Yeah, yeah. I don’t remember playing PONG on my C64 either, and it’s not as sleek or modern as that MacBook Pro cake, but this retro computer cake actually looks much tastier, IMHO. According to Flickr contributor Andy’s Retro Computers, it most definitely was yummy. Unfortunately you can’t have any – unless you happen to live in the UK, your name is Andy and your wife makes you one like it for your birthday too.

(In other news, I’m announcing the establishment of the Technabob Charity Foundation: We are a Worthy Charity.)

The bidding ends on July 20th; bidding starts at $1000 (USD). Bidders can email Ben Heckendorn at C64.Auction@gmail.com. You will be informed of the current highest bidder once you place your bid. The only question now is: are you rich enough to own a Commodore 64?

The head-to-head serves as a reminder of just how much technology has changed over the years, as well as a rough idea of how freakin’ rich Apple must be: while the old breadbox has a colossal lead in terms of total units sold at 32 million (it was first released in 1982),  a head esploding 1 million iPhone 3GS units were sold on its first 3 days on sale alone. That’s just insane.

That’s the start of the list. Funny how the C64 is almost all keyboard while the iPhone has no real keyboard at all. Other interesting facts: there are a total of 50,000 apps for the iPhone. McCracken(!) goes by the official number of C64 apps which is more or less 10,000, but several commenters are claiming that there are up to 100,000 programs for the C64. That seems like a huge advantage, until you realize that the iPhone is only less than 3 years old while the C64 is 27.

Of course the iPhone sweeps the tech specs trophies, but the C64 won lots of love because it offered… FREEDOM! The William Wallace of gadgets had neither carrier tie-ins nor app approval jujitsu. As one commenter said, if there was an iPhone emulator for the C64 it would’ve been warmly welcomed and immediately approved, no questions asked, except maybe “Would you like some cookies?”

Head on to Technologizer for the full list and the flame war. The C64 fanboys (fangrandfathers?) are winning. McCracken! Sorry.

[via Download Squad]

Heckendorn said that he was already working on a portable Commodore 64 back in 2006, but then he decided to re-do the whole thing. His goal was to make the laptop look like it was from the 80s, and I think everyone will agree with me when I say that he succeeded, because, as the modder himself said, “It just looks so beautifully ugly it’s great, like it came out of a time machine from an alternate reality 80’s where this existed.”

It’s not just the appearance of the laptop that’s retro because Ben Heck stuffed a C64C motherboard inside the laptop, as well as a Commodore 64 keyboard. Then he used a device called a 1541-III DTV that accepts SD cards instead of floppy disks for storage. The laptop is plugged into a semi-retro Gamecube power supply.

Heckendorn added a tiny LCD screen at the bottom of the laptop just for kicks, although he said that it also serves an aesthetic function as it fills up the empty space below the keyboard and makes the layout symmetrical to compensate for the irregular shape of the keyboard.

Although he can use the SD card to play games or use programs on the brand new old machine, Heck still added a cartridge slot at the bottom of the laptop. Here’s a video of the C64 laptop in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can check out Heckendorn’s site for more pics and vids of his latest Frankenmod.