The C64 Mini, with 64 games and BASIC installed, arrives in stores in October

YouTube

The Commodore 64 Mini, announced earlier this year as a half-sized remake of one of the most famous personal computers of all time, will hit store shelves in North America on October 9. The system comes with a retro-styled joystick (because that's how we did it back then), 64 pre-installed games, and C64 Basic, enabling its use as a "fully functional home computer."

There is one catch: If you want to return to those heady days of manually typing in programs from the pages of a magazine, you'll need to connect a standard USB keyboard. The C64 Mini has two standard USB ports, as well as an HDMI output capable of 720p resolution at 60Hz, supporting a 4:3 aspect ratio and even a "CRT filter," to give it an era-appropriate crappy look.

There's no cassette or floppy drive available, but FAT32-formatted USB sticks (up to 64GB) can be accessed just like an old 1541: Label the stick THEC64-drive8.d64, copy your "legally obtained C64 programs" onto it, and then give it the ol' "LOAD “NAME”,8,1," followed by the "Run" command. For those who prefer convenience over authenticity (and shame on you for it), an "easier and more powerful" loader will be provided in a future firmware update.

The full list of preloaded games:

Alleykat
Anarchy
Armalyite – Competition Edition
Avenger
Battle Valley
Boulder Dash
Bounder
California Games
Chip's Challenge
Confuzion
Cosmic Causeway
Creatures
Cyberdyne Warrior
Cybernoid II: The Revenge
Cybernoids: The Fighting Machine
Deflektor
Everyone's a Wally
Firelord
Gribbly's Day Out
Hawkeye
Heartland
Herobotix
Highway Encounter
Hunter's Moon
Hysteria
IO
Impossible Mission
Impossible Mission II
Jumpman
Mega Apocalypse
Mission AD
Monty Mole
Monty on the Run
Nebulus
Netherworld
Nobby the Ardvark
Nodes of Yesod
Paradroid
Pitstop II
Ranarama
Robin of the Wood
Rubicon
Skate Crazy
Skool Daze
Snare
Speedball
Speedball 2 – Brutal Deluxe
Spindizzy
Star Paws
Steel
Street Sports Baseball
Summer Games II
Super Cycle
Temple of Apshai Trilogy
The Arc of Yesod
Thing on a Spring
Thing Bounces Back
Trailblazer
Uchi Mata
Uridium
Who Dares Wins II
Winter Games
World Games
Zynaps

There's still no price listed for the C64 Mini, nor are any retailers in North America specified. Hopefully we'll have information on both coming soon. For now, you can find out more about what's being offered at thec46.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.