Everything Commodore is New Again
The venerated C64 joins the ballooning list of all-in-one systems to hit the market.
According to one recent study, the average video game player is in his - and it's almost always 'his' - late twenties. Perhaps this explains the sudden surge in all-in-one machines that recreate video game platforms of old.
The most recent example is the Commodore 64 Direct To TV, which, as the name suggests, is a unit that plugs right into a television to play games from one of the best-selling computers of all time, the Commodore 64.
Using the actual operating system and games from two decades ago, the machine, which is shaped like a Competition Pro 5000 joystick (a popular controller at the time), lets you play 30 titles from the Commodore 64's seminal back catalogue.
The line-up includes such classics as World Karate Championship, Pitstop, Summer Games and Mission: Impossible - each an exact reproduction of the original game.
The Commodore 64 Direct To TV is available right now in an NTSC-only version, which should work on all but the oldest televisions, while a standard PAL format version is expected later in the year.
For £30, it's a hard bargain to pass up on. Just remember the words of US politician George Ball: "Nostalgia is a seductive liar."
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games
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