July6th CX16 update video.

[GTR3QQ]

I must say, I was kinda worried seeing last two vids got too much neg comments.
But unbelievably, with only one vid, the comment swings to the other direction.
I guess I truly don't understand how YT works, or any social media.

[Jay Crutti]

The update about general availability silenced a lot of the naysayers who's argument about it being vaporware was just eliminated.

[Tatwi]

Nice to see the progress. Funny, in that sad kind of way, that David was absolutely slammed with "merch" orders, given how much labor is involved and how little money he actually earns from the effort - it's almost like he's showing his support for buyers rather than the other way around. His whole real-life support group must be a good bunch of folks.

My only complaint, as always, is that the X16 is far too expensive for those of us living in the ghetto of the online purchasing world, namely Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. After shipping, currency conversion, 13% tax, duty, then 13% tax again (because screw us, I guess), it would cost at least $700 CAD for me to buy a "$350 Commander X16" from Canada. Reminds me of when I wanted to buy a $78 USD Unicomp keyboard, which would have cost $210 CAD. I ended up buying a $75 CAD mechanical keyboard, because, just like you folks in the USA, I thought $75 was the right amount to spend on a specialty keyboard! Anyway, "sucks to be us", blah, blah, no one cares.

For the least expensive model, I think it would actually be pretty smart to take the BMC64 approach and make it an emulator that was programmed to run directly ("bare metal", not in Linux) on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W or one of the similar Orange Pi models (if a similar SDK is available for Orange Pi). The hardware would be about $20 USD, it would be compatible with most (if not all) X16 software, and it would still boot nearly instantly, so with the X16 keyboard it would provide a similar user experience.

Running the emulator on a PC is fine, I suppose. I am personally getting rid of all my "old junk", because I really don't use it much, I am not going to live forever, and my wife and kids really won't know what to do with it when I am gone. They don't even get why I have it while I am here! So I have a decent desktop PC which does a nice job of emulating old stuff using DOSBox, VirtualBox (I like it, damn it!), PCem, Vice, and the X16. However, despite the PC setup definitely being a handy, unified, streamlined experience, it just doesn't feel the same as poking away at my VIC20 and having my brain slowly melted as I gaze endlessly into a CRT. I miss the sound and feel of the 3.5" floppy drive, the Zip drive, and even the CDROM (which I had in the PC for literal years and never actually used, but I still wanted it there!). I've considered hooking up my 14" SVGA CRT and PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse to my PC, as it has the capability, so I can use use it as a "retro station" for emulators dragged over to the second monitor, but... that seems kind of stupid, like somehow a nerd-bridge too far.

That said, I don't actually use the X16 emulator very often (at all this year, to be honest), because generally I am sitting at my PC doing modern PC things most of the time. Whether it's playing a game or installing a version of Linux for the billionth time, I just... don't really open DOSBox to play with QBasic or fire up Vice for a round of the best version of Burger Time very often. I think that has to do with focus, feelings, and habits; While this PC setup can be ideal, in practice, it isn't.

Having a physical device to sit down at and use in a specific manner, for specific purposes, really does generate its own well defined goals and motivations; It is better to have a "real thing", even if it's just a mini unit plugged into a unique keyboard, sitting in front of a special screen.

Sitting at a real Commander X16 and participating in its community seems like a compelling hobby.

[Daedalus]

The update about general availability silenced a lot of the naysayers who's argument about it being vaporware was just eliminated.

And having the 500 dollar version sell out immediately before then didn't hurt, I'm sure. It's hard to argue that people won't pay 350 for something when they were clearly willing to pay 500 at the drop of a hat.

[bleggett29]

I just got my tracking number from TexElec. There were 25 left when I bought mine, if anyone is trying to figure how close theirs should ship.

[Martin Schmalenbach]

I just got my tracking number from TexElec. There were 25 left when I bought mine, if anyone is trying to figure how close theirs should ship.

Good to know - I bought one of the last 4. Not heard from Texelec yet but I know they’ll get to me when they can.

In the meantime I have been spurred on to finish my pascal compiler spurred on by the imminent arrival of actual hardware to run it on!