to use, though. In my case, I pretty much stopped using the C64 in May 1988, when I got my //e. I did use it for a few months in 1989 when that computer was out of commission and being upgraded to a IIgs logic board. But, for the most part, by then, it was my dad's bookkeeping and word processing system, using MS Multiplan (predecessor of Excel, of course) and the Batteries Included PaperClip word processor with the security key that you plugged into the joystick port to allow it to run.

And so it begins!
No C64 Ultimate yet, but my joystick order arrived today from the Netherlands.
Amusingly, there was only a single piece of cellophane tape holding the lid down!

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Not sure what to do with all these spare parts!
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Guess I need to use the QR code and read the manual

Curious: did you get nailed with any tariffs over that?

JDW is in Japan and ordered from Netherlands. So I think it would have avoided the USA tariffs.

No tariffs or tax on that joystick box, although Japan Customs will probably tax me the standard 10% sales tax on the C64 Ultimate because the declared value will likely be more than YEN10,000. I say "likely" because it's coming from the Netherlands and not straight out of China. Chinese companies have long put low declared values on packages.

>> JDW said:

And so it begins! No C64 Ultimate yet, but my joystick order arrived today from the Netherlands. Amusingly, there was only a single piece of cellophane tape holding the lid down! View attachment 24775 View attachment 24774 View attachment 24773 View attachment 24772 View attachment 24771 Not sure what to do with all these spare parts! View attachment 24770 Guess I need to use the QR code and read the manual Click to expand...

That looks like an interesting project. The Ultimate 64 is a great product, I think I'd have purchased one by now had I not already had 3 units already.