(Thanks, The C64!)

Yeah, yeah, I know some of you are ogling these images and video in this post with a raised eyebrow, but hear me out.  Sure, ethical issues aside, you can emulate away or go fiddle with a Raspberry Pi or some other device to run Commodore 64 games these days. But for those folks who aren’t tech savvy or just want a simpler means of playing those classics, the C64 Mini (set for a North American launch on October 9) will be right up their alley provided the price point is perfect and the console plays well enough for anyone interested to snap it up.

Now you can play a bunch of C64 classics and have your kids looking truly perplexed because they only recall Nintendo as “inventing video games” as I overheard recently. Yeesh.

Anyway, for an off the shelf console, the C64 Mini is pretty loaded, I’d say (but you’ll have to read below the jump to find out what’s in the box):

I vaguely to moderately recall some of these titles, but I wish EPYX was still around because I recall they made the best controller for the system.

THEC64® Mini includes the following:

Pre-loaded with all the Retro Faves: THEC64® Mini comes with 64 classic titles already installed, including: California Games, Winter Games, Impossible Mission II, Boulder Dash, Jumpman, Pitstop II, Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe, Street Sports Baseball, Summer Games II, Temple of Apshai Trilogy, Uridium and more.
USB Ports: The unit comes equipped with two USB ports – perfect for adding an extra joystick for multiplayer games or plugging in a keyboard to create your own programming masterpieces.
Customized Visuals: The unit features high definition output at 720p and 60Hz via HDMI, 4:3 ratio, US/Europe display mode options, and a CRT filter for that classic look.
Back to the Basics: Plug in a USB keyboard and use as a fully functional home computer with C64 BASIC.
Don’t Forget to Save: For the first time, THEC64® Mini allows you to easily save your progress in games.
Always Optimized: THEC64® Mini supports software updates via USB flash drive so players have continued access to improved and enhanced programming.

I do wish that faux keyboard worked, but I’d gather the tiny size would mean ham-handed folks like me would end up with crampy claws after about 20 minutes. Fortunately, you can attach your own USB keyboard if you need to. I actually missed out on owning a C64, but I did have the chance to play a few games back in the day thanks to a friend who did own one. I’m gathering the Mini loses the extremely long loads times those original games had, so it’ll be cool to revisit them and not need to go make a whole meal while a game loads up. Well, I’ll just keep an eye peeled on this and hope it rolls into the US as a more solid product that can at least compete with what Nintendo has to offer for classic and retro game fanatics.

-GW