C64 Reloaded

April 1st 2014, Jens Schönfeld of Individual Computers announced the future release of newly produced  Commodore 64 mainboards also known as the ‘C64 Reloaded’. The new PCB’s are based on the Commodore 64 Assy no. 250466 in celebration of the Commodore 64’s 32nd birthday that year, or when written in hexadecimal notation ‘$20’. Before the mainboards were actually released for sale on his website, an e-mail auction was made for the real hardcore fans of the machine. The 20 highest bidders would get a numbered copy of the board with a choice of ZIF sockets or turned precision sockets for the four larger chips: SID, VIC-II, CPU and PLA. I made an offer but did not make it into top 20. However, I was still offered a board with the same choices as above, but without a number on it. This is the completely black C64 Reloaded board (C64 Reloaded Precision) with turned precision sockets and original IC’s which are mostly new-old-stock (NOS).

When the boards were relased to the rest of the public, in May 2015, the site got overloaded with retro hardware fans and nearly nobody actually got a board. The boards have since been put up for sale in smaller quantities at different un-announced times to also give the oversea fans a fair chance to get a mainboard. For some reason I hit the site at such one time and got a second board with green ZIF sockets (C64 Reloaded ZIF). This machine is what I now use as my everyday machine. Some of the ICs on the board are NOS while others, like the PLA and the 8701 timing chip have been replaced by the SuperPLA V3 and CSG8701 replacement curcuits.

Both boards are thoroughly imaged in the submenues:

C64 Reloaded Precision Sockets
C64 Reloaded ZIF Sockets

In 2017 a new updated vserion of the C64 Reloaded hit the market. The mark 2 (or simply MK2) differs from the first version of the C64 reloaded boards in several areas. As opposed to the first C64 Reloaded board, the C64 Reloaded MK2 will automatically identify the installed chips. This means that the Commodore 64 Reloaded MK2 is a completely jumper-free design. Furthermore, all ROMs are held in a user-writable flash ROM. Using an USB cable and a terminal program the Commodore 64 Reloaded MK2 can be used to flash my own custom Kernal ROMs.

It does not need a PLA nor a CSG8701 timing generator – everything is detected atutomatically…. and the board also allows for installation of a second SID chip. The board is thoroughly imaged in this submenu:

C64 Reloaded MK2

 

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