Another case of vaporware ! In the end of 1990, Commodore decided to create a successor for the famous C64.They worked on a prototype called C64 DX then C65.
The C65 had new great features : a very special version of the 7510 with lot of new opcodes, great graphic modes (better than the Atari ST or the Amiga !) and a great new processor : the DMA / Blitter. This chip can be programmed with a list of instructions to copy or set blocks of memory.
The machine was meant to be fully compatible with the C64, but wasn't. A special key was added on the keyboard to switch between the two modes (C64 / C65).
The development of this machine was stopped (apparently because of problems with the VIC III controller and because of the cost of this computer), and because of the success of the Amiga (Notice that the C65 case looks like the Amiga one !).
Commodore produced about 50 C65's, the first ones display C64DX at boot, the latest display C65.
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.
There are (estimated) about 200 existing units of this baby. One was sold last month on ebay for 6600€....
Tuesday 8th June 2010
MrTwo (Germany)
Peter Gordon: The Amiga 500 (which it''s compared to) was able to display a maximum of 4096 colours and had a max resolution of 640x400, while the C65 had the same colour range, but went as high as 1280x400 in max resolution. I wish I had one of these babies in my Commodore collection, but they are impossible to get.
Tuesday 19th May 2009
Lars Fischmann (Denmark)
Growing up a few towns away from the Commodore HQ, I've seen a few oddball commodores in the trash or at yard sales. I found one of these at an older man's garage sale in the late 90's. The person who was selling it stated that he used to work at Commodore, and that it was a demo model 65, which was essentially a commodore 64 with a built-in floppy drive. I didn't purchase the system, as he wanted $500 for it.
Tuesday 6th November 2007
Mike Stavola (Germany)
NAME
C65
MANUFACTURER
Commodore
TYPE
Home Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1990
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Basic 10.0
KEYBOARD
77 keys, including standard C64 keyboard + 8 function keys, TAB, Escape , ALT, CAPS Lock, no scroll, help
128 KB (DRAM), externally expandable from additional 512K bytes to 4MB
ROM
128 KB (including C64 Kernel and BASIC 2.2, C65 Kernel, Editor, BASIC 10.0, ML Monitor (like C128), DOS v10)
TEXT MODES
40 x 25 (C64 Mode), 80 x 25 (with blink, bold and underline attributes)
GRAPHIC MODES
All C64 modes (320 x 200 bitmap mode) + 320 / 640 / 1280 x 200 / 400 in 2, 4 or 8 planes, interlaces and non-interlaced
COLORS
Programmable 256-color RAM palette, with 16 intensity levels per primary color (yielding 4096 colors)
SOUND
Dual 8580r5 SID Sound chips. 6 voices, 3 per channel
I/O PORTS
RF video output jack, Analog video RGB port (DB-9), Composite video/audio port, Joystick (2), Cardridge slot, Tape, Serial bus port, User Port (RS232 compatible), RAM Expansion port, External floppy drive port, 2 x controller ports, Stereo audio output
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