I tried to bring back that "magic" for my kids also, but then I came to the conclusion that that ship has sailed my friend. We were mesmerised by computers back in the 80s because they were new and magical. Kids today will never get that feeling that we had back in the 80s.
I agree. Sadly, times has changed and moved on. Heck, I think I "lost" the magic when Amiga and Atari failed to move into PowerPC and when BeOS, GEOS and OS/2 also died.
I wish I had this when I was little, my main computer was a bit too important (and not mine) to mess with like this. My first laptop ran Minecraft at less than 10fps, and I loved it, but it didn't give the suggestion to "play" with it...This would've been great to encourage me.
Congrats on the launch of your dream computer. A lot shown here is seriously impressive! Don’t worry I’m sure you’ll get plenty of support for Phase 1. Because as we all know PCB stands for Perfect Computer Buyers. Doesn’t it?
I agree it's a good toy for kids, but for kids from the 80s, not 2010s and younger. Just as fathers bought their sons model trains and played with them themselves, now grandparents will buy CommanderX16 for their grandchildren.
I very much doubt that. We live in a completely different world. Today's children are more interested in their I Phones, PS5, online gaming, Tiktok account etc... You go to most people's homes and the children are in their bedrooms, rather than sitting with their parents or grand parents. A young guy at work, doesn't understand my fascination with a Commodore 64 I brought from eBay. He's sees it as old tech that should be in a landfill. Kids are more advanced these days and have access to an array of entertainment, so their expectations and tastes are very high. When I grew up, my first tech was a cassette radio, and black and white portable TV. At the time, I was over the moon. The X16 is for us middle aged oldies to relive the past. I wish him all the very best, but I see it struggling in the educational market, BASIC isn't going to cut nowadays. There are far too many modern software platforms and resources you can access via a PC, phone or tablet that can teach you coding from beginner to advanced.
I'll be honest, as a niche product that caters to retro enthusiasts, I think this has a bright future. In much the same way that the market for vinyl and cassette continues to exist. It's pretty cool, I'd like to buy one. However, as a mass market education tool: no. I don't think it stands a chance. Parents of young children are in their 20s or early 30s; they probably don't actually know how to use it as they grew up with Windows or Macs. Moreover, the Raspberry Pi kind of fills that niche, assuming you can actually get one! Cheap, well-documented, the 400 is pretty close in form factor to something like a Spectrum, and if your kid bricks a Pi Zero, you're not going to lose any sleep. That's just my 2c. As I said, I think this is a cool project, and I would actually like to buy one.
Totally agree, Raspberry Pi already have the educational market using open software and delivers at 1/10 of the price. This has its place but at this price, it’s not going to be mainstream.
Totally agree. Better not to justify its existence with a use case like “avoid social media pressures”. A parent isn’t going to spend the money on this for a kid unless they are fully aware of the niche. A Pi or similar is a smarter move to learn programming skills for the future.
@@familiehermsen-ouwendijk3805 Then they must be supervised or that modern computer has to be content filtered. With a machine like the Commander X there is no need for supervision or filtering.
You're right about kids not wanting toys. That always drove me nuts too. I didn't want to play pretend computer; I wanted to learn. Kids don't want to be Wesley Crusher; they want to be Riker. Same deal.
@@jonathaningram8157I have to agree. It's much easier for kids to learn programming on a regular modern computer. Scratch seems to be great at capturing children's attention as it gives instant visual feedback and allows them to easily develop games. I simply do not believe that many of them would find developing some bouncing line program in BASIC very interesting. I am sure there are some who would enjoy it but for the vast majority it would be too abstract. Also, if they wanted to work closer to the hardware, a basic microcontroller could be a much cheaper alternative which would also allow them to build projects with a physical aspect (blinking LEDs, etc.)
I can't imagine many kids enjoying programming on a retro machine. With all the things modern machines can do- it would probably be hard to sell a kid on programming hangman in text mode. But I could be wrong
The nano editor is nice, but I think it's a long shot to ask kids to write code without the benefits of a mouse for cursor placement, select and move, copy/paste/cut, and even more helpful things like linting and autofill/suggestions. I get that i'm talking to people who grew up without those things in the 80's, but when the alternative exists, and is obviously available to anyone with a modern computer, it just feels unlikely. I hope we get to see a more powerful IDE come to the x16 that can actually be "fun" to write in, rather than "less of a chore." But that's not to say the nano editor isn't a huge step up, it's really awesome and actually encouraging to someone like me. I just don't think it's enough to "cross the gap" that would encourage a 6-12 year old to write programs on it when they could be writing programs on a locked down linux box with an actual IDE or even notepad++ and python.
Also programs like MIT scratch bring kids up to speed very quickly in programming, with drag and drop commands, etc. I helped my son write an atari berzerk clone and also a mario type game with scratch and it only took a day or two. The problem is the commander(or any 8 bit computer) is going to be much harder to program, and won't be much better than something made with Scratch. I now have turned my son on to linux and C programming, with the SDL library, you can blow away any 8 bit computer, and it's just as easy to program, as long as you stay with classic C and stay away from the modern "fad" languages.
This is a very cool project and im sure they will sell well to hobbyists but this will have no traction in the education sector. Raspberry pies, microbits and commodity pc`s have that market sewn up. Every child has access to these cheap machines at home, the software is standardised and readily available and skills can be directly transferred to the workplace when the time comes. Schools get thousands of these things very cheaply and parts are off the shelf and available everywhere. there is no way the x16 can scale up to make it worthwhile to educators. Worrying about violent games and porn is pointless at this point as every kid has a smartphone and console or pc where accessing this stuff is trivial. Having said that, I wish the project well, any new hobbyist machine coming to market is a joyous occasion.
7:28 "The Commander X16 literally cannot do those things." I am now picturing the ears of every coder, coders who loves a challenge, becoming red hot. They may choose to create either code or hardware or both which will allow the Commander X16 to do all of those things. I am not saying that they ought to. But, the challenge flag, a flag which was indirectly raised by that aforementioned statement, has been raised. 😇
Basically, if old, Fortran-powered IBM mainframes from 1960's could run "Edith" program, Commandor X16 will do it without problems xD I can see situation, where computer downloads firstly the resolution of picture, then, part by part, downloads small segments of image at one time, downsizes them by creating the mean value of bunch of pixels and converts it into ASCII characters to be displayed on the screen XD
I don't know if you'll see this comment, but I just wanted to let you know how inspiring I find the commander x16 project. I'm not much of a retro computing enthusiast beyond consuming videos about it, but just seeing your dream and all the hard work and creative pivots you've had to make long the way-it's so incredible to see that level of dedication. I'm working on several projects with massively long timelines (years long) and watching this series has given me a lot of energy I need to keep working.
OMG! @badinkstudios! I'm a subscriber to your channel and love your videos! (especially the shorts) didn't expect to see a cool comic youtuber hanging out here in a retro computing channel
@@TheTitaniumBunker that’s awesome! I’m a big fan of retro tech channels in general. Stuff like this or Techmoan. I just enjoy deep dives into technology, engineering, product design, and audio visual mediums. Those kinds of content creators are good examples of how to break something down and tell a clear story while highlighting nuances. It helped me learn how to make better content that broke complex ideas down in a fun way!
I've been a huge fan of the channel for years, and am super excited to see you get to build and market your dream computer. I hope it does well, but I don't know if a computer like this can succeed in education market today. The fundamental issue is software. Using a modern Mac/PC or even smartphone offers so much more, and with emulation, can even offer X16 Software. As for in-home I think the main thing holding it back right now is the lack of HDMI port. Non-retro consumers likely don't have VGA/Composite monitors anymore, and the inability to just plug it in may be an issue. I do hope you can overcome these challenges, because a device which has great software and that doesn't have the problems you mentioned with modern machines would be great!
You can get a Raspberry Pi for a fraction of the price, and a very small fraction at that. For a kid, a Raspberry with Python is a far more useful and far more interesting learning environment than any retro clone computer. In my opinion, all the talk about kids and education is a fool's errand, just parents wanting their kids to like the same kids they liked when they were their age, despite that making no sense.
A Raspberry Pi can emulate the BBC Micro, a computer that was designed for education and would eventually lead to to development of the ARM processor (for the BBC Micros successor).
Congratulations to reaching this milestone! I will definitely keep a look out for availability later on! Right now I'm awaiting the Spectrum Next from their 2nd KS, and hope to start introducing my kid to how I grew up with tech! The Commander looks freakin awesome, and if it ends up as a full kit with something like that case and a keyboard I'll most certainly be interested to order from the EU, if possible, even with the added import costs! love it, looks so great - and I'm so happy initiatives like this both keeps poppin up and successfully completes!
Nice work, Dave, and to all those involved. This looks, quite impressive, tbh. Best wishes with it moving forward. I have a good feeling, this is going to be very, very well received.
I don't think that circle chart accurately depicts how successful you'll be selling that to kids. You can't compete with a tablet or a cell phone. Handheld devices that teach kids how to use tools they'll need when they're an adult versus a desktop computer that does nothing but play games and code basic? It can't appeal to the masses. Sure there'll be some nerdy hobby type kids that could get into it but don't have high expectations. I have an 8 yr old. If it doesn't play Roblox it's not cool.
@@SnakebitSTI Exactly, people are learning to code because it's a useful skill, learning to code in commodore basic is less useful than learning to code in cobol for gods sake, atleast some ancient mainframe hardware that's still hanging on runs cobol!
Excellent, Dave! My pre-order is already in, and I can't wait. My retro-computing to date has been exclusively on the Color Maximite 2, but I have a lot of other experience with other computers, many different languages including assembler languages, so I hope to get up the X16 learning curve pretty fast and produce some decent software.
The more this machine would do is to ping on a server and maybe write a tweet that you can't actually see, I don't expect any HTML5 red player running on it, but he already set the challenge, so who knows?
Great news 8 bit guy and the others that made this come to life. Also stumbling on your youtube channel a few years ago, made me get into the Retro Market. I now have a working C64 and Amiga 500.
At last! This is superb. Amazing work all around, really fantastic from the first day to launch day. I cannot congratulate and compliment you enough David and your team also. I shall be ordering one at the weekend!
Fascinating! I've been watching this since it all started. I learned on the C64 at 13 or so, but it's been soooo long ago, and I'm so busy I'm fully aware I don't have a realistic prospect of learning all this all over again. I sat down at an old C128 and I literally didn't even remember how to get the alternate characters etc. I love the computer. I love the work you've done. I wish I had the time and energy to invest into re-learning it. In my defense, I also write and create music on Linux home studio systems, do astrophotography and somehow work full-time at the same time as living with a wife who works full time, my step-son and his daughter AND my two granddaughters both under three. So...yeah. Amazing work though!
I don't see the appeal in this product but i guess if your dream computer has snes ports in the back and not in the front where you would expect them to be then, sure, living the dream the way you want.
A neighbor sold me two raspberry pi 3’s For $15. Another neighbor sold me a MacBook Air for $60. The world is awash in hardware. And no one, young or old, has ever asked me if I could teach him to develop anything.
Yeah but it's those simplified computers/game consoles without any online account necessary!, without any wireless keyboard/game controllers! and without any dying lithion ion batteries!, those simplified devices which will still work in 40 years, others you will be knocked by any of those listed circumstances.
David is delutional and stuck in his own self importance. no kid in 2023 wants to program in basic. Sorry David.. once you sell to the 50+ year old nerds who still want to dabble, this project is over... to think he thinks there is a bigger educational market for dead programming language just exposes Davids hubris.
That was so satisfying when the IO perfectly fit in the rear ports haha. Also I had no idea why this product was a thing, or who it was for, but when I grew up with a BBC Micro in our maths classroom, and was so obsessed with making it play silly noises and screen colours, I completely support this product. Awesome stuff tbh!
Have been following this since the beginning and looking forward to it. I have a 15-year-old son who is into retro computing. Had him watch your video, and he is super excited about the X16! Waiting for the cheaper version did not seem to make sense to me, seeing that in two years, he will be 17, and it may be too late for him at that point. Keep up the great work and thanks!
I'm always impressed with the updates in the development of this project! I'd love to see some music software in the future! (Hopefully will a piano roll instead of a tracker style timeline.)
I support your idea on making this an educational computer that isn't on the internet. My coding career began at 5 years old on an IBM XT Clone when my father dropped a thick textbook on GW BASIC in front of me and said: "You like computer games? Type these pages in, and you will have a game to play". When you start selling these with case and keyboard, sign me up.
Good luck i hope they sell well. Out of my price range right now but i understand the costs. Once again good luck! Its looking absolutely awesome so far! And i genuinely hope it gets to the educational stage.
Congrats on finally releasing it! I am following the project since its start and honestly it and your review of projects alike made me pursue electronic engineering. I was in last year of middle school when I discovered you and now I am second year bachelor. Thank you!
I too have followed from the start . Some concerns and ideas: 1. Add a tokenized Basic token to store indent and another for label so BASLOAD becomes reversible and these things can be input in line number mode (I assume you already have the old RENUM command). 2. Maybe reach out to 3D Realms new owners, maybe they can do something . 3. Look at other educational programmable systems like microBit, Pi400 and Arduino for further ideas . 4. Beware that the network/modem card can bring in all the baddies in text mode, especially the ones that currently roam on X and in chatrooms . 5. Try to get peek, poke and other simpler operations closer to blitz and assembler speeds . 6. Add graphics commands to ease sideways scrolling like in Ti Parsec and Super Mario . Perhaps draw off screen to the side then execute "HSCROLL count" where count is positive or negative for different directions .
Congrats on the launch of computer. You driving with phenomenal attitude and energy. 2 thumbs UP! from a fellow hobbyist who grew up playing and engineering on 8-bit computers.
Congratulations on the launch of your dream computer. I learnt to program on a ZX81, 1K of memory and then an Amstrad CPC 464 using the thick manuals that came with the computer.
Your competition isn't V-Tech, its the various Raspberry Pi educational packages that offer much more for less than half the price. You absolutely know those exist.
@@johndododoe1411Commodore Basic, in any of it's variations, was never as good as QBasic. They wanted compatability with old CBM v2, which was just a bare bones and particularly version of standard MS 8 bit Basic, and yet they've added their own, incompatible commands. Which begs the question... why bother with CBM BASIC in the first place?
@@another3997 All the MS 8 bit basics were customized per computer . Adding extension commands were standard with C=128 having the most CBM extensions and other computers having their own extensions . It seems the new extensions are above and beyond C=128, with as much backwards compatibility as they could get . QBASIC, while 16 bits, was the most evolved of the old style MS BASIC versions, succeeding IBM ROM BASIC and GWBASIC for those machines .
I'm really happy to see that your dream is coming true. Congratulations. I follow your channel since 2016. During the pandemics I stopped watching videos as i did in the past. Today I came back here and what a surprise!! Congratulations! Hugs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. - Sincerely, Felipe Lima
if you are concerned about basic's line number issue... smilebasic for the Nintendo DSi/3DS and Switch has labels that you can define, which means you can basically name any point in the code as a jump point for a very easily human-readable program, calculator BASIC is nearly identical in this fashion
Such a sweet project! Congratulations on the release and really just want to say thank you for you all's vision and perseverance in getting it to where it is. Really incredible!
Congratulations David on such a big milestone! I’ve been following since the beginning and preordered my X16 and accessories last week. So exciting!!! I’m grateful for all of the hard work you’ve done and can’t wait to set the physical system up when it arrives! This is one of those rare things I’ll be happy to lose sleep over. 😊
Fantastic! Here in Brazil we also used a version of BASIC in the form of an editor with paragraph names (without numbers). It was Turbo BASIC and QBASIC. They offered the option to compile as well. Congratulations to everyone on the new computer production team, Mr David and other 8-BIT GUY collaborators. Thank you very much!
Hah! Looks like the website went down due to the sheer number of requests. I might not be able to get one in the first batch, but I've been waiting for this for YEARS. Excited to see that your dream has finally come to fruition!
Indeed, I just tried it and it doesn't work. I was busy when the video came out, I should have watched the video first. Well, the good news is that the newer units will get better.
Don't get me wrong I love this project, but I think you might be a little optimistic about the prospects of ever evolving this into an educational tool. You went through the pain of learning basic as a kid because computers were new and exciting, but kids these days have ipads with retina screens and an effective endless stream of content on the internet. A pixelated terminal just doesn't impress anymore, (except for a few especially nerdy ones, but if we're honest a Raspberry Pi running a modern Linux kernel is probably a more fitting learning tool for the next generation of nerds-not to mention already a very popular one that will be hard to compete with).
I mean, kids can like pixelated stuff just fine, it's still a widely used artstyle on those retina display ipads. The Commander'as prospects are the *simplicity* of it, where getting into Linux and higher-level code would probably require having... someone to help, who already understands it. As someone who cut her programming teeth in Qbasic and 6502 assembly in year of our lord 2015, there *is* an appeal to simple as dirt systems, for those starting to understand computers without help. Maybe not a *marketable* appeal, but, an appeal.
Not to mention that BASIC's only modern usage is in the hobbyist realm. It's irrelevant in the professional world. Learning modern programming and scripting languages is going to serve them much better in life.
@@MustardMan7321Python is just basic without line numbers, CMV ... Doesn't matter if basic or scratch or TIS-100 or C or Go or Rust .. You learn how to program, and then you can learn whatever language... Unless you learn Lisp...
Very interesting study of design choices, implementation realities, and the reactions of the fans. Hopefully some enthusiasts who are also parents will be willing to ante up for the gen 1 machines, because they want to see it be made available to a larger audience. I have been a fan and observer of the personal computer world since high school from '79 to '82. I do have a collection of old systems of my own I want to get up and going some day soon.
Three decades ago, I learned programming using QBasic in DOS! An editor with a run command and built-in help and api reference was all it took to teach me as a kid programming from scratch. It was amazingly fun. So kudos on building a proper code editor into the thing!
Congrats on distributing your newly built computer! I would so get this computer if I can add a cassette drive, since I got old school programs that are saved on tapes from C64, it’s hard to find a C64 computer online, not counting that C64 mini which is mostly a retro game console, and not a legacy computer for retro computer enthusiasts!
Is it weird that I know for a fact that I will never program on the X16 but I get so excited when there is a video or update about it? The entire history from first video announcement to this one. I can't get enough 😅😅😅
I tried to bring back that "magic" for my kids also, but then I came to the conclusion that that ship has sailed my friend. We were mesmerised by computers back in the 80s because they were new and magical. Kids today will never get that feeling that we had back in the 80s.
yeah it looked ok then and shit now.
@@andymouse doesn't look like "shit", it is just primitive.
I agree. Sadly, times has changed and moved on.
Heck, I think I "lost" the magic when Amiga and Atari failed to move into PowerPC and when BeOS, GEOS and OS/2 also died.
Same, my kids think old NES games are boring. 🤷
All Roblox and Minecraft now
I wish I had this when I was little, my main computer was a bit too important (and not mine) to mess with like this. My first laptop ran Minecraft at less than 10fps, and I loved it, but it didn't give the suggestion to "play" with it...This would've been great to encourage me.
Congrats on the launch of your dream computer. A lot shown here is seriously impressive! Don’t worry I’m sure you’ll get plenty of support for Phase 1. Because as we all know PCB stands for Perfect Computer Buyers. Doesn’t it?
Yes it does!
Well actually 🤓 it stands for Peri's baby is crying 😉
😂😂😂
5 screen Ghostbusters! Let's go😅
Nope! It means Prickly Corn Buns.
I agree it's a good toy for kids, but for kids from the 80s, not 2010s and younger. Just as fathers bought their sons model trains and played with them themselves, now grandparents will buy CommanderX16 for their grandchildren.
WRONG: They won't.
Exactly.
I very much doubt that. We live in a completely different world. Today's children are more interested in their I Phones, PS5, online gaming, Tiktok account etc... You go to most people's homes and the children are in their bedrooms, rather than sitting with their parents or grand parents. A young guy at work, doesn't understand my fascination with a Commodore 64 I brought from eBay. He's sees it as old tech that should be in a landfill. Kids are more advanced these days and have access to an array of entertainment, so their expectations and tastes are very high. When I grew up, my first tech was a cassette radio, and black and white portable TV. At the time, I was over the moon. The X16 is for us middle aged oldies to relive the past. I wish him all the very best, but I see it struggling in the educational market, BASIC isn't going to cut nowadays. There are far too many modern software platforms and resources you can access via a PC, phone or tablet that can teach you coding from beginner to advanced.
I'll be honest, as a niche product that caters to retro enthusiasts, I think this has a bright future. In much the same way that the market for vinyl and cassette continues to exist. It's pretty cool, I'd like to buy one. However, as a mass market education tool: no. I don't think it stands a chance. Parents of young children are in their 20s or early 30s; they probably don't actually know how to use it as they grew up with Windows or Macs. Moreover, the Raspberry Pi kind of fills that niche, assuming you can actually get one! Cheap, well-documented, the 400 is pretty close in form factor to something like a Spectrum, and if your kid bricks a Pi Zero, you're not going to lose any sleep. That's just my 2c. As I said, I think this is a cool project, and I would actually like to buy one.
Totally agree, Raspberry Pi already have the educational market using open software and delivers at 1/10 of the price. This has its place but at this price, it’s not going to be mainstream.
Totally agree. Better not to justify its existence with a use case like “avoid social media pressures”. A parent isn’t going to spend the money on this for a kid unless they are fully aware of the niche. A Pi or similar is a smarter move to learn programming skills for the future.
Back in the day, parents had no clue how to program/work with a Commodore 64.
@@BobischEBMbut then again, nowadays they do on current gen machines.
@@familiehermsen-ouwendijk3805 Then they must be supervised or that modern computer has to be content filtered. With a machine like the Commander X there is no need for supervision or filtering.
You're right about kids not wanting toys. That always drove me nuts too. I didn't want to play pretend computer; I wanted to learn. Kids don't want to be Wesley Crusher; they want to be Riker. Same deal.
Yeah but between kids back then and kids now, there is a huge difference. They may not want toy computer, but the X16 is way to austere I think.
I remember when I had a leapfrog laptop in my early toddler days
Kids will be way less excited than retro parents about this. Unless they live in the woods and have never seen a computer before.
@@jonathaningram8157I have to agree. It's much easier for kids to learn programming on a regular modern computer. Scratch seems to be great at capturing children's attention as it gives instant visual feedback and allows them to easily develop games. I simply do not believe that many of them would find developing some bouncing line program in BASIC very interesting. I am sure there are some who would enjoy it but for the vast majority it would be too abstract.
Also, if they wanted to work closer to the hardware, a basic microcontroller could be a much cheaper alternative which would also allow them to build projects with a physical aspect (blinking LEDs, etc.)
I can't imagine many kids enjoying programming on a retro machine. With all the things modern machines can do- it would probably be hard to sell a kid on programming hangman in text mode. But I could be wrong
The nano editor is nice, but I think it's a long shot to ask kids to write code without the benefits of a mouse for cursor placement, select and move, copy/paste/cut, and even more helpful things like linting and autofill/suggestions.
I get that i'm talking to people who grew up without those things in the 80's, but when the alternative exists, and is obviously available to anyone with a modern computer, it just feels unlikely. I hope we get to see a more powerful IDE come to the x16 that can actually be "fun" to write in, rather than "less of a chore."
But that's not to say the nano editor isn't a huge step up, it's really awesome and actually encouraging to someone like me. I just don't think it's enough to "cross the gap" that would encourage a 6-12 year old to write programs on it when they could be writing programs on a locked down linux box with an actual IDE or even notepad++ and python.
Agreed 😊
Also programs like MIT scratch bring kids up to speed very quickly in programming, with drag and drop commands, etc. I helped my son write an atari berzerk clone and also a mario type game with scratch and it only took a day or two. The problem is the commander(or any 8 bit computer) is going to be much harder to program, and won't be much better than something made with Scratch.
I now have turned my son on to linux and C programming, with the SDL library, you can blow away any 8 bit computer, and it's just as easy to program, as long as you stay with classic C and stay away from the modern "fad" languages.
I saw nano and thought, it needs vi/vim/neovim.
@@user-qd9pg8xt2k you read my mind, Sir… now some dude on the interwebs is coding Emacs for the X16 right as we speak :)
@@user-qd9pg8xt2kOr even something like Norton commander
This channel has gone off the rails with this.
Congratulations! This is an amazing accomplishment for you and the team.
This is a very cool project and im sure they will sell well to hobbyists but this will have no traction in the education sector. Raspberry pies, microbits and commodity pc`s have that market sewn up. Every child has access to these cheap machines at home, the software is standardised and readily available and skills can be directly transferred to the workplace when the time comes. Schools get thousands of these things very cheaply and parts are off the shelf and available everywhere. there is no way the x16 can scale up to make it worthwhile to educators.
Worrying about violent games and porn is pointless at this point as every kid has a smartphone and console or pc where accessing this stuff is trivial.
Having said that, I wish the project well, any new hobbyist machine coming to market is a joyous occasion.
sshh your ruining the dream
Congratulations to the whole team!
Super awesome! Congrats. Good luck! Always keeping an eye out on this project. We appreciate it so much
congratz releasing a computer must be a unreal feeling for you and your team.
7:28 "The Commander X16 literally cannot do those things."
I am now picturing the ears of every coder, coders who loves a challenge, becoming red hot. They may choose to create either code or hardware or both which will allow the Commander X16 to do all of those things. I am not saying that they ought to. But, the challenge flag, a flag which was indirectly raised by that aforementioned statement, has been raised. 😇
I mean, he literally demonstrated a WIP wifi card in this video...
I used to get porn on my coco 3 from local BBSs in my early teens. Don't judge me!
Let's not forget that hornography comes in the form of classic novels too.
@@gluttonousmaximus9048 Someone's gonna port Fifty Shades of Grey to the X16 💀
Basically, if old, Fortran-powered IBM mainframes from 1960's could run "Edith" program, Commandor X16 will do it without problems xD I can see situation, where computer downloads firstly the resolution of picture, then, part by part, downloads small segments of image at one time, downsizes them by creating the mean value of bunch of pixels and converts it into ASCII characters to be displayed on the screen XD
I don't know if you'll see this comment, but I just wanted to let you know how inspiring I find the commander x16 project. I'm not much of a retro computing enthusiast beyond consuming videos about it, but just seeing your dream and all the hard work and creative pivots you've had to make long the way-it's so incredible to see that level of dedication. I'm working on several projects with massively long timelines (years long) and watching this series has given me a lot of energy I need to keep working.
OMG! @badinkstudios! I'm a subscriber to your channel and love your videos! (especially the shorts) didn't expect to see a cool comic youtuber hanging out here in a retro computing channel
@@TheTitaniumBunker that’s awesome! I’m a big fan of retro tech channels in general. Stuff like this or Techmoan. I just enjoy deep dives into technology, engineering, product design, and audio visual mediums. Those kinds of content creators are good examples of how to break something down and tell a clear story while highlighting nuances. It helped me learn how to make better content that broke complex ideas down in a fun way!
This is such an amazing result. Been watching you for YEARS and to see this dream of yours come to market is just so bad ass!! Congratulations! ❤
I've been a huge fan of the channel for years, and am super excited to see you get to build and market your dream computer. I hope it does well, but I don't know if a computer like this can succeed in education market today. The fundamental issue is software. Using a modern Mac/PC or even smartphone offers so much more, and with emulation, can even offer X16 Software. As for in-home I think the main thing holding it back right now is the lack of HDMI port. Non-retro consumers likely don't have VGA/Composite monitors anymore, and the inability to just plug it in may be an issue. I do hope you can overcome these challenges, because a device which has great software and that doesn't have the problems you mentioned with modern machines would be great!
You can get a Raspberry Pi for a fraction of the price, and a very small fraction at that. For a kid, a Raspberry with Python is a far more useful and far more interesting learning environment than any retro clone computer. In my opinion, all the talk about kids and education is a fool's errand, just parents wanting their kids to like the same kids they liked when they were their age, despite that making no sense.
@@darak2 Not sure why people keep mentioning the Pi - since pre-school my kids have been given school-issued iPad's or Chromebooks.
@@looneyburgmusic because it’s cheap (as in rrp like a pi 3 is about £33 and can do much more
A Raspberry Pi can emulate the BBC Micro, a computer that was designed for education and would eventually lead to to development of the ARM processor (for the BBC Micros successor).
@@MrDuncl yes
But schools want inexpensive complete systems - a role the Chromebook fits perfectly
Looks incredibly professional for a product made privately.
125th like
It's made in China and making crap look nice is what they do.
Too be fair, it looks like any design would look, when manufactured by a company which makes these kinds of boards.
ok! it would be incredibly when benchmark i9-14900K vs Commanderx16
I almost bought some of the existing FPGA clones of older computers but none of them grabbed me like the CX16. I'm hyped!
Congratulations David! The computer looks great!
Congratulations to reaching this milestone! I will definitely keep a look out for availability later on! Right now I'm awaiting the Spectrum Next from their 2nd KS, and hope to start introducing my kid to how I grew up with tech! The Commander looks freakin awesome, and if it ends up as a full kit with something like that case and a keyboard I'll most certainly be interested to order from the EU, if possible, even with the added import costs! love it, looks so great - and I'm so happy initiatives like this both keeps poppin up and successfully completes!
Nice work, Dave, and to all those involved. This looks, quite impressive, tbh.
Best wishes with it moving forward. I have a good feeling, this is going to be very, very well received.
What a ride!
Congrats to all people who worked in the project. You have my sincere respect!
Buying a Commander X16 to develop ultra violent video games, viruses, and the pressures of social media.
Congratulations on getting the X16 to market. Incredible. I hope I'll be able to buy one soon. Wishing you all the best.
Yesss! I've been following this Odissey step by step, I'm so happy to see you finally did it!
I don't think that circle chart accurately depicts how successful you'll be selling that to kids. You can't compete with a tablet or a cell phone. Handheld devices that teach kids how to use tools they'll need when they're an adult versus a desktop computer that does nothing but play games and code basic? It can't appeal to the masses. Sure there'll be some nerdy hobby type kids that could get into it but don't have high expectations. I have an 8 yr old. If it doesn't play Roblox it's not cool.
I'm not trying to be disrespectful either I'm just a reliable source on kids. Good luck regardless
@@SnakebitSTI Exactly, people are learning to code because it's a useful skill, learning to code in commodore basic is less useful than learning to code in cobol for gods sake, atleast some ancient mainframe hardware that's still hanging on runs cobol!
Excellent, Dave! My pre-order is already in, and I can't wait. My retro-computing to date has been exclusively on the Color Maximite 2, but I have a lot of other experience with other computers, many different languages including assembler languages, so I hope to get up the X16 learning curve pretty fast and produce some decent software.
Seems like you're truly living your dream! It's cool watching your channel/business evolve over all these years.
Looks amazing! Thank you for the demo. I hope it inspires some people to pickup and tinker with computers.
Great news. Well done on getting it into production.
Him: kids can use this without parents worrying about the horrors of the internet
Me: *furiously writes web browser*
The more this machine would do is to ping on a server and maybe write a tweet that you can't actually see, I don't expect any HTML5 red player running on it, but he already set the challenge, so who knows?
@@MrLind87 👍
Could write an X16 version of something like Lynx perhaps?
@@SnakebitSTI I think you meant "bloated" rather than "advanced" 😉
@@another3997 no, it's definitely "advanced"
Great news 8 bit guy and the others that made this come to life. Also stumbling on your youtube channel a few years ago, made me get into the Retro Market. I now have a working C64 and Amiga 500.
Looks like a great product with lots of great improvements on the way! Can't wait to get my hands on one.
Congratulations. This has been a labor of love and each posting of your progress has been great.
Congratulations on this huge milestone! I can't imagine the amount of work that was required to get here.
Congrats, gang! I'm happy to have been able to help with this project, even if it was only financially through the donation drive.
Glad to see the continued success of your retro PC. I know your heart really has been in this for decades.
At last! This is superb.
Amazing work all around, really fantastic from the first day to launch day. I cannot congratulate and compliment you enough David and your team also. I shall be ordering one at the weekend!
Fascinating!
I've been watching this since it all started.
I learned on the C64 at 13 or so, but it's been soooo long ago, and I'm so busy I'm fully aware I don't have a realistic prospect of learning all this all over again. I sat down at an old C128 and I literally didn't even remember how to get the alternate characters etc.
I love the computer. I love the work you've done. I wish I had the time and energy to invest into re-learning it.
In my defense, I also write and create music on Linux home studio systems, do astrophotography and somehow work full-time at the same time as living with a wife who works full time, my step-son and his daughter AND my two granddaughters both under three.
So...yeah.
Amazing work though!
Nice work, its good to see a retro project take off like this.
I don't see the appeal in this product but i guess if your dream computer has snes ports in the back and not in the front where you would expect them to be then, sure, living the dream the way you want.
A neighbor sold me two raspberry pi 3’s For $15. Another neighbor sold me a MacBook Air for $60. The world is awash in hardware. And no one, young or old, has ever asked me if I could teach him to develop anything.
development is now days die
Yeah but it's those simplified computers/game consoles without any online account necessary!, without any wireless keyboard/game controllers! and without any dying lithion ion batteries!, those simplified devices which will still work in 40 years, others you will be knocked by any of those listed circumstances.
David is delutional and stuck in his own self importance. no kid in 2023 wants to program in basic. Sorry David.. once you sell to the 50+ year old nerds who still want to dabble, this project is over... to think he thinks there is a bigger educational market for dead programming language just exposes Davids hubris.
Well done! I can almost FEEL someone out there planning a lemmings port.
Exciting to see the progress! Thanks for the update
The 8 Bit Guy, my man, strikes again! Well done, and good luck. Amazing you finally did it, I cant believe it.
That was so satisfying when the IO perfectly fit in the rear ports haha.
Also I had no idea why this product was a thing, or who it was for, but when I grew up with a BBC Micro in our maths classroom, and was so obsessed with making it play silly noises and screen colours, I completely support this product. Awesome stuff tbh!
Have been following this since the beginning and looking forward to it. I have a 15-year-old son who is into retro computing. Had him watch your video, and he is super excited about the X16! Waiting for the cheaper version did not seem to make sense to me, seeing that in two years, he will be 17, and it may be too late for him at that point. Keep up the great work and thanks!
Smart kid to be interested in retro computing!
@@jackilynpyzocha662Smart parent to make smart kid.
You guys are incredible! Keep it up!
I'm so happy for you! Congratulations!
I'm always impressed with the updates in the development of this project!
I'd love to see some music software in the future!
(Hopefully will a piano roll instead of a tracker style timeline.)
Well done to you and all of those who contributed in some way. This is impressive!
a huge thanks goes out to pcb-way yay
@@SaraMorgan-ym6ue Indeed! 🙂
This is an incredible machine that you have built. I hope you sell a lot of them. I am amazed.
I support your idea on making this an educational computer that isn't on the internet.
My coding career began at 5 years old on an IBM XT Clone when my father dropped a thick textbook on GW BASIC in front of me and said: "You like computer games? Type these pages in, and you will have a game to play".
When you start selling these with case and keyboard, sign me up.
Every time I try and watch this I fall asleep.
I am 56 and I appreciate all that your doing for the Computer Hobbyist , 8 Bit Guy , Thank you . Liked and Shared :) QC
Good luck i hope they sell well. Out of my price range right now but i understand the costs. Once again good luck! Its looking absolutely awesome so far! And i genuinely hope it gets to the educational stage.
The Commodore platform is EXCELLENT as an intro to computing for kids/starters. Kudos on your vision and perserverance!
Congrats on finally releasing it! I am following the project since its start and honestly it and your review of projects alike made me pursue electronic engineering. I was in last year of middle school when I discovered you and now I am second year bachelor. Thank you!
I too have followed from the start .
Some concerns and ideas:
1. Add a tokenized Basic token to store indent and another for label so BASLOAD becomes reversible and these things can be input in line number mode (I assume you already have the old RENUM command).
2. Maybe reach out to 3D Realms new owners, maybe they can do something .
3. Look at other educational programmable systems like microBit, Pi400 and Arduino for further ideas .
4. Beware that the network/modem card can bring in all the baddies in text mode, especially the ones that currently roam on X and in chatrooms .
5. Try to get peek, poke and other simpler operations closer to blitz and assembler speeds .
6. Add graphics commands to ease sideways scrolling like in Ti Parsec and Super Mario . Perhaps draw off screen to the side then execute "HSCROLL count" where count is positive or negative for different directions .
Nice to hear!!
Congrats on the launch of computer. You driving with phenomenal attitude and energy. 2 thumbs UP! from a fellow hobbyist who grew up playing and engineering on 8-bit computers.
Congratulations on the launch of your dream computer. I learnt to program on a ZX81, 1K of memory and then an Amstrad CPC 464 using the thick manuals that came with the computer.
Great job! Thank you for the update.
Your competition isn't V-Tech, its the various Raspberry Pi educational packages that offer much more for less than half the price. You absolutely know those exist.
This couldn't be more different from a Raspberry Pi if it tried lmao
I'm your man for 3D! :)
Will you be writing libraries the community can use?
Great stuff. Good luck with the first run...
Wow. Congrats man! Incredible to see this.
Haven’t seen the BASLOAD combined with x16edit in action before this. This is a game changer for basic programming.
Reminds me of QBASIC from 30 years ago .
Or the open-source FreeBASIC that is still going, up-to-date, and very fast.
lol is basic programming still an active scene in 2023
@@johndododoe1411Commodore Basic, in any of it's variations, was never as good as QBasic. They wanted compatability with old CBM v2, which was just a bare bones and particularly version of standard MS 8 bit Basic, and yet they've added their own, incompatible commands. Which begs the question... why bother with CBM BASIC in the first place?
@@another3997 All the MS 8 bit basics were customized per computer . Adding extension commands were standard with C=128 having the most CBM extensions and other computers having their own extensions . It seems the new extensions are above and beyond C=128, with as much backwards compatibility as they could get . QBASIC, while 16 bits, was the most evolved of the old style MS BASIC versions, succeeding IBM ROM BASIC and GWBASIC for those machines .
An 8 bit computer…….something I wanted back in 1982.
That case is absolutely gorgeous! Congratulations.
I'm really happy to see that your dream is coming true. Congratulations. I follow your channel since 2016. During the pandemics I stopped watching videos as i did in the past. Today I came back here and what a surprise!! Congratulations! Hugs from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. - Sincerely, Felipe Lima
Don't fool yourselves this is made for middle aged guys(and theirs nostalgia), but not for kids. No kid would enjoy this.
Congrats on kicking off sales! I hope it sells well ^^
It won't
Congratulations on getting the X16 in production!
Amazing. Congratulations for the achievement 🎉🎉🎉🎉
if you are concerned about basic's line number issue...
smilebasic for the Nintendo DSi/3DS and Switch has labels that you can define, which means you can basically name any point in the code as a jump point for a very easily human-readable program, calculator BASIC is nearly identical in this fashion
Such a sweet project! Congratulations on the release and really just want to say thank you for you all's vision and perseverance in getting it to where it is. Really incredible!
Awesome work and what a fascinating project. Reliving the 80's too with a modern take 😊
your project looks so beautyfull, congrats
Congratulations David on such a big milestone! I’ve been following since the beginning and preordered my X16 and accessories last week. So exciting!!! I’m grateful for all of the hard work you’ve done and can’t wait to set the physical system up when it arrives! This is one of those rare things I’ll be happy to lose sleep over. 😊
what an awesome journey!
My humble congratulations David. Awesome 👍
Fantastic!
Here in Brazil we also used a version of BASIC in the form of an editor with paragraph names (without numbers). It was Turbo BASIC and QBASIC. They offered the option to compile as well.
Congratulations to everyone on the new computer production team, Mr David and other 8-BIT GUY collaborators. Thank you very much!
The blood, sweat, and tears that went into this thing, such great news!
Hah! Looks like the website went down due to the sheer number of requests. I might not be able to get one in the first batch, but I've been waiting for this for YEARS. Excited to see that your dream has finally come to fruition!
Indeed, I just tried it and it doesn't work. I was busy when the video came out, I should have watched the video first. Well, the good news is that the newer units will get better.
Great work! I still remember the first videos on this machine.
Congrats! What a milestone!!!
Don't get me wrong I love this project, but I think you might be a little optimistic about the prospects of ever evolving this into an educational tool. You went through the pain of learning basic as a kid because computers were new and exciting, but kids these days have ipads with retina screens and an effective endless stream of content on the internet. A pixelated terminal just doesn't impress anymore, (except for a few especially nerdy ones, but if we're honest a Raspberry Pi running a modern Linux kernel is probably a more fitting learning tool for the next generation of nerds-not to mention already a very popular one that will be hard to compete with).
I mean, kids can like pixelated stuff just fine, it's still a widely used artstyle on those retina display ipads. The Commander'as prospects are the *simplicity* of it, where getting into Linux and higher-level code would probably require having... someone to help, who already understands it. As someone who cut her programming teeth in Qbasic and 6502 assembly in year of our lord 2015, there *is* an appeal to simple as dirt systems, for those starting to understand computers without help.
Maybe not a *marketable* appeal, but, an appeal.
Nowadays not even Raspberry PI is a good fit. Kids will soon tinker with IA stuff. 😊
Not to mention that BASIC's only modern usage is in the hobbyist realm. It's irrelevant in the professional world. Learning modern programming and scripting languages is going to serve them much better in life.
@@MustardMan7321Python is just basic without line numbers, CMV ...
Doesn't matter if basic or scratch or TIS-100 or C or Go or Rust .. You learn how to program, and then you can learn whatever language...
Unless you learn Lisp...
what about minecraft , how do you explain that
Very interesting study of design choices, implementation realities, and the reactions of the fans. Hopefully some enthusiasts who are also parents will be willing to ante up for the gen 1 machines, because they want to see it be made available to a larger audience. I have been a fan and observer of the personal computer world since high school from '79 to '82. I do have a collection of old systems of my own I want to get up and going some day soon.
Good luck on the development!
This computer comes directly from the 80’s 😂
Dot Matrix printer like the Epson FX-80 at my high school.
Congrats, David! You deserve all success on this project!
I like how he walked us through 321*1000.
This is insane man. Awesome work! :D
Three decades ago, I learned programming using QBasic in DOS! An editor with a run command and built-in help and api reference was all it took to teach me as a kid programming from scratch. It was amazingly fun. So kudos on building a proper code editor into the thing!
Congrats on distributing your newly built computer! I would so get this computer if I can add a cassette drive, since I got old school programs that are saved on tapes from C64, it’s hard to find a C64 computer online, not counting that C64 mini which is mostly a retro game console, and not a legacy computer for retro computer enthusiasts!
I would love to see the case have brackets for the slots with the proper holes for whatever application.
Fantastic job!, I do love watching your videos no matter what they are.
Just in time for me to be able to take it with me on my time travel trip to 1982.
Is it weird that I know for a fact that I will never program on the X16 but I get so excited when there is a video or update about it?
The entire history from first video announcement to this one. I can't get enough 😅😅😅
By the way, you've put in a lot of dedication into this project! I hope it goes well for you.
Awesome!!! Congratulations!!!
Incredible amount of work, but the result is amazing !!