This reply appears to complete contradict the previous reply.BruceRMcF wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 7:00 pmThe keyboard case is one reason the Mega65 costs over US$700.CapnZapp wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 2:13 pm Thank you.
Let me ask a direct question:
a) Will there ever be a Commander X16 product that looks like a home computer straight out of the 80s? A "bulky keyboard" that, if switched on, and is connected to an old VGA monitor, immediately displays the logo and a blinking BASIC cursor?
b) if "yes", will that product have a "real" non-emulated 6502 processor?
I'm not interested in any product that looks like a "board". The exact size of the motherboard is immaterial since you can't see it without opening up the case.
Thanks
- When you turn on a Commander X16, it displays the logo and a blinking cursor, unless you have a Basic program named AUTOEXEC.X16 that makes it do something else.
- The design team has announced that the Phase 1 "through pin real chips" board won't be sold with it's own case. With the right choice of case, an old school VGA monitor can sit on the case. If you find a 3rd party bulky keyboard case for a micro-ATX, it'd be heading more toward an AppleII bulky keyboard than a C64.
- We don't yet know whether the "mostly surface mount but real chips" board (Phase 2) will have an option of its own case, but if it does, it will be an existing mini-ITX case with a customized front -- at this scale, making your own mold for a keyboard case is not cost effective. A keyboard case would be 3rd party, but it'd work with a smaller one, because of the smaller board.
- It seems like the Phase 3 board, if it is ever created, would comfortably fit into keyboard cases designed for things like a Raspberry Pi, but it'd not an ASIC, it'd be an FPGA simulating the 6502 and other chips in hardware.
If none of the phases offers a 80s looking one-in-all computer with a genuine 6502 chip inside, I must honestly confess you have managed to let slip what Dave was talking about in his initial dream machine texts and videos.
The Mega65 looks fantastic. But it contains modern stuff, plus it emulates a machine I don't have any nostalgic connection to.
Obviously your customers will want to have a computer in a box that looks like an 80s computer. Making your own cases to fit the board, or using off-the-shelf PC cases, I consider merely development phases.
It isn't until you have designed a case that is unique to the CX16, ideally oozing with 8-bit era nostalgic goodness, with a working 8-bit computer powered by a real 6502 processor inside, that your job is done.
As far as Dave's initial target of 50-200 dollars I immediately understood that to be unrealistic. There simply is no point in tring to replicate the Sinclair way in this day and age. Everybody interested will be in their middle age with disposable income. Inflation also means that $50 is an absurd goal in the year 2023.
I'd much rather have something truly nice than something I can't pretend it actually was made in 1984