A concept rendering of a “Commodore HX-64”

The design/concept has been knocking around for years, so I don’t believe it is. As a piece of retro-futurism it’s pretty cool. I got string Alien vibes from it, for some reason.

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AppendixN@reddit

Nice aesthetics, but it would be a pain to use that keyboard. Chiclets are bad to begin with, and then you’ve got an unbalanced device with no hand rests that would be sliding all around.

A few tweaks to the design would address that, though.

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fuzzybad@reddit

It's also missing a few critical keys, such as +, -, *, /, INS/DEL, and CLR/HOME.

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IamTheJohn@reddit

Even though the thing does not exist, I already despise that keyboard with all my heart... 😄

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lowrizzle@reddit

These are all renders from a 3d artist.

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deelowe@reddit

It's pretty telling that people think that renders that have been around for nearly a decade now are ai "slop"

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Trekintosh@reddit

No this one has been doing the rounds since before ai slop was a thing.

Unless you meant his actual name is Claude. Fucking Anthropic ruining a perfectly good name.

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This is neat, but not correct for a CRT. Either it would need to lay flatter for a right angle CRT, need a deeper neck, or a very fishbowled display to get the neck super short, with a beefy yoke. All of the small CRTs I have are about twice as long as their diagonal measurement. I'm not sure I've seen a color CRT under 5" either, but that's totally doable at 256 or 320 columns

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op374t0r@reddit

ironically not impossible to achieve, if somr rver made it it would be siccck

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Fake-Mailman@reddit

Should tell the new Commodore folks to do this!

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AntiquesForGeeks@reddit

This render was done years ago and has been doing the rounds for some time. I have a recollection that it’s already been covered by Simpson in his Blue Peter-alike show he used to do with his wife and their dog several years back.

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tpimh@reddit

I'd love this tiny CRT!

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VohaulsWetDream@reddit

i played around with fresnel lenses over an lcd, and it doesn't give a full crt feel, but it's kinda somewhat close

here we could do something similar: a lens to add an grille effect and a curved glass layer to mimic the crt surface

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OrangeNood@reddit

A handheld C64 with mini display? How cool is that!

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hotlavatube@reddit

Using period technology, it'd probably weigh 50 pounds.

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AppropriateCap8891@reddit

And the batteries last about an hour and a half.

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blackcorvo@reddit

They had mini CRTs for video doorbells and camera viewfinders (some even with color), neither of which weighted much. Even the Sony Watchman with it's small B&W CRT was like a 1 pound and a half.

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hotlavatube@reddit

I was being hyperbolic, though given that the Lisa computer weighed in at 48 lb, maybe not be that much.

Yeah, I had one of the Sony Watchman in 1997. It used a weird angled LCD screen to conserve on space. I did find some CRT intercom and other people have linked some 4" CRT displays from AliExpress. That said, there's a big difference between the resolution of a TV and a computer monitor. Monitors have significantly higher resolution and sharper images than CRT TVs. I'm not sure you would be able to read that tiny computer text on a CRT from the intercom or even a larger version of the Sony Watchman. This video shows the quality of the AliExpress 4" CRT monitor which looks like it uses similar technology to the Sony Watchman. The Osborne 1 portable computer had a 5" monitor, but the depth was like 12".

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blackcorvo@reddit

It makes me wish someone was still developing technology around CRTs nowadays. With the levels of miniaturization we have now, I'm sure it might be possible to have a high resolution screen that doesn't take much space.

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hotlavatube@reddit

I hear ya. By the time miniaturization was really hitting its peak, they ditched CRT for LCDs and LEDs. I dunno if the physics really works for mini CRTs, but you can bet it wasn't cost effective to research/produce mini CRTs. That said, despite their many flaws, I bet CRTs are more robust against radiation than an LCD panel. The Fallout folks probably got that right. ;-)

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2748seiceps@reddit

It could be pulled off now with a bit of old and new mixed in. Use one of those watchman-type CRTs and then squeeze some lithium batteries in there.

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hotlavatube@reddit

Yeah, someone pointed out a 4" AliExpress angled CRT. Interesting concept, but the picture quality might be better with an LCD. Maybe you could put a lens on top to make it look/feel more like a CRT.

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blackcorvo@reddit

Bro just reinvented the JVC LCCS display

https://youtu.be/z-q8ehzHeQQ

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Svardskampe@reddit

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EQUY8Sk

You can just buy a handheld CRT like that... And it doesn't weigh 50 pounds.

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hotlavatube@reddit

Fun, that's basically the inside part from the Sony Watchman from the 90s. I was referring to period technology from when the C64 was sold, which pretty much petered out by the 90s.

Yes, today you could use a single chip microcontroller and your mini-CRT or LCD panel, but back in the 80s I doubt it'd be that small or light. Sure, I was a bit hyperbolic at 50 lbs, but I recall how much those early portable computers weighed. For example, the Lisa portable computer weighed 48 lb.

Btw, I found a video on that mini-CRT display. Cute, though the quality with a weird angled CRT display probably isn't the best.

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Exciting_Turn_9559@reddit

And it would run for 10 minutes on 6 "D" batteries.

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agent_flounder@reddit

Lead acid batteries and 20 minute runtime. Charge up overnight.

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algaefied_creek@reddit

1990s relaunch?

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Mysterious_Rule_7487@reddit

Someone should finally make this

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AllReflection@reddit

That’s the future I wanted. I still want it. 😅

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Scoth42@reddit

Neat, but I'd probably drop the tape mechanism from a real attempt at it. They're fiddly enough sitting on a desk much less being moved around, and if it only uses minicassettes you'd already either be having to format shift stuff or have special ones made.

The keyboard is probably okay as a vesigal organ mainly used to get games loaded and going for use with the d-pad but it wouldn't take much to at least make it usable.

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