TPUG Magazine Nov 84 via The Wayback Machine reveals a bizarre Commodore 64 peripheral featuring a mime. Mimic Systems Inc. would not ship its first product, the Spartan, until nearly two years after beginning monthly magazine appearances. When enthusiasts finally obtained the Spartan in 1986, its specifications felt as old as the mime's haunting face.

Magazine reviews were tepid, with Mark Brown giving it two stars in INFO Issue 12, calling it a "noble experiment that just plain took too long to get to market." Individual users were less diplomatic, with one USENET complainant stating they were "constantly on the phone for tech support until I got tired of all the bugs." Despite the rough launch, a fully kitted model sold for over $5,500 in an October 2024 auction, with multiple others fetching over half that amount. Announced in 1984 and shipped in 1986, the Spartan's market fit arrived decades later. The ads, starting bizarre and getting weirder, featured a man in whiteface against a white background with misaligned text.

One detail shows the mime's face printed on the box. It is worth mentioning the man in these photos is, based on research, not Billy Scudder, the Charlie Chaplin impersonator from IBM's tech ads. Finally, the device revealed its purpose: an Apple ][+ emulator for the Commodore 64.

David L. Farquhar from The Silicon Underground explains the Commodore 64, launched in September 1982, cost half as much as other 64K computers but lacked software during its first years. Meanwhile, the Apple II+ had thousands of titles, including the spreadsheet Visicalc.

Running for $1,195, buying a module for both a C-64 and Apple II+ to share monitor and printer stood to save $600, or $1305 in inflation-adjusted dollars. The only problem was the ][+ was discontinued by 1983. The Spartan's hardware was similar to Franklin's Ace machines while its ROM was jumbled to avoid lawsuits, ultimately providing the Commodore juice in a few narrow applications but barely more than a curiosity in most cases.