C65

[Psy]

Okay from what I understand Commodore started working on the C65 in 1990 (and killed it the following year), when the Apple 2 GS was already looking old.  Why did Commodore wait so long, it should have been obvious that by 1990 they missed their chance.  A few years eariler it could have helped the Amiga by bridging C64 with the Amiga, at the very least maximise profits from the C64 market yet I highly doubt even if Commodore launched the C65 in the 90's it would have been succesful.

[Jose]

Because Commodore management sucked. Had they tryed to release AAA chipsed for Amiga a bit earlier (read invested a bit more on it) than planned it would have conquered the Video market completely maybe even games market for a while, or anything graphics related. They had, probably by far, the best personal computer for a long time in terms of price/performance/expansion/user interface whatever... But they didn't think it was worth it, they preferred investing in PCs  :pissed:  :oops:  :-x  :madashell:  :boohoo:

[KThunder]

Kthunders fantasy history for commodore

1. vic20 released continuing pet style archtecture for home use. 1979?

2. c64 released upgrading video chip and sound chip. 1982?

3. c65 released upgrading cpu and video to amiga style componants renamed amiga ~1985

4. amiga 2000 released with 68020 cpu and ecs 1987

5. amiga 3000 released with 68030 cpu ecs and 256 color chunky modes and 16bit sound.

6. amiga 4000 released with 68040 16bit color modes and "akkiko"3d accelerator. 1992

7. amiga 5000 released released with 68060 32bit color and pci bus 1995

8. amiga 6k released with mostech 68080 @ 300mhz agp bus and 3dfx 3d accelerator 1998

9. amiga gen2k1 with mostech coldfire @ 1ghz and nvidea 3d card. prototype geforce2 card. 2001

10. amiga alphak with mostec 2ghz kthunder cpu 256meg 450mhz mostech 3d card. 2005

11. amiga kfuse with kmostech kthunder 4.5ghz multicore cpu and neural link 3d wetware 2009

and the world thinks with the kbrain world peace is achived with free beer and babes all around. bwahahahah bwahahaha :evil:
ummm that went a little far i think how about free kitties instead :kitty:

[KThunder]

ouch my wife just hit me it think i have to log off now :cry:

[Psy]

I think the C65 should have used the 65C816 like the Apple ][ GS as the point of the C65 would have been the same as the GS except C64/Amiga compatiblity.  On top of that putting Workbench on it would of course have forced Workbench to early on to be portable thus by the mid 90's Workbench wouldn't have been so tied to the Amiga hardware.

[Jope]

They never intended Amiga compatibility.

[foleyjo]

yeah I remember an artical in a C64 mag (Commodore format or something) where it was asked would C65 be able ro run Amiga software. The answer : No because that would make it an Amiga

[Argus]

iirc, C= did take the 'look' of the C65 and use it as the basis for the A500, so the C65 actually never really died.

[Kronos]

Argus wrote:
iirc, C= did take the 'look' of the C65 and use it as the basis for the A500, so the C65 actually never really died.

You mean in 1990 they looked at the C65, traveled 4 years back in time and released it as A500 ?  :crazy:

[KThunder]

the a500 form factor is based on the c128 which was based on the 64c i think. unless the c128 came out before the 64c

[Psy]

foleyjo wrote:
yeah I remember an artical in a C64 mag (Commodore format or something) where it was asked would C65 be able ro run Amiga software. The answer : No because that would make it an Amiga

I ment filesystem and sourcecode compatiblity, meaning while no binary compabitility it just would just take a simple recompile which would be very possible with a ported version Workbench (that Commodore didn't plan, but would have been a good idea)

[Psy]

My point is that Commodore made little effort to migrate C64 users and devlopers.

Think if Commodore in say 1987 came out with a computer that had a solid C64 mode, VIC-II and SID based chipset with something like a 65C816 CPU that run close to all C64 software flawlessly and you could plug in common C64 peripherals.  

Outside of the C64 mode your running Amiga Dos and possiblity Workbench, your can plug in common Amiga peripherals, use Amiga formated disks, past C64 compatibility the chipset aims towards Amiga compatibility.

The aim wouldn't be to make this computer run Amiga software but for the Amiga to run its, so C64 users could use it as a springboard onto the Amiga.

[koaftder]

Psy wrote:
Okay from what I understand Commodore started working on the C65 in 1990 (and killed it the following year), when the Apple 2 GS was already looking old.  Why did Commodore wait so long, it should have been obvious that by 1990 they missed their chance.  A few years eariler it could have helped the Amiga by bridging C64 with the Amiga, at the very least maximise profits from the C64 market yet I highly doubt even if Commodore launched the C65 in the 90's it would have been succesful.

There was no real chance of bridging the amiga to c64 in the beginning. C64 was a different processor, and the amiga didnt have enough computing power to emulate it. Back in c64 land, compatability wasnt an issue, the field was new and people were accepting of that

[Psy]

koaftder wrote:
There was no real chance of bridging the amiga to c64 in the beginning. C64 was a different processor, and the amiga didnt have enough computing power to emulate it. Back in c64 land, compatability wasnt an issue, the field was new and people were accepting of that

The Mac and Apple ][ too had different processors but the GS was release to bridge the gap.  Commodore probably could have done the same thing but cheaper, a in between computer that was closer to the Amiga then the C64 while remaning compabitable with the C64.

If it worked instead of the bulk of C64 users jumping to a wide range of computers, the majority would proably have jumped to the Amiga due to their data being fully compatible with the Amiga and sources for the in between computer just needing a simple recompile.

[Psy]

Commodore was selling the C64 into the 90's thus why in 1989/1990 it started this C65 idea.  This is why I find it odd that they didn't early just slap early Amiga chipsets with VIC and SID modes onto a 65C816 CPU, port Amiga Dos and possibly workbench 1.x, it would have helped push C64 users towards the Amgia so they could retire the aging C64.

Instead Commodore made a bunch of C64 spinoffs with minor improvmens.