The Bizarre 1999 Commodore 64 Web. it Internet Computer
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Date: 2023-03-03
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Comments and reviews: 14
Falcon
Used a machine like this in a luxury hotel in Jacksonville, Florida right after 9/11. I had to drive to Florida for a union convention (from Virginia) because no flights yet. It was November. Three hotel catered to airline crews but were BEGGING for customers since they weren't getting their normal clientele. They gave me luxury suite for like 40 bucks and when I got in the suite, there was an entertainment center with huge color TV connected to something very similar to this. Ask the way down to the track pad and lack of built in monitor. It was neat just messing with it, and theirs was actually connected via Ethernet cable to the hotel's LAN so a guest using it didn't have to use the integrated 56k dial up. Weird little anomaly of the late 90s.
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Used a machine like this in a luxury hotel in Jacksonville, Florida right after 9/11. I had to drive to Florida for a union convention (from Virginia) because no flights yet. It was November. Three hotel catered to airline crews but were BEGGING for customers since they weren't getting their normal clientele. They gave me luxury suite for like 40 bucks and when I got in the suite, there was an entertainment center with huge color TV connected to something very similar to this. Ask the way down to the track pad and lack of built in monitor. It was neat just messing with it, and theirs was actually connected via Ethernet cable to the hotel's LAN so a guest using it didn't have to use the integrated 56k dial up. Weird little anomaly of the late 90s.
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Jason
OMG! You just dredged up some long buried memories. I begged my mum for one of these as a kid. I thought it was a cheaper compromise as an excuse to convince her to get me my first computer. On christmas day, seemingly not knowing the difference I opened a box to an. atari 2600. Not the computer I thought I would get. It wasn't until 4 years later when a library sold off its old computers I got my own grey box pc and bought dungeon keeper for my very first pc game. I had completely forgotten what this thing was called and now it seems young me might have dodged a compromised experience bullet.
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OMG! You just dredged up some long buried memories. I begged my mum for one of these as a kid. I thought it was a cheaper compromise as an excuse to convince her to get me my first computer. On christmas day, seemingly not knowing the difference I opened a box to an. atari 2600. Not the computer I thought I would get. It wasn't until 4 years later when a library sold off its old computers I got my own grey box pc and bought dungeon keeper for my very first pc game. I had completely forgotten what this thing was called and now it seems young me might have dodged a compromised experience bullet.
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Craig
Oh, god, I remember this being released. It was advertised in the UK but I don't know if it actually came out here, I never saw it. I never had any idea what it was, whether it was a Windows computer or a new model of C64. The answer being. both? But not really exactly either.
I also found the terminology 'Internet Computer' confusing. Was this designed only to be used online? Could it actually run software locally? The ads offered no answers. The end result was I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole even if I had ever actually seen one on a shop shelf.
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Oh, god, I remember this being released. It was advertised in the UK but I don't know if it actually came out here, I never saw it. I never had any idea what it was, whether it was a Windows computer or a new model of C64. The answer being. both? But not really exactly either.
I also found the terminology 'Internet Computer' confusing. Was this designed only to be used online? Could it actually run software locally? The ads offered no answers. The end result was I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole even if I had ever actually seen one on a shop shelf.
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yizzer2
I've seen this on shelves in electronics shoppes in Europe during that time. People bought and used them, it was affordable and user friendly. At some point I sat down at one at a relatives house, who wanted to show the new PC. I found it unusable Really, a wanna be Mac, if only it could run mIRC it would have been more successful. if I recall the ROM OS was it's undoing unable to be updated against viruses, etc. New PC gear was super expensive most people still used 286-386's. If anything. I had a P200 at the time at home in Canada.
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I've seen this on shelves in electronics shoppes in Europe during that time. People bought and used them, it was affordable and user friendly. At some point I sat down at one at a relatives house, who wanted to show the new PC. I found it unusable Really, a wanna be Mac, if only it could run mIRC it would have been more successful. if I recall the ROM OS was it's undoing unable to be updated against viruses, etc. New PC gear was super expensive most people still used 286-386's. If anything. I had a P200 at the time at home in Canada.
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boijorzee
I know exactly the kind of market this was aimed at. Plenty of people around that time in Europe only ever bought a C64 as a computer. But the internet was booming and even they wanted to get into that action. So to put out a C64 that had internet capabilities was not that bizarre of an idea. But yeah starting off with dated technology in an era when even a top of the line PC could get pretty much obsolete in a matter of months was probably what killed this.
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I know exactly the kind of market this was aimed at. Plenty of people around that time in Europe only ever bought a C64 as a computer. But the internet was booming and even they wanted to get into that action. So to put out a C64 that had internet capabilities was not that bizarre of an idea. But yeah starting off with dated technology in an era when even a top of the line PC could get pretty much obsolete in a matter of months was probably what killed this.
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Bastet
Haven't gotten my fiancees out of storage yet but taking an educated guess from the PCB shot at 9: 35 the stacked PCB above the PCMCIA slots is your harddisk, if that is right then creating a replacement would be dead easy.
Tomorrow i have a chance to get ours from storage and on sunday i can check out whats up.
(For those with a puzzled look, this is a continuation from a Patreon post, if you aren't a Patreon yet you are missing out. ;) )
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Haven't gotten my fiancees out of storage yet but taking an educated guess from the PCB shot at 9: 35 the stacked PCB above the PCMCIA slots is your harddisk, if that is right then creating a replacement would be dead easy.
Tomorrow i have a chance to get ours from storage and on sunday i can check out whats up.
(For those with a puzzled look, this is a continuation from a Patreon post, if you aren't a Patreon yet you are missing out. ;) )
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Salacious
When digital TV hit the UK at first they had an option to use it for internet connection all through the areial. You got a small keyboard to use on your lap to the TV box. It was however a pile of crap cars and mobile phones used to cause signal drop out and stuff. And it was so slow. My neighbor decided it would do them and they had a 30' areial in the garden and it was still crap connection.
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When digital TV hit the UK at first they had an option to use it for internet connection all through the areial. You got a small keyboard to use on your lap to the TV box. It was however a pile of crap cars and mobile phones used to cause signal drop out and stuff. And it was so slow. My neighbor decided it would do them and they had a 30' areial in the garden and it was still crap connection.
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Desert
Such an interesting beast from back in the day, could you actually play Commodore 64 games on the thing? Doesn't look like it considering its running Windows 3. 1 reskinned. It could still be used as a word processor though. I guess the compatibility is limited, shame it didn't allow for updates, because having a PC and Commodore 64 in one would be cool as hell.
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Such an interesting beast from back in the day, could you actually play Commodore 64 games on the thing? Doesn't look like it considering its running Windows 3. 1 reskinned. It could still be used as a word processor though. I guess the compatibility is limited, shame it didn't allow for updates, because having a PC and Commodore 64 in one would be cool as hell.
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wintermute740
I've only vague recollections of Some company in Germany is trying to resurrect the Commodore name, but haven't actually seen this until now. I gotta be honest. I kinda love this hot mess of a machine. I'd be surprised if there's not a custom ROM floating around which would allow you to boot from an IDE drive.
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I've only vague recollections of Some company in Germany is trying to resurrect the Commodore name, but haven't actually seen this until now. I gotta be honest. I kinda love this hot mess of a machine. I'd be surprised if there's not a custom ROM floating around which would allow you to boot from an IDE drive.
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The
4: 55 You have also seen a stylus hole on nearly every single customer-facing credit card reader you've ever used (at least in 'Murica. For reasons beyond my comprehension, no one ever uses it. except me. because I know it's there. It is _so_ much easier than fumbling around with trying to get the pen to snap back in.
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4: 55 You have also seen a stylus hole on nearly every single customer-facing credit card reader you've ever used (at least in 'Murica. For reasons beyond my comprehension, no one ever uses it. except me. because I know it's there. It is _so_ much easier than fumbling around with trying to get the pen to snap back in.
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AnAngryBigfoot
Say what you want about the aesthetic of these devices from the 90s and early 2000s but I miss when technology/hardware companies weren t afraid to try new stuff. Today, it s like everyone knows a certain design works and they re afraid to venture from this approach because it could lead to lost revenue.
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Say what you want about the aesthetic of these devices from the 90s and early 2000s but I miss when technology/hardware companies weren t afraid to try new stuff. Today, it s like everyone knows a certain design works and they re afraid to venture from this approach because it could lead to lost revenue.
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Ashley
What a interesting computer. That drive setup! I wonder if it was an effort to make the OS bulletproof or to just avoid using a hard drive at all (might have been cheaper. I wonder if the 'trackpad' was some digital signature panel that got reused if it wasn't some random cutdown PDA screen.
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What a interesting computer. That drive setup! I wonder if it was an effort to make the OS bulletproof or to just avoid using a hard drive at all (might have been cheaper. I wonder if the 'trackpad' was some digital signature panel that got reused if it wasn't some random cutdown PDA screen.
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DR.
What a fascinating weird little machine and what a weird piece of history. The late years of Commodore are a strange time indeed.
Also, how strange that the computer is in German, but everything else is in Dutch. Perhaps a mix up that happened when packaging the machine?
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What a fascinating weird little machine and what a weird piece of history. The late years of Commodore are a strange time indeed.
Also, how strange that the computer is in German, but everything else is in Dutch. Perhaps a mix up that happened when packaging the machine?
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drxym
After Commodore's bankruptcy, Commodore and Amiga became zombie brands - rising from the grave attached to some harebrained product that would flop, before being sold to a new owner and rising from the grave again. They must be cursed by this point.
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After Commodore's bankruptcy, Commodore and Amiga became zombie brands - rising from the grave attached to some harebrained product that would flop, before being sold to a new owner and rising from the grave again. They must be cursed by this point.
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