[Thomas’] love affair with Commodore computers spans well over 30 years, and not too long ago he decided to recreate one of his favorite Commodore offerings, the PET. As we have seen with similar undertakings, this sort of project is no easy task, but [Thomas] seems to be making his way along nicely.

Using a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA on the Digilent Nexys3 dev board, he has implemented the Pet in Verilog. Like the original, his clone contains 16K of both ROM and RAM, utilizing the same simulated 6502 microprocessor he used on a previous Apple ][+ project. The FPGA version of the computer sports a 640x400 resolution which is twice that of the original, so [Thomas] simply doubled the size of each of the PET’s pixels to fill in the extra space.

[Thomas] has made some great progress so far, including the ability to load games and other programs from cassette images over a serial connection. He says that there are still a few loose ends to tie up, but it all looks good from here!

Continue reading to see a short video of Space Invaders running on he PET recreation.

[Frank], like many people, has a soft spot in his heart for the Commodore 64. He prefers to play his C64 games on his computer nowadays, but likes using his old school Competition Pro rather than some modern controller with remapped buttons. The only problem with using the controller is that his new computer doesn’t have any ports that accommodate its 9-pin D-sub connector.

The VICE emulator maps keyboard inputs to controller actions, so he decided to build himself a D-sub to USB adapter that implements a virtual USB keyboard. He wrote a firmware package for the Freescale MC9S08JS16L microcontroller that allows him to send keypresses to his emulator whenever he performs an action with his Competition Pro joystick.

The circuit looks easier to duplicate than some other C64 interfaces we have seen before, and as you can see in the video below, it works quite well. We imagine that this setup can be used to connect all sorts of old input devices to modern PCs with little to no tweaking.

“Everyone needs a hobby,” they tell us. For the blogger mysteriously identified only as “R,” that hobby would be an almost fanatical nostalgia for the Commodore 64 computer.

At first we thought this was a fan community site, but apparently it’s all the work of a single person. [R] has tweaked, extended, repackaged and resurfaced this 1980’s icon in nearly every imaginable way. They tend to gloss over the technical aspects of these mods, but that’s okay – the C64 is such an exhaustively documented system now that the site dwells mainly on the aesthetics and meaning of these reborn devices.

The 64 has made an indelible impression on electronic music, and the machines are still sought after by collectors, composers and circuit-benders. [R] pays homage by housing these vintage systems in styles reminiscent of even vintage-er synthesizers. Any one of these would warrant a post here, yet there’s a whole collection to browse. Check it out!

[via Retro Thing]

Before we get started, lets just point out that this C64 was broken. He did not take a functional C64 out of operation for this. What he did do, was to build a hardware interface for for his VICE system. For those unfamiliar, VICE is a cross platform C64 emulator. [Simon] points out that the old games just weren’t as much fun without the original hardware. Having a broken C64 lying around, he put it to good use. It now acts as the interface for all the original fun stuff.

If you are a fan of the hardware, but just want to interface it as a normal USB keyboard, that is possible as well.

Before we begin, let us soothe those first dreaded thoughts. No, the commodore was not destroyed in the process. They can simply clip the 16 wires they added to interface the keyboard and be back to stock. Breathe a sigh of relief, and enjoy the twypper, a twitter wall made from a commodore SQ1000.

[Alex] needed to make an interesting project for his companies Openspace/hack day.  A friend, suggested a twitter wall, and that’s when [Alex] got the idea for a typewriter. After a quick search, he found oomlaut’s typewriter.  They didn’t let that deter them from making their own version though. They found a nice fully functional commodore SQ1000 and began hacking. Ultimately they simply decided to use an Arduino to short the key switches to simulate typing. There are all kinds of details on the necessary steps to get the typing to function absolutely correct on the project page. Over all it was well done and we’re happy to see that it can be undone just as easily.

[svofski] has a friend who is a pixel artist. They really wanted to try out their skills on a c64, but were missing a mouse. The original mouse for the c64 was not only serial, but used a different method of communication than more modern mice. [svofski] built this adapter to translate the ps/2 data to something the c64 can use. The writeup describes the build in detail and even has the PCB and source code available for download.

[via flickr]

After a lengthy process that had previously met with rejection, Manomio’s Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone and iPod touch has finally been accepted by Apple. This marks the first time a multi-purpose emulation title has been approved by the App Store. The $4.99 C64 app comes bundled with five fully-licensed classic games, and additional titles can be purchased and downloaded directly within the application.

App Store policies prohibit software that could run downloadable code, which barred most emulation attempts in the past. A couple of Sega titles worked around this by nature of being single-purpose emulators. The condition by which the C64 title was finally approved was the removal of the BASIC programming language (though ironically it’s still shown in screen shots, even on the App Store). Since only sanctioned programs can be installed and run from within the application, no user-alterable code is present.

The C64 emulator is neat enough in itself, but the really encouraging news here is that a precedent has been set; the business model may open the floodgates for developers to bring more classic gaming titles to the iPhone platform. So download that SDK and get hacking!

[via TouchArcade]

Update: The iPhone Blog has a simple work-around for accessing BASIC!

Update 2: App pulled, no surprise. If you jumped on the opportunity while it was available, [George’s] comment might be of interest.

[Maarten] told us about a C64 USB keyboard that was modified to be used as a standard input device. An interesting aspect of the project is the use of V-USB (formerly known as AVR-USB). V-USB is a software only approach to slow speed USB HID. In essence this is a two fold mod, The C64 keyboard is patched to a PC, and an off the shelf AVR is software-hacked to bit bang the USB communications. The author notes an initial problem with multiple key presses that was later corrected in the application. For the other side of the spectrum, we had covered the C64 twittering client, and a commodore 64 laptop.

Many of our cherished computers and consoles from the past have not stood up well over time. It’s not the hardware as much as the color. From Commodores, Apples, to Super Nintendos, the machines have slowly drifted towards a sickly yellow and even brown. The culprit appears to be the fire retardant chemicals used in the plastics. Amiga enthusiasts have spent the last year perfecting a technique that restores the plastic of these machines to its original splendor. Dubbed ‘Retr0brite‘ it’s a gel made from hydrogen peroxide, xanthan gum, glycerine, and ‘Oxy’ style laundry booster. The results are really impressive. If you do start restoring your own machines, caution should be used since it requires strong concentrations of hydrogen peroxide typically employed in bleaching hair.

[via Waxy]

In order to update Skate or Die to a newer experience, [Jeff] has hacked together a skateboard controller for his Commodore 128. He’s using a parallax propeller to interface the skateboard to the unit, and another controller to boot up the game. Watch out Wii.

This particular MIDIbox by [Subatomic] is built on the MIDIbox SID specs originally conceived by [Thorsten Klose] (check out the great sound samples) and streamlined by [Wilba]. It uses a Commodore 64 case, 8 of its SID chips, and the power supply, but gets most of its other parts from various different sources. The Commodore’s SID or Sound Interface Device, was one of the first sound chips available in a personal computer.

In the worklog, a SID module, the first of four, was built before anything else. Then [Subatomic] opened up the Commodore case and attempted to fit a number of modules into it. For the MIDIbox’s power, he converted the original Commodore power supply to provide 14VDC and 5VDC, but learned much later that this would only give enough power for 4 SIDs, resulting in a mono MIDIbox. He continued by adding a power board and noting that with the core and SID modules and the audio mixer board, it’s a tight but workable fit.

The next several steps involved designing and building the control surface. After creating a mockup and acquiring several components like knobs, LEDs, and a small LCD, [Subatomic] began building many of the necessary control surface PCBs, including the filter control PCB and a few others.

[Subatomic] went on by going through the painstaking process of creating backlights for the knobs. After that he acquired the custom-made front panel, created the LCD module, and attached it and several PCBs to the panel. The panel was then painted.

After a little work on the PSU and the rear I/O panel, [Subatomic] prepped some banksticks (external storage accessories; think USB stick forerunners with a female serial jack).

After finishing and gluing the LEDs to the knobs, the panel was finished. At this point Subatomic decided to scrap the SID, core, din and dout modules in favor of a single PCB that does everything. He cut the board to make it fit in the case, cut headers, added resistors, burned out the LCD, did a lot of spot-checking on the wiring, and then he finally added the SIDs to the board.

He soon zeroed in on the power supply problem that was only routing enough power to 4 SIDs by replacing the malfunctioning C64 PSU with a good one, after which the LCD was also replaced. The wiring diagram above shows how the remaining modules would be wired to the main board.

The only software work involved adding functions for 2 special buttons to the preexisting firmware and recompiling it. He realized that the MIDIbox was missing a mixed output jack, so he added than and made several minor cosmetic mods. With these final fixes, the MIDIbox SID was completed. If you’re considering this project, be aware that it’s a major endeavor with a lot of detail work that took [Subatomic] nearly 3 years to build, but the reward is a slick-looking, fully functional MIDIbox SID of your own.

[via Matrixsynth]