Building a Commodore 64 - Part II - (Common parts)

In part II of these posts on building a Commodore 64, I plan to cover what is common to both the Ultimate 64 and BMC64 builds. If you missed Part I go back and have a recap on why I chose to do this.

Authenticity

One of my first goals was to make sure that the builds had the right look and feel of a 1980's C64. To do that right, it would require an original C64 case and a keyboard to match. During it's lifetime the C64 went though a number of revisions and models.

The most notable designs were the original C64 breadbin, the updated C64-C with it's new wedge shape, and the SX-64 portable.

The Case

Fortunately I never liked the look of the original C64 breadbin cases. These cases are no longer available. I much prefer the style of the updated wedge shaped C64C models. The good news here was a company PixelWizard who managed to get a hold of the original molds from 30 years ago and "reanimate" them to produce brand new cases! You can buy them today from Individual Computers.

Additionally you can buy the cases in a range of different colours some inspired by the original models of C64 and some not. The choices are, transparent, retro black, breadbin gray, classic beige, and SX-64 style.

I decided to go with SX-64 style for the Ultimate 64 and Classic Beige for the BMC64.

BMC64 & Ultimate 64

The Keyboard

The bad news here is that, there are no new re-manufactured keyboards. This means you are left with trying to find an old keyboard. eBay is your best friend here, and there is quite a market out there for second hand C64 keyboards. The only new option I could find was a project called The MechBoard64, but this would have been a whole project in itself as they are not mass produced. You would also still need to find original keycaps.

In all of the C64 models releases there were three main style of keyboards.

The original brown with white lettering and PETSCII chars on the front of the keycaps.
Brown with PETSCII chars on the front

The next most common is the white with black lettering and PETSCII chars on the TOP of the keycaps.
White with PETSCII chars on the TOP

The most rare is the white with black lettering and PETSCII on the FRONT of the keycaps.
White with PETSCII chars on the FRONT

I went with the white with PETSCII chars on the FRONT, for the Ultimate 64 and a regular brown keyboard for the BMC64.

Now that you have gotten your hands on a keyboard it is second hand and 30+ years old, so you will have to refurbish it... but that process will be the next post in the series.

All C64 Posts