0053 The very rare (for North America) C64G and I build a couple miniature retro devices

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

Please note: I mistook this for the Aldi C64 in the video, but I now know these are not the same machine. (But similar) Aldi C64 - Made in the USA in 1987. Light keyboard with PETSCII on front. Brown badge. Sold only in Aldi stores in Germany. C64G - Made in West Germany (and maybe China) in 1988. Light keyboard with PETSCII on top. Gray badge. Sold mainly in Germany with some sales in other European countries. Both - Use the 64C shortboard with a light keyboard. Same color light beige/gray case.

[@espressomatic]

Eurostile font on your zif.

[@christianlarsen1070]

The c64g apparently also came with the classic, brown keys. I believe that goes for 50% of the c64g’s that I have seen

[@rimefancyrats]

Aldi = gray, G = color very similar to C (if not yellowed).

[@borayurt66]

And all Aldi's have a serial number that starts with "CA4"

[@DBinCardiff]

FYI, we have an ALDI here in coastal San Diego (Encinitas, CA). So they made it to the West Coast!

[@nefaurora]

Adrian, As a fellow Commodore collector and diehard watcher of your channels, The C64G (German, Made in Germany) and the ALDI (All were made in the USA on their labels...for German ALDI grocery store distributors) are actually two entirely separate and different machines.. and both have different C64C beige keyboards too. The C64G has the PETSCII symbols on the TOP of the keys (which are the late c64c made keyboards), and the ALDI has the PETSCII symbols on the FRONT of the keys (which are the very early c64c keyboards). The ALDI also has a standard USA Silver Commodore Serial number decal above the Joystick ports on the plastic case as well instead of normally having it on the outside of the cardboard c64 box. I believe that the ALDI case color is also standard Gray like a standard c64 also. The C64G has the off-White Almond colored case just as yours has... :0) Tony K.

[@nefaurora]

@@LazloNQ Yes, You certainly did get an early c64c..... ;)

[@vaddi287]

I think the G comes in some different color shemes and Keyboards. I own a C 64 G (Serial Nr.DA4 223375) Made in Germany with Dark Brown Keyboard , Petscii on the front, the case color seems exact like the one in Adrians Video.

[@maxtornogood]

I like that those miniature retro devices aren't just LEGO replicas but have actual electronics to them!

[@SetTopGames]

We have an Aldi here in my little Southern California border town. I've never gone there because they open at 9 AM... but I've been curious about them.

[@eatportchops]

My new favorite way to retro bright is to use Oxiclean laundry spray. When you spray it on it sticks to the plastic and no need for paint brush to apply it. After your done it does take a lot of water to get the soap film off. With all that soap you get a very clean case when your done. Oxiclean spray cost less then $4.00 a bottle and one bottle will do several computers.

[@volvo09]

Interesting... Does it need sun or uv? Or just a soak? When I worked in an office I had this large container of white board / market board cleaner that STANK like vomit, everyone used to laugh at it and gag... 😆 but if you sprayed it on a severely yellowed monitor or printer it would dissolve the yellowness in about a minute and you could wipe it off. It was weird, I think I noticed it when I tried to clean a sticker off my super yellowed monitor.

[@Colaholiker]

Aldi are certainly German (like me). Germany is actually large enough to have to separate Aldi companies (founded by two brothers, who split up the company after disagreeing on whether they should sell a certain product or not - I think it was cigarettes). The Aldi that people in the US are familiar with is what would be "Aldi Süd" (Süd is German for south) company, which, as the name implies, covers the southern half of the country. The other one, Aldi Nord (you likely guessed it, nord means north in German), is also active in (at least part of the) United States, where they go by the name of Trader Joe's. I personally have never been to the latter, but when I realized there is Aldi when I stayed in Oklahoma, I of course had to go there and check it out, in order to compare them to what they are in their native country. According to Google Maps, a Trader Joe's should be in the Portland area... Now that was probably more Aldiology than anyone would want to read in a KZbin comment... My bad 😅

[@Okurka.]

Fun Fact: Both brothers fought in WWII for Nazi Germany.

[@Colaholiker]

@@Okurka. Well, pretty much every man in Germany who was at the right age at that time, able to fight and didn't have any skills that deemed him too important for war service had to fight. Refusing was only an option in theory, as it was usually not survivable. We all know how Nazis treated their enemies, and if you didn't want to fight for them, you were their enemy. Regardless of whether you agreed with them or not and just didn't want to fight.

[@duncanny5848]

In the UK the second Aldi is Called LIDL. Didn't know the North South reference though.

[@Okurka.]

@@duncanny5848 Lidl and Aldi are not the same company.

[@Colaholiker]

@@duncanny5848 Not exactly.😅 Lidl is a separate company, also from Germany, operating a very similar business model. However, the founder of that company is not related to the Albrecht brothers who founded Aldi (that's where the first two letters come from). UK's Aldi is also the "southern" one.

[@martinlebl631]

Aldi is actually on the West Coast now. Finally opened here a few years ago, and are still in the process of opening more.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

That mini arcade cabinet looks really cool. Perfect Christmas afternoon project. 😆

[@krnivoro1972]

"Drean" Commodore 64 (breadbin case) from Argentina has also two sets of standoffs. Funny thing is Drean never made it to the short board because they loose their license when they started to sold their own 64C case (a bad copy of the american case but with rounded led instead of the square one) without license it from Commodore, and Commodore found that out...

[@anticat900]

I would imagine the best possible looking commodore 64 would be a early gen 64c keyboard in a 64g case?

[@YAORG]

I got my G in 1994 at german retailer Karstadt, who sold a bundle with matching 1541, a color-matching Cheetah Annihilator and a 4-games-module from Commodore UK (I believe, the modules were leftovers from the failed 64 GS). Still have the bundle around, except for the joystick, which got missing somehow. I rarely used it anyway after my brother got me a QuickJoy Mega Star Jr. in a bundle with "Turrican 2" for 64 and A500 (2 disks) for a birthday (can't remember if '96, or '97). The ALDI-64s cases were more like grayish with a more noticeable difference between case and the keycaps.

[@rrafal]

Dont be mad about stickers, I guess this is up to you if and where you place them, no need to be such a perfectionist.

[@chainq68k]

I have two C64Gs, both originally sold in Hungary as new. Although the East-Block countries were fast to pick up to the west after the fall of the Iron Curtain, in the early 90s they were still lagging a few years behind, which meant the C64 and other 8 bit systems were still quite popular in the first half of the 90s, and were also sold new. Even with just a datasette, no FDD! By the time most of West Europe and especially the US moved long past these systems, so no wonder these are that rare in the US. (Not sure if they ever made an NTSC version, probably not?)

[@AttemptingAstro]

Just as an unnecessary FYI, Aldi has made it as far west as Dallas at least and they have some very yummy stuff for reasonable prices. Worth checking out if anybody's never been and sees one.

[@tim1724]

Aldi has made it all the way out to California. We’ve had them for about ten years around Los Angeles.

[@Renville80]

Chiming in to say they have opened a few locations in my part of the northern plains as well.

[@richardravich8337]

Adrian,' We do have Aldi stores here in Southern California, not just on the East coast anymore! Regards and Happy Holidays

[@UpLateGeek]

You can also get those splotches if there were originally stickers or something on the surface. I've got one perfectly preserved circle on my Macintosh Classic II from a microphone holder that was stuck on the side. They probably just removed whatever was stuck on the C64 as part of their "refurbishment" process, which is probably better than leaving someone else's random stickers on a machine that you're selling second hand.

[@HoldandModify]

There’s Aldi’s in Los Angeles, CA. They showed up right as COVID hit. :)

[@piwex69]

I remember making funnies from my colleague who had purchased the european C64. I was the team Atari 800XL and it had so much more vibrant colors than his C64. Recently I have heard the story on supposedly wrong resistors installed in PAL DAC circuit in those machines giving the washed out colors.

[@ChristyKitsune]

Jeff's a lifesaver for the case standoff, he had never made any for a C64 C before until i asked him, We both measured each stand back and forth and he made me some that compress that stand back for the screw to grip.

[@GeoNeilUK]

I think the C64G was made from motherboards that were originally inside the C64GS - The Commodore 64 Games System. A console based on the Commodore 64 released in 1982... that was released in Europe in 1991. Yes, really. Amstrad did much of the same thing with the Amstrad GX4000 which was based on the Amstrad CPC with slight upgrades and Atari launched the Atari XEGS which was a consoole mbased on the Atari 8 bit range. All of them were bad ideas. The C64GS was literally just a C64 motherboard in a case that had no sockets for tape drive, disk drive or keyboard, released at the same time as the SNES and MegaDrive (and while Commodore's own Amiga was already a popular gaming platform) The Amstrad GX4000 was an Amstrad CPC with no tape drive, disk drive, keyboard or monitor... which was laso released with a keyboard and either tape or disk drive as the CPC Plus. The Atari XEGS was an Atari 8 bit as a console that was sold both with and wothout a keyboard. I can't remember if the keyboard was sold separately, but it was actually possible for the user to turn it into a computer, unlike the Amstrad or the Commodore. It's just that the Atari 8 bit micros weren't popular in Europe the way the C64 and CPC were.

[@recciumnygaard1999]

There may be no Aldi in OR or WA but there are plenty in CA.

[@Charlesb88]

Aldi does exist on the west coast, at least in California, as we have several of them in the San Diego area. Maybe they haven’t spread to Oregon yet.

[@nebular-nerd]

I have a Tiny Arcade, it has some interesting little games for it. I think it's powerful enough that someone could compile some low end emulators for it, but not found any as yet.

[@bozimmerman]

It wasn't an Aldi, but the "Aldi" C64 is pretty important too, beyond its weird appearance. It was the first time Commodore used the rev E (short) boards in a computer. That's why they were made in the U.S.

[@00Klingon]

I've got a soft spot for tiny things so I love this episode :)

[@hardlyworgen71]

There are Aldi stores in Los Angeles (county), California.

[@Epictronics1]

My C64G is made in China. Great video as always :) BTW. I did some work on your spare board this week. Somehow I managed to kill several chips on my way back home lol

[@Flashy7]

This is my favourite C64 version, because this was my first own computer, a video game bundle with the supergames cartridge and an interesting joystick, not the 1342, but a beige with orange buttons. I can not find any pictures and nobody seems to remember that joystick. As usual it was kind of crap and the plastic broke at the neck of the shaft. Sadly we sold my original ages ago, but I bought a working one recently :)

[@fattomandeibu]

RF shields were only necessary for computers sold in the US due to FCC regulations. For a cost reduced system like this that isn't for sale in the US, it likely won't have one. It's why the ZX Spectrum wasn't possible in the US as one of the many shortcuts that Sinclair used to make their machines so cheap was to only have shielding on the RF modulator.

[@ivanmilenkovic8285]

The one that I bought last year when I was on vacation in Serbia came with ASSY 250425 and no rework that I can see, just RF top hatch removed, and the VIC-II metal case completely removed. VIC-II 6569R4 and SID 6581R4AR were inside, perfectly working, with very clean S-Video and Composite output out-of-the-box. Maybe someone switched the board on the way? who knows... I bought it because of its unique light beige color and creamy colored keyboard.

[@steveoerkel735]

There was a metalcoated Cardboard as shield, but that seems to be thrown away from the previous owner...

[@danielmartin7547]

You need to try GUMPLA Adrian. Greetings from Argentina!

[@HrvojeBan]

That's the model I had as a kid! ❤ EDIT: Actually, it's nit exactly the same, mine had a green power LED, not a red one. I really liked the look of that green LED.

[@axemanracing6222]

Back then, my trusty C64 breadbin said "good-bye" in smoke. The Aldi-C64 was so cheap, I didn't even bother repairing it. So I got a C64G from ALDI and it was one of the remains, even price reduced. I went back home and opened it. There was a long board 250425 in it with a 6581 SID. I was so happy because I never liked the sound of the 8580. This showed me (later), Commodore sold EVERYTHING that was lying around. And to answer your question, yes they had this hard paper/aluminum foil shielding like you know from a previous video. That went off the same day.

[@OzRetrocomp]

My C64G has a 250407 Rev.C longboard in it, and the case is dated 11 Juni (June) 1989! I thought it may have been fitted as a replacement somewhere along the line before I bought it, but now I'm not so sure. Especially with Commodore's reputation for using whatever they had on hand at the time.

[@briangoldberg4439]

You can fix the plastic standoffs by building up material with baking soda and superglue and then drilling a hole again. The plastic screws will just form their own threads

[@InfiniteBrain]

The TV needs some wood grain so LGR can do a blurb as well.

[@yakattack1069]

Aldi is on the west coast. Right here in Southern California.

[@dirkwirsbitzki3264]

The Aldis were known for playing samples (e.g. Ghostbusters) way too quiet, but there was a fix (resistor) for that.

[@nefaurora]

That's true! ;)

[@Trailtraveller]

Super cute the tiny things !

[@JasonHalversonjaydog]

i'm the same way with models. i love the end result but hate the process! i have short fat fingers which makes it hard to work on tiny intricate things and lack the patience

[@reiyv139]

I'd be really glad to see a video about your new 3d printer!

[@FuerstBerg]

I cannot remember seen one. And I lived in Germany when it was sold. I sold C64Cs this time.

[@brostenen]

Hey.... You have the same type of X-Mas elf as the ones I have 4 of in various sizes. My elf's are more plain, and less ornamented. And all grey.

[@Wikcentral]

Aldi is all over in the middle coast ;) And its the best Grocery store ever.

[@RomeoG39]

That 3d printed SX64 is awesome!! Gotta go find that video!

[@matthiastilly5480]

Nice! I didn't even know my first C64 in the mid 80s was that "special" - it was exactly that model! - At least now I know where my mother bought it for chritmas now! 😅 It came as the "VIDEO SUPERGAME 64" Bundletogether with the C-1342 joystick and a Cartridge with Colossus Chess, Silicon Syborgs and International Soccer (loved that game!) in a weidly overdone 80s-art-videogame box. As i researched a bit further, you seem to have exactly a C64G from that bundle - because it has a red power LED - other C64G had a green one!. And yes, this bundle was sold by ALDI, but the "ALDI-C64" came one year earlier and had the dark case with white keys, only says C64 on the label (no aditional letter) and funnily was made in USA.... even though it was sold only in Germany and there were C64s produced in Germany at the time... The C64G on the other hand was made in Germany. Both have the small board (also there are rumors that there are C64Gs with the 250425 board around - maybe they were around in stock and had to be used up )

[@8BitRetroJournal]

Happy New Year! Hey, why did Aldi have a C64 made? Did they sell them in supermarkets? Why the special specs?

[@HippoXXL]

Hi Adrian! I had one of those white C64s , which I did not buy at Aldi, but from a local retailer. They came at the very end of the C64 era, because - that's what I think - the C64-II did not get as popular as Commodore expected. They Cost around 250 to 300 Deutschmarks, which was a lot cheaper than the models before. Greetings from Germany, Marcus Edit: The original case colour was exactly the same as the C64-II.

[@ceebee23]

Merry Christmas Adrian .... and I hope 2023 brings you lots of goodies for the basement!

[@ovalwingnut]

Magnum TINY build.... that was a serious Time Warp! How did you do it! - ...It's just a jump to the left And then a step to the right Put your hands on your hips You bring your knees in tight Let's do the Time Warp again...

[@jdebultra]

Very cool. Way to go Seth!

[@atarimex2643]

Those whiter spots definitely a failed retrobright attempt….I think you are correct.

[@airlink2142]

The tiny tv should have had "Rabbit Ears" antenna to cover up the usb port on top of the tv.

[@m.k.8158]

There are other games available for the Tiny Arcade-if you look around on-line, there is at least 1 site with games. Also, there is a video player for it too-likely the same one that's on the Tiny TV-so you can put video on the Tiny Arcade.

[@FernandoelChachi]

I love those C64G's. I own one with a SIDFX dual Sid solution and a white Ultimate II+. I love the C64's, so I own like 6 of them. I've got one installed inside of a Commodore 16, another with a painted Red and black case (full of things like a VU meter... search for "Commodore 64 mod with VU meter leds.", the first one fully working ever with a mini ITX inside (search for "English Amiga Board Retrogaming multiplatform machine in C64 case", and so on.

[@Okurka.]

Taking SID chips from C64s and dremeling C64 and C16 cases is nothing to be proud of.

[@FernandoelChachi]

@@Okurka. When you have 6 you want something different if you have the skills. And yes, I'm very very proud improving some, thanks. In any case, thanks for your opinion @YourMotherSucks.

[@FernandoelChachi]

BTW I've got a couple of videos. Search for "Commodore 64 mods. Vertical cartridge adapter, psu, etc.", or "My Own C64x playing"

[@malcolmogilvy4885]

Power LED should be GREEN on the C64G use JiffyDos with loading games with the SD2IEC the games that take a minute and a half will take under 20 seconds to load.

[@williammmmmm]

Hello everyone, and welcome to Adrian's Digital Bakement

[@florianpius3591]

Hi Adrian! Very nice background music!!! I like!!! Thank you!

[@Dukefazon]

The Aldi C64 should have the key caps like the brown/dark keyed breadbin, letters on the top and the symbols on the user-facing sides. It's not just the badge, C64 G is something different, it doesn't automatically mean it's an Aldi one.

[@EgonOlsen71]

No, this isn't an Aldi. It's a C64G, albeit quite yellow. It's original color should have been more or less white just the like the C6C.

[@adriansdigitalbasement2]

@@EgonOlsen71 Thanks I put in a correction in the description and pinned a comment. Glad my patrons have my back so I don't get about 1,000,000 corrections when the video goes live. :-)

[@al.d9592]

I think the power led should be green on a 64G

[@EgonOlsen71]

@@al.d9592 They exist in both variants.

[@nefaurora]

@@EgonOlsen71 Yes, On the c64G, They power light can be either Red or Green....but the Green is cooler ;)

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Low-mo Dance Party!! The SID never disappoints!

[@freeeflyer]

Let's make a composite mod for the tiny tv :D

[@redknight4]

the Japanese commercial was for a licensed product for the tv series Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer)

[@awilliams1701]

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Aldi is the 466 board. 2 RAM chips, but still long. So I don't think that's a true aldi. I think it's a franken computer. lol

[@kenny13a]

I'd like to see "Adrian's Digital Kitchen"

[@GarthBeagle]

Yay PAL 8-bit Dance Party!

[@williamsquires3070]

Awww, too bad the tiny TV didn’t have a tiny flyback transformer to generate the high voltage. 😁

[@twocvbloke]

If anything, it looks like they just used the same plastic colour as used on the 64c line for the 64g, kind of odd really given they made it with the 64c's shortboard & cost-reduced keyboard, but specifically went out of their way and manufactured light coloured breadbin cases and the labels for it too, rather than just selling the actual cost-reduced 64c, unless they had some problems with the case moulds or had a supply issue for the 64c or something, I don't know, it's an oddity for sure... :)

[@stevethepocket]

It might be that they were stingy about how many 64C case molds they produced, and figured their less picky customers would gladly buy a breadbin if it was even cheaper still, so they shipped those molds off to some other pressing plant who just filled them with whatever generic beige PC-case plastic they could find.

[@ToniHiltunen1980]

Would be nice if you can wirelessly mirror video from phone to that little TV or watch a movie file.

[@eformance]

Put some wood grain contact paper on the TV body.

[@DavidWonn]

26:22 When I see those file names with the strange PETSCII character, I can't help but think that's the Commodore's way of interpreting the tilde character from MS-DOS file names. If you have any way of modifying the file names from a Win 9x machine with the NameNumericTail registry key turned off, you should be able to have at least slightly prettier file names.

[@mcosta3810]

25:59 That was a really nice looking case for your KungFu Flash cartridge! Do you mind if I ask what sort of 3D printer you recently got?

[@rager1969]

Aldi is in SoCal.

[@Biomancer81]

The case looks heavily yellowed. Maybe try the Hydrogen Peroxide and UV light restoration to remove yellowing.

[@worldsendace]

The c64g isnt rly the Aldi model. It was the later 1987 german Version the "new breadbin" because Germans Loved the Look. Haha . The Aldi model was Made in 1988 and is a Standalone inbetween mix g model. You can identify it because it only says c64 on the silver sticker Not c64c or c64g. Just c64. Serialnumber of the Aldi Version Beginns with CA4. Also the Aldi Version has no engraved names over the Ports.

[@lesbeery2478]

Yeah ALDI is all over SoCal. Just hasn’t made it up the coast.

[@annareismith6843]

I enjoyed this one. Can not wait to see more.

[@uliwitness]

You could always just do a quick show of photos of one of each muffin after you make them for the first time in a future episode? :D

[@SidneyCritic]

Down here in PAL country NTSC looks washed-out, surprisingly in the US ADB said PAL looks washed-out - lol -.

[@douro20]

Have you seen James Brown's RP2040 Lego computer brick?

[@exidy-yt]

That Tiny Arcade is just about the coolest thing I've ever seen. You could use that as a goddam KEYCHAIN and it would be able to play about 60% of the MAME library on it I bet. Fantastic!

[@ntsecrets]

they have a pocket sized board version of it too

[@jeromethiel4323]

I want to see a 64 bit dance party! ^-^

[@horusfalcon]

Be careful of the sugar alcohols (sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol, etc.), as "excessive consumption" can cause unpleasant effects. The mini-retro stuff is cute. That C64G is rather nice-looking (not so un-ashamedly brown...) I hope to see your wall-mounted collection of C64s one day soon.

[@darkwinter6028]

It won’t kill you… you’ll just wish you were dead as your intestines try to turn themselves inside-out. Sadly, I speak from experience on that one… 😬

[@wiwingmargahayu6831]

like DOS PC the white keyboard while black ones like older PC or mechanical type writter thats what i think in the past in year 2000

[@markae0]

Barbie can now have real TV for her house.

[@Megatog615]

you can watch the entirety of evangelion in micro-vision!

[@Aeduo]

I could certainly see flipper types swapping out known good parts for their broken parts and doing returns. They are quite trashy.

[@InfiniteLoop]

Aldi c64? Jan Beta would know lol.

[@johnk7302]

FYI people still build models even professional people.

[@darkwinter6028]

Great. Now I want some banana bread. See what you did?!?1 😜

[@fredleckie5880]

Sugar Alcohol = Polyols ?

[@patrickradcliffe3837]

10:40 Mike TeeVee size TV

[@SPARTAN_Cayde-26]

I have never understood why Europe still uses PAL and also why did they make it in first place why have 50hz instead of 60... its just much worse than any other type of system...

[@2dfx]

Wow the quality of those modifications in that is awful. I'd never buy anything from the "Commodore Retro Store" based on the quality of those bodges.

[@mannycarrion7862]

omg i want them were do or i can buy them omg happy happy lappy dappy don style ummmmm i want 1 yes i want me want were buy me caveman me dumb dumb want gum gum dumb dumb lol l0l

[@simontay4851]

"and i build a couple _OF_ minature retro devices" OF!!

[@Okurka.]

"minature" MINIATURE!! Oh, the irony!

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

@@Okurka. Your comments are usually about as useful as a fart in a space suit, but this one's actually decent. Well done.

[@simontay4851]

1:01 I figure your shoulder could *_benefit from_* or *_would like_* a rest. You don't "use" a rest.

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

Adrian could of said that.