Re: C64 Tower - keyboard ======================== Subject: Re: C64 Tower - keyboard From: mairsil@xs4all.nl.SPAMSUXLIKEHELL (Mairsil) Date: 1998/03/10 pa@gis.shl.com wrote: > Robert Norris wrote: > > > > Good morning. > > > > I was thinking to myself the other day (a scary thing at the best of > > times :), I wonder if we could bring the C64 into the 90's, so to speak, > > by fitting the board and other associated gubbins in a PC tower case. > > > > Now don't get me wrong, I love the 64, but the old brown case gives me > > the shits because, well, it's just not nice. I was thinking that the > > board, drives, power supply, and my ARVI could be mounted inside a PC > > case. > > > > Does anyone have any thoughts on this? It would be a fairly major job, > > and something would have to be worked out with the keyboard, but with a > > bit of time and effort something could probably be worked out. > > > > I intend to have a damn good go at it (using spare parts, not my good 64 > > :) sometime in the next couple of months, but I'd like to hear from > > anyone who's tried something similar. > > I've been tossing this idea around for some time. My big > question is about attaching a PC style keyboard to the C64. > I've seen plans that just attach the keyboard to the cassette > port and uses software to translate the key presses, but that's > not what I want. I want full harware emulation, no software > wedges or anything like that. > > Is there some way to make an independent 'black box' that > would connect a PC keyboard to the 64 this way? In theory > it dosn't strike me as being a big deal, PC scancode in, > C64 'scancode' out. One problem is that the C64 uses a paralel interface (or at least, I assume so from the 20-pin connector), while the (5-pin) pc keyboard uses a serial signal. This means you'll have to build some digital hardware in your blackbox. Not that easy, I'm afraid. Mairsil ---