The Commodore 64DX/Commodore 65



In 1989, Commodore began an endeavor which was way overdue. The creation of a near Amiga-quality computer that is 8-bit in spirit, compatible with the popular Commodore 64 (through an emulation mode), and containing a built in disk drive. Assuming that the price range could have been set below $499, and assuming that this project had been done back in 1985 instead of 1989-1991, I believe this would have been an big seller for Commodore, and would have breathed life into them which would have extended CBM beyond 1994.

As it was, the design of the Commodore 65 started in 1989, and the project was scrapped a few years later. A few prototypes leaked out in 1994 when Commodore liquidated, which is why they are known of at all. There are those who say that only about 200 exist. Others say the number is closer to 1000. I happen to hold with the former, since both of my models have serial numbers below 200, as does every existing model I have heard of.

Commodore 65 home computer.





The Commodore 65 is truly remarkable. Taking the latest in video technology, combining it with the best from the 8-bit years, and putting it all in an attractive, very Commodore-like, package. If you'd like to see what it looks like underneath the hood, click here.

















The last interesting thing I received along with this computer was a disk drive! Although it appears to be an Amiga 1010, it most certainly is not. It's actually a 1581 inside a A1010 case. But why didn't the engineer just use a 1581? Who knows. Either way, this is certainly not the fabled 1565, which would have communicated with the c65 through its bus disk drive port instead of through the serial port like this drive does. The label on the bottom proclaims this to be DD disk drive #12, along with an FCC warning sticker. You can see this orange sticker by clicking here





Statistics, features, and C65 resources:

CPU: CSG 4510 3.54 Mhz clock speed. RAM: 128 kilobytes, expandable to 8 megabytes ROM: 128 kilobytes C65 Kernal and BASIC 10.0 Download image (10/1/1991)

C64 emulation kernal and BASIC 2.0

C65 disk drive DOS Video: CSG 4569 "VIC-III" 6 Video modes

Resolutions from 320x200 to 1280X400

80 columns text

Pallette of 4096 colors. Sound: CSG 8580 "SID" (2X) 6 voice stereo synthesizer/digital sound capabilities Ports: CSG 4510 2 Joystick/Mouse ports

Round DIN CBM Serial port

Male edge-connector CBM 'USER' port

Round DIN CBM Monitor port

Power and reset switches

Round C65 bus drive port

Unimplemented RF video port

Round power DIN port

9-pin female RGBI video port

2 RCA audio ports

Belly ram expansion port

Female edge-connector C65 expansion port Keyboard: Full-sized 77 key QWERTY 12 programmable function keys

4 direction cursor-pad Miscellaneous Built in 3.5" DD disk drive (1581 compatible)

Partially implemented Commodore 64 emulation Resources C65 Manual (660K!)

Original C65 FAQ