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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Aug 24, 2022 9:42 am

I love the Ultimate64 (U64). For those that don't know, it's a complete FPGA motherboard replacement for the C64 with all of the ports you might ever want. That includes being able to continue to use original devices and even CRT monitors and original joysticks. But it also has an HDMI port for modern monitors as well as a built-in cycle-exact 1541 emulator (aka the 1541ii+) - the best one on the market in my opinion.

Still not enough? How about that 1541 emulator which also supports 1571, 1581, multiple software or SIDs and everything is 100% configurable. You can use it as a massive RAM Expansion Unit (REU) or 3rd-party cartridge (Final Cartridge III, Action Replay, Retro Replay, Super Snapshot, more...). You can even use a USB stick to load gigabytes worth of files, and browse to them using a custom-built GUI.

In 2018 I bought an original U64 as soon as I was able to get in line. (They sold out fast!) That board was marked version 1.2 on the silkscreen.

I decided to put that board inside a Plexilaser case. I got the "smoke gray tint" version. At first they wouldn't ship the case to me since I was in the US and they'd had a few get broken during shipping. But after I begged and pleaded - and took full responsibility of the shipping - they relented and I was a happy camper. I also went with a blue LED light strip upgrade that mounts to the keyboard bracket and get its power from the Ultimate64.

All in all I was very happy with how it all turned out.

U64-1.jpg
U64-2.jpg

However, a little time later Gideon made some minor enhancements to the board. Naturally, the "Ultimate" 64 needed a name change, too. Rather than only focusing on version numbers, he went with Ultimate64 Elite.

This is what Gideon said about the new boards in June of 2022:
Current board version is 1.4a. No further changes were made since the beginning of 2020. The board is fully jumper-less. Voltage and filters for the SID sockets are set automatically. For logistic reasons, only the Elite boards are available.
  • The latest batch of 500 boards is complete. The factory delivered most of the boards from this batch.
  • 200+ of these boards have been shipped to pending orders.
  • So there is now about 250 units in stock! This will definitely be the last stock for quite some time, as the lead time for the components is still LONG, very LONG!
I already had an U64, though. What was the difference? Would it be worth getting en Elite?

Upgrades:
  • As mentioned before, the Elite is 100% jumperless and self-detecting (no more telling it which original SID chips you want to install in one or both of its SID sockets, for example).
  • The Elite version has ZIF sockets for the SID chips - no more flathead screwdrivers to pry your precious chips out of there. Easy peasy.
  • Boxed (shrouded) header for the UserPort expansion, which reduces the risk of shorting the 12V line to a data line and blowing up the U64 board (sounds important).
  • The color of the board is black. (whoop-dee-doo)
  • Joystick swap switch, so port 1 and 2 can be swapped easily (very cool)
Overall the updates weren't mind-blowing. But with the euro now being on-par with the US dollar, and since I don't have to pay European VAT, I decided to get one for my birthday this year.

Incredibly, it arrived on my doorstep the day of my birthday. Amazing. Naturally that evening I began the somewhat tedious process of taking my Plexilaser case apart. (Damned fingerprints everywhere! Oh well.)


IMG_9346.JPG
The new Elite is in the box. The anticipation...

IMG_9347.JPG
It only takes about 10 or so screws to take the whole thing apart. The Plexilaser is constructed of little panels that fit into each other. Getting the last one in is the hardest part because you don't want it to slide too far inwards, or you have to take things apart again and start over. Gravity and fingernails FTW.

IMG_9352.JPG
The new Elite is the board at the top of the image, the original green U64 on the bottom. All I needed to do was migrate my SIDs over.



One additional nice change is there is now an explicit header for the LED lights to get their power. That was unexpected and some nice cleanup by Gideon.

Anyway, at this point everything looks to be fine and, well, nearly identical to what I had before.

IMG_9355.PNG
When you power up an U64 for the 1st time, you get a lovely reminder (with pleasant chime) that you need to install your own ROM files. Oh yeah!


Glad I got it when I did because - I just looked and - Gideon is all sold out again. No telling how long it might be before he is able to make more, or if he has to redesign it entirely in order to use different but comparable parts. He did that with his 1541ii+ cartridges already. What a mess things have been for what feels like ages now regarding the parts and chip shortages.

- A.L. -

User avatar
intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:14 am

Adjustments I had to make on first power-on:
  • Install kernal, basic and character ROMs (I already had them on the USB stick from before). You do this by going into one of the menus found hitting the F-keys and modifying the U64's configuration.
  • Updating the video signal. F2 lets you access things like SIDs, NTSC/PAL, etc. (I discovered that it wasn't seeing one of my SID chips. I'll have to poke at that next time. Would hate to have to take this case apart again! It's a PITA.) The U64 Elite shipped set to PAL. That made my 1702 black and white. Once I switched to NTSC I got the pretty blues back.
  • Interestingly, I had to adjust my Horizontal positioning as my screen was off-set to the right compared to my other original machines. Easy to fix by twisting a knob.
bigblue.jpg

User avatar
3D-vice
Germany

Posted Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:15 am

Ahh, welcome to the Ultimate64 Elite owner's club. ;)

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Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Thu Aug 25, 2022 8:32 pm

Awesome. This is still on my wish list. Some day...

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mike34

Posted Wed May 10, 2023 1:08 am

It looks great, this is a great creation, I will try it with my keyboard :D
retro bowl





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