Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Tag: Commodore 64

  • Not a Leap Year

    We saw the new Die Hard movie last Friday, “A Good Day to Die Hard.” It wasn’t terrible—the action sequences were good and the concept was there—but compared to the last movie it was disappointing, largely because (for me) the dialogue was very stilted and cliché, focusing more on the one-liners than advancing the plot or anything. Plus it didn’t really give John McClane the “nobody else is here to do this” kind of role that the character is really known for… I ended up thinking the movie is begging for a fan fiction rewrite that could really tighten things up and make it 100% better. Or a Phantom Edit-style recut.

    Of course, you always have to wonder about (yet another) sequel…

    Earlier this month I set up my old Commodore 64 computer system for the kids to see, just for grins. Basically their computer desk in the office has been empty since the (older) Sony Vaio all-in-one system started dying (the integrated LCD monitor light was starting to burn out, which is a huge pain) so I figured, why not? I have to say, it is amusing as hell to see that old system set up again—but other than that first day we were playing around with it, it hasn’t been turned on.

    Lots of beer things are happening, too: we’re planning this second year of Central Oregon Beer Week and that has been taking up a lot of time. Maybe I’ll do some “behind the scenes” type posts for that at some point. Suffice to say, there are a lot of good ideas floating around but trying to nail down details like sponsorship packages is a chore. Hopefully we’ll have that dialed in very, very soon and can get down to the fun stuff of drinking beer! Or at least planning out events where we get to drink beer.

    Incidentally, Central Oregon Beer Week is taking place from May 20 through 27 this year—the week leading into Memorial Day Weekend. It’s going to be awesome.

  • Commodore 64 emulator… in Flash

    Okay, geek levels are off the charts on this one: FC64, a Commodore C64 emulator for Flash. And it’s open source. This is just mind boggling…

    …because, among other things, what this means is that I could embed a Commodore 64 emulator, games and all, right here on my blog. Because it’s in Flash. And Flash in installed on nearly every browser these days.

    So not only could you play C-64 games here… if you know BASIC, you could write and run your own programs for it. So then I wonder if those are saveable? I bet that would be easy to hack… Talk about a community project: everybody writing programs for everybody else to run without having to install software or trade files at all. Hmmmmmmmmmm…

  • Geekiest. Music. Ever.

    Okay, this will permanently brand me as the geekiest dork ever (I fully expect a “geek” comment from Shannon), but perusing WinAmp’s SHOUTcast Radio list today, I found the ultimate station:

    …wait for it…

    Commodore 64 remixes. From SLAY Radio.

    Yes, you read that correctly. Commodore 64 remixes.

    I’ve been letting it play in the background. It totally kicks ass.

    This strikes me as being a real Long Tail kind of thing.

  • Quantum Link

    This is indescribably cool if you’re an old-time geek who cut his/her teeth on the Commodore 64: Quantum Link Reloaded. Basically, someone has reverse-engineered the original Quantum Link online system that was for the Commodore 64, and made it available online (for free), and you can actually connect to it via a Commodore 64 computer—or an emulator.

    Read this Wikipedia article on Quantum Link. What many people don’t know is that it became… America Online.

    Via Slashdot.

  • C-64 Emulator for PalmOS

    It had to happen, read about it here—there’s a free Commodore 64 emulator for PalmOS. I’d love to download this for my Clié, but alas, it requires PalmOS version 5 and my Clié only has a version 4 variant.

  • Kon-Tiki

    We’re heading up for a day trip to Portland tomorrow for Kaitlyn’s post-op visit to the eye doctor to check how her eyes have progressed since surgery. Have to get up at 6 am though, that’s a bummer.

    Here’s a link too geeky/cool to pass up: The Contiki Operating System and Desktop Environment. It’s an operating system with built in web server and web browser originally written for the good ol’ Commodore 64. This may not seem like such an accomplishment given today’s advanced systems and seemingly limitless power, but for those familiar with the C64— or especially anyone who owned/used one— all I can say is: Damn.

  • Pong!

    Man, I can’t stop playing the Pong game at G4’s website (the new video game cable channel). It’s a single player Pong game, you versus the computer. I can’t beat it— the game goes to 21 points, and I haven’t been able to score more than 10 or 11 points before getting whupped. And yet, I keep going back.

    All for Pong.

    That’s just me, though— Old School, especially when it comes to games. I still think the Commodore 64 is one of the best personal computers and game-playing machines of all time— I own a collection of miscellaneous Commodore hardware and software— and many, many of the games produced for it are eminently more playable for me than today’s games. And I think NetHack is one of the best PC games of all time, and it doesn’t even require graphics or sound! So, yeah, Pong got me.