Is the MEGA 65 worth $666? Full playtest!

Thank you so much for this video. I was strongly considering a Mega65 after your previous video; but today you sealed the deal (although my new PC build is going to have to suffer some budget cutbacks to fund the purchase). A while back you put out a video asking whether it is time to save the original hardware some wear and tear, and use modern equivalents. That video resonated with me, because whilst there is something special about using original hardware, there is also an element of wanting to make sure it lasts for as long as possible. Getting it out for use would become a rather special occasion. Nothing available however, really did the job well enough. The emulation platforms do a remarkable job, but it still is never quite right. The technical wonder that is FPGA has opened so many doors over the past few years. Sure, things need more work, but the foundational hardware is there to really use a modern hardware setup. And significantly, all in a single cased unit. As a child I never had any of the Sinclair equipment (it was sometimes a lonely existence having a C64 surrounded by 48k and +2 kids), and whilst I wouldn't have swapped my C64 for any of the Sinclair releases, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them. When there are working Speccy cores, I'd definitely have them in my regular rotation. Perhaps somebody will be able to create cores for the BBC Micro, and the Acorn Electron for some classroom nostalgia... The Mega65 offers what I want from a retro computer now. Something I can have setup on my desk, along with my work computers and games consoles that allows me to enjoy my childhood, without a load of fuss. And who knows, I first learned to program on a C64; maybe the game I'm about to start work on can sprout a retro side project version. Maybe I could finally write my first real C64 game, with an enhanced Mega65 version. If I can find the time to resurrect what little assembly ability I have. Anyhow, thank you (and all the Fractics) for the hard work you all put in. You never fail to hit me square in the nostalgia feels. Much love from back in Ole' Blighty.

Thanks for watching! Considering the cost of FPGAs (over $200 each) not to mention the mechanical keyboard & floppy drive, & all the machine can do, do you agree with my conclusions and review score? :_peri:

Compared to the plain blue screen that faced me when I first received my C-64 40 years ago (+ 2 weeks), this would have blown my mind with the amount of things that can be done just "in the box". Great overview!

Dang, RR's voice is so relaxing and calm, he's like the Bob Ross of retro computing. Ladies be like, "Oh I am totally subscribed." Nice work mate! Love your show!

I really love how FPGAs have been adopted for bringing cool retro style things to life. Not in the budget to get one of these for the moment but some day perhaps. Thanks for all the fun and high quality videos you always put out there.

I have to admit, I'm super impressed at what they pulled off here. My one and only minor regret is it not being able to wear the Commodore badge. I wish the owners of that would licence it more. I don't think I'll be buying this though - I can't make my vintage computing problem worse by expanding into retrotech. But I'm glad these excellent two videos give me a really good taste of the thing.

Commodore had the weirdest R&D and marketing schemes. The Mega65 is something that would’ve been a weird one next to the Amiga and ST… much like the 128 was a very daft marketing strategy. The MEGA65 would’ve been great in 1984/1985 but it was planned for 88/89 (oh I see 91.. pffff) right? And when it would’ve been cheaper than the ST it would’ve stand a chance. But the Mega65 team did awesome with that handbook! A lovely retro spiral bound book… goosebumps!

This system needs a warning sticker. It would cause sleep deprivation and skipped meals in my case. Wow, can't get over what is possible for a next gen C64.

It's cool that it can achieve similar graphics to the Amiga but has the great C64 sound.

Looks incredible! Great video too, it's such a chill vibe watching your channel and it always feels really cosy haha thank you

I’m endlessly fascinated by the fact that many Brits seemed to call the C128 the Commodore “one two eight”, whereas here in Canada I’m used to hearing it called the Commodore “one twenty-eight”.

Peri, while watching you experience the M65 I felt I was looking in the mirror (and liked what I saw for a change). I had a very similar rush of nostalgia and real joy experiencing the machine. But I also deeply felt your concluding frustrations over what a typical user might try to do (like, you know, load a physical disk in the disk drive). I think I spent most of my couple of days simply loading software to get it to run. Once done, it was a game of (blissful) whack-a-mole seeing what worked and what didn't and trying to learn the new user flow. After going through most of the demos and software I ultimately felt like I was ready to wait a bit. And if that meant coming back in 6 months or even a year, I was comfortable with that. I'd waited this long, what was another year? If I was a programmer I think I'd be trying to create for this machine if I had the time and skill. As a user, I hope someone out there (Shallan? Vogt? Sanderson? Someone else?) creates that "killer app" we all are proud to say, "Yep! I was here first. I knew it all along. What took you so long?" And it leaves everyone else jealous of our being early-adopters. But even if that never happens, I'm so so happy to have seen this project come this far. And to be able to call myself a believer, and fan.

@17:22 "Your Mega65 will self-destruct in 5 seconds." I wasn't expecting anything after that reference to Mission Impossible so I chose that moment to turn away to have a bite of chocolate, and then jumped slightly out of my seat at the noise of the explosion!

Honestly, it's beautiful. I mean, we often complain that today's world, technology is focused around money, greed etc. but projects like this Mega 65 show that there are still some passionate human beings who are able to create fantastic, truly unique projects. To me, this is not a computer project anymore, it's more like pure (tech) art :) I love the feeling of it. It feels like it teleported from some parallel world, when Amiga never appeared, but instead Mega65 was the next release after C64 :)

To get a directory listing, you oughtta try DIRECTORY or CATALOG command. At least one of those were in Basic 7.0 on the C-128, so should be available on this more advanced version of BASIC.

Enjoyed your review and the time you took to share your MEGA65 journey :) Some things I can share. Right now, to my ears, the 8580 SID sounds better than the 6581 SID (this will probably improve over time). Also, the background story on the intro-disk, we were thinking it would be a nice way to showcase what the community had created for the year. So yes, many of us are cutting our teeth with the new system, learning the ropes, and I'm looking forward to seeing the 1st gen coders get more and more ambitious over time :) We're also hoping the intro disks will be an annual thing, to showcase the community's creations each year :)

Very happy to see your nostalgia way up high like that! You make me smile when you are having retro fun, probably cause Im the same geeky way. Thanks for the video my friend showing off what the Mega65 can do. At that price it's not for me, but I can see where the love and joy comes for those that purchase one. Well done :)

I showered my desk in coffee. Twice. The explosions made me jump 😂

Thanks and big applause! Normally I can hardly stand watching more than some 2 minutes of videos of this type, you know, with somebody talking and presenting stuff for half an hour or more. But you with your real pleasant voice, technical solid background in combination with this interesting topic: got me, I watched the whole thing, liked it and subscribed. And now I'm thinking of ways on how to convince my wife that buying a MEGA 65 is a great idea :)

Man, this computer comes with a detailed handbook and the new laptop I bought for my parents didn't even have a full spec sheet. Only a "manual" with some rudimentary information.