On 5/7/2020 1:35 PM, Jeff Gonzales wrote:
Stupid question: Do hobbyists take these, find all the chips, and then solder them?
Yes, yes they do (they typically grab the ICs from stock or boards mangled too far beyond repair).
I agree with another poster that I had considered duplicating the boards long ago, but the sheer number of C64s in the wild seemed to limit appeal. I think folks who buy these love the color options, the cleaner PCB look (Commodore and lots of 80's motherboards were copper coated with solder and then soldermasked, so the solder bubbles under the soldermask and buckles the soldermask in places). I think classic computer ownership is aligning with classic car ownership in the style and direction. I look at a clone motherboard as just a ton of soldering work, but popping out a 351 from a ford to strip it, replace the block, primer, paint it a wild color, and dump it back into the vehicle seems pretty standard, and that's basically what you're doing here.
With a design like the 64, it's hard to throw stones (what about the value of the old motherboard?), because Commodore spun these things out of the factory as fast as they could, like cheap plastic toys. And, there's so many, it's harder to wax poetic about a single 250466 board with a bad trace or two being ditched for one of these. I'd put the M100 in the same camp, as I think it was a widely used unit and so there are plenty of unit around. A TI 99/2, 99/8, C65, or some of the lesser known production units from the 80's? People would hurl insults if someone pulled the ICs off one of those for a replica motherboard.
All that said, I do like the idea of a T100 NG, maybe using some real parts, but having some additional items (different screen which can emulate the 8x40, but has more pixels, faster CPU< more RAM, etc.).
Jim
