Commodore 64 Reborn as Atom Equipped Nettop

Commodore 64 Reborn as Atom Equipped Nettop

Nachiket Mhatre, Dec 22, 2010 1841 hrs IST

Includes Intel Atom processor and Nvidia Ion2 graphics in a Commodore 64 shell

The '80s saw the second videogame crash, with an influx of low quality games that almost annihilated the console gaming industry. It was also the time when Commodore 64 came into being and showed the first glimpse of what could now be technically termed as Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming. With an 8-bit processor and 64 KB of RAM, it was a pretty powerful device for that time and brought the concept of PC gaming to the masses.

Those from the '80 will have their nostalgia served with the reincarnation of the Commodore 64 as the Commodore 64x. Instead of the 8-bit processor, the Commodore 64x sports and Intel Dual Core 525 Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Ion 2 graphics chipset. The photographs on the official website seem more like a computer generated prototype models, but the setup looks similar to a generic atom based nettop with DVI, HDMI and D-Sub video outputs, card reader, four USB ports and usual I/O ports for audio and user input devices. However, unlike a nettop, this one has its own optical drive.

The configuration may not be as cutting edge as the Commodore 64's back in the day, but having employed a similar setup for non-gaming tasks personally, I can vouch for its capability to handle full-HD video and everyday computing tasks with ease. For more authentic nod to the nostalgia of the '80s generation, the Commodore 64x also includes the original software with the help of an emulator or a custom Workbench 5 operating system. The good news is that Commodore 64 games have been out for sale on Nintendo's Virtual Console service in Europe since 2008. No details on price or availability yet.