Da der C64 Mini kein eigenen Fred hat hier ein interessantes Interview zum Mini Brotkasten
The announcement of the THEC64 Mini at Milan Games Week 2017 a few days ago has undoubtedly renewed reborn the souls of retrogamers, nostalgics and fans.
Bringing up a myth like the Commodore 64 and announcing it in its 35th anniversary was a surprise move that I personally enjoyed. A first list of games has already been announced (not definitive) and we know some of the peculiar features of this mini-device. THEC64 Mini will be arrive on early 2018.
Koch Media will be shipping the mini-computer. Thanks to this publisher we have been able to exchange some questions with Paul Andrews, the managing director of Retro Games, the company that is producing the THEC64 Mini.
Here are some details to better know the new C64, between expectations and some interesting details. One of these about Matt Gray, one of the most successful musicians who has produced the soundtracks of some some classic System 3 games such as The Last Ninja 2, Vendetta, Tusker and others.
Enjoy the interview.
Your announcement has roused a pretty dedicate community, not only here in Italy but in the rest of the world as well. What do you expect from TheC64Mini?
We hope everyone is excited as we are about THEC64! We expect great things to happen!
How many units do you think you will sell worldwide?
Lots and lots we hope! It’s really hard to say at the moment, but it’s looking very promising as the reaction from the public, press and fans has been overwhelmingly great!
Who is the target audience of this device? Old time aficionados or the new generations of players?
We made THEC64 for people like ourselves, people who grew up and love the machine and its games, but the positive reaction has gone well beyond our original perceived target audience. At the Milan Games Week show, people in their 20’s and 30’s were so enthusiastic about THEC64 as their older brothers, sisters or parents had one and they said they could not wait to have one for themselves and explore it! Further to that was the also unexpected reaction of families and children, with kids just picking up the machine controller and playing! Check out the footage we shot at the show and you will see how much they loved it, so it’s maybe a bigger audience then we originally anticipated.
When did you come up with the idea of launching again the Commodore 64?
For us the C64 never went away, or retro games in general, we have all been working in them since ‘back in the day’! Darren launched the C64DTV console some years ago, I (Paul) did the C64 games on the Nintendo Wii virtual console, and Chris actually did ‘write the book’ on how to create your own microcomputer!
Tell us something about the hardware
We are using very similar technology to what Nintendo uses in their mini consoles, so its modern tech, recreating old tech, but making it compatible with modern televisions by default.
And the software that will manage the entire system
It’s running a combination of emulation and our own custom code. Chris is a great coder and the scrolling of the games is super smooth on big screen high definition Televisions, it looks great!
Will there be any particular setting or functionality, beyond those already summed up in the announcement?
It will run on both USA/EU Televsion settings and also be able to look like and old school CRT television as well. Plus of course you can plug a modern USB keyboard into it if you want to use it more like the original computer.
Let’s be clear about this: will we be able to play other games?
We will be making software upgrades and software addtions part of THEC64 for sure.
Is the games’ list already complete? Will there be any new entry?
We have licensed several hundred games, so while we have announced the ‘final list’ as such, we might swap a few round prior to delivery, keep watching!!
Will you publish more games in the future for TheC64Mini?
Most definitely and also encouraging others to do so also!
How did you choose the games’ list for your lineup? By following which criteria?
Licensing old retro games created up to 35 years ago, is complex, as may rights have passed from owner to owner over the years, but Darren is a veteran in this field and we picked the best available games for THEC64 which cover a range of genre to hopefully have a little something for everybody on THEC64.
There are many classic games present on the list, but there are some games missing… games that have written the history of the console, particularly in the second part of its lifecycle. Like The Last Ninja series, o the two Turrican games. Does this have something to do about rights?
Sadly not every game is available to license for multiple reasons, but we think we have some good solid titles there for launch and we will be doing other games down the line yes.
All the old (seasoned) developers, how did they react to your initiative?
We are really pleased with the reaction in general to THEC64, most people seem to appreciate what we are doing, and we know personally many people from back in the day of course, we even managed to get Matt Gray to do the menu music for THEC64, which is brilliant, and we are aiming to work with other people on various interconnected projects moving forward.
This question probably won’t be answered, but it needs to be asked nonetheless: are you working on an Amiga Mini?
Obviously our immediate focus is releasing THEC64 MINI of course, and then the full sized version ASAP after that. We do already hold licenses from a wide range of other computers, and games, so while THEC64 is first of course out the door, there will be a long range of great releases and products coming from us over the coming years, so keep watching!!
vor vor 8 years, 6 months aktualisiert.
