I had a C64, getting games to run was pretty easy but unfortunately it blew out from age as Commodores aren't lasting forever.

Well, my friend gave me a unit called the Commodore 64 DTV, I was super impressed and still am. It had a 250,000 unit run, and a second model called the C64 Hummer but the Hummer isn't as good as the original DTV in my opinion.

In 2004, Commodore released an Atari Flashback 2 like console. The C64 DTV, with a little hacking, it can run a Disk drive, second controller and cartridges. Its essentially a fully compatible C64 for a new generation.

The system features 30 popular commodore games, a hidden menu with 5 more games but these are designed to be found by real Commodore gamers. And of course a true Commodore 64 BASIC v2 screen which can be accessed by toggling the controller knob left and right when the screen loads.

And as the DTV doesn't have its own keyboard, a virtual keyboard is programmed into it, and it functions perfectly. My friend has a DTV with the disk drive hack and it plays the disk games perfectly.







Honestly, I don't know how this console ever slipped under my Radar as its amazing and easily replaced my original Commodore 64.



To anyone whom wants a Commodore 64 but worries about the likeliness that it will blow out from bad capacitor caps, (they werent meant to live forever.) should consider the C64 DTV.

That thing ROCKS! I have two, one staying as-is and the other one is bound to be modded into something more one day. Love em!!

I WANT ONE RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How much do these things go for? I checked and there's only one on eBay, and it's already at $45 with four days to go!

It would be cool to be able to find this thing at Wal-Mart or Target like the Atari Flashback. But if it's a limited thing that's fetching triple-digit prices, you'd probably be better off with an original C64, capacitors be damned.

Rob wrote:It would be cool to be able to find this thing at Wal-Mart or Target like the Atari Flashback. But if it's a limited thing that's fetching triple-digit prices, you'd probably be better off with an original C64, capacitors be damned.

It probably was in Wal-Mart, but HiddenGremlin says it was released in 2004. I'm sure it has long been discontinued.

Another thing, was it ever released in the US? It appears through searching that all for sale are in Europe.

@ Rob - I got mine for free from a friend, but likely you can get a DTV for around $25-60. If my friend hadn't given me one, I honestly would have bought one had I known they existed.

@ Ter - They were sold at Kay-Bee Toys, on the television, and also on the website. I think that is it as far as I am aware.

My friend said he bought the one he gave me from Kay-Bee Toys, he bought 3 units. He had held onto them forever then gave me one and kept the other 2. One he has is boxed and unopened and the other he uses with the 3rd being in my game room.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Commodore-64-plug-n ... 2a04b7f496

Amazing deal, labeled wrong!
Buy it before someone else does, Rob!!

Too late, it ended already!

Those units look cool, nice to hear they weren't butchered either.

Darryl B. wrote:Too late, it ended already!

Those units look cool, nice to hear they weren't butchered either.

Someone got a great deal on that DTV, and yes the unit is perfect; just what people wanted.
Its completely hackable like a "Atari Flashback 2", as both consoles are really running the original hardware function.

HiddenGremlin wrote: Its completely hackable like a "Atari Flashback 2", as both consoles are really running the original hardware function.

Gee, nice switch from the norm there. More companies should do it that way.

Darryl B. wrote:

HiddenGremlin wrote: Its completely hackable like a "Atari Flashback 2", as both consoles are really running the original hardware function.

Gee, nice switch from the norm there. More companies should do it that way.

Oh I agree completely,
what I want to see is a hackable Colecovision DTV, Intellivision DTV and also a Atari 7800 DTV.

If those 3 came out, along with the C64 DTV and Atari Flashback 2 then many people would be severely happy.

I really want a Colecovision DTV, the ones they have released so far are sub-par build quality and do not impress even a 5 year old. But they could make us happy and make a Atari Flashback 2/ C64 DTV styled Coleco for us gamers to love.

^That's awesome!!

HiddenGremlin wrote: If those 3 came out, along with the C64 DTV and Atari Flashback 2 then many people would be severely happy.

Well, there's the Atari Flashback 2+ coming soon, or whatever it's called. Dunno how well things are, hardware-/emulation-wise, but...yeah. Something to be hopeful about...maybe?

Darryl B. wrote:^That's awesome!!

HiddenGremlin wrote: If those 3 came out, along with the C64 DTV and Atari Flashback 2 then many people would be severely happy.

Well, there's the Atari Flashback 2+ coming soon, or whatever it's called. Dunno how well things are, hardware-/emulation-wise, but...yeah. Something to be hopeful about...maybe?

Oh, yea and another thing I like about the virtual keyboard is that when you press shift it shows you the newly shifted keys instead of having to look at the small side thingy.

So you can type on the virtual keyboard super speed! I watched a video on youtube of a guy using basic on the DTV and he was fast as hell typing on it.


We can only hope that Direct-to-television units of the future will be as good as the build quality of the C64 DTV and Atari Flashback 2 DTV units.

http://blip.tv/file/749800
Heres a video of the C64 DTV designer's interview-like thing.

http://www.64hdd.com/projects/hardware/c64-dtv64.html
A hacking of the C64 DTV to become its own computer tower.

http://www.64hdd.com/projects/hardware/c64-dtv64kb.html
A DTV turned into a modernized C64 Keyboard.



http://picobay.com/dtv_wiki/index.php?t ... aster_Eggs
Secrets to unlock on the C64 DTV!

Darryl B., I'll see if I run across one tomorrow at the flea market, because these things rock a lot and you def. should have one in the collection. Wish me luck!

nathanallan1 wrote:Darryl B., I'll see if I run across one tomorrow at the flea market, because these things rock a lot and you def. should have one in the collection. Wish me luck!

Oh, they are indeed a much have; I couldn't imagine my collection without the C64 DTV.
Now that I have one I will always have one, because it just seems right to own.

They look super nice when plugged into an original Commodore monitor.

HiddenGremlin wrote:http://cgi.ebay.com/Commodore-64-plug-n ... 2a04b7f496

Amazing deal, labeled wrong!
Buy it before someone else does, Rob!!

CRAP DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm keeping my eyes open for this one. I had no idea it was mass produced and available at chain stores, or I would have jumped on it QUICK.

How hard is it to hack compared to the Flashback II? Easier, harder?

nathanallan1 wrote:Darryl B., I'll see if I run across one tomorrow at the flea market, because these things rock a lot and you def. should have one in the collection. Wish me luck!

Yeah I know the feeling, I have chronic fatigue and transportation problems right now, which I only just realized a few months ago, rather than hitting flea markets maybe five times a year or so, there's actually one within walking distance I can check out once a week, increasing my visits to 20-30 a year...

...which barely a Saturday has gone by where it's been either too freakin' cold to risk walking to it without getting sick, it threatening to rain, etc., etc. Infuriating, to say the least And I had to bail out of that trip yesterday because I had to do something else.

Trying to find another Vectrex and the Radica Space Invaders plug and play (yeah I know, some of it's off). Actually like this Commodore unit, you can still order the latter from overseas, but I'd rather pay $3-5 for it used rather than $25 new. Plus you have to have a PayPal account (mine's screwed right now) or a credit card (which I don't at the moment) to do that anyway, so there goes those options.

And I keep on seeing gaming stuff there too, so there's hope, at least Saw some odd system I had never seen before either a few weeks ago, looked fairly new (made in the last 10 years I'd guess), having a cartridge in it's slot about the size of the Atari 800 cartridges (something about a chicken in the title, I think), and the controller ports looked exactly like telephone jacks. Weird...hope whoever bought that got in touch with the company to get replacement controllers, because it didn't have any, it was gone the next week. Good luck.