Technabob » commodore

c64x Extreme: Commodore 64 Gets Upgraded Specs, Still Won’t Play Crysis

Lambert Varias — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:00:34 +0000

Last year, a man named Barry Altman founded Commodore USA, LLC and acquired the rights to the Commodore computer brand. His company has since relaunched the brand along with the Commodore 64, the legendary all-in-one computer in a keyboard that inspired a generation of programmers, tinkerers and gamers. It’s latest version is the C64x Extreme, a computer with innards that are almost as modern as its case is archaic.

The C64x Extreme has a 2.2GHz Sandy Bridge Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 2TB HDD, a DVD R/W drive, a multi-card reader, 6 USB ports and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Where it does fall short however is in the graphics department – it’s left with integrated Intel HD Graphics instead of a discrete GPU. Quite disappointing, especially when we consider its price tag.

Commodore USA is selling the C64x Extreme at an Alienware-like $1499 (USD). So for all it’s updated specs, it’s still not a practical purchase. That said, Ben Heck’s unofficial C64 laptop didn’t have upgraded guts and yet had a starting bid of $1,000. I mean if I had the money, I’d rather go for this slightly less absurd deal.

[via Electronista]

Commodore PET Gets New Life as Windows PC

Technabob — Tue, 10 May 2011 00:43:11 +0000

Remember the old Commodore PET personal computer from back in the late 1970s? With its trapezoidal built-in monitor, it was the most “futuristic” computer of its time, despite its relatively meager 6502 CPU and up to 32KB of RAM under the hood. So this old computer was just begging for an upgrade.

Modder TheGreatSatan recently ripped out the guts of an old PET 2001-N computer, and replaced its innards with a speedy 3.2GHz 6-core AMD Phenom CPU with 16GB of DDR3-1333 RAM. The rejuvenated PET also has a Radeon 6850 1GB graphics card, 64GB SSD drive and a 1TB secondary hard drive. The new machine has been rechristened as the “PET 2011″, which is only appropriate.

Since the PET had a tiny 9″ black and white CRT, there wasn’t much room for a proper display inside the case, so Satan opted for a 7-inch color LCD, plucked from a Kodak digital photo frame. Of course, that tiny display isn’t practical as a primary display, so he hooked up a modern display alongside the PET for getting real work done.

TheGreatSatan spent just $53 on a non-working PET computer over on eBay, but clearly put way more than that into the new hardware and his labor to build it out. You can check out the entire build log over on the Bit-Tech forums.

Papercraft Commodore Sx-64 Weighs Much Less Than the Original Luggable

Technabob — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 02:25:32 +0000

If you don’t remember the Commodore SX-64, it was the retro computer maker’s first attempt at a portable computer. The beastly box weighed in at a backbreaking 23 pounds. Thankfully, this papercraft version is a little lighter.

Erik Schubach created this teensy-tiny “executive” SX-64 entirely out of paper (and maybe a bit of tape). Thanks to Eric, you can print and assemble your own. If you want to make it a bit more realistic, you can put a bunch of fishing weights inside of it to give it a bit more heft.

Grab the full-size paper template here.

[via Papercraft World via Game Informer]

N.U.T.Z.: the Nuttiest C64 Music Video You’Ll See Today

Technabob — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:47:34 +0000

The following sentence from the description for this music video for Germany’s Kabelbrand pretty much sums it up… “Godzilla Squirrel attacks Cologne !!!” Got it? Good.

Oh, they forgot to mention the part about the chainsaw. So here it is. “Godzilla Squirrel with Chainsaw attacks Cologne !!!” Sit back and enjoy this music video that is truly full of win.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via superlevel]

Midibox Sid: C64 Transformed Into Glowing Midi Synth

Technabob — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:39:47 +0000

The venerable Commodore 64 is well known among the electronic music community as a synthesizer modder’s dream machine thanks to its robust SID audio chipset. But most of the mods I’ve seen end up looking just like an old C64 and all the cool stuff is going on under the hood. So when I came across this mod, all those glowy knobs and buttons got me really excited.

Modder subatomicglue’s MidiboxSID may have started life as a C64, but now it’s nearly unrecognizable thanks to a serious synth rehab. I especially love the backlit reddish-orange potentiometers and LED illumination throughout the box, making this retro synth perfect for cranking out beeps and blips out in a darkened nightclub or concert gig.

This isn’t any old stock C64 either. Subatomicglue embedded 8 SID chips under the covers of this puppy, which lets it generate 4 stereo pairs of sound, and 4 synthesizer “voices” at the same time. The controls expose plenty of flexibility to tune and tweak every nuance of the system’s 8-bit chip sounds, and of course, it can be MIDI controlled for sequencing purposes.

The cool thing is that the specs for building Midibox SID are available for anyone cares to make one for themselves. As a matter of fact, the one featured in this article is based on a reference design by Midibox SID originator “TK” (Thorsten Klose). Here’s a video of TK’s original in action.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Check out the full worklog to see how it all came together, and learn about building your own C64 Midibox here.

Circuit Bent Commodore 64: Revenge of the 80s

Technabob — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:44:17 +0000

One of the most popular computers from the 1980s, the Commodore 64, is having a minor renaissance as an electronic musical instrument. The C64′s audio chip is famous for producing an array of warm, familiar 8-bit beats and blips.

As a result, the trusty C64 has become a popular platform for “circuit bending”, which is hardware hackers’ terminology for taking old technology, applying circuit modifications to output audio or video effects that the original device wasn’t necessarily designed to produce.

Now you can own your own circuit bent C64, without any electronic know-how. The circuit bending wizards from Bighead Electronics have made this extremely limited edition pre-modded C64, appropriately called the Bent64.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The system comes completely loaded Paul Slocum’s Cynthcart, a custom program which helps the heavily modded Commodore produce a wild cacophony of retro noise as you press keys on the keyboard.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The Bent64 is a ready-to-go electronic musical instrument, capable of cranking out 3-note polyphonic analog sounds, applying effects with a “whammy” tuning knob, and even stereo support if you can wrangle a second sound chip and install it in the provided socket. The Bent64 can even output a psychedelic light show through a composite video output, so you’re ready to rave out of the box.

Oh yeah, it’s still fully functional as a standard C64 with the flip of a switch before you boot up. So you’d better brush up on your Commodore BASIC.

[eBay Auction Page]

Guitar Hero Hits the Commodore 64

Technabob — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:45:38 +0000

If you’ve never bothered to get out of the 80′s and upgrade from that old Commodore 64, it turns out you don’t have to miss out on modern video games. Heck, why shouldn’t you be able to play Guitar Hero on your C64?

Toni Westbrook’s Shredz64 project aims to interface a Playstation GH controller with a C64, then to create a rudimentary version of the rhythm matching game that runs on the classic computer. Plans are to use the system’s retro 8-bit beeps and blips to crank out its tunes.

Thusfar, Westbrook has gotten the controller working with the C64, and started work on the game itself earlier this year. While his initial tests were written in good old Commodore BASIC, he expects to write the final game using C and 6502 assembler language.

Now if only I could get Mass Effect to run on my Atari 400 and Bioshock on my TRS-80, I’d be set.

[via Waxy.org via Kotaku]

Strangest Media Player Name of the Day

Technabob — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:46:13 +0000

Commodore, the brand that brought us the Pet, the VIC-20 and the C64 are now bringing us another oddly named device, the Gravel in Pocket.

The personal media player was announced today at the IFA 2006 consumer electronics show in Berlin. The Gravel in Pocket features playback in a wide variety of audio, video and image formats including: MP3, WMA, WAV, MP4, MPEG, DivX, Xvid, WMV, streaming WMV, JPEG, BMP and GIF. The device only comes with either 1GB and 2GB of onboard flash memory, plus an SD slot for additional storage. A 2.8″ TFT display is on the small side, just a little larger than an iPod 5G’s screen.

Also announced was Gravel in Home, which provides video on demand, DVR and streaming media capabilities, as well as their CommodoreWorld music and video download service. The devices are expected to be available by November in Europe, but I doubt we’ll see these devices stateside any time soon, if ever.

[via BusinessWire via eHomeUpgrade]