Pssst...Subscribe to Our Free Newsletter  
 

THE LATEST NEWS
Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Commodore 64 revisited
From news.com: "YAMHILL, Ore.--There is a story behind every electronic gadget sold on the QVC shopping channel. This one leads to a ramshackle farmhouse in rural Oregon, which is the home and circuit design lab of Jeri Ellsworth, a 30-year-old high school dropout and self-taught computer chip designer.

Ellsworth has squeezed the entire circuitry of a two-decade-old Commodore 64 home computer onto a single chip, which she has tucked neatly into a joystick that connects by a cable to a TV set. Called the Commodore 64--the same as the computer system--her device can run 30 video games, mostly sports, racing and puzzles games from the early 1980s, all without the hassle of changing game cartridges."

Should you get excited over it? Well, it's $30 and QVC has sold 70,000 of the little buggers since it began the campaign. Better (worse?) still, according to the story, there are five hidden games in the joystick and it can be modified (Professional Hacker. Do Not Attempt At Home) to use a keyboard, monitor, and disk drive.

Kinda rings nostalgic to me. I was one of the original presenters (voice over, in absentia) when Commodore first introduced the 64... It seems like yesterday. Sigh...

   3 comments      Email this Link


Comments on this Item:
 
What is all the more impressive about the work that Jeri has done is the the central chip(s) in the architecture (ASICs for the techies) are fully reprogrammable. While not true of the C-64 Joystick, her design allows for any number of personalities (read machines) to be built into one device with no additional hardware (save perhaps a ROM). You could have a Commodore-64 at one moment, an Apple II, Atari, Amiga, whatever the next. I'm waiting for her Amiga myself as she is (also) a fellow Amigan.

Truly impressive work and I hope the big guys (AMD, Intel) are paying attention as proprietary hardware may have taken a serious deathblow if this is taken to the next level.



 
I'm 31. This chick is HOTT. Of course, no one else that I speak to thinks so, but who cares. Maybe I'm attracted to her mind...


 
Todd, as you age you'll find that more and more "chics" will seem "hot" to you. It's a consequence of the psyche attempting to deal with futility.


Post a Comment

 

 
 

The RealTechNews Official Collection of Interesting Technical Websites
(In Alphabetical Order)

RealTechNews.com -Hooray!

All About Technology
Apolemia
As the Apple Turns
Adam Bosthworth
Channel 9
Cincom Smalltalk Blog
CodeStore
CompHobby.org
CreativeBits
Cult of Mac
Daily Dose of Excel
Dan Bricklin's Log
Dan Gilmore
eHomeUpgrade
Engadget
Enterprise System Spectator
Fozbaca.org
Fullasagoog
Future Now
Gadgeteer
Gadgetopia
Gadgetryblog

Gemal's Psyched Blog
Geomblog
Gizmo
Gizmodo
 

Good Morning Silicon Valley
Google Blog
Google Weblog
Hack a Day
Hack the Planet
Hackdiary
Impact Lab
Internet Alchemy
I4U
IT Facts
Java.blogs
Joel on Software
Jonathan's Blog
Live Digitally
Lynch, Kevin
Matt Heerema
Mavromatic
Mehack
MobileMag
MobileWhack
Mobitopia
MSNsearch's WebLog
Napsterization.org
Onlineblog.com
PatrickWeb
Paul's Time Sink
Picturephoning.com
Player Blog
Ployer Technology News
 
PVRblog
Release 4.0
RFID Privacy
Scripting News
Scriptygoddess
Search Engine Watch
Shiny Shiny
SiliconBeat
Six Apart
Slashdot
SpaceNews
Swaine's World
Tech Digest
Techdirt
Threadwatch.org
Tip of the Day
UberGizmo
Unofficial Google Weblog
Unofficial Yahoo Weblog
Useit.com
Web-Graphics
What Ralph Knows
Wi-Fi Networking News
Wingedpig.com
Wohl, Amy
Wrist Dreams
Yahoo! Search Blog 
 

 

Don't See Your Favorite Tech Site Here? Contact Us to Add it Today!

 

(Please!!)
 
Subscribe with Bloglines

Hey Gang! Please sign our guestbook and say hello to the whole RealTech community: independent tech lovers like you. Take a sec to say hello. -- Sign it!

Please help us stay independent. Donate whatever you can today. (Even $1 will make a HUGE difference.)


 


Email the Editors

RealTechNews.com

Google
Search Our Website:
Web RealTechNews.com


Hosted by: Dreamhost
Underground Networks, Inc. Copyright 2005
All Rights Reserved

Place a Text Ad on RealTechNews

 
 
 
Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.