If you weren’t one of the lucky few who were able to sate their retro console lust with an SNES Classic Edition — Nintendo, why hast thou forsaken us with such short supply?! — don’t fret quite yet. You may still be in for an equally sweet gaming treat sometime in the near future with The C64 Mini. It’s another plug-and-play replica console, this time built as a fully functioning 50% scale Commodore 64 computer.
Gamespot picked up on news of The C64 Mini, which comes on the heels of the sell-out success of both the NES and SNES Classic Editions released by Nintendo in 2016 and 2017 respectively. And while The C64 Mini is not produced by the original maker of the Commodore (that company went bankrupt), it still looks like it captures the essence of gaming in 1982. (Meaning 8-bit graphics galore and a whole bunch of raw and wonderful synth music.)
If you purchase The C64 Mini, you’ll be getting a console that contains 64 of the original Commodore 64 gaming titles, including Impossible Mission and California Games (full overview of games in the image below — click to enlarge), a joystick, a USB power lead, and an HDMI cable. The console hooks up to your television via the HDMI cable, and there are two USB ports so you can either plug in two joysticks for competitive play, or perhaps even a real keyboard. Why would you want to plug in a real keyboard, you ask? Because you can use The C64 Mini to program in BASIC, and even program entirely new games. (So the next time somebody tells you you’re basic, you can be like: input “you bet I am, honey.”)
See the full list of games at the bottom of the post.
The one caveat to any excitement that is now festering deep within your nostalgic soul is the fact that The C64 Mini, which is expected to cost around $70, has no definitive release date. This usually wouldn’t be a big deal, except the maker behind The C64 Mini, Retro Games Ltd., did previously execute a successful indiegogo campaign for a full-sized Commodore 64 replica, which has still not materialized for donors even though its original release date was supposed to be sometime in December of 2016.
Retro Games Ltd. has, however, stated in an indiegogo update that after the global launch of The C64 Mini, the company will get back to working on the full-size Commodore 64 replica, which is simply named THE 64. That system is set to be released in 2018. Maybe it will come with a commercial as sweet as the one for the original Commodore 64.
What do you think about The C64 Mini? Would you take it over the SNES and NES Classic Editions? Or would you prefer to wait until Nintendo decides to produce more of those models? Let us know in the comments below!
Full list of games included in the above C64 Mini announcement:
AlleyKat
Anarchy
The Arc Of Yesod
Armalyte: Competition Edition
Avenger
Battle Valley
Bounder
California Games
Chip’s Challenge
Confuzion
Summer Games II
Spindizzy
Slayer
Star Paws
Super Cycle
Cosmic Causeway: Trailblazer II
Creatures
Cyberdyne Warrior
Cybernoid II: The Revenge
Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine
Deflektor
Everyone’s a Wally
Firelord
Gribbly’s Day Out
Hawkeye
Street Sports Baseball
Speedball
Temple of Apshai Trilogy
Thing Bounces Back
Thing on a Spring
Heartland
Herobotix
Highway Encounter
Hunter’s Moon
Hysteria
Impossible Mission
Impossible Mission II
Insects In Space
Zynaps
Mega-Apocalypse
Stormlord
Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe
Trailblazer
Uchi Mata
Uridium
Mission A.D
Monty Mole
Monty on the Run
Nebulus
Netherworld
Nobby the Aardvark
Nodes Of Yesod
Paradroid
Pitstop II
Rana Rama
Steel
Snare
Who Dares Wins II
Winter Games
World Games
Not pictured but also included, per Hothardware:
Robin of the Wood
Rubicon
Skate Crazy
Skool Daze
Images: Retro Games
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