The C64 Mini
I wasn't going to bother with these mini versions of classic computers and consoles as I already have the originals, and a Raspberry Pi can do the same and a lot more. But this was being sold for £20 on FB marketplace and it was still sealed in the box
To give you some idea of scale, that's a 32 inch TV in the picture above
All six sides of the box, it doesn't say Commodore anywhere
A box inside a box, all other sides are plain
Box opened and plastic covers removed
This is what comes in the box, note no USB power adaptor, the instructions say it needs to be at least 1 amp, I expect everyone's got loads of those, haven't they?
It's so tiny, the Commodore key is labelled as The C64 for copyright reasons
Bottom
Two USB sockets and a momentary power button, then a Micro USB power and HDMI socket
Included HDMI and Micro USB cables
The joystick looks like a typical joystick from the era, but with more buttons and a USB plug, it doesn't feel that good, no micro switches are used here. The triangle buttons seem to move up, across and fire at the same time, I didn't really look into this that much
Included documentation, the instruction book is multi language
After searching for a USB adaptor that has a normal USB socket instead of a USB-C socket, I fired it up and it asks for the language, once that's selected, it goes to the main menu, which is a nice carousel browser with information about each game, there is an annoying SID style tune that plays over the menu, but you can switch this off
This is the installed software, I suspect it needs updating
This is the screen select screen, I chose European 4:3 CRT because I can, it was at this point I discovered the four dots in the bottom left are telling you what button to press on the joystick rather than what page you're on (I didn't read the book that much)
BASIC looks like BASIC, my usual programme works as you would expect
The virtual keyboard and manu options
Monty on the Run
Credits in the style of a C64 demo
Included software
The full list of all 64 games printed on the box is listed below, I never heard of some of them
AlleyKat, Anarchy, Avenger, Battle Valley, Boulder Dash, Break Dance, California Games, Chip’s Challenge, Confuzion, Cosmic Causeway (Trailblazer II), Cyberdyne Warrior, Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine, Cybernoid II: The Revenge, Deflektor, Destroyer, Everyone’s A Wally, Firelord, Gateway to Apshai, Gribbly’s Day Out, Heartland, Herobotix, Highway Encounter, Hunter's Moon, Hysteria, Impossible Mission, Impossible Mission II, IO, Jumpman, Jumpman 2, Mega Apocalypse, Mission A.D, Monty on the Run, Netherworld, Nobby the Aardvark, Nodes Of Yesod, Paradroid, Pitstop II, Rana Rama, Robin Of The Wood, Silicon Warrior, Skate Crazy, Skool Daze, Snare, Speedball, Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe, Spindizzy, Street Sports Baseball, Street Sports Basketball, Street Sports Soccer, Summer Games II (With Summer Games I), Super Cycle, Sword of Fargoal, Temple of Apshai Trilogy, The Arc Of Yesod, Thing on a Spring, Tower Toppler, Trailblazer, Uridium, West Bank, Who Dares Wins II, Winter Games, World Games, Zynaps
Update 1.5.2
I downloaded the official update from Retro Games LTD and ran the update
The file theC64-1_5_2.bin needs to go on a USB memory stick, and inserted it into the C64 Mini to run the update, but it wasn't recognized when I tried
Apparently the USB stick needs to be formatted as FAT32 with a MBR file system, so I had to work out how to format it on a Retropie installation using the command line, as that's all I had with me, then it was detected in the system information menu
The original firmware was theC64-1.1.10, and the update installs theC64-1.5.2, this includes several more games and new features
Update in progress, the SID music keeps playing throughout, then it reboots with a fancy new boot screen
Looks nice
New options include alternative sorting of the games, the options are... By title, author, composer, genre, and year
There are new menu options as well... Classic mode is where you now find BASIC, you can exit to the Carousel in the menu while in BASIC, Boot mode allows you to either boot into BASIC, or the carousel
Also the new games installed are...
Barnsley Badger, Coil Cop, Farming Simulator, Galencia Mini, Hessian, PET Snake Redux, Soulless
All of these new games are recent titles from 2010 and later
Update 1.6.1
This update adds a new game called Space Lords, which is like a four player breakout clone, and adds support for the mouse and gamepad from the A500 Mini
For more retro hardware check out my online museum here
