From emulator to real hardware
[the publish date is retroactively published]
When I lost all my original hardware and software, I realised what I lost. Partly, it was because all the hardware/software/magazines were bought out of my own money, savings or part-time Jobs), but also because it was the first computer I owned. I do remember finding a CD-ROM full of games and software that made your PC into a C64. It was great as this software behaved EXACTLY like a C64, right down to how long a tape took to load. I had a joystick, but I was having issues with the keyboard. The problem was keyboard mapping.
This is what the VICE keyboard mapping looks like:
As I had used the C64 for nearly five years, this became a problem, and I couldn’t get my head around where the keys were on a standard Windows keyboard. As the CD didn’t have a front end of any sort, I left it. Throughout the years from around 1996 to around 2022, I tried again with emulation, and again, it just came down to the fact that although I don’t care how the image appears on the screen if I don’t have the ‘correct’ interface, I find the emulation difficult to use.
Around 2022, I found BMC64 (now no longer developed but can be found on GitHub), which is a fork of VICE, this worked extremely well, especially since I was able to buy stickers for the keyboard. BMC64 takes a Raspberry Pi and turns it into a Bare Metal emulator, which means that VICE is the Operating System. Unfortunately, as it was all under the TV, it became problematic getting the ‘c64’ out, not only that, I wanted it to look more like my old C64.
I was already looking at C64 bundles on eBay, but in September 2023 (21st to be exact – thank you purchase history!) I came across a fully built BMC64 in a C64C case, and when it came, it was like an old friend returning. The keyboard was correct, and not only that, I could use period-correct joysticks. So I bought this one in October!
With this, the C64c case and the Raspberry Pi impersonating (really really well) a C64, it was almost perfect. But I kept looking around for the non-existent tape deck when I was loading games. 7 months later (April 11th!) I was looking around on the internet for a working C64C motherboard and C2N, which I found at Ami64, an online store for anything Commodore-related. This then meant I had to find a power supply for these parts as well as a way of connecting the C64C to the TV, thanks to eBay again, I was able to. I spent a fair bit on games as well. There will be a page devoted to the games/programs I have soon, but it was quite a fair bit right at the beginning.
Here is the newly restored C64C with the PSU and tape deck:
As seen here, it had a BMC64 case sticker, as I (wrongly) thought this (the BMC64) might be my dream machine. One thing that was not ‘quite right’ was the power LED; mine was red, so that was fixed, and as this was effectively a ‘Frankenstein’ machine, I bought replica stickers (the serial number sticker and Warranty).
The Raspberry Pi and breakout board I kept, as I wanted to put those into a ‘breadbin’ case, so I had the best of both worlds. But at least, for now, I was able to get the base machine and a few games to start recreating what I had.