Help My c64 caught on fire

(c0de517e.com)

59 points | by ibobev 4 hours ago

8 comments

  • syncsynchalt 3 hours ago
    Note to readers: the heavily dithered websafe thumbnails lead to full-color photos when clicked.
    • 0x1ch 57 minutes ago
      Why is it dithered like this? To save bandwidth? I wasn't on the internet much before 2010, so maybe this is an old technique you don't see anymore.
      • zahlman 43 minutes ago
        Originally, sort of. But also to work around limitations in GIF (which is palette-based; but see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIF#True_color) and because people didn't always have true-colour monitors (or ran the monitor in a different mode due to VRAM restrictions) anyway.

        In today's context, more for the aesthetic, presumably.

        • c0de517e 18 minutes ago
          Author - yes, it's "aesthetic", albeit not my best work and I might revert that decision at some point. Was inspired by lowtechmagazine but they did a much much better job.

          I do care about the blog being snappy and working also on very low-end, vintage hardware though, so that also somewhat achieves that goal.

    • altairprime 3 hours ago
      (And, once, also HDR.)
    • stronglikedan 2 hours ago
      only most do
  • Aldipower 2 hours ago
    Just in time I received my brand new Commodore 64 Ultimate directly before Christmas. What a lovely made piece of retro hardware.
    • gerdesj 38 minutes ago
      I have an actual original C-64 from around 1986. I got it recapped a few years back and it worked! Now the floppy and tape drives gather dust: it has USB 8)

      Oh and I have an original Quickshot II, which still works despite "Daley Thomson's Decathalon".

      I'm going to give it to my son in law this Chrimbo - "Attack of the mutant camels" and "Matrix" etc needs new players.

  • erickhill 1 hour ago
    Didn't need the click-bait title. I would have read it regardless (and did). I wish there had been a PRG or D64 included for the non-programmers. Fun read!
    • c0de517e 16 minutes ago
      Author, fwiw, I don't do/care about click-bait, as I never cared about clicks. Since I moved to my bespoke blog system (previously I was on blogspot) I don't even track page views. But I thought it was somewhat funny.
      • dotancohen 4 minutes ago
        I think not enough people today have ever seen the message "printer on fire".
  • andyjohnson0 1 hour ago
    This is very nice, enjoyment-driven, seasonal hacking. Cool.

    Brought back happy memories of the much simpler, much less impressive falling snowflakes animation, complete with Silent Night soundtrack, that I laboriously wrote in Basic on my Vic-20 one Christmas back in the 80s.

  • rolph 2 hours ago
    i thought this was going to involve capacitor plague. rather a retro dive into coding an 8bit digital fireplace.
    • userbinator 1 hour ago
      Definitely a clickbait title. I thought it'd be about those infamous Rifa caps.
      • c0de517e 13 minutes ago
        Fwiw, the c64 is pretty robust, if you don't use the original power supplies.

        I'm surprised that people find this to be an example of clickbait. If I cared about views, I'd imagine an honest title like - "I turned my c64 into a digital fireplace" - would have probably been more appealing, no?

  • arbol 2 hours ago
    This is particularly awesome cause I can't imagine anyone thinking of making a fake fireplace with a computer screen in the c64 era.
  • TacticalCoder 2 hours ago
    > https://c0de517e.com/026_c64fire/cozy.jpg

    That should have been a real CRT monitor to give this picture a true feeling of the 80s!

    • c0de517e 12 minutes ago
      Eh, if only I had one. I have some relatives living next to me through and I think I remember an old TV in their basement, I might check it out, that's a good idea.
    • andyjohnson0 1 hour ago
      Simulated 14" portable TV fascia with tuning knob* and mono speaker grille.

      *set to channel 36, natch

      • zahlman 41 minutes ago
        > set to channel 36, natch

        Was that specific to C64? I recall old consoles and VCRs using either channel 3 or 4.

        • andyjohnson0 10 minutes ago
          Might be a European thing. I remember that, here in the UK, on my Vic-20 connected to my parent's Bush portable tv, it was channel 36. I believe the C64 was the same.

          And sometimes you had to twist/jiggle the aerial lead to get a good connection.

  • jumbledoor 17 minutes ago
    [dead]