Keeping Up with the Commodore

There have been many attempts to bring back the Commodore C64 or some machine that looks like it: You can get replacement mainboards that work in the original case, you can buy a THEC64 or its mini version from Retro Games Ltd, and there's also the MEGA65 project, which created a modern FPGA-based version of the Commodore C65 – a successor to the C64 that never reached the manufacturing stage. All those machines have one thing in common: Their main goal is to let you run original C64 programs, either with an emulator or with an FPGA-based re-implementation of the original hardware. The latest development is that Christian Simpson (known as PeriFractic on YouTube) has bought the Commodore brand and is partnering up with other groups to bring new and official Commodore products to market.

For those of you who only care about the look and the unique breadbox form factor of the C64, the Commodore 64x (with an extra "x") is a modern computer in a C64-like case with a keyboard that resembles the C64 keyboard while offering a layout that works with PC operating systems. That machine was originally available from 2011 to 2012, it came with its own Commodore-branded Linux, and it was revived in a Kickstarter campaign in 2022 [1]. My Retro Computer Ltd. is still offering a number of C64x configurations, including a bare-bones (case only, no mainboard) version. The website [2] links to mini-itx.com where prices range from £210 (~$279) for the empty case to £990 (~$1,1315) for the C64x Infinity with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, 64GB RAM, and a 500GB M.2 SSD. A configurator lets you change the details.

In addition to the hardware, the 2011/2012 Linux distribution has also been updated: Commodore OS Vision 3.0 [3] is a lovingly customized version of MX Linux 23 (which itself is based on Debian GNU/Linux 12). While it is intended for use with the C64x machines, there's no stopping you from running it on any modern computer (or in a virtual machine). I'll look at the software first, because that's what everyone will have access to. Then in the second part of the article I'll talk about the C64x case and its keyboard.

[...]