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LGR - 1999 Commodore 64 Web.it Internet Computer
🕑 Added 2023-03-01 01:06:54 +0000 UTCGreetings folks! It's been a busy as balls couple of weeks here. From randomly appearing on CNN, to making a brief trip to visit the National Videogame Museum, to presenting to students at a local college. What was intended as some time off ended up being time very much on, ha
But as soon as things got halfway normal I started working on this video. Again! I initially began laying groundwork on it a good number of years ago when I first got the computer, doing initial testing and research. But I only dove into the nitty gritty of the thing last week. And boy did this end up being slightly more involved than I'd assumed. Like, this is a German computer by a Dutch company made in Singapore with a US brand attached to it. So that was whole thing. But the closer I looked the more questions arose regarding how it worked, what hardware was inside, where it was sold, what exactly it could pull off performance-wise... yeah this was fun. Tedious, but truly fun!
I'm still working on it these next couple days and finishing up some loose ends before the final version of the video goes public Friday. But it's like 95% there and it felt worth sharing with y'all to get your input. I hope you enjoy this preview of the Web Computers C64 Web·it Internet Computer thing!
Comments
BastetFurry
Summary of my findings, the little daughterboard contains 16 MByte of OTP ROM on four chips but you can actually reach the BIOS. As soon as you see the boot screen hammer F2 and Delete and you enter a Phoenix BIOS. From there you can select from what to boot. I enabled the boot menu and now can select to boot from A:, C: or D: (the ROMDOS) and can tell the computer to reformat the flash.
LGR
One Must Fall 2097
Paul Butterworth
What’s the fighting game in the thumbnail? - I have strange childhood memories of it after seeing that footage, and I always thought they were from Rise of the Robots, but now I’ve seen your video, I’m pretty sure it’s that game instead!
LGR
Sure seems possible judging by the generic case it's built inside, and being manufactured by Aztech. But I haven't seen evidence of other units that might've been produced.
CubicleNate
I did enjoy this quite a bit. I didn't know the thing existed and it would be cool to have one, just because of the branding. Do you know if there were unbranded units like this?
LGR
Ha, I bet! The computer is its own April Fools joke
LGR
I'll have some PCB shots in the final video, though I didn't notice a JTAG header. But I also wasn't specifically looking for it either when I had it open :) Definitely take a poke around whenever you retrieve it from storage! It's incredibly easy to take apart, the keyboard pops right out and two screws need removing underneath it and that's it. Super simple hardware inside that seems like a tinkerer's dream.
Valora Inverse
Oh yes, love to see a funky little bastard computer.
BastetFurry
My fiancee has one in storage, i should search for and take it out and check if one can somehow modify the ROM Disk. I bet its simply a 16 MByte flash with the read-write pin hardwired to read, only problem a modification could have is that i would need to rig some programmer with an Arduino and desolder it as by that time I²C flash in those sizes where not common and the flash will surely be parallel hooked up to an internal IDE to flash chip. Much like in the early EeePC netbooks with a SATA to flash chip. Care to make some high res PCB shots? <3 EDIT: Maybe we are lucky and there is a JTAG header, which would make a mod as easy as getting one of those cheap 3€ JTAG thingies from AliExpress. :D
Steve Lovelace
Don't publish this on April 1. It's so weird no one will believe it!
Cyclone
Glad you're safe from your demon possessed alarm system. I can't even imagine how terrified if I'm the only one in the house and it starts talking to me.
Garoninja
I got a bit of unscrupulous nonsense in. I am happy.
Alyxx the Rat
Welp that exists. And doesn't do a whole lot else. Seems to be pretty much what you'd expect for that price though.
LGR
Nope, as mentioned in the video it unfortunately blocks booting from floppy.
Chris Rogers
Could you boot into DOS off a floppy to fix the memory issues?
Erik Sundström
I wonder how much better later revisions of ccs64 runs on older hardware?
LGR
AB Tech
Zachary Outen
dude that's wild seeing you on cnn lol what local school did you present at?
LGR
It beeps a whole lot, then just continues like nothing happened.
Daniel Cayea
What happens if you force a keyboard fault with the system at boot time?
LGR
Eh probably not, it’s not really the type of content I want on my channels. The linked vid in the post above is the CNN interview uploaded by someone else though :)
LGR
Thankfully it’s all good now, it happened back when I first moved in about a year ago. Still a weird and memorable experience!
InSyder
Clint can you post your CNN and CBS interviews on your channel or even your smaller Blerbs channel? That would be cool to see.
Hernando Heilbron
Damn, pretty wild what happened to you with your house holding you hostage! Hopefully that won't be an issue anymore
