Going MEGA: retro computing’s most ambitious project
David Crookes talks to the team giving one of Commodore’s lesser-known 8-bit computers, the prototype C65, a new lease of life
David Crookes talks to the team giving one of Commodore’s lesser-known 8-bit computers, the prototype C65, a new lease of life.
The Commodore 64 (C64) wasn’t the prettiest. Some would say it was downright ugly. But the 8-bit computer so famously compared to a bread bin turned out to be the best-selling single computer model of all time, racking up 17 million sales over 12 years.
It could, however, have been improved. In 1989, Commodore looked to create a successor amid falling sales and a shifting interest towards consoles and 16-bit home computers. Over the course of two years it developed a prototype code-named “C64-DX”, with a set of advanced specs that pushed it close to the Commodore Amiga.
“I loved the proposed machine with its built-in 3.5in floppy, faster CPU and crisp digital display,” said Paul Gardner-Stephen who, as a freelance software developer around that time, managed to get his hands on a prototype of the new computer. “It was a unicorn of the 8-bit era that had gained some of the advantages of the 16-bit era without really spoiling the C64 feeling.”
The C64-DX became known as the C65. Its CPU ran at 3.54MHz compared to the C64’s 1MHz. It had 128KB of memory, expandable to 1MB, and was backwards-compatible with the C64. That meant it could take advantage of most of the programs and games produced for the C64 since 1982.
But the C65 was never to be. Delays and mounting production costs forced the project to be cancelled around 1991, relegating it to a mere footnote in Commodore’s history. Fast forward 23 years, when Gardner-Stephen took a fresh look at the project. The result? A new and more exciting version, and one that has itself reached an advanced prototype stage.
Sorting the basics
Attempts to extend the life of Commodore’s 8-bit computers is nothing new, with the C64 proving to be something of a cult retro machine that has long refused to die.
In 2002, two fans created an enhanced single-board version