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The C64 Mini

Revival

By Revival,
in Retro & Arcade Gaming

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Lorfarius

Lorfarius

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, dfq23 said:

Tempted by this, but is the joystick really as bad as everyone says?

 

It's fine. As long as you don't try twisting and bending it like crazy.  I put some real pressure on it and could feel the plastic strain a bit but that was going way overboard.

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Swainy

Swainy

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, OogyBoogy said:

Why do those games need hacks?

By the looks of things, it’s so you can use the joystick. Some games were programmed to use port 1 for the joystick whilst others used port 2. 

 

I havent used a C64 mini yet but I’m guessing that it can’t tell the ports apart because they are USB ports?

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Lorfarius

Lorfarius

Posted
Posted
49 minutes ago, Swainy said:

By the looks of things, it’s so you can use the joystick. Some games were programmed to use port 1 for the joystick whilst others used port 2. 

 

I havent used a C64 mini yet but I’m guessing that it can’t tell the ports apart because they are USB ports?

 

Yep exactly that! Makes them fully compatible.

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Clipper

Clipper

Posted
Posted

the c64 mini is now in lounge under telly for big tv use... and it inspired me to put me C64 setup backup and running with sd2iec (I even bought the fastloader cart now!) in my "office"

 

Original hardware is always the best (altho I worry about the PSU! Replacement from poland has mixed reviews hmmmm)

 

I am going back to my plan of reading old Zzap 64 issues from number 1 and playing the games (or some of them especially obscure ones) and see how they hold up - better or worse than the original review.

 

In other news Speedball 2 is a fantastic port, so close to the Amiga version in the way it plays, a fantastic achievement late int eh c64 life (and lemmings as well).

 

I am planning to try the Ghosts/Goblins and commando remakes as well once I get an SD card reader just realised I don't have one anymore (my old pc had card readers and all I have now i microsd on a usb thingy).

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niftyifty

niftyifty

Posted
Posted

The remakes of Commando and GNGoblins are exceptionally good. Loads of trainer options, options to play the originals, music/FX. They work fine with the SD Drive on a real C64 too, nothing like the warm sounds of the SID chip:wub:

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merman

merman

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, Clipper said:

the c64 mini is now in lounge under telly for big tv use... and it inspired me to put me C64 setup backup and running with sd2iec (I even bought the fastloader cart now!) in my "office"

 

Original hardware is always the best (altho I worry about the PSU! Replacement from poland has mixed reviews hmmmm)

 

I am going back to my plan of reading old Zzap 64 issues from number 1 and playing the games (or some of them especially obscure ones) and see how they hold up - better or worse than the original review.

 

In other news Speedball 2 is a fantastic port, so close to the Amiga version in the way it plays, a fantastic achievement late int eh c64 life (and lemmings as well).

 

I am planning to try the Ghosts/Goblins and commando remakes as well once I get an SD card reader just realised I don't have one anymore (my old pc had card readers and all I have now i microsd on a usb thingy).

 

Yeah, Carl Muller did an awesome job with Speedball 2. The main game is a single load, packing in all the menus, presentation screens and a smoothly scrolling arena.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Vimster

Vimster

Posted
Posted

Ashens did his own TheC64 Mini review:

 

He takes his time, and he does do a very brief review of all 64 games at the end, but he does make some good points which I'll spoiler if you want to watch it yourself.


 

Spoiler

 

He detected some input lag, thought that would be a problem for some people.

He wasn't happy with the joystick, although he was comparing it to a real microswitched Comp Pro which isn't really fair.

He was baffled by some of the game choices, for instance why have Creatures when they could have had the superior Creatures 2.

Lack of USB ports a problem, especially if you want 2-players and a keyboard plugged in.

He does try to figure out who this is aimed it, is there a market for these things to  someone looking for some casual nostalgia?


 

 

He was reviewing one with the original standard firmware. It would be good if he could try it again after an update or two.

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Anne Summers

Anne Summers

Posted
Posted

I hope this doesn't come across as "outrage" but I really do feel they missed a trick by not having a working keyboard. 

With a keyboard (and better stick) this would have been a fantastic product. 

Without, it's just a fun curiosity to me, that I am pretty certain will be confined to a box in a cupboard and forgotten about before too long. 

Not that I imagine anyone would ever want to use it for writing novels, or programming BASIC on. But just because lots of the games need keyboard input and using the onscreen keyboard is fiddly enough to break the immersion while you're in-game. 

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Lorfarius

Lorfarius

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, Anne Summers said:

I hope this doesn't come across as "outrage" but I really do feel they missed a trick by not having a working keyboard. 

With a keyboard (and better stick) this would have been a fantastic product. 

Without, it's just a fun curiosity to me, that I am pretty certain will be confined to a box in a cupboard and forgotten about before too long. 

Not that I imagine anyone would ever want to use it for writing novels, or programming BASIC on. But just because lots of the games need keyboard input and using the onscreen keyboard is fiddly enough to break the immersion while you're in-game. 

 

There's a full sized version coming later for more advanced users.  This is more of a fund raiser for that.

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Anne Summers

Anne Summers

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, Lorfarius said:

 

There's a full sized version coming later for more advanced users.  This is more of a fund raiser for that.

I didn't know that. Will be interesting to see how it turns out. 

And also hopefully they will do a Spectrum one the same way, too.

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Lorfarius

Lorfarius

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Anne Summers said:

I didn't know that. Will be interesting to see how it turns out. 

And also hopefully they will do a Spectrum one the same way, too.

 

I think they will stay clear of the Speccy after the Vega debacle. They have dropped some hints at looking at the Amiga next.

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Lorfarius

Lorfarius

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Goose said:

 

What's this all about?

 

You load that file and can select from a choice of games.  If you do it individually you have to load the games on their own which takes ages, think of it as a multi disk until the proper update comes out!

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  • 3 weeks later...
Lorfarius

Lorfarius

Posted
Posted

New update just gone up:

 

https://thec64.com/upgrade/

 

Includes firmware optimisations and improvements to THEC64 input response times

 

Coming Soon!

Planned Changes for upcoming firmware includes:

– Choose from a selection of disks on a USB memory stick
– Allow multi-disk files/games to be easily accessed and switched between
– Other update features to be confirmed ASAP!

 

Wish they'd sort out the USB access, I've stopped using mine for anything beyond the main games as it's a bit of a pain.

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