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This is just so fun to watch. As a VIC-20 and C=64 owner in my youth, I've always had a soft spot for this kind of 8-bit kit. And this is my favorite YouTube c

This is just so fun to watch. As a VIC-20 and C=64 owner in my youth, I've always had a soft spot for this kind of 8-bit kit. And this is my favorite YouTube channel, from the way it is (not) monetized to the way he lovingly plays his own intro/outro music, and the amazing geeky themes he's covered, such as his home network and building his solar shack, his electric car experiences, the nostalgia tour of Texas Tech, all his amazing restoration videos and the endless RetroBrite applications. There's just something for everyone in there. And the visual touches are great too. Love his tee shirt collection and the occasional glimpse of cat. As for the X16, it's an amazing dream project, and it would've been my dream too, if I had stayed as an electrical engineer. I'd love to own one of these, for bragging rights. And I'm so excited that Jeri Ellsworth had a few things to say!

PaulHoule 3y ago
The CX16 is fascinating both for it's strengths and weaknesses. It's so appealing to have an 8-bit machine that is better than any machine of the 1980s, but it does run into two tough problems which are: (i) the video controller and (ii) cost. The video controller (i) was an ASIC in all the great machines of that era: I do remember seeing an ad in Byte magazine for a graphics card that was built out with low-integration (I think 54xx chips) and it was a large board packed with chips on both sides. The VERA is great and fulfills the wish you'd have today for a much better video controller than anything had back then (layers!) but the FPGA is not good for (ii) cost. I think someday they will make a hyper large scale integration version of it that is one "big" chip and some support parts and that will get it into the $50-$100 range which will be cool but it will compete with a Raspberry Pi or similar device where you get a lot more computer for the same money. I love that they've talked so much about the factors that go into the economics.

PaulHoule 3y ago

The CX16 is fascinating both for it's strengths and weaknesses. It's so appealing to have an 8-bit machine that is better than any machine of the 1980s, but it does run into two tough problems which are: (i) the video controller and (ii) cost. The video controller (i) was an ASIC in all the great machines of that era: I do remember seeing an ad in Byte magazine for a graphics card that was built out with low-integration (I think 54xx chips) and it was a large board packed with chips on both sides. The VERA is great and fulfills the wish you'd have today for a much better video controller than anything had back then (layers!) but the FPGA is not good for (ii) cost. I think someday they will make a hyper large scale integration version of it that is one "big" chip and some support parts and that will get it into the $50-$100 range which will be cool but it will compete with a Raspberry Pi or similar device where you get a lot more computer for the same money. I love that they've talked so much about the factors that go into the economics.