When I reviewed the Commodore 64 Ultimate, I honestly couldn't believe just how perfect it was. It surprised me in ways I didn't expect, and it's truly the result of a love and respect for the brand. It's why I gave the C64 Ultimate a 10 in my review. It's a thing of beauty, and now Commodore has officially unveiled a gorgeous new update in collaboration with CD Projekt Red: The Commodore 77.
The case itself is gorgeous, with the plate on the function keys now made of brushed metal. That's not a "brushed metal" finish, by the way: it's actually brushed metal. The rest of the case has been colored to match the Cyberpunk style, the Commodore 64 badge has been replaced with a Commodore 77 badge, and there are other changes that have to be seen to really be appreciated. The entire case has a weathered, suitably cyberpunk look to it, but just like with humans, it's what's inside that counts.
Aside from the new look, the Commodore 77 can now run at a blistering 77Mhz, compared to the 1Mhz of the original Commodore 64. There's also 77MB of system RAM compared to the original Ultimate's 16MB. While this new speed and power is pretty impressive (for the 1980s), it does run the risk of making some of your hand-written programs run impossibly fast, but you can toggle the higher speed off and on in the menus.
Hey, speaking of menus, the C77 also has a "custom Cyberpunk 2077 themed Commodore 77 BASIC 2.0 boot screen", which continues the overall Cyberpunk feel. The famous spiral-bound manual that's shipped with each Commodore 64 has also gotten a Cyberpunk facelift, and comes "packed with lore and exclusive Cyberpunk 2077-themed type-in BASIC programs." It's exactly the kind of thing old heads like me crave.
Each Commodore 77 ships with a shard-inspired Arasaka cartridge containing a demo created by Polish demo group Arise, with the soundtrack composed by chiptune artist LukHash. This is an old-school computer demo, the sort of thing hackers used to distribute to show off their chops. I've seen it. It's incredible. It's hard to believe what people can do with such limited computational power, but the soundtrack benefits enormously from the 24-track stereo SID chip that's part of the Ultimate.
Given how well Commodore did with its modern debut, I have no doubt in my mind the C77 is going to be similarly awesome, especially given the pedigree of its collaboration. Did I mention it comes with stickers and pins and in "collectible themed packaging?"
Oh, and it has LED lights that dance to the music on the demo. It's kind of everything I didn't even know I wanted.
Preorders are live at Commodore's website for $377, with an expected release date sometime next year. I, for one, welcome our CyberPunk and Commodore retro future.
Seth Macy is Senior Social Commerce Producer, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him on social media sites @SethFromMaine.
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