Full-size Amiga A1200 retro gaming system comes armed with modern HDMI port, 25 classic games
Modders recreate the original Xbox prototype with solid block of metal and original hardware
On the topic of the screen, a 10-inch 4:3 screen was selected for this project. It sat central with era-appropriate massive bezels. After mounting the screen and its PCB, a small mod was needed to wire brightness to a wheel on the side of the laptop. An audio volume wheel was positioned there, too. Ever the perfectionist, Noki decided to tamper with the screen firmware to banish on-screen messages regarding input sources and other features.
The final assembly steps were now ready to complete, with sprung latches added to the laptop lid. Torque hinges were used for easy, smooth, laptop screen angle adjustments. And now, the keyboard and screen were attached to the system PCB and all the panels screwed or snapped into place.
The finished prototype as shown in the video takes 11 seconds to boot to the Commodore 64 BASIC screen. Our intrepid tech adventurer found the system satisfying to use. He could load original software from the 1541 floppy, and an original ‘Pac-Man’ game of unknown provenance still worked. Even the Datasette test worked nicely, but slowly, of course.
The legendary Competition Pro 9-pin joysticks worked as intended. A Python program running in the background converted joystick input, wired to the Pi 5’s GPIO, to the appropriate key presses.
If you were to take the Portable 64 on the road, you’d probably eschew original media, though. For truly portable C64 fun, an SD card packed with games and apps was Noki’s preferred choice. Apparently, this prototype weighed about 4kg, or about 8 pounds. We didn’t hear anything about untethered battery life.
Previous notable projects by Kevin Noki include a 1980s beige Apple iPad.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/this-scratch-built-period-correct-design-portable-commodore-64-is-a-love-letter-to-an-alternate-commodore-history-nokis-cleverly-designed-homage-to-the-era-merges-commodore-apple-and-raspberry-pi#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.