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{Photograph}: Matt Kamen
Boot up the C64U, and also you’re greeted by a re-creation of the C64’s menu. Right here, you may sort in operation instructions simply as you’d again within the day, utilizing the BASIC programming language. Drawback: I don’t have the primary clue about BASIC. Nonetheless, in what’s presumably the best throwback of all, the C64U comes with a spiral-bound, 273-page consumer information. It’s an absolute tome. Considerably surprisingly, it’s not a reprint of something that got here with the unique, however reasonably a tailor-made information to what the C64U does, the place it differs from the C64, and the best way to familiarize yourself with the pc’s capabilities. Equal elements historical past e-book and instruction handbook, it begins out instructing you some easy instructions and builds as much as instructing you the best way to code. I’m nonetheless very a lot working my means by it, however that tactile method—referring to the e-book, making an attempt one thing out on the pc, backwards and forwards—is a superb contact.
Hidden Upgrades
For those who don’t fancy having to do homework, the C64U’s personal default menu, accessed at any time with a flick of the multifunction energy button on the right-hand facet of the unit, is a straightforward checklist of choices and settings. Hit RETURN to enter any part—say, “Video Setup” to regulate whether or not the C64U outputs in authentic decision, in PAL or NTSC modes (surprisingly necessary, given some video games will solely work with one show customary or the opposite), or a crystal clear 1080p with scanlines eliminated—and again out to save lots of any modifications to the system’s flash reminiscence. It’s nonetheless a minimalist method, however feels pretty intuitive.
That is additionally the place you can begin enjoying round with a few of the different fashionable touches of the C64U, like the best way to leverage its far higher energy. Properly, “higher” compared to 1982. Spec-wise, this isn’t going to threaten any extra fashionable machine, however operating on an AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA chip and packing 128-MB DDR2 RAM—in comparison with the 64 KB of the C64—it blows its inspiration out of the water. Whereas at baseline it replicates the efficiency of the 1982 {hardware}, that means it operates as if there’s solely the unique 64 KB have been there, you may menu-dive to activate a virtualized RAM Growth Unit, or activate a “Turbo Enhance” to speed up the clock pace to a lightning-fast (on this specific context) 64 MHz.
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