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Text File | 2007-01-01 | 6.7 KB | 234 lines

uC64 Mark 2 A dream vision of a C= future I had a dream, nothing unusual about that; but this was a C= dream & in it I thought about C= making a comeback & I was Product Development manager of C=. C= had assigned me the task of bringing back the C64 not in its old version but in a format to sell in 2007+. I had a large budget & asked NOT to spend it all since some will be for marketing; my first thought was to contact Jeri Ellsworth to use DTV components & work she did on C-1 & DTV. Also wanted her to work on C64 as a full time employee. I managed to convince her that C= was back to stay. Next lawyers were called to check paperwork. Eventually documents were signed, resigned amended, copied, faxed, lost, signed resigned ... I wanted to use FPGA logic in the new C64 & so the design finally started to take shape. The shape was a laptop. We contacted the designer of Picco 64, Jason & offered him a job at C= Looked at various off shelf components, searched sites for H/W to use with minimal changes & little cost in the laptop. Why should we reinvent the wheel when someone had a wheel design they were selling. A quick way to extend the design was to purchase CMD from Maurice Randall of www.cmdrkey.com He had rights to CMD products & produces hardware in spare time. We asked for a price for everything CMD including S/W & H/W. After talks & showing cash Maurice agreed to a reasonable amount. Paid him & looked at our inventory. Of course C= directors were unhappy as money was dwindling & we only a pile of chips & some paper to show for efforts; & the 4 or 5 C64 bought from eBay we used to test various applications, ok we were playing games but thats a form of testing! C= suits demanded a progress report; & expected a full redesigned machine in 3 weeks We decided on a Mobile of Pigs Flying for presentation & for above the door. In true C= style we made a prototype of wood, & managed to bluff thru a presentation. Suits being businessmen & not H/W or computer buffs were bluffed; & happy the money was being spent wisely. I was worried I may be sacked, or even worse I may wake up. Concentrated our efforts trying to make money, since we had spent what C= had supplied & had nothing but a presentation to show for efforts. Now in process of saving we knew CMD products could be produced as is to recoup funds & ease tension about CMD products. Jens Schofield & I talked about CMD design; considerd new ways to manufacture products & toyed with mock designs on paper. Times have changed since CMD manufactured items; Jens looked over the designs & thought for a moment. We deciceed to use less components & more Programmable logic. That way we could offer Free upgrades & fixes, even user groups could find fixes for us & offer downloads. Using fewer components is cheaper to build; produces less errors & reduces size of the devices. Since we had the S/W we had nothing more to do than recode chips, machines could be ready in days. Everyone wins, C=, us & buyers, with better, stable designs & cheaper! We needed to get product out as soon as possible. I thought about users needing these devices & the small market that was dwindling since they couldnt obtain H/W, or were turned-off with C= & CMD. The faster we act the more market we generate. If these devices become common, programmers will enhance S/W to use the H/W. Weeks passed like days; testing took forever & working 24 hr days mistakes were common; needed more staff but no money to recruit. C= put pressure on to reveal projects, fended them off with smoke & mirrors & days later; we had items renamed for mass production to market. C= Hardware products Hard disk drive 3.5 Floppy disk drive R/L with MMC card reader Super Cpu 128 Products moved to marketing for promotion, & design aesthetics Small changes marketing had were minimal. We could see the goal & needed the products in the shops as soon as possible. Small changes were due to reduced part list, streamlied design, logos & manuals. With the number of items mass produced we reduced cost by 60% & set products for sale on the C= website. C= users who purchased the designs said they worked with 100% compatibility with old CMD products. This generated interest & sales, how many C= users are in the world? It seems everyone wants these devices Open to user suggestions Tweaks & tips were put on a wish list with more ideas. We produced circuit only versions for building C= custom tower cases; one of many suggestions but something planned from the start. Used C= Gaming case as test system & devised special power units so real C= machines could be put in custom cases, the marketing team created literature & items were put on the website, C= was reuniting the old H/W with new ways & new H/W, C= was innovating. Contacted magazines & clubs to announce new products, suggested a loyalty scheme for users coming back to get 5% discounts on products if purchased from the site. Marketing team contacted online C= H/W suppliers & quanyity discounts were offered to keep loyal C= supporters on our sides. Feedback seemed positive from all, made special points to offer to buy up designs or work with other H/W producers to mass produce, this way small developers could have H/W mass produced & not worry about implementation. Other products we needed were adaptors for joysticks like play-satation sticks, products using memory cards for storage. Since we started with ramlink design. I wanted a IDE 64. We looked to incorporate the products where applicable into the old CMD products & create an up to date design. Sales & Press coverage was good for a dead system. The C= brand never dies, it may sleep but never dies. Asked by the Press of progress & what now questions, I said we were working with Jens on something like the C=1, a new machine for C= gamers, it would be a games console & as a computer with operating system & BASIC. Ready to use with nothing more to purchase. System would look like an Amiga 1200 with internal CD Hard disk & memory card readers; design would have USB & Firewire standard; we hoped to price it at 300. At our next meeting, we still didnt have a machine to sell, suggestions for our new machine were C64/128 compatibility at the H/W level to ensure 100%. S/W & H/W would run on the machines, we thought this possible via FPGA chips so we now had to work on the new design We devised 2 main designs; Amiga 1200 style & C= laptop 15" LCD monitor Custom C= kybrd Floppy drive CD ROM USB Firewire External Monitor points I awoke & looked for my C= official workware, then realised I was still in bed & this was a dream. I thought, would I buy these products? Many people find PCs complex for everyday work so why shouldnt a C= sell? Got my thoughts together, dressed & had breakfast, then set out for my day job Wonder if I will finish the dream in the future?