In this episode, Dave leads off on the revived Commodore: the C64C Ultimate and the story of the original 1986 injection molds, and the brand-new "Made For U(ltimate)" software initiative. The block closes on the Callback flip phone, its wildly unstable pricing, and Dave's argument that nobody agrees on what a "dumb phone" actually means.

John brings a MiSTer update — DreamSTer, running Dreamcast on a DE10-Nano by putting the PowerVR2 on the FPGA and everything else on the ARM cores, plus MiSTer Monitor, an ESP32 companion display for artwork and system stats.

John also unpacks his recent travel experiences to Japan, including Nintendo, Super Potato and other fun places he visited.

Dave signs off with the 486 he rescued from his parents' house, and a plea for a keyboard with a five-pin DIN connector.

Topics discussed in this episode

• Commodore announces the C64C Ultimate using the rediscovered original 1986 injection moldshttps://commodore.net/c-you-soon-commodore-64-ultimate-line-up-expands-with-c64c-edition-later-this-year/
• Time Extension: the revived Commodore's next FPGA recreation, complete with the original 1986 imperfectionshttps://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/04/the-revived-commodore-just-announced-its-next-fpga-recreation-complete-with-the-original-1986-imperfections
• Time Extension: Commodore celebrates its first birthday with the "Made For U(ltimate)" game initiativehttps://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/08/what-a-year-its-been-commodore-celebrates-its-birthday-with-a-new-game-initiative-for-the-c64-ultimate
• Commodore gets transparent on the Callback flip phone pricinghttps://commodore.net/commodore-gets-transparent-on-callback-flip-phone/
• Tom's Hardware: Callback drops to $399 by defaulting to recycled memory chipshttps://www.tomshardware.com/phones/commodore-drops-callback-flip-ohine-to-399-by-defaulting-to-recycled-memory-chips
• Time Extension: the "impossible" Dreamcast core comes to MiSTer, but it's very early dayshttps://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/07/the-impossible-dreamcast-core-comes-to-mister-but-its-very-early-days
• DreamSTer on GitHub — skmp's Dreamcast project for the DE10-Nanohttps://github.com/skmp/DreamSTer
• MiSTer Monitor — ESP32 companion display for artwork, system stats and RetroAchievementshttps://github.com/chipster6502/MiSTer_monitor
• Super Potato, Akihabarahttps://www.superpotato.com/

In this episode, John and Dave cover a mix of retro gaming hardware, emulation history, and hands-on tinkering with old and new tech. They start by discussing Nintendo’s new Virtual Boy accessory for the Nintendo Switch, reflecting on the strange legacy of the original system and what it’s like to experience those games today. The conversation then dives into the fascinating story behind the Nintendo/Sega/Namco Triforce arcade platform and the effort to preserve and emulate these unique arcade systems. Dave also shares a retro-computing adventure recovering files from 1990-era floppy disks by rebuilding a DOS environment and reinstalling Microsoft Works on modern hardware. Finally, they wrap up with an update on Dave’s long-running Commodore 64 project recreating the classic Mattel handheld football game, and how modern AI coding tools are now helping move the project forward.

Topics discussed in this episode

• Nintendo’s new Virtual Boy accessory for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2
  https://www.nintendo.com/en-ca/store/products/virtual-boy-for-nintendo-switch-2-120829/

• Nintendo announcement and details about the Virtual Boy accessory rollout
  https://www.nintendo.com/en-ca/whatsnew/virtual-boy-accessories-for-nintendo-switch-2-and-nintendo-switch-now-available-for-pre-purchase/

• Dolphin Emulator blog post: “Rise of the Triforce” — the history and emulation of Nintendo/Sega/Namco’s arcade platform
  https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2026/02/16/rise-of-the-triforce/

• Dolphin Emulator project website
  https://dolphin-emu.org/

• MiSTer FPGA project (used for recreating vintage computer environments)
  https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/

• MiSTer ao486 core for running DOS-era PCs
  https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_MiSTer

• Microsoft Works archive and documentation (classic DOS productivity suite mentioned in the episode)
  https://archive.org/details/microsoft-works-1.0-1.05-1988-05-english-5.25-360-kb-packard-bell-oem

• AtariAge forums discussion of the classic Mattel handheld football game
  https://forums.atariage.com/topic/90135-1970s-mattel-classic-football-led-handheld-game/

In this episode, John and Dave talk about discovering ZimaOS and building an affordable home lab using repurposed hardware - and how that single setup quickly expands into media streaming, network-wide ad blocking, ROM organization, browser-based retro gaming, backups, and local services. Along the way, they also touch on the Commodore 64 Ultimate, a Sega Channel preservation project, a retro electronics repair simulator, and why digital preservation and self-hosting matter more than ever.

Topics & sub-topics discussed:

• ZimaOS - app-based operating system that makes home labs approachable
  https://www.zimaspace.com/zimaos

• Home lab fundamentals - NAS, backups, ad blocking, VMs, and always-on servers

• ROMM - organizing ROM libraries with metadata, artwork, and downloads
  https://github.com/rommapp/romm

• EmulatorJS - play retro games directly in your web browser
  https://emulatorjs.org

• Jellyfin - self-hosted media streaming without subscriptions
  https://jellyfin.org

• The 8-Bit Files Podcast & Discord
  https://the8bitfiles.com