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marurun wrote:I think a Sharp X68000 or an FM Towns would be fun to play with.

I've looked into buying a Sharp X68000 and FM Towns Marty (consolized FM Towns). Not only are they absurdly expensive, but the games are like $100 a pop. I'll pass. Thankfully the majority of great games for those computers are ports, or originals that were later ported to consoles (like Lagoon and Phalanx).

Most of this ancient Japanese computer stuff is pretty much impossible to find and/or afford these days, with the exception of MSX systems and games.

I just can't help it. The X68K makes me wet from simply looking at it.

STOP JUDGING MEEE

I want a SX-64. I would not own original hardware if it's not that machine. I've been following blogs vlogs and other for long enough that I'm thinking of buying a couple of "broken - for repair" on ebay, hoping that they haven't already been harvested for their most precious organs. I do not want to buy a good condition one, I simply would not enjoy it enough to let it collect dust after I play all the most demanding demos and games - the originals are museum pieces. My only option is to build it from rubble.
I'm almost ready to start collecting a salvage pile of C64 stuff to make my own. The only problem is the inevitable rabbit hole of new replacement parts. Every single awesome thing in a c64 has been cloned and customized!

You can buy a sound card for PC which has 4 SID chips in it and is fully midi compatible. It's got many user-made banks of harmonizing and phaze-oscillating instruments that use the full power of four commodore computers as a single instrument.

There are some incredible other things I might be able to mod and fit in the case.

I still haven't even sent my 200LX in for the overclock and ram upgrade treatment.

It will be mine... Oh yes, it will be mine...

I say that for the 486 clone with a mono orange plasma screen too.

Anapan wrote:You can buy a sound card for PC which has 4 SID chips in it and is fully midi compatible. It's got many user-made banks of harmonizing and phaze-oscillating instruments that use the full power of four commodore computers as a single instrument.

WHAT IS THIS SORCERY

there's also the SID Station which was a stand-alone MIDI unit... though the last time I saw one was like 2003 or so. I have no idea what these things go for now.

All of these things are relevant to my interests. I need some way to get authentic chip sounds without having to learn a tracker (because I am a lazy piece of shit).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HardSID
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/03/a-reprod ... ound-card/

Lots more, but bookmarks are a mess, and I'm a little limited compared to my home pc.
You can always use samplers and emulation - not ideal I know, but it made me happy back in the day since my laptop could never interface with old hardware like it could now with the right interface boards (they're expensive, but would work).

Keep in mind, this is about 7 years out of date, I'm too lazy to correct errors or fix links despite multiple helpful netizens correcting and sending updates and awesome new stuff...
http://anapan.525lines.moe/oldscardemu.htm

Awesome! Thank you dood!

BoneSnapDeez wrote:but the games are like $100 a pop. I'll pass.

Nothing a CF-to-SCSI adapter can't fix.

Seems like there would have to be a market (however niche) for a full-fledged c64 clone. The last good attempt was the C64 Direct-to-TV in 2006 which was fully licensed and sold well. I wonder why they don't sell more like this.