Perifractic

Just to add a little more detail, in David’s first video he set the goal at under $99 but hopefully $50. While $50 may not be doable, don’t rule out us coming true on the first video’s mention of $99, for Phase 3 (X16E). Stranger things have happened…

I hear you. The simple answer is that this is a non profit project by a small team and we haven’t established a watertight, rock solid, infallible line. I’m sure I’ve discussed this before. I’ll give it one more try. Let me try to reiterate the POINT of the rule so you can apply it to any number of situations not in the FAQ going forward, by yourself: Discussions about creating clone MACHINES of the X16 that would use our work and deter someone from buying an X16, could reduce the amount the team can recoup the project costs/expenses by. That limits future development. If an FPGA clone was released by someone, and became popular for example, it would be a big problem. We have to therefore nip such discussions at the bud. That’s the POINT. You can easily extrapolate and work back from the point to decide what is safe, not safe, or a gray area. If it’s a gray area, I suggest classing it as not safe and moving on to other ideas. The big no no historically has been people discussing creating FPGA clones of the X16. That’s a hard no. You mention bare metal Pi. That is also hardware. If it leads people down a path to one day en mass buy a Pi instead of an X16, it harms the future of the project. Yes we have a Linux emulator, but the aim of that (and Win/Mac) is to give people a development platform for the real machine. We enforce the usage of that with the rules you are querying. You mention Android emulator. That is software. However it runs on hardware. But that hardware is obviously much less of a challenger to the X16. I do not perceive people using a phone with no keyboard as their daily driver Commander X16. Do you? So, there’s no simple answer. But if you understand the point now, it should be simple to “do the right thing” in any situation.

Keep up the great work Matt!

We can only be so clear in the FAQ before we start sounding like we are over explaining things. I had assumed that the fact that the android and iOS versions are linked directly from the official downloads button on this very same website would be enough indication that we endorse those and actually worked with the developers. What is frowned upon is creating physical machines running our licensed code. Enjoy!

Welcome!

Thanks for the info Tom! If only it came in white…

Current thinking is to include an SD Card with a few games and programs bundled. If we do that will be one of them.

If your concern is that we’ll release the X16 with a keyboard that doesn’t work, needless to say that won’t be the case. Yes we are using a variant of the 409 PS/2 version, but again needless to say, we have them in house and Michael has tested it thoroughly with the kernel. Remember we have more control as we’re writing the kernel, as opposed to what’s happening at that thread. Any issues will also come out during beta testing which we hope to start soon. Long story short, worry not.

Just a reminder of the group rules for everyone. Please don’t ask for updates. Updates come when they are ready on a proactive not reactive basis. We get a number of emails, messages, and posts asking for various updates and it puts unfair pressure on the team. We are 5 people with a wonderful community of over 20,000 people. The machine has not been launched yet. Updates will be posted here when ready, not because we are asked to give interim ones. Thank you for understanding.

Bonjour! Welcome!

This is a different keyboard that will be included with the computer.

In this recent video I showed a first prototype of the X16's mini keyboard. As we edge closer to crowdfunding later this year, today we ordered final keyboard prototype samples with the PETSCII layout and X16 logo on. Can't wait to try them out and show you guys more!

Welcome!

We’re aware of the issue caused by our host failing to auto renew or notify us. They’re a small provider who we like to support and are looking into the cause. Let’s encrypt is not an option they offer and we are limited to what they provide. Should be fixed within an hour. Thanks.

I haven’t seen it on a huge scale but on a smaller level yes, the ZX Spectrum Next comes to mind.