Linux Mint as a replacement for a C64

[Petermint]

The following article reviews a THEC64 as a replacement for a Commodore 64 for playing games. I wonder how Linux Mint stacks up.
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/thec6 ... 4z9e3.html

The hardware appears to be limited. The HDMI output is only 720p, a good reason to buy something better. The keyboard is half size. You might as well buy a netbook for better connectivity. The local thec64 price is $149 without power supply. There are netbooks for $200 with screen, USB 3, and Wifi AC.

I never played games on a C64 because I always had real computers. Some of the C64 games were different and interesting at the time. I do not know if any are still of interest in the C64 form. Between new versions, emulation, and replacement games, has anyone satisfactorily created a replacement for a C64 using Linux?

[catweazel]

I never played games on a C64 because I always had real computers.

The C64 was a real computer, as was the VIC-20.

[willieaames]

Wish that Colecovision Flashback and Intellivision Flashback would come back onto the Australian market.

[lsemmens]

The original C64 was shortlisted as my first computer way back when. I ended up selecting that (relatively) new OS called MS-DOS and a computer with an 8086 processor along with 256KB of RAM, CGA and twin floppy drives (both 5 1/4"). At the time I also nearly purchased a "portable" machine with a lot of software running an OS called CP/M, Fortunately I guessed correctly that DOS was the future. My kids grew up with the DOS prompt and running games from there. They even learnt how to get around any security that could be devised. The only time I managed to trick them was when I set the prompt text to black on black, a simple <Ctrl C> to get out of the batch file would have fixed it.

[jimallyn]

I also nearly purchased a "protable" machine with a lot of software running an OS called CP/M

I have run CPM on several computers over the years, including my C64 with the Z80 add-on card. Hmmm, I wonder if I can get that to run in VirtualBox?

[chrisuk]

The games on the Commodore 64 were a bit basic, but quite addictive. I coded a few myself using 6502 Machine Language (a bit different to most programming languages used today ). Kikstart 2 was quite an addictive game at the time (1980 something) - it was basically a matchstick man on a motorbike jumping over logs... or crashing into them.

No clue about the updated C64, the original was surpassed by the Amiga.

[BG405]

I'm surprised I missed this thread until now.

Mint should make an ideal "replacement C64" using VICE. It's in the repos but old versions (may be a newer .deb version in the repos for Mint 19), however, there is a Flatpak with version 3.2; it's mentioned in this thread. Also, at least in Mint 17.x, the .deb version is missing the ROMs. Hopefully the FP has these included.

Whilst I haven't (yet) tested this, I can confirm V3.2-1 runs OOTB on "the other side" (Manjaro KDE), installed from their "Extra" repos. If this is the same version as the Flatpak available for Mint, you should be good to go.

Interestingly, on startup, V3.2-1 checks for a PCI CatWeasel card .. fantastic as I have one. This will hopefully enable me to transfer software & data using the PC's 5¼" floppy drive to images & to SD cards which can be used on the real C64 machines via my SD2IEC.

[BurgerBob]

I'm surprised I missed this thread until now.

Mint should make an ideal "replacement C64" using VICE. It's in the repos but old versions (may be a newer .deb version in the repos for Mint 19), however, there is a Flatpak with version 3.2; it's mentioned in this thread. Also, at least in Mint 17.x, the .deb version is missing the ROMs. Hopefully the FP has these included.

Whilst I haven't (yet) tested this, I can confirm V3.2-1 runs OOTB on "the other side" (Manjaro KDE), installed from their "Extra" repos. If this is the same version as the Flatpak available for Mint, you should be good to go.

Interestingly, on startup, V3.2-1 checks for a PCI CatWeasel card .. fantastic as I have one. This will hopefully enable me to transfer software & data using the PC's 5¼" floppy drive to images & to SD cards which can be used on the real C64 machines via my SD2IEC.

I installed the standard VICE from the repos but then went to the development site and downloaded the source, that had the ROMS that I copied into place. It was fairly straight forward. (PS. Love the pic of the kitties.)