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Hi!
I got a nice, c64 inspired 8-bit Do keyboard through the post today! Well, kind of c64 news:)

www.amazon.co.uk/8Bitdo-Mechanical-Keyboard-Bluetooth-Swappable/dp/B0CYSQWYZP/ref=sr_1_3_pp?sr=8-3

Ah, that's a shame! I actually bought it for PC use but would indeed have been awesome on TheC64!

Recently watched Nostalgia Nerd's video on the history of the Commodore 64GS. Interesting console. It's got a fully functional C64 motherboard inside including even the ports such as the tape drive port. They just didn't provide port holes in the case to access them. Makes sense to just throw a fully functional C64 motherboard in there because they were cranking them out in huge numbers at a very low manufacturing cost so it would have actually cost more money to strip components or interfaces off the board than to just throw in a full C64 motherboard.

Too bad they didn't release this console years earlier. It may have done well if they did and gave th NES and Sega Master System competition in the home console market at that time when most homes didn't own computers and would rather buy a more simple cartridge only console. The C64 was just as capable or even more capable in some respects as 8 bit consoles at that time that even came out years after the C64. Not to mention it was way more expandable.

They should have released the C64GS years earlier (think it was released in 1990?) They also should have put holes in the case for the ports so it could be sold as a simple to use console that could be expanded into a full computer over time, which I think would have been a big selling point for people apprehensive about taking the full plunge into computers. After they took the 64GS off the market the fully functional C64 boards were salvaged from unsold stock to put into C64 cases.

One of the big complaints about the C64GS is many C64 cartridge games couldn't be started on it because they often required you to hit a key to start or select features. With the case ports being open to sell as a console you can expand into a full featured computer they could have also provided a keyboard port on the front or left side and sold the SX64 portable or 128D keyboard as an accessory. Because these were already being made or had been made in the past, just like the C64 motherboard the GS uses, costs could have been kept incredibly low to crush the NES and Master System in price and expandability.

The possibilities are endless. Commodore could have even advertised the tape drive as a cheap neat little way for console gamers to save game progress or load in separately sold new game expansion maps, etc, or even as a cheaper way to buy games on tape rather than cartridges to the very cost conscious consumer. And this could be done without a keyboard by just offering the options in games to save or load stuff using the joystick.

I think the GS would have been a huge success and might have even stopped the NES or Master System from owning as big of the console market if they did all this and did it years sooner.

Far as Project Carousel goes, I think I read somewhere that there's a huge catalog of C64 games that these days people have modified to only use the joystick to start or pick options on them so they'll work with original 64GS hardware that can be flashed onto a cartridge to plug into it? If that's true it seems like that software collection would be a great match for the C64 mini, since you wouldn't need to plug in a keyboard or use the virtual keyboard to start or select options in the game. It also would even be handy to maxi owners who might be sitting further away from it playing games and don't want to have to get up just to press a key.

Of course though on the mini and maxi you can simply map keyboard keys to joystick buttons so you don't need to use a keyboard to start or change game options. Same with running Retropie or Batocera on a raspberry pi, but still using GS games or C64 ones that have been modified to work with a joystick would be even simpler, especially if you're using a original single button joystick plugged into a dongle to use with USB.