“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]
the picture on the left reminds me of harold on the red green show
I came
The picture on the left is just a case mod, adding piano keys to it. Pretty simple I guess.
What are the two on the right? They look like unrelated random sound equipment.
where do people find 64’s to hack up into other boxes
Id like to have one just to restore but not at the prices ive seen
props on quality work
poops on why didn’t you give me one lol
@osgeld I used to have four or five. A couple with broken keyboards, and a couple without the sound chips, they were neat though, petty modular, so I ended up making 2 working ones with sound, and eventually giving them to a school (back in the days of 486 computer labs, and individual class rooms not having computers). I originally got them from random second hand stores for about $10 each.
I need to clean my computer screen. Fucking Awesome!
dude, i think i just filled the cup.
Might be worth mentioning here that there is now a pretty decent software emulation of the sound chip for the Parallax Propeller; it’s not exactly the same as an original but then neither were all of the originals:
http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&m=409209
If this guy worked for Commodore in the day we’ed still be using them now!
this is crazy. i love it. some of the ideas obviously came from the holy alpha mod c64 http://hackaday.com/2006/10/03/c64-alpha-mod/
I had a c64 when I was a kid, best computer ever ! I even messed up the teachers programs at school ( math answers did not equal real math answers.) I gotta a get me another c64 before they go completely extinct. It has AWESOME games like, “Jumpman Junior”, The cartridge. Even had a modem for it. It was the coolest stuff ever. Maybe I gotz future shock?
@Mikey
RTFA
the pic on the right can be seen at the ucapps.de midibox project site. I have looked at the videos and pics of that project many times, its … incredible… but I believe it is run with the midibox core module, sequencer module, and sounds are from the midibox sid module which uses the commodore 64’s SID chip by MOS technologies.
@TJ I deserved that.
They’re all freakin sweet. C=64 is my favorite computer of all time, besides a PC of course.
@HIrudinea:
We are still using them. 8bit Ventures released the MSSIAH cartridge in 2008, the successor to their popular Prophet 64 cart.
R64 has been well-known on their forums for his amazing C64 mods for quite a while:
http://www.prophet64-forum.com/
Pure awesome.
The C64 was my first computer. I’ve still got one (not my orginal), and two or three 64Cs. I’ve also got that music keyboard add on shown.
@ tantris, <3 the red green show.
I have a Commodore 64 with disk drive, monitor, joystick, and several games. If anyone is interested in purchasing it for a super deal, shoot me an email at hackmsp@gmail.com or check out http://discountuniques.com
How could something so ghetto be so badass!!! I actually found a 300$ diskette program from the good ole days for the c-64. It has “up to date” medical information and even simulators for brain activity.
@nachowarrior:
unfortunately, it’s not on anymore. it was a healthy contrast to the shows, that want you to “make sure to read and understand all the instructions that come with your power tools”
but to get all excited about a c64, somehow reminded me of harold’s stage control mods. i bet he reads h.a.d. ;)