WANT. NOW.

[Thenasty]

I hack one of the keyboards back in 92-95 to connect to regular arcade pushbuttons. I just trace the wire (using ohm-meter,continuity) and it work good.
I was thinking just now, maybe you could trace ALL the keys from the C64 and hook it up to a IPAC or Keywiz (then program it) and plug it into the USB that would be inside the case.  

I think that would work.  

Anyone willing test it ?

Just do the keyboard part before buying the mATX, DVD etc...parts.

[BobA]

The C64 and other Commodore units used a matrix for their keyboard as linked below.   Someone has already done work to make it into a USB keyboard also linked below.



Keyboard Info

C64 USB Keyboard

[Bootay]

Dear god could someone please link me to some of these awesome Commodore 64 games that are making you people so nostalgic because I just don’t get it.

It wasn't just the games, my young friend.

I can STILL remember how it smelled when I cracked open the boxes straight home from K-mart! I dont think anything could ever top that level of excitement and anticipation I felt that day. I remember it cost $400, and I can still see the cringing of my dads face as he laid out the cash for it I ran a punter BBS on it called The Pleasuredome...1200 baud goodness, I had my own phone line in my bedroom just for it. I used to have bushy bearded dudes driving over to my parents house in IL from Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc and we would set up 5 or 6 machines, with stacked up 1541's and have massive copy/trading sessions...Fred Fish disks, Telengard, Temple of Apshai, Fast load cartridges, writing my first term papers using the Paperclip word processor, the memories are truly endless.

Who remembers user group meetings!!! Demon dialer? Taking over the phone lines in Canada and setting up party lines with 100 or so geeks/hackers! We were 12 year old kids for gods sakes!!!

Then once I got a hold of Sprint telephone codes, I began trading with people in Belgium, England, France... That machine opened up the whole world for me... I used to shudder in fear if a truck from the telephone company came down our street! Ultimately one of my buddies did get busted for sharing phone codes. He had to do 400 hours of community service! (He also went on to develop the I-sight camera for Apple in the early 2000's).  Eventually I got the Amiga 500 and I've never really been the same since. Now I'm a database developer/web programmer. That single computer cast the die for the course of my life. Amazing. I do adore my Commodore 64. And my dad thought it was all 'just a phase' 

Vanilla: You and I came from the same background. I also ran a BBS in my bedroom with a stack of 1541s and 1581s, and traded phreak codes. LOL
I also had a friend that was busted trading phreak codes and did some time in the youth home. It was a very exciting time. I had friends that were members of FBR, Fairlight, and Eagle Soft Inc. and a lot of the friends that I have now I met on the BBS's back in the day. One of them is now a developer at Mozilla. I have very fond memories of the times I had with my C64. My Amiga days were almost as equally exciting.

[RayB]

Mags: Compute, Compute's Gazette, Ahoy, Computer Fun

Bootay and Vannilla: Are you guys from the Montreal area? Your stories echo similar experience with some guys I knew in Montreal.

[Bootay]

I am in Michigan

[VanillaGorilla]

IL chicago suburbs here...we should all get together and shoot a documentary  .. speaking of, have either of you guys seen "BBS: A Documentary"? Really worth a watch.

www.bbsdocumentary.com

[Bootay]

Been meaning to check it out. But haven't yet.

I will jump on that.