1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,120 I feel like such a hacker. I feel like an old man ranting about technology 2 00:00:03,679 --> 00:00:09,840 being better in the day. I wasn't even around for this. It's working. Why can't 3 00:00:07,359 --> 00:00:15,040 we just have all computers be like this? Commodore 64 Ultimate. 42 years later 4 00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:19,279 and we're here. Same same but new. What's new? Well, besides the snazzy 5 00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:23,199 packaging being almost a faithful recreation of the original, there's a 6 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:27,359 lot more than meets the eye. All right. Wow. Okay, cool. So, they they've really 7 00:00:25,439 --> 00:00:29,920 sorted this out. We get a flag, a white flag. It's not a white flag of 8 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:37,040 surrender. It's more like they're staking their claim. Welcome to your 9 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:38,960 digital co oasis. The sea is just there. 10 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:42,480 Here we are. So, there's a few versions of this out there that Pomodoro is 11 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:45,360 releasing. This is the the RGB, the Starlight version, and there's also the 12 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:49,200 Founders Edition, which is like made with 24 karat plated gold key caps. This 13 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:52,399 one's a little bit more fun. We have the manual. This thing is sick. This looks 14 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:58,079 pretty substantial. We also have some cool accessories here. HDMI stickers. 15 00:00:55,840 --> 00:01:01,920 Oh, those actually look pretty sick. the very second. We'll talk about this one 16 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:05,519 in a little bit. And power. And they have a bunch of adapters, too. So, think 17 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:10,960 we'll fish around in the box and get the right one there. Oh my god, the length. 18 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:15,680 Wow. All right. So, that's the packaging. So, you're probably looking at this and thinking, "What is this?" 19 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:19,600 For those of you who don't know, this is a whole brand spanking computer. Like, 20 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,360 this this is this is it. This is the thing. There's a few ports here that 21 00:01:21,439 --> 00:01:27,200 we're going to go over that allows it to connect to a bunch of stuff both from 22 00:01:25,119 --> 00:01:32,320 the past as well as some modern stuff. Off the gate, here's the keyboard. Um, 23 00:01:29,439 --> 00:01:36,560 they're using some form of a red switch. I believe it's very linear, very similar 24 00:01:34,479 --> 00:01:41,200 to the original one is kind of kind of been reading online. Little bit of flex 25 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:44,960 here, but that just might be from the translucent plastic they're using, too. 26 00:01:43,119 --> 00:01:48,960 We know translucent plastics have different tolerances here. Some 27 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:52,399 wonderful Commodore 64 badging here. Oh, power indicator and it uses this thing 28 00:01:50,799 --> 00:01:56,960 called a bread bin design. For those of you who don't know, it's where you put bread in. A big part about Commodore's 29 00:01:55,360 --> 00:02:00,240 original design was it was supposed to blend in with, you know, the home 30 00:01:58,399 --> 00:02:03,439 environment. Their previous machines seemed to be a little bit smaller, more 31 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:07,680 cumb, the Vic 20, but this kind of took on its 32 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:10,800 own form. And part of that form factor was having expansions. So on the back we 33 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:15,200 have a few things, right? The original one had very similar ports. So we have 34 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:18,720 the memory expansion for cartridges and RAM expansions back in the day. This one 35 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:23,599 just does game expansions and program expansions. We've got stereo audio. We 36 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:27,680 have the video out serial. That's a 8 pin video out. So that can connect to 37 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:32,080 the old monitors back in the day that used to work with the old 82 versions of 38 00:02:30,319 --> 00:02:34,959 Commodore. We also have the serial port. So any of the old accessories you can 39 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:39,599 actually use it with this new one. We also have a cassette reader port. So you 40 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:42,560 can put your cassette uh reader here, put the old cassettes from back in the 41 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:47,200 day, and it will read it through that port. But then this user port, which was 42 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:51,920 just a big configurable slot here, is now HDMI, Ethernet, and two USBAs. Bring 43 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:56,000 it to the side, you have your two game ports. So, this is unchanged from the 44 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,360 original. You can put in your original joysticks and controllers that would 45 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:02,319 have gamed with the original Commodore 64. You have a multi-function power 46 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:06,400 switch. So, back in the day, it was just an onoff. This allows you to do some fun 47 00:03:04,239 --> 00:03:10,000 things in between, and a power connector. On the back though, something 48 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:13,440 that's really noticeable with the translucent is you actually have the 49 00:03:11,519 --> 00:03:17,519 signatures of a bunch of the Commodore founders and original team in the shape 50 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:21,440 of the Commodore logo. Another addition to this though, hardware wise. So, this 51 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:25,120 is using FPGA hardware emulation. Uh, this is hardware level. So, its ability 52 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:29,200 to work with a bunch of the old accessories is really cool. Its ability 53 00:03:27,519 --> 00:03:32,799 to be able to run a lot of the same programs, like almost all of them with 54 00:03:30,879 --> 00:03:35,680 pure compatibility is fantastic. But another thing you might notice with the 55 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:39,680 translucent is there's those two green things. And I believe those are the 56 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:44,239 audio chips. Back in the day, the Commodore 64 was known for its audio. 57 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:47,599 That's what beat it out on every spec and kind of made it that value buy for a 58 00:03:46,319 --> 00:03:52,159 lot of people. And on top of that, you can connect this thing to internet without needing a modem like back in the 59 00:03:50,319 --> 00:03:55,599 day. Uh you can do it with the Ethernet port here or with Wi-Fi. So connect it 60 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:59,760 to your home router and you're good to go. You're off to the races. And once we hook this thing up to the internet, 61 00:03:58,159 --> 00:04:03,760 we'll dive right into it. Just like we're going to dive into our sponsor. 62 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:08,959 MSI is entering their EVO era. And boy oh boy does it ever show in their new 63 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:11,120 lineup of motherboards. The MSI X870E 64 00:04:08,959 --> 00:04:16,079 Max and EVO series motherboards aim to get the most out of your 9000 series 65 00:04:13,439 --> 00:04:20,320 Ryzen processors. They've added upgrades and updates to things like LAN 66 00:04:18,239 --> 00:04:25,520 connectivity, better cooling modules, and 64 MGB BIOS ROM. Their overclocking 67 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:30,800 engine can get you an extra 15% performance boost without compromising 68 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:33,759 your iGPU memory or NVMe stability. 69 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:38,240 Learn more about the 870 EVO and Max motherboards or grab yours today with 70 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:43,440 our link below. All right, let's turn this thing on. 71 00:04:41,199 --> 00:04:46,880 Okay, look at those colors. Wow, that's like full RGB. And for those of you who 72 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:50,800 don't like RGB, we also have the original beige version, basic beige. 73 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:55,199 This is kind of what it actually looked like back in the day. But I like this 74 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:59,919 quite a bit. You can take a look and see all the colors that are coming through 75 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:03,919 the red function keys on here with like a trans clear and a translucent 76 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:07,520 keyboard. The first Commodore 64 had mouse support, but not USB mouse 77 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:11,360 support. This is brand new for the Ultimate. And so part of that is that 78 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:15,440 you can use that in a bunch of apps like GOS, right, with the operating system 79 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:20,080 for that. But if you want to have the more authentic retro experience, you can 80 00:05:18,639 --> 00:05:23,199 always just reset your system. And now you're in basic, which is their 81 00:05:21,759 --> 00:05:28,080 programming language that they've used forever. Well, with the flick of a 82 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:29,520 switch, you can go into the uh the UI 83 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:33,120 menu. Actually, here. Remember that cassette that came with it? The very 84 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:38,240 second? It's a play off of the very first. It was a demo cassette that uh 85 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:42,720 came with the original Commodore 64. And this isn't an actual cassette. No, this 86 00:05:39,919 --> 00:05:45,120 is a USB stick with a bunch of demos and different programs. So, we're going to 87 00:05:43,759 --> 00:05:49,919 put that in right now. Okay, it's loading up and you're going to hear it. 88 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:52,639 You can hear the thing. It's beeping. No mouse support for this right now. I 89 00:05:51,199 --> 00:05:56,639 tried with the mouse, didn't seem to work, but yeah, doing WD. There's other 90 00:05:55,039 --> 00:06:02,720 paint apps, but I think we can use this for now. Check it out. It's like MS 91 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:04,800 Paint, but not. It's Gio Paint. I guess 92 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:09,440 I can't really type full words because WD is being used to uh to control the 93 00:06:07,280 --> 00:06:13,600 mouse. And just like modern day systems, it comes with system error messages. So 94 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:17,440 that was Gio kind of gave you that productivity element part of this too. I 95 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:21,759 think that and other software that was available. But before we dive into 96 00:06:19,759 --> 00:06:25,840 anything else, the manual and this is honestly probably one of my favorite 97 00:06:23,199 --> 00:06:29,039 parts about this pretty much almost one to one in terms of its design. I'm 98 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:33,280 learning full stack right now. People tell me Python's the way to start, 99 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:37,360 right? Learn Ruby on Rails and I'm going to counter and say basic. And that's 100 00:06:35,759 --> 00:06:40,639 exactly what I can learn here. This is really cool and I can't wait to actually 101 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:45,120 spend some time learning through this. This seems to be really fleshed out. 102 00:06:43,199 --> 00:06:49,440 There's like a lot of depth of information, too. It executes on the 103 00:06:47,199 --> 00:06:53,680 whole thing of this is all you need besides community to get started on the 104 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:56,880 Commodore 64 Ultimate. Let's get back to the very second for a second. Part of 105 00:06:55,440 --> 00:07:02,319 what's exciting today is that we're actually one of the first to have our hands on an updated version of this USB 106 00:07:00,639 --> 00:07:06,880 cassette. What's cool and new about it is that it's coming preloaded with a 107 00:07:04,639 --> 00:07:11,280 bunch of discs. It runs smoother. Some of those discs that are inserted include 108 00:07:08,639 --> 00:07:14,240 Geo Paint and GeoRite, which are pretty cool productivity software. And before 109 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:18,880 we do anything else, we're going to connect to the internet. So, let's go all the way down here. We're going to do 110 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:24,080 Wi-Fi today. Make sure that's all enabled. And like anything else, we can 111 00:07:21,199 --> 00:07:28,880 just select our access point. We're going to go with Sean Circuit. 112 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:32,960 Then we go back and it should say link up, which means, hey, we're good. Save 113 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:35,599 the changes to flash. And we're off to the races. So, we can do a lot of fun 114 00:07:34,639 --> 00:07:39,840 things. Now, we're going to run the disc. We're going to see what happens. 115 00:07:37,759 --> 00:07:44,240 Oh, you hear that? Okay. So, it has a speaker that's emulating the sound of a 116 00:07:42,319 --> 00:07:47,120 disc system. So, back in the day, it didn't have a speaker. It had a disc 117 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:50,080 system which would were and all that stuff. Just letting you know that it's 118 00:07:48,479 --> 00:07:53,120 doing something. And if you didn't hear the sound, well, then your system maybe 119 00:07:51,599 --> 00:07:57,280 needs to be reset. This is the experience. You'd wait about half an hour for a program to load, but we're 120 00:07:56,080 --> 00:08:05,199 not going to wait half an hour for this to load. Back in the day, most computers were a 48 kilobyte RAM fil computer. 121 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:10,400 This one went above that 48K, went to 64. So, it had more RAM, great sound 122 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:14,479 chips, and a ton more ability, I guess, with those things combined to do some 123 00:08:11,919 --> 00:08:19,360 cool things. And this new one has 128 MGB of RAM. So, the new Ultimate can do 124 00:08:17,599 --> 00:08:22,720 things that the 82 version only could dream of. So, demos are really cool. 125 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:28,160 This is like community generated stuff. And that's one of the biggest things with the Commodore 64 is that even 126 00:08:25,840 --> 00:08:32,000 though it came out in 82, the reason why this is happening is because of the 127 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:35,839 community. and we're going to dive into Return of the Matrix 2. These demos, 128 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:40,240 they really push the envelope. As you can see, it went from a basic screen, 129 00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:44,320 now it's all of a sudden it has all this u all these different characters on the 130 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:50,880 screen. That's part of the demo. Going to hear all this music and you're seeing 131 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:53,760 the matrixy font pop up. That's sick. 132 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:57,680 That's actually so cool. And you can also take a look and see how the entire 133 00:08:55,920 --> 00:09:01,519 keyboard and the power button are reacting to the sounds. I mentioned that 134 00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:04,800 there's like twice the amount of SIDs. Those are virtual ones. But if you 135 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:08,480 really wanted to, you could take the original SID chips and just put that in 136 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:11,360 here. The 3D graphics and stuff like that. You're seeing the shading. And 137 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:16,000 that's the part of the power this thing has, right? Uh it's just a testament to 138 00:09:13,839 --> 00:09:19,200 just how unique it was in a time where computing seemed to be pretty expensive 139 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:22,640 and you didn't seem to get that much for what you paid for. And then something 140 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:27,040 like this comes along, which is that $595 USD back then. and it had this and 141 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:32,800 it tried to really corner the market based on its graphics and sound performance. Part of that price was what 142 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:36,800 got this into the households of so many people. But then there was another price 143 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:40,560 cut that happened around 1984 post the video game market crash. This was a 144 00:09:38,399 --> 00:09:45,040 perfect opportunity for Commodore to really rise up and they ended up doing 145 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:50,160 that. They became the to this date the bestselling home computer of all time. 146 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:53,920 They sold 12 million units or north of that. We're going to try some video 147 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:56,959 games. There we go. So, we're going to try Bomberland. Legally distinct from 148 00:09:55,600 --> 00:10:01,839 Bomber Man. Part of it, you've noticed is, hey, we're actually using the USB mouth because this thing got an update 149 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:08,080 recently. Oh, it's detecting it as like a bad input. I see. Ah, that nostalgic 150 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,920 experience of the game working, but only when it wants to. 151 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:16,320 >> Did you blow on it? >> Yeah. Oh, there we go. You know what? I forgot. 152 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:21,040 I swear if that work >> that worked. Okay, this is bomber land. 153 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:24,720 The land whose residents like explosive events. You can see very different 154 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:29,120 controls, but this is one of the many games we have. Robot Jet Action sounds 155 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:35,360 the least problematic, but it could also be the most problematic. See, I loaded 156 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:36,800 up pretty quick for a, you know, right 157 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:41,920 half an hour. That was a fraction of it. But see, it's cinematic, too. I really 158 00:10:39,279 --> 00:10:45,440 care about Jetpack robot. There's a star. Nintendo didn't copyright the star 159 00:10:44,079 --> 00:10:49,760 yet. Family friendly. >> This seems to be a single button 160 00:10:47,360 --> 00:10:56,640 joystick game. We're going to play a little thing called funk paint. We have 161 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:59,640 we Okay, we have a mouse. L 162 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:59,640 T 163 00:10:59,839 --> 00:11:04,320 I'm a graphic of my passion. Now, I've heard there's some really interesting 164 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:10,000 stuff happening under the hood. So, let's pop it off and see what we can find. Going to use my handy dandy LT 165 00:11:08,079 --> 00:11:14,720 source screwdriver. It seems it's just the one, two, three screws here. Wow. 166 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:18,720 Yeah, some cables here that we just need to disconnect. 167 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:22,640 Perfect. Oh, wow. Yeah. So this is where we can put the SID chips. This is the 168 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:27,120 main board here. Yeah, that's the speaker where we're hearing the emulated sounds from. You have USB for the 169 00:11:25,519 --> 00:11:30,240 keyboard. You have the micro SD port here. So it seems like there's quite a 170 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:33,920 bit of expansion here. And you can see the signatures here as well. I should 171 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:37,680 know about all of them, but getting especially I know the most about because 172 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:42,880 he had worked on physical hardware projects for reviving the Commodore 64. 173 00:11:39,839 --> 00:11:44,640 And that keyboard that we see here is I 174 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:49,120 believe a direct translation of hardware he was working on. down to its bones is 175 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:52,160 just how much community support this thing has. Yeah, something you want to 176 00:11:50,560 --> 00:11:56,480 notice here too is besides the signatures and just the interactability 177 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:59,839 you could have with this. The labeling. I figured out if I could lock in and 178 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:04,160 unlock the SID chip here where different chipsets could go, what the FPGA board 179 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:09,120 actually contains. It seems like there's quite a bit of educational potential here if someone was just to crack this 180 00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:12,240 open and take a look at it. I fall in love with it. I'm probably going to take 181 00:12:10,639 --> 00:12:16,000 this home. But if you want one of your own, you can find at commodore.net. They 182 00:12:14,399 --> 00:12:20,160 have a store full of merch as well as these machines available for sale 183 00:12:17,519 --> 00:12:23,279 starting at 325 all the way up to 550 for the founders edition. If retro 184 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:28,480 computing is your thing, you can check out Plof's coverage of the Retro 98 185 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:30,560 right here, over here. Just check it 186 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:35,160 out. It's a really cool beige case. You know, it's retro, but it's modern.