Retro Gaming Projects

COMMODORE 64 GOLDEN Pi EDITION

Converting an old broken C64 to a Pi with RetroPie. A great gaming frontend for emulators running on a Raspberry Pi. In my case on a Raspberry Pi 3. The cool thing about the way i am modding this c63 is that i can use the original keyboard and original c64 joysticks.

Using this frontend



Bought a broken c64 voor 3 euro, it did not have much on the inside. It was a project with experimenting a lot. I have piles of c64's (for some reason they always find their way to my home when they are abandoned and sold on garagesales) but i do not want to break fixable vintage computers to convert them. So in this case i just use an empty shell in a way i could even convert it back.

Anyone wanting to do this, again: please do not break good vintage computers. Use old junk! The c64 is getting more rare everyday.



Previous owner cut all the wires, we will never know why. He also removed all internal parts do i think it's used as a donor.



Keyboard was dirty! This is dirt you get after 30 years gaming!
I experimented with peroxide in a bag to de-yellow it. Looking back it was not so smart. I could have just put a little on top of the keys.



I am not sponsored by Cillit bang but it's great stuff!

in combination with UV light it can de-yellow plastic like retr0brite(google that)
or look here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright
I got this



Let it dry in the sun a while. It's wrapped in foil with the creme inside. Hoping the sun will do it's thing.


Pull the keys with a keycap pullen (you can 3D print one from Thingiverse)


The front of the key printing came off, not so smart



Keyboard cleaned with Glassex, great keyboard nice design.



I had another keyboard that i used to compare (coz that one was good) to find what wires i was missing and where to put them.



Soldered new wires and resoldered every old new wire with fresh solder. Also used new binders and used new tape over the wires like the original.



Soldered back the old connecter, and tested the connection. Ready to go! :


The old badge was ruined, another thing learned. Hurts my eyes and my heart that i ruined a perfect badge. I could just use another but that would be wrong, i must improvise with "gold"




Use freezepray to get the badge off without bending it!

The shell was not good enough, it was absolutely brighter than before but still not completely de-yellowed and i forgot that the sun moves and produces shadows. It was better to move the shell every hour to the sun to prevent that. It ended up with light and dark parts. I could not find any photo's anymore, but it did not look as good as i hoped. So i decided to spraypaint it like a VIC20. I Always like the bright -white look of the VIC20 but due to it's limitations i never bought one back in the days:



Cheap paint and primer of the Action works fine.

Printing some parts from Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1232760







USed a KeyRah v2 for the keyboard so i can use the Original c64 joysticks.



It's only 35 euro and it fits great. If you are looking for one:
https://www.vesalia.de/e_keyrahv2.htm

Fixed the badge like this, not as good as the original but it looks cool:






It's still on my shelf waiting for the last finishing touch, i'll keep you posted if i ever get around doing that.