Commander X16 vs. Mega 65

paulscottrobson · Post by **paulscottrobson** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 9:27 pm

"Given (assumption) that the Mega65 makes sprites easy and sound easy, then speed IS an Ease of Use improvement. "

AFAIK it's about the same. Most of the sprite API is fairly straightforward. It's the data and ease of use that's the issue. I've a Python script that builds graphics into a single file with autoscaling and so on, RLE encodes it and indexes it along with size/alignment information. Data is unpacked into $A000 RAM. It works well enough.

The other tricky bit is if you want automovement.

rje · Post by **rje** » Fri Jul 23, 2021 10:00 pm

33 minutes ago, paulscottrobson said:

The other tricky bit is if you want automovement.

Automovement sounds fancy, as if one could specify a vector and the system will automagically move the sprite along that vector, until acted upon by the programmer's code.

Didn't need that on the C64; don't need it now. What I do need is a sound API, ? because (e.g.) on the C64 I couldn't do decent sound until SuperBASIC made it more accessible than POKEs. Then I was happy.

The Sprite ABI that Michael Steil wrote is perfectly fine for sprite management.

Scott Robison · Post by **Scott Robison** » Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:15 pm

I just received an email from MEGA65 saying that preorders will open next week for delivery late Q4 2021 or Q1 2022.

paulscottrobson · Post by **paulscottrobson** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:18 am

Yup, the price will be interesting. The devkit version was basically $1k. I'd guess $799 or $899 myself ? Wouldn't surprise me if it was more than the devkit.

TomXP411 · Post by **TomXP411** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 4:04 pm

6 hours ago, paulscottrobson said:

Yup, the price will be interesting. The devkit version was basically $1k. I'd guess $799 or $899 myself ? Wouldn't surprise me if it was more than the devkit.

It won’t be more than the dev kit. The team said as much when announcing the dev kit.

I was expecting a price of around $400, but seeing the dev kit pricing, I’m adjusting my expectation to around $600. Which I can’t afford right now.

and since the nature of these things is often just one production run, it may mean I never manage to get one.

Scott Robison · Post by **Scott Robison** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 4:19 pm

I would love to get a MEGA65. Given the platform, it seems like a perfect FPGA dev kit so it can be a C65 and so much more. But I don't know what dollar amount means I get one vs not bothering. It'll be an expensive toy, to be sure.

maktos · Post by **maktos** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 5:30 pm

Hmmm.... I wonder if they're trying to release and cash in on some of that pent-up demand for the X16, before the dev kits become available?

There are probably a number of people who like either, but can only afford one. We are talking about $600, not $50.

So the first system to market gets the sales from this group of people, and probably their long-term support (developing for the platform) as well.

Scott Robison · Post by **Scott Robison** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 6:07 pm

36 minutes ago, maktos said:

Hmmm.... I wonder if they're trying to release and cash in on some of that pent-up demand for the X16, before the dev kits become available?

There are probably a number of people who like either, but can only afford one. We are talking about $600, not $50.

So the first system to market gets the sales from this group of people, and probably their long-term support (developing for the platform) as well.

It *could* be but I highly doubt it. The fact is the MEGA65 has been in development for a very very long time. This just happens to be when they were finally ready.

paulscottrobson · Post by **paulscottrobson** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 7:27 pm

1 hour ago, Scott Robison said:

It *could* be but I highly doubt it. The fact is the MEGA65 has been in development for a very very long time. This just happens to be when they were finally ready.

Appears to be triggered by the cases becoming available. Electronically it's not complex, it's a Nexys A7 board with some add ons electronically. I don't think it's really a competitor for the X16. I'll be surprised if it's as low as $600.

Developing for an M65 is much more complicated than an X16/X8 which is really just a tarted up C64

TomXP411 · Post by **TomXP411** » Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:18 pm

1 hour ago, paulscottrobson said:

Appears to be triggered by the cases becoming available. Electronically it's not complex, it's a Nexys A7 board with some add ons electronically. I don't think it's really a competitor for the X16. I'll be surprised if it's as low as $600.

I doubt it will be more than that. You can build a dev system yourself for less than that. The dev board they used for developing the software currently sells for $229, and I seriously doubt the keyboard and case cost more than $80-$100 each, in quantity.

Heck, you could probably build a MEGA core for the MiSTer, and a MiSTer system only costs about $300-400, depending on your options.