The Grumpy Old Gamers

August 13, 2019|All Reviews, New Fangled Review

Although I was never a Commodore 64 user, one has to appreciate the importance of this home computer in video gaming history. Still listed in Guinness as being the highest selling computer model of all time, it brought home computing to roughly about 17 million people.  People are STILL making games for the platform, as a programmer with the user name ZeroPaige just released a fully functioning Super Mario Bros port THIS YEAR! (Which Nintendo promptly went full Nintendo on and removed)

So when RetroGames announced they were giving the venerable computer the same treatment that the Super Nintendo and NES got earlier, I was intrigued.  Not enough to grab one in a timely fashion, because I am a cheap, cheap man…but I did have one fall into my lap this week.  So after some time with it, what are this Grumpy Old Mans thoughts on the remake?

Inside the box, you get the C64 Mini itself, a USB joystick (though it is compatible with a variety of USB joysticks, which I would STRONGLY recommend using instead), a USB A to micro USB cable for power (no power brick strangely, but any 5V/1A will work) and an HDMI cable, to hook to your new fandangled high definition television. 

You also get a quick start guide, which is actually really useful, especially since the ROMs are expecting keyboard inputs sometimes, and you’ll need to know how to get around in the menus right out of the gate. You can also hook up a keyboard, as the C64 mini comes with 2 USB ports, though you may want to hook up a USB hub later to add more ports, as I will explain later.

The Hardware

The C64 Mini is roughly 30 percent longer than its NES mini counterpart, but that’s most likely due to  the recreation of the classic Commodore keyboard, which, while looking exceptionally cool, is just for show. The attention to detail on this is astounding, you can tell they put a lot of effort into the cosmetics.

Once you hook everything up and power the C64 mini up, you’re greeted with a very clean user interface.  You’ve got the included 64 games in a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen, with a blurb about each of them as you scroll by. Underneath that, you have a display option, where you can set a variety of filters and display types, including pixel perfect and CRT(which adds simulated scanlines for that classic CRT feel) options for 16:9, and 4:3 options (NTSC and PAL) with and without the aforementioned scanlines.  There’s also a tab for changing the language (hablas español?)

The Games

With any of these “mini” systems, the interface and options is secondary to what everyone is coming for, and that’s the games.  So, how are the games on this?  Well, like Ross and Rachel, it’s complicated. (Timely Grump reference!)

The games that are on here play great, look fantastic and have no noticeable controller latency issues.  The selection of games, however suffers a little bit from PlayStation Classic-itis…there are some Commodore classics like Impossible Mission 1 and 2, the Winter, Summer, World and California Games series, and Jumpman 1 and 2…but it seems to be missing a lot of what people would say are defining Commodore classics, such as Pirates, Maniac Mansion, Turricon, Archon and The Bards Tale, just to name a few. I get licensing games for a system like this must be expensive, but some of the choices are just baffling, and makes using this a bit of a downer.  Or it would, if wasn’t for the choice the developer made sometime after launch.

 See, if you go to the C64 Mini webpage, you can download the newest firmware onto a USB drive, and updating the mini is as easy as popping it into a port on the mini and going to the update firmware menu.  After it loads and reboots, along with the requisite stability updates, and the adding of a new game Galencia (a homebrew Galaga from 2017 that is really well done!) there is a file loader that allows you to play any backup C64 roms of your existing C64 games that you happen to have on the USB drive. Wink, wink…

This is where the USB hub is needed, as having one or two controllers, a keyboard possibly and the USB drive take more than the existing two ports available.  Fortunately, any USB hub you have should work just fine.

The Verdict

As it is out of the box, the C64 Mini is a very well done piece of hardware with a less than impressive list of games.  However, once you update the firmware and can load from the entire library of 10,000 plus games from the library the C64 has to offer, it’s in my mind a no brainer.  If you have any nostalgia towards the C64, or just love retro games, pick this up…you’ll be glad you did!