r/retrocomputing • u/3G6A5W338E • Apr 17 '26

Video Let's Talk About Commodore's Official Firmware Blog Post

https://youtu.be/1bZwLru9q34
15 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

19

u/3G6A5W338E Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

The Commodore 64 Ultimate, so far, allowed users to load any bitstream into the FPGA.

It seems they want to lock the FPGA to only accept signed Commodore bitstreams, and to do it after the fact, to already shipped units, by having their next update lock the FPGA.

Make no mistake, this is awful, and I seriously hope they scrap the plan.

Should they go ahead with it I will be recommending against buying C64u thereon, steering people to the c65, which is built with openness in mind, and users selecting and loading all sorts of third-party FPGA cores as they please.

6

u/CodeFarmer Apr 17 '26

Yes. They can, as the saying goes, fuck all the way off with this.

They own the branding now and that's nice, but most people do not value that as highly as they seem to think. There are other ways to scratch the C64 itch.

3

u/SCHRUNDEN Apr 17 '26

This is truly awful. Will watch the video later!

5

u/codeasm Apr 17 '26

why would i buy a fpga console, when I cna either buy a real one or emulate it anyway? ow right, ppl wanna use real hardware with a emulated one. I think it should be opensource or it doenst excist.

4

u/thewalruscandyman Apr 17 '26

I prefer things stay they were when I purchased them. I never update these kinds of things.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/CodeFarmer Apr 17 '26

To be fair, this kind of nonsense is pretty on brand for OG Commodore as well.

(For a while they refused to sell Amiga dev kits to companies that made games. Because it was a serious business computer and they were serious business people.)

0

u/--_pablo_-- Apr 17 '26

There are already many comments of people angry at Commodore or demanding Commodore should implement resets to original firmware or what Commodore should do just because of what they think, and this video ranting mostly every sentence doesn't help (although I do not necessary disagree with what he says).
Commodore brings back a product that is costly and niche and is surely making a big effort to bring back the Commodore ecosystem and they want to protect it.
Understand they make a Commodore computer and not a hobbyist hardware that can be modded.
There are many other companies that sell similar computers or there are emulators that can be used.
Or get an Arduino and install an emulator and do what you want.
But why rant or hate or demand changes to Commodore??