Commodore 64 -- Engadget

commodore 64 posts

Nintendo / C64 purse is runway-caliber fashion accessory

by Laura June, posted Apr 24th 2009 at 3:19PM

Look: there are purses, and then there are purses. Well, this one is none of those things. It's a decent looking bag to begin with, but then... well, things get really fantastic. Jeri Ellsworth took it upon herself to cram a Nintendo-on-a-chip and a Commodore 64-on-a-chip (her own creation) into the bag, along with an LCD. Then she connected up some NES controllers, which are velcroed onto the outside of the bag. The result looks awesome, and is also actually useable. We haven't heard anything about these guys being offered for sale, but we're fairly certain that the august House of Dior will probably be ringing her up any day now. Seriously: this thing is a work of art. There's a video of Jeri talking about her creation after the break.

[Via Make]

Continue reading Nintendo / C64 purse is runway-caliber fashion accessory

Ben Heck's Commodore 64 laptop mod: like 1982 without the feathered hair

by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 6th 2009 at 4:56AM

Benjamin J. Heckendorn seems unusually enthused by his latest hack'n mod, calling the Commodore 64 laptop "probably one of, if not my favorite project I have done." That's saying something from the man who brought the "Benheck" finesse hammer down upon just about every modern and classic PC / game console and accessory you can think of. The C64 lappie features a C64C motherboard, a Gamecube power supply, and special 1541-III DTV device that emulates a floppy drive using a FAT-32 formatted SD card -- all while keeping true to the beige 8-bit spirit of the original. And if we're not mistaken, he's controlling it with an Atari joystick seen in the video posted after the break. Then again, there could be an Xbox 360 controller hiding in that joystick knowing Ben.

[Via Nowhereelse]

Continue reading Ben Heck's Commodore 64 laptop mod: like 1982 without the feathered hair

Commodore 64 emulator brings retro joy to Symbian S60

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 25th 2009 at 4:33PM

Have a Symbian S60-based handset in your pocket, do you? If you've a fever that can only be cured by more Commodore 64, you're in luck. The FrodoS60 application brings C64 emulation right to your N95, N96 or any other S60 mobile, and the updated version (1.5) even includes accelerometer support. Head past the break for a quick look at how much joy this little app could bring to your life, and hit the read link if you're interested in getting in on it. Which you are, so stop denying it.

[Via digitoday, thanks Antti]

Continue reading Commodore 64 emulator brings retro joy to Symbian S60

Commodore 64 users create perfect nerdstorm

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 8th 2008 at 2:40AM

There's nerd and then there's Commodore 64 nerd. Bring them together in a Commodore 64 LAN party and you've got a nerdstorm of mythical proportions. The world's first Commodore 64 LAN party was held in ~~nerdistan~~ Cincinnati last weekend. It consisted of eight C64s with Ethernet cartridges playing NetRacer off a central, Java-based server. So Geeksta it hurts.

MidiBox SID turns Commodore 64 into 4-voice, 8-bit analog synth

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 9th 2008 at 11:29AM

The Commodore 64 did a lot of things right: the right price, the right graphics, the right games, and the right 8-bit audio chipset that allowed 12 year-old programmers to POKE and PEEK their way into analog music bliss. Modder and musician "TK" saw an opportunity in all of this for an analog synthesizer, and he went for it. Fitting it with potentiometers, LEDs, and an additional 8 SID sound chips (for a total of 8), he is able to get 4 stereo pairs of sound and 4 voices out of what he calls the Midibox SID. If you hadn't figured from the name, he did add MIDI control to the little beast. And, no, you cannot play Doom on it. Video after the break.

Shredz64 is very real and very shredding

by Paul Miller, posted Mar 10th 2008 at 9:22PM

Remember that time when we told you about Shredz64 and we were all excited and stuff? Well, friend, sometimes dreams do come true, and Toni ended up completing his Shredz64 project in style. In case you need a refresher, Shredz64 is all about bringing a Guitar Hero-style experience to the Commodore 64 -- which, in addition to holding much sentimental value, is quite the musical device in its own right. He has a custom-built "PSX64" interface for plugging his PS2 Guitar Hero guitar into the C64, which he's having produced for sale alongside a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk of Shredz64, but the real magic is the software itself. The C64-synthesized songs sound great, and interface is like Guitar Hero or Rock Band without all the annoying fluff. Check out the videos after the break for everything in action.

Continue reading Shredz64 is very real and very shredding

C64 games coming to Wii's Virtual Console

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Feb 21st 2008 at 12:48PM

Just when you think all of your nostalgic fantasies have all been fulfilled, along comes Nintendo with a little extra joy for your retro heart. That "little extra" in this case happens to be Commodore 64 games for your Wii. You read that correctly, people -- C64 games are headed to the system's Virtual Console, starting with International Karate and Uridium, which will run you 500 Wii points apiece. Right now, the rollout appears to be taking place in Europe only, though we suspect it'll head over to our shores sooner rather than later. While you're waiting for that to happen, maybe now is a good time to exercise your digits and polish up on your IK trash talk.

[Thanks, Nico]

Read - Virtual Console: C64 is back! [Finnish site]
Read - C64 on Wii Virtual Console

Homebrew DTVii joystick brings tilt-sensing to the C64

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 4th 2007 at 2:55PM

While the Wii and PS3 are getting most of the motion-sensing attention these days, Commodore 64 enthusiast Doug Garmon seems intent on proving that his old school system is also up to the task, developing a homebrew joystick that not only packs an accelerometer, but is wireless to boot. As you can see in the video after the break, the whole setup appears to work quite well, although it doesn't exactly provide a full-range of motion-sensing abilities, confined instead to a still-impressive tilt action. While this particular version of the controller makes use of C64-compatible DTV unit instead of an honest-to-goodness Commodore 64, Doug isn't about to let the hardcore Commodore fans among us down, saying he has receiver for the C64 "already made" but hasn't yet tested it.

[Via Hack a Day]

Continue reading Homebrew DTVii joystick brings tilt-sensing to the C64

Shredz64 project bringing Guitar Hero to the Commodore 64

by Donald Melanson, posted Feb 20th 2007 at 5:08PM

We've already seen the Guitar Hero controller hooked up to a PC, but hardware hacker Toni has decided up the difficultly level even further, endeavoring to wire the ubiquitous plastic axe to his Commodore 64, complete with an all new "Guitar Hero-like" C64 game. While he's still quite a ways from fully realizing that goal, as the pic above and audio clip on the page linked below show, he is making considerable progress, with all of the guitar's buttons working, although the whammy bar, sadly, remains silent. Unfortunately, it's also been over a month since the last update on the project, so we can only hope that he hasn't given up on it -- there's undoubtedly countless C64s just waiting to be dusted off as soon as the DIY guide is ready.

[Thanks, Joseph S]

Joystiq's "Most impressive gamer" winner

by Cyrus Farivar, posted Sep 18th 2006 at 12:29AM

At Engadget, most of us are what you'd call casual gamers, given that on occasion, we love to kick back with a round or two of "Civilization IV" whenever we need some R&R. That said, we're lightyears away from Kevout -- the guy that just won Joystiq's contest of "Most impressive gamer rig" -- who just took home a new copy of "Dead Rising" for the Xbox 360. He's got a 32-system setup (only 21 of those consoles are actually connected), that ranges from a Commodore 64 to an Xbox 360, accompanied by a total of 568 games; amusingly, since he blows all his loot on videogame hardware and software, he had to scrounge that disgraceful CRT out of a dumpster. We assume that once Kevout gets his paws on a PS3 he'll have achieved gamer nirvana. Until the Wii comes out, that is.

Connect your Commodore 64 keyboard to your PC via USB

by Cyrus Farivar, posted Aug 31st 2006 at 6:37AM

This Danish hacker has converted an older clacky Commodore 64 keyboard to a more modern real-deal USB keyboard. We won't bore you with the gory details, but if you're interested, Mikkel Holm Olsen has a long play-by-play account of his travails on his website, linked below. Apparently, he was asked to create the keyboard for some buddies of his, a Commodore 64 revival band, appropriately called "Press Play on Tape." We honestly had no idea there were so many Commodore 64 fanboys in Denmark, but given their progressive culture it only makes sense that they're super obsessed with oh, only the best computer system ever.

[Via MAKE:Blog]