I don’t think they will sell a huge amount of it, but there certainly is a niche group of hardcore Commodore fans. The fact that the case is the same as almost 30 years ago and it comes with Ubunto, makes it the perfect product for die hard unix coders or a Commodore aficionado.

Being only two years old when Commodore 64 was first released I never saw one, let alone use one. I would love to try one out today, even though it’s now with current technology.

The new Commodore 64 is a modern functional PC as close to the original in design as humanly possible. It houses a modern mini-ITX PC motherboard featuring a Dual Core 525 Atom processor and the latest Nvidia Ion2 graphics chipset. It comes in the original taupe brown/beige color, with other colors to follow.

If you have an old good working CRT monitor lying around you are set with the retro computer setup that meets today standards. Well with the exception of the CRT monitor which doesn’t hold up a candle to today’s LCD and TFT screens.

Anyone reading this who is a huge fan of Commodore and would consider buying one?

See the Commodore 64x Selection prices.

I’m reminiscing about the Atari 400 — my first real computer. As the ad below shows, it was a bit of the poor relation to the Atari 800 – less pricy but less memory.

I’m not sure if that keyboard was supposed to repel spills, but I remember getting quite adept at typing on it.

It certainly had an interesting look to it. Lots of brown colouring and a bit like some sort of console you might find on a spaceship’s flight deck in a cheap movie from the ’70s.

Here’s the manual for the Atari 400/800. Mum has only been given one instruction: “Press the play button”, while the son looks on and wonders when his folks will leave so he can finish that primitive ASCII porn program he started writing yesterday.

Ah, yes, that amazing cassette deck. Unlike the Spectrum, you couldn’t get away with plugging any old player into the computer. No, the Atari 410 was the business.

This poor fellow seems to have a manual for the Disk Operating System II, unaware that it was nigh impossible to use the Atari 400 for that. Time to upgrade to the 800, methinks.

Ahh, Atari 8-bit and 16-bit side by side (well, except for those pesky Commodores sitting in the middle. Who the hell put those there?)

OK here’s one musical use for an old Atari 400 and joystick trigger buttons.

Stick a Dalek on top, we can play Doctor Who on this thing.

Uh, hang on, have you seen the screenshot?

Ahh, I spent many a happy time learning the Atari’s idiosyncratic version of BASIC that missed out some vital bits other 8-bit machines had. INKEY$ anyone? I seem to remember missing that a lot.

Did I tell you about the first program I tried to type in on the Atari 400, without ever pressing Return?

It didn’t work.

Wow, green and orange Chess. You could never put it on the high levels because not only would the computer beat you but it would take about twenty times as long as a human to play each move.

Who says computers have to be fast?

Is it true, or just folklore, that people really bought an Atari computer just to play Star Raiders? I’m doubtful.

Anyhow, there’s a quick nostalgic tour of my beloved Atari 400. Worth all of $20 now I’m sure, but a lot more in memories.

Anyone else have the Atari 400? Are you still running it?

Self-assembly required, it features a 20-key keypad, single 7-segment LED, seven individual LEDs, and comes with seven bits of software built in: an organ (basic tone generator), sound hit game, whack-a-mole, tennis, a timer, music player and morse code generator.

Here’s a cool knol on programming the Gakken GMC-4 microcomputer, and below is a video demoing a little of what it can do.

If you want to get your hands on the GMC4, it’s bundled with volume 24 of Gakken’s “Otona no Kagaku” Magazine.

Via

So what about mice? If you are the kind who tends to spill water (or, God forbid, coffee) on your gadgets, you might want to take a look at some of the waterproof mice in the market. One of the newest washable mice is the Cherry MW-2800. It is optical and tracks at 1,200dpi. You can submerge this baby in water and use it like new after. It’s a bit pricey at $45, though.

Another washable mouse is the one from Belkin, the F5L007. This is cheaper at $29.99 and also has optical tracking at 1,200dpi. However, Belkin recommends washing this mouse under running water and not submerging it. That means that you cannot accidentally drop your mouse into your cup of joe (yes, I have done this).

USB Geek also offers a washable USB mouse for $17. It is heavier than the two other mice and only tracks at 800dpi. Last time I checked though, this was out of stock.

So, do you really need a washable mouse? Probably not but it would be fun to have one and not worry about splashing liquids all over the place. Now for a waterproof laptop…