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Anybody own the C64 Mini? Impressions?


Spike Danton

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@OLD CS1

 

I am looking forward to your breakdown and review, I am sure its going to be interesting for a lot of us here.

 

As far as getting some more stuff to play on it, I don't know if you have downloaded or heard of the Freeze64 game bundles for the C64 mini but they are pretty great.

 

https://freeze64.com/c64mini-hacks/

 

Hopefully you will enjoy your C64 Mini as much as I enjoy mine. I already bought 2 USB SNES style controllers, 1 Sega Saturn Style USB and a powered USB hub and enjoy all of them with it.

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@OLD CS1

 

I am looking forward to your breakdown and review, I am sure its going to be interesting for a lot of us here.

 

As far as getting some more stuff to play on it, I don't know if you have downloaded or heard of the Freeze64 game bundles for the C64 mini but they are pretty great.

 

https://freeze64.com/c64mini-hacks/

 

Hopefully you will enjoy your C64 Mini as much as I enjoy mine. I already bought 2 USB SNES style controllers, 1 Sega Saturn Style USB and a powered USB hub and enjoy all of them with it.

 

That is a rather impressive and extensive collection, for sure, thank you for pointing it out. Since I have to put a little more time into my break-down I am going to try a few different USB hardware options, as well.

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That is a rather impressive and extensive collection, for sure, thank you for pointing it out. Since I have to put a little more time into my break-down I am going to try a few different USB hardware options, as well.

 

I'm looking forward to your review, as well. Take all the time you need to make a thorough review.

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Ive seen this thing all over the place for 100 CDN...and am now interested with the firmware update that allows roms. I wish they incorporated the use of an external keyboard like with one of the built in games, rather than using the virtual keyboard. Maybe that will be implemented at some later date though. I will wait for it to be discounted after Chtistmas in any case. If latency is an issue though, I'm out. Metal Jesus seems to say it plays great though, and he didn't mention latency issues. As for the pack in joystick, also no big deal

..tons of viable options for that. But latency is a dealbreaker.

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I have been documenting quite a bit on the 1.1.4 firmware. I experience so far:

 

1) No lag

2) Usable external keyboard (Logitech standard, not wireless)

3) Various games (D64, PRG) will not respond to the controller, no matter what setting

4) The few demos I have tried do not work

 

I have to try it with a couple of USB joysticks before I am ready to throw it all out. Last night and today I have been doing video captures.

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I am loving mine.

No lag problems

 

Just wish I could use a different controller.

USB Keyboard IS compatible,

Using a little mini 4-port usb hub I can connect the joystick, keyboard, USB stick and still have 2 ports free.

There was a mouse compatible with the C64 right? Can you use a mouse with it? I have seen anything listing so...

 

Its not perfect though, multidisk games you still have to load and frig around with manually.

Many games (I find) dont work with the speed loader and you still have to manually rename the file and load it oldstyle.

I'm hoping they keep ironing out kinks,

but otherwise, I'm very happy with my ($100CDN) purchase.

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Does this mean I have to remembr how to "*",8,1 again?

 

heheheh yeah, at least for now. I did make a couple of really great discoveries last night, though, which have made me pretty happy.

 

I need to find out what exact video codecs are supported by the AtariAge video player. There is a 50MB upload limit so I will need to truncate some of the videos I have made (or drop the resolution on things which do not need to be HD,) but the FLV format is a bit of a dog, and so far I have not been able to get proper MP4 or MOV encodings to play.

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I bought the GameLink Sega Saturn style USB white pad with candy buttons that I love with this unit.

 

I also bought the SNES USB controllers someone recommended here and those work but the Saturn style is still my favorite.

 

I use the packed in controller too but only while I am working on this unit to get it to my best specs.

 

2 controllers work great, if some games don't work it might be trying to use port 1, either make a game settings file for your game or plug in another controller.

 

I was playing Gradius Nemesis and created a file to map the left cursor key to the small triangle button so now I have 2 buttons for that game, one to fire and one to activate power ups.

 

Mapping buttons like Space bar or other buttons with a file is the strongest feature the mini C64 have going for it over the real thing!

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At this point I have all pretty much all the media together and am proofing and adding to my "review." Just wanted to put up a few image teasers to keep interest flowing. These are screen shots from video I have been capturing.

 

post-27864-0-86707600-1541048557.pngpost-27864-0-80488000-1541048567.png

post-27864-0-70035000-1541048579.pngpost-27864-0-53460300-1541048593.png

post-27864-0-14392500-1541048603.pngpost-27864-0-43140100-1541048627.png

post-27864-0-55795800-1541048637.png

It is a shame the AtariAge editor lacks good formatting features. There is no way to make my blog post pretty or prevent a lot of scrolling.

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At this point I have all pretty much all the media together and am proofing and adding to my "review." Just wanted to put up a few image teasers to keep interest flowing. These are screen shots from video I have been capturing.

 

attachicon.gifSpace Warrior.png

It is a shame the AtariAge editor lacks good formatting features. There is no way to make my blog post pretty or prevent a lot of scrolling.

 

Hi I have this demo in one of my real disks do u happen to have a D64 of it been looking for years and forget which disk it is on

 

Found it on CSDB Titled Space Demo

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Hi I have this demo in one of my real disks do u happen to have a D64 of it been looking for years and forget which disk it is on

 

Found it on CSDB Titled Space Demo

 

Yup. I was in the same situation -- have it on disk (I cannot find) but then tracked it down to CSDB. I will be including an archive of all the programs I tried out during my testing, including the demos. I have full video captures of all of the demos shown which will be in my "review."

 

I am putting myself on a deadline of Saturday morning. Putting all this together is a lot of work I am having to eek out in five or ten minute bursts throughout the day. Hence "review" is in quotes as I am certainly not providing this as a professional service :)

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I want to underline one of the things I mentioned in my review: this unit can run in PAL mode with just a simple setting of the filename or in a companion configuration file. This means not only PAL demos can run with no hassle, but also some of the newer releases like Yoomp! 64. It really is a fun game and I am glad to see it ported from the Atari.

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With the new firmware, the video lag has been reduced from 4 frames (13 ms) to 3 frames (9 ms). The audio delay has been reduced from 36 ms to 32 ms. I suppose for games where the audio effects are not so important, you can live with a lag of 3 frames or just below 1/10 of a second. It also depends on how picky you are. These tests were conducted with an USB keyboard, whether reading the joystick adds or decreases the lag any is beyond what he brings up in the video.

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I'm picky as fuck still unacceptable heap of shit with that amount of lag

Spend the time money effort on real hardware with a good display and you won't have to put up with unplayable bullshit

See it wouldn't be so bad IF

 

peripherals ports

 

joystick 1 and 2 ports worked correctly without fucking around

 

a keyboard

 

as many game images as you want on usb without fucking around

 

easy to use to load multiple disk games

 

came with it's own psu

 

joystick wasn't a cheap and nasty turd

 

and seeing as it's on WinVice why not add add the VIC20/C16/PLUS4/C64/128 MODES

 

coz they are cheapskate bastards who only care about cashing in on the retro band wagon

Edited by 256 colors
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What is the lag on comparable devices?

 

EDIT: The lag measurements is interesting. In my testing I was able to play games just fine. Even directly to my Eyoyo screen, games which normally require precise timing posed no problem. It may be I did not perceive the lag. Noting they were able to reduce lag is pretty neat, though. It may lend to the notion the hardware is under-powered for the complex task of a full machine emulation, but I again wonder what the lag is on products like the NES Classic, Genesis Flashback HD, etc.

 

We had a discussion about emulating a TI-99/4A on a Pi before over the in TI forums, but the conclusion is the hardware is under-powered for the task. It has been a couple a-few years so that may no longer be the case. ::shrugs::

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