WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.120 I feel like such a hacker. I feel like an old man ranting about technology 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 00:00:07.359 --> 00:00:15.040 we just have all computers be like this? Commodore 64 Ultimate. 42 years later 00:00:13.120 --> 00:00:19.279 and we're here. Same same but new. What's new? Well, besides the snazzy 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:23.199 packaging being almost a faithful recreation of the original, there's a 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:27.359 lot more than meets the eye. All right. Wow. Okay, cool. So, they they've really 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 00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:37.040 surrender. It's more like they're staking their claim. Welcome to your 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:38.960 digital co oasis. The sea is just there. 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:42.480 Here we are. So, there's a few versions of this out there that Pomodoro is 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:45.360 releasing. This is the the RGB, the Starlight version, and there's also the 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:49.200 Founders Edition, which is like made with 24 karat plated gold key caps. This 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 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:58.079 pretty substantial. We also have some cool accessories here. HDMI stickers. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:01.920 Oh, those actually look pretty sick. the very second. We'll talk about this one 00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:05.519 in a little bit. And power. And they have a bunch of adapters, too. So, think 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. 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?" 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:19.600 For those of you who don't know, this is a whole brand spanking computer. Like, 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 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 00:01:25.119 --> 00:01:32.320 the past as well as some modern stuff. Off the gate, here's the keyboard. Um, 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 00:01:34.479 --> 00:01:41.200 to the original one is kind of kind of been reading online. Little bit of flex 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:44.960 here, but that just might be from the translucent plastic they're using, too. 00:01:43.119 --> 00:01:48.960 We know translucent plastics have different tolerances here. Some 00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:52.399 wonderful Commodore 64 badging here. Oh, power indicator and it uses this thing 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 00:01:55.360 --> 00:02:00.240 original design was it was supposed to blend in with, you know, the home 00:01:58.399 --> 00:02:03.439 environment. Their previous machines seemed to be a little bit smaller, more 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:07.680 cumb, the Vic 20, but this kind of took on its 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:10.800 own form. And part of that form factor was having expansions. So on the back we 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:15.200 have a few things, right? The original one had very similar ports. So we have 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:18.720 the memory expansion for cartridges and RAM expansions back in the day. This one 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:23.599 just does game expansions and program expansions. We've got stereo audio. We 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 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 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:34.959 Commodore. We also have the serial port. So any of the old accessories you can 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:39.599 actually use it with this new one. We also have a cassette reader port. So you 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:42.560 can put your cassette uh reader here, put the old cassettes from back in the 00:02:41.200 --> 00:02:47.200 day, and it will read it through that port. But then this user port, which was 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:51.920 just a big configurable slot here, is now HDMI, Ethernet, and two USBAs. Bring 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:56.000 it to the side, you have your two game ports. So, this is unchanged from the 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.360 original. You can put in your original joysticks and controllers that would 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:02.319 have gamed with the original Commodore 64. You have a multi-function power 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 00:03:04.239 --> 00:03:10.000 things in between, and a power connector. On the back though, something 00:03:08.480 --> 00:03:13.440 that's really noticeable with the translucent is you actually have the 00:03:11.519 --> 00:03:17.519 signatures of a bunch of the Commodore founders and original team in the shape 00:03:15.440 --> 00:03:21.440 of the Commodore logo. Another addition to this though, hardware wise. So, this 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:25.120 is using FPGA hardware emulation. Uh, this is hardware level. So, its ability 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:29.200 to work with a bunch of the old accessories is really cool. Its ability 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 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:35.680 pure compatibility is fantastic. But another thing you might notice with the 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:39.680 translucent is there's those two green things. And I believe those are the 00:03:37.760 --> 00:03:44.239 audio chips. Back in the day, the Commodore 64 was known for its audio. 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 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 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 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, 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:03.760 we'll dive right into it. Just like we're going to dive into our sponsor. 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:08.959 MSI is entering their EVO era. 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And for those of you who 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:50.800 don't like RGB, we also have the original beige version, basic beige. 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 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 00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:03.919 the red function keys on here with like a trans clear and a translucent 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:07.520 keyboard. The first Commodore 64 had mouse support, but not USB mouse 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:11.360 support. This is brand new for the Ultimate. And so part of that is that 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:15.440 you can use that in a bunch of apps like GOS, right, with the operating system 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:20.080 for that. But if you want to have the more authentic retro experience, you can 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:23.199 always just reset your system. And now you're in basic, which is their 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:28.080 programming language that they've used forever. Well, with the flick of a 00:05:24.960 --> 00:05:29.520 switch, you can go into the uh the UI 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:33.120 menu. Actually, here. Remember that cassette that came with it? The very 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 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:42.720 came with the original Commodore 64. And this isn't an actual cassette. No, this 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 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. 00:05:47.440 --> 00:05:52.639 You can hear the thing. It's beeping. No mouse support for this right now. I 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:56.639 tried with the mouse, didn't seem to work, but yeah, doing WD. There's other 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 00:05:59.280 --> 00:06:04.800 Paint, but not. It's Gio Paint. I guess 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 00:06:07.280 --> 00:06:13.600 mouse. And just like modern day systems, it comes with system error messages. So 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:17.440 that was Gio kind of gave you that productivity element part of this too. I 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:21.759 think that and other software that was available. But before we dive into 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:25.840 anything else, the manual and this is honestly probably one of my favorite 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:29.039 parts about this pretty much almost one to one in terms of its design. I'm 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:33.280 learning full stack right now. People tell me Python's the way to start, 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 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 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:45.120 spend some time learning through this. This seems to be really fleshed out. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:49.440 There's like a lot of depth of information, too. It executes on the 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:53.680 whole thing of this is all you need besides community to get started on the 00:06:51.440 --> 00:06:56.880 Commodore 64 Ultimate. Let's get back to the very second for a second. Part of 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 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:06.880 cassette. What's cool and new about it is that it's coming preloaded with a 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:11.280 bunch of discs. It runs smoother. Some of those discs that are inserted include 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:14.240 Geo Paint and GeoRite, which are pretty cool productivity software. And before 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 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:24.080 Wi-Fi today. Make sure that's all enabled. And like anything else, we can 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:28.880 just select our access point. We're going to go with Sean Circuit. 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 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 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:39.840 things. Now, we're going to run the disc. We're going to see what happens. 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 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 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:50.080 system which would were and all that stuff. Just letting you know that it's 00:07:48.479 --> 00:07:53.120 doing something. And if you didn't hear the sound, well, then your system maybe 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 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. 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:10.400 This one went above that 48K, went to 64. So, it had more RAM, great sound 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:14.479 chips, and a ton more ability, I guess, with those things combined to do some 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 00:08:17.599 --> 00:08:22.720 things that the 82 version only could dream of. So, demos are really cool. 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 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:32.000 though it came out in 82, the reason why this is happening is because of the 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:35.839 community. and we're going to dive into Return of the Matrix 2. These demos, 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:40.240 they really push the envelope. As you can see, it went from a basic screen, 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 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 00:08:46.640 --> 00:08:53.760 the matrixy font pop up. That's sick. 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 00:08:55.920 --> 00:09:01.519 keyboard and the power button are reacting to the sounds. I mentioned that 00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:04.800 there's like twice the amount of SIDs. Those are virtual ones. But if you 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:08.480 really wanted to, you could take the original SID chips and just put that in 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:11.360 here. The 3D graphics and stuff like that. You're seeing the shading. And 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 00:09:13.839 --> 00:09:19.200 just how unique it was in a time where computing seemed to be pretty expensive 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 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:27.040 like this comes along, which is that $595 USD back then. and it had this and 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 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:36.800 got this into the households of so many people. But then there was another price 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:40.560 cut that happened around 1984 post the video game market crash. This was a 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:45.040 perfect opportunity for Commodore to really rise up and they ended up doing 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:50.160 that. They became the to this date the bestselling home computer of all time. 00:09:47.680 --> 00:09:53.920 They sold 12 million units or north of that. We're going to try some video 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:56.959 games. There we go. So, we're going to try Bomberland. Legally distinct from 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 00:09:59.920 --> 00:10:08.080 recently. Oh, it's detecting it as like a bad input. I see. Ah, that nostalgic 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:09.920 experience of the game working, but only when it wants to. 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:16.320 >> Did you blow on it? >> Yeah. Oh, there we go. You know what? I forgot. 00:10:13.760 --> 00:10:21.040 I swear if that work >> that worked. Okay, this is bomber land. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:24.720 The land whose residents like explosive events. You can see very different 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:29.120 controls, but this is one of the many games we have. Robot Jet Action sounds 00:10:27.040 --> 00:10:35.360 the least problematic, but it could also be the most problematic. See, I loaded 00:10:31.760 --> 00:10:36.800 up pretty quick for a, you know, right 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 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:45.440 care about Jetpack robot. There's a star. Nintendo didn't copyright the star 00:10:44.079 --> 00:10:49.760 yet. Family friendly. >> This seems to be a single button 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:56.640 joystick game. We're going to play a little thing called funk paint. We have 00:10:52.560 --> 00:10:59.640 we Okay, we have a mouse. L 00:10:56.640 --> 00:10:59.640 T 00:10:59.839 --> 00:11:04.320 I'm a graphic of my passion. Now, I've heard there's some really interesting 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 00:11:08.079 --> 00:11:14.720 source screwdriver. It seems it's just the one, two, three screws here. Wow. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:18.720 Yeah, some cables here that we just need to disconnect. 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 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 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:30.240 keyboard. You have the micro SD port here. So it seems like there's quite a 00:11:28.800 --> 00:11:33.920 bit of expansion here. And you can see the signatures here as well. I should 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:37.680 know about all of them, but getting especially I know the most about because 00:11:36.160 --> 00:11:42.880 he had worked on physical hardware projects for reviving the Commodore 64. 00:11:39.839 --> 00:11:44.640 And that keyboard that we see here is I 00:11:42.880 --> 00:11:49.120 believe a direct translation of hardware he was working on. down to its bones is 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:52.160 just how much community support this thing has. Yeah, something you want to 00:11:50.560 --> 00:11:56.480 notice here too is besides the signatures and just the interactability 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:59.839 you could have with this. The labeling. I figured out if I could lock in and 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:04.160 unlock the SID chip here where different chipsets could go, what the FPGA board 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 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 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 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:20.160 have a store full of merch as well as these machines available for sale 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:23.279 starting at 325 all the way up to 550 for the founders edition. If retro 00:12:21.920 --> 00:12:28.480 computing is your thing, you can check out Plof's coverage of the Retro 98 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:30.560 right here, over here. Just check it 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.