Commander X16

Hi, I'm Tom (or TMO) from St Louis, Missouri

I took an interest in the Commander X16 when I watched videos from The 8 Bit Guy and binge-watched all the Commander X16 episodes.

Currently, I am in the market for an original Maximite or likely a Color Maximite 2 Deluxe (because there's more availability there), but when I saw the X16 will come out soon, I'm likely to "hold off" for availability for it, instead. Seems like a well thought out and cool machine! ?

Nothing much else to add here - I'm 38, love retro gaming/computing *videos*, but as of yet I have not delved deep into any retro software/hardware myself. I burned up a few raspberry Pi models by overclocking the processor (on accident), but aside from that, no real hardware building/assembling/development experience, and just picked up web development, and also software dev in general starting in 2020.

So anyway, hello, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the project goes!

Hi Tom - welcome! While waiting for the HW to go to production one can get the emulator going on your desktop. It won't be as satisfying as having a real machine, but also won't suffer from overclocking issues.



As you probably know, there will be several HW versions. It first one is aimed at those who want discrete components and the assembly experience. It should like you might be  the prime target for a later version that has the majority of assembly done. 

 

 

Yes, the overclocking was on me. I let full screen 1080p videos play for hours on end, and RPi's don't like that, it seems. The first two didn't even have a heat sink, or any real ventilation.

And yea, I hope to get my hands on an C-X16 when they release a bigger batch of the first gen. I doubt I'd have the patience to wait until Gen 2/Gen 3 come out. Though I think they will meet that, because C-X16 seems like it has a fair critical mass of would-be users to purchase one ?

In the very short term, I am getting a RPi 400, just to use with a monitor I am purchasing. Then, I will go Maximite, and eventually C-X16.

Just wanting to get into it, really. And Websites that offer on-site BASIC stuff, that sounds cool, too. I may play around with that in the meantime.

Nice to meet you Edmond!

Welcome to the forums!

St. Louis, my old stomping grounds! Well, I actually spent most of my time in the Wentzville/O'Fallon/St.Peters/St.Charles area. I ventured into St. Louis on the weekends with friends to go club hopping (it was the 90's after all), or to go to Cardinal games or concerts at one of the many clubs, though most of those were all at Riverport, or whatever they call it now. Was actually at the GnR concert for the riot. ?

I would love to get my hands on a Maximite 2, but they're pretty much unobtainium like many other things these days. Wouldn't mind building myself a WeeCee as well, but that one is in the same boat. I got my Z80-MBC2 computer up and running, almost done with that project, now I'm just waiting on the X16. Getting closer!

On 10/14/2022 at 2:16 PM, tmo said:

In the very short term, I am getting a RPi 400, just to use with a monitor I am purchasing. Then, I will go Maximite, and eventually C-X16.



Just wanting to get into it, really. And Websites that offer on-site BASIC stuff, that sounds cool, too. I may play around with that in the meantime.



Nice to meet you Edmond!

I might get a PI at some point to drive a PI1541 I/O adapter that I was given. I have a collection of VIC 20's and only used a tape drive in the 80s. It should compliment the X16 when I get one. Availability/price is the issue (with both the PI and the X16) ?



As for BASIC, I did my share of it; machine language interests me more, plus hardware too. The emulator doesn't give me the same kick as a real physical machine. 



I hope you enjoy  your BASIC journey, no matter what platform you use! 



Feel free to ask any questions here - many are willing to help out. There's a lot of good threads on optimizing the V2 BASIC which gives some insight to under the hood that are worth reading.

 

Hey Strider! I had a friend who was at the GnR concert that got them banned (in 91?) and that ban just lifted in recent years. They weren't just banned from Riverport, though, but from like all of STL! And yea, Riverport is called something else now.

I have many a friends in St Charles and that area, but I am in South County, in Oakville.

On the Maximite, yes, that is why I am aiming for a Maximite 2 Deluxe, because it seems possible to have it ordered/shipped to me in a reasonable amount of time. Of course going straight to the X16 would be ideal, but I will have to wait for that boat to come along.

I've seen a lot of Z80 projects in the past year, and it intrigues me, but I may go with the "old familiar" RPi and do stuff with that, because I've owned (and fried) several of them already, haha!

Good to meet you!

Hey Edmond!

I feel the same way. I want a real machine to do stuff on. Though messing with XYZ stuff on a Website could be cool in the meantime.

And I won't hesitate to ask if I have issues or questions about anything. Seems like a cool hub of retro tech, these forums

Stay well ?

Yeah, pretty sure it was '91. I also recall the little message they left buried in the middle of the credits of their "Use Your Illusion" album.  Good times. ?

I do love the Raspberry Pi, have several myself, all obtained before the world went all bonkers. Most all of them are used for emulation, and a couple Zero W units are in special projects, but the Pi 4 is currently being used as a stand-alone mini-PC. It was my "bench computer" for almost a year, but I recently upgraded to an older SFF nano PC for that, I needed the extra horsepower and x86 platform.

I did the whole Z80 build becasue I missed out on that style of computing, and I was really in the mood to build a full-on homebrew system. I was itching to build something, and I don't have an X16 yet, and that's scratching my itch. It was actually a toss up between the RC2014 and Z80-MBC2, the MBC2 won for various reasons. I really liked the build, learned a lot so far, and still learning more. I posted some of it here on the forums, and more on my tiny little blog.

Cheers! ?

hey Strider,

I looked into the RC2014 as well, which I had not heard of until a couple weeks ago. Cool device.

The link to your blog takes me back to the top of this thread though. Maybe an X16 forum redirect rule or something? I have no idea if external links are allowed here?

You can send me the blog link in a DM or just write it out on the forum. I gave a blog, too `tmo.name` that gets updated once a day, usually.

Tech stuff is there, under "#dev" and "#TicP", but I can discuss that in another thread here sometime soon ?

I think that was my fault. It was pretty late in the day. To the best of my knowledge, you can post external links, tons of them on here, as long as they fall within the general rules. ?

I fixed it, but it's also in my forum profile and in the "Lounge" section of the forums where I've been posting about it. ?