iPod & TouchOSC Controlling a Real Commodore 64 (SID Chip)

Sebastian Tomczak, on Little Scale, posted a guide to make a commodore-64 midi interface using an Arduino board! It gives the user real-time control over the SID chip via MIDI data in terms of basic synthesis. If you already have access to an Arduino , then this could be quite affordable. The setup (and the outcome) is relatively simple, but it works fine for me and what I need it for. You can use either a MIDI connection or a USB connection with a software-based serial to MIDI converter patch.

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Matteo Bittanti, Videoludica mastermind (or maybe we should call him academic videogame guru?), pointed us to Impact of the Commodore 64: A 25th Anniversary Celebration:  a retrocomputing event that will be held in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum on 10 December and will features legends like Jack Tramiel,  Adam Chowaniec and the psychedelic computer God Steve Wozniak.
From the official statement:

Our The Commodore 64 (C64) was an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore in August, 1982, and during it's lifetime (between 1982 and 1994), sales totaled tens of millions of units, making it one the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were developed for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office applications, and games.

Early entrants of micro computers began as early as 1975, with the first models available in retail stores around 1977. In 1981, The IBM PC release legitimized and expanded the market. During this era of microcomputer innovation, the market was dominated by the IBM PC, the Commodore 64, the Atari 8-bit family, the Apple II, and Tandy Corporation's TRS-80.



The C64 made an impressive debut at the 1982 Winter Consumer Electronics Show, as recalled by Production Engineer David A. Ziembicki: "All we saw at our booth were Atari people with their mouths dropping open, saying, 'How can you do that for $595?'"


Although the history of the Commodore 64 is rich, the history of the people and the companies that developed these early personal computers is also critical to the personal productivity tools and business solutions we often take for granted in our daily lives.

* Geek note: I'm an akiba snob otaku who loves japanese retrocomputing and so in this post I used the main screen photo of the Commodore Max machine: a stripped down versione of the c64 for the Japanese market.

** LEVEL 64 image is totally unrelated to this post and is a painting by the Danish geek artist Isabella Rosendorf.

Basic64 is inspired by the 8 bit sounds of the legendary Commodore 64.
It's not a straight emulation, but is based around the SID chip with some extras for that 8-bit retro game sound, lofi gritty noises or just plain oddness...  Seems that  Basic64 could became the "Rebirth" (Propellehead) for the chiptuners out there...
(If you prefer the real thing there are always the original SID cartridges made by prophet64.com. Free trial here)

Download zip file (1.2 MB)