THEC64 Mini, a miniature dedicated video game console, was released on March 29, 2018, in Europe and on October 9, 2018, in North America. It was designed to resemble the Commodore 64 computer, although the keyboard keys on the case are non-functional.
On THEC64 Mini, a USB keyboard could be attached to load the games, or a virtual keyboard can be used via the joystick.
Games are selected via the Commodore Carousel menu system. Commodore 64 BASIC can be selected as well.
THEC64
Retro Games released a full-size system, simply titled THEC64 on December 5, 2019.
THEC64 came with a full-size replica of the original Commodore 64 keyboard, while the miniature keyboard on THEC64 Mini was non-functional. It also came with one joystick designed to replicate Commodore 64 joysticks.
THEC64 also has VIC-20 functionality, as the unit can be switched to load into Commodore 64 mode, VIC-20 mode, or the Commodore Carousel menu system.
Features
Each model contained sixty-four built-in games. They contained the VICEemulator by Jarkko Sonninen and the VICE team to run BASIC and the games.
On both units, the power was provided by a standard mini USB plug and wall adapter, and the video was output through HDMI.
Technical specifications
The systems are much more powerful than the system on which it is designed.
It uses an Allwinner R16 "system on a chip". The system specifications are as follows:
1.2 Ghz dual-core Cortex-A7 CPU (central processing unit)
500 Mhz dual-core Mali-400 ARM GPU (graphics processing unit)
512MB RAM (random access memory)
512MB Flash storage
Since it uses common architecture, the system can be modified to add additional games, simply using the supplied mini-USB cable and open-source software.
Games included on THEC64 systems
The following table lists the games included in THEC64 and THEC64 Mini.
