So to recap, I have bought an A500++ PCB with the intention of making a brand new Amiga. I have been working on this project for a while, and have been motivated to document my progress on this blog, in a series of posts which due to a moment of stupidity and inadequate backup procedures, are now lost for all time. They were great, by the way: amongst humanity’s finest works of literature.

The thought of immediately rewriting those posts does not fill me with joy, so I’m going to leave the Amiga for the time being. Let’s talk about a different machine for a spell.

I was passionate about all three of my Commodore machines, so when I bought the Amiga PCB the thought ‘what about the other two?’ was at the forefront of my mind. Fortunately there is an easy a solution at hand. There’s a fashion at the moment for releasing ‘mini’ versions of classic computers, and some time ago a group released a mini version of the C64. Basically a single board computer running an emulator inside a scaled down copy of a classic breadbin Commodore 64 case. Last year they went one better, and released a full size C64 with a working keyboard. The emulator runs in both C64 and VIC-20 modes. This seemed to be the ideal solution for my needs, and I preordered it over the summer when it was first announced.

In December, a week before release, I cancelled my pre-order. I just wasn’t feeling it. I don’t want an emulator, I want the real thing, man. A authentic Commodore 64. Let’s do it!