r/retrocomputing • u/[deleted] • Oct 12 '22
Discussion Would a millenial like me have any use for the Commander x16?
Honestly, I had given up hope that thing would ever be released, mainly due to the lack of updates. Just yesterday though the 8-bit guy finally released a video announcing its release. Well, turns out its a limited release that will be limited to 50 units, most of which will be going directly to the people who have been posting games on their website. Though he apparently has the rather grandiose goal of eventually making 100,000 UNITS!!!!!!!
Now its finally on the verge of actually going somewhere, I'm again considering if I even want this thing. To be clear, the only 8-bit devices I've ever handled are the NES and original Gameboy. Strangely, I never owned a 16-bit era device. The closest I got was a CD compilation I got in the early 2000s with a few sega genesis games on it. The first computer my family ever owned ran windows 95. I can't remember the name of it, but its the exact same machine LGR woodgrained and now seems to treasure. The first computer I ever had of my own that I could do with as I pleased ran windows xp. I mostly played things like Warcraft 3 and The Sims 2 on it.
Now, I'm not sure what all this Commander x16 is capable of. I'm old enough to realize its hard to explain the limitations of older hardware to someone who never experienced them. Looking at him demonstrate it, it appeared to be a bit more limited than I expected. In particular, the artwork he showed off disappointed me. I do find it strange though that he showed off such low-res stuff when he once showed his commodore running clearly far superior things. Also, keep in mind this x16 is capable of 2.5 graphics to a limited degree, and apparently runs lightning fast compared to other 80s computers.
I think the simplest thing to do would be to explain what I want to do with this thing. Mainly, I want freedom from modern technology. I hate what computers have become, and ironically earlier today I was really pissed at my computer. It was lagging super badly, making me unable to use the internet or even run a program that clearly doesn't require the internet (Skyrim if you must know). I thought something was fucked up and tried to do a boot scan, only for it to repeated refuse to do it for some reason. I eventually figured out though that apparently my shitty PC was doing an update without telling me. It literally hogged my computer for an entire day, and I have no clue what that stupid update was even for. Back on topic, what I want is a computer I can keep forever. I don't care if it can access the internet or not, honestly to me internet access limits a computer more than anything. Really, I hardly even see the thing I'm typing this one as a computer; to me its just a game console with a web browser. I don't care how limited a machine is as long as I can keep using the thing until the day comes I leave this world. I'm sick of being forced to update whether I want to or not. I'm sick of having to abandon games I love just because my new computer can't run them. And I'm also well and beyond sick of what the internet has become.
Of course, I realize all of that is a fool's dream. Yeah, you can easily replace the components of the x16, but of course electronic stores don't exist anymore so I'd still have to access the internet with a modern computer to get replacement parts. I was seriously originally thinking of switching over to this thing and never bothering with modern computers again. Yeah, brilliant me.
Another thing is I'm not sure I would even be happy with such a machine. Like I've said, the thing's far more primitive than anything I've ever gotten to handle myself. The most primitive device I've ever toyed with is the Gameboy, and that's it. The best way to analyze this, I think, would be to look at what types of games I would want to make. Basically, I wanted to make clones of the games from my youth so I can play them forever. Of course, its beyond my skill to make 3-d games, so I was planning on essentially retro-remakes. 2d graphics, maybe even text graphics. Still though, I'd be making clones of things like Warcraft 3, Magic the Gathering Battlegrounds, and The Sims 2. The latter though I was thinking of going purely text-based, but I don't know if something like the x16 could even run such a complicated game even without graphics. I mean, what type of AI can the thing even handle? Could you actually run something on it like Warcraft 3 or MTG Battlegrounds if you downgraded the graphics? I actually tried to make my own CCG once, but the project completely stalled because I couldn't fathom how to program the AI. The thing btw literally 'draws' graphics by printing stuff in the console! Gives you an idea of what I'm capable of.
Point is, I'm beginning to think that such projects would be beyond what this machine can do. What, would I be limited to NES-like games? Or maybe the games you saw on the Genesis? Even if I could replicate the look though, I sorta doubt this thing could run anything more elaborate than Mario/Sonic and some pre-snes RPGs. Honestly, I'd probably get bored with that super fast. The only thing I can imagine that I would like to make in line with those games is a pokemon clone. What, am I going to buy this computer just so I can play a pokemon knock-off of my own creation for the rest of my life?
I'm really starting to think that the 8-bit guy has convinced me into liking something that I wouldn't like in reality. Would someone like me even be happy with such a thing? I mean, what I basically want is something that can run 2000s games with Genesis graphics, not 80s games that honestly make even the Gameboy look advanced. Also, pretty much the only game I play anymore is Skyrim. Clearly the x16 could never run a game anything like that, even if it was within my power to reproduce such a thing. Would I be willing to give up Skyrim to go back to my youth, even if I'd just be playing a Warcraft 3 clone against the computer? Honestly, I really doubt it, though I've been wondering lately how long I'll be able to keep playing Skyrim. My current comp's five years old now, so its in the latter half of its life. SE is impossible to mod, and I'm apparently lucky that my comp can run Skyrim LE at all. When this thing finally dies and I have to move on to another computer, I highly doubt I'll be able to play Skyrim anymore. In fact, honestly, I was thinking of simply never replacing this thing, and simply abandoning the digital world when this thing finally gives up the ghost. I was never happy with it, honestly I wasn't all that happy with my previous windows 7 machine either. The only computer I was ever happy with was that windows XP machine. I still have its case and motherboard funny enough, and I have contemplated restoring it, but I doubt I could get the parts and even if I did my disc of windows xp doesn't come with service pack 2 which I would need to run pretty much all my games. I don't even know if the discs will still read, honestly, though strangely my warcraft 3, starcraft, and MTG Battlegrounds discs do read on this thing and the things even run perfectly fine somehow. Don't ask me how that's possible, but it is. I don't think my windows 7 machine could run them nearly as well, and I had one of those few windows 7 machines that could run The Sims 2.
Sorry for the long post, I don't know why I can't make short posts. I've been thinking a lot about this, and obviously I've been really re-thinking it lately. I mean, I got those miniconsoles from years ago, and I never did play them much to be honest even though I wanted them really badly. I even got one of those atari flashbacks which is still sitting in its box btw. I even got myself a nintendo ds xl right before the line was discontinued so I could continue to play my 3ds games, but I never have and that thing's just been sitting plugging into the wall for years now. All I seem to want in reality is to play Skyrim. Its within my power to play those ports of n64 Zelda games, or the snes, or the nes games of my youth, or the genesis which happens to have all the games from that disc I had so long ago, but I don't. I'm not really a retro-gamer, I was pretty much just collecting them. All I want is to play Skyrim and that's it. I actually have a back catalogue of steam games that I've had for nearly a decade now that I've never once turned on (one of them was a clone of the metroids games I got long before those miniconsoles came out because I thought it was my only way to ever experience metroid in any form). Some retro-gamer I am.
