Commodore 65 - Laptop Design - 65-LT

I was approached by a company back in 2010 to help develop a portable computer in the spirit of the Commodore 65. While I wish the experience had been more positive, I ultimately left the team and took my design with me. Now, over 10 years later, I finally have the 3D modelling skills to more fully flush out some of my old designs. The 65-LT is a love letter to the Commodore 64C design era.

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As this is a design from over 10 years ago some of the modern port standards are a little out of date.

I always loved my Commodore 64C. I grew up with the breadbin like most kids, but I liked the refresh even if it wasn’t much of a value proposition. Ultimately for me, it was a last hurrah for the mighty machine. The design sensibilities also lent themselves to a cool laptop aesthetic.

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Keyboard is the hybrid of all the Commodore keyboards of the era and beyond.

I looked at all the keyboards Commodore developed from the C64-C era onward, including the PC laptops Commodore released. I feel the layout represents the best balance between legacy and function.

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Right side ports.

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Left side ports.

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65-LT - Case closed.

I would love to continue to develop this one. Nowadays it would be pretty easy to create an authentic yet modern C64/65 experience with a Raspberry Pi or a MiSTer board. Plastic injection molds are not exactly cheap but it sure would be cool to have a modern and fully portable machine dedicated to the experience.

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Gaming in the home office.

Would you be interested in one of these machines? If there is anyone out there in a position to discuss further development on this machine I am interested in hearing from you. In any case, I am very excited that I was finally able to show of the design in full. Please let me know what you think in the comments below!

Commodore PET Keyboard Design

I mentioned in a previous post, that my high school Computer Science teacher lugged his old PET machine to out school back in 1992 and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It’s easy to forget that without the ubiquity of the internet, the world was full of secret wonders. Even though I have grown up with a Commodore 64, I had never laid eyes on the psychedelic wonder that was the PET.

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Emulating the worst of all worlds.

I always loved the colours of the PETs original chicklet keyboard and thought it would be interesting to recreate the typing experience for a modern audience. I made a 2D design back in 2012 but have only recently gained the 3D chops to be able to render out the idea more fully. I posted these to a PET Facebook group a while back and two factions quickly rose up. One faction telling me this must be made, the other telling me this must NOT be made. In any case, I get the impression that a nice 3D render is good at eliciting an emotional response.

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Probably best as a render.

Now that I have a basic grasp of 3D, I am looking forward to transforming some of my old 2D designs into the 3D space. While I mostly view this keyboard as a joke, part of me wishes it could be real. Imagine firing up VICE and reliving that finger strain or putting a Pi Zero in the case and using it as a stand-alone computer. Let me know what you think. Would you rock one of these?

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Original 2012 2D design

Amiga Cartoon Classics Papercraft

If you are at all familiar with the retro scene chances are fairly good you’ve come across Retro Fusion Books. Many of you will be familiar with Chris Wilkin’s popular “In Pixels” series of books (I have a few). Robert Łapiński at Pixel is heading a Kickstarter-like project for a Polish translation of the popular book, The Story of The Commodore Amiga in Pixels. This model was requested as a stretch goal reward and as a result this model is currently not available as a free download on my site. **To receive a copy of this design you will need to take part in the Polish campaign.

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Amiga Cartoon Classics was exclusive to Europe.

OMG so much text and imagery to recreate. Slow and steady… I am pretty happy with how this turned out.

I currently work as a package designer so naturally I am as interested in the actual packaging of retro systems as I am in the industrial form factors. In the case of Cartoon Classics, it is much more colourful than any other papercraft else I have ever created.

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New to this model is the addition of the A520 composite adapter and the power brick.

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The packed is photographed with the enhanced Amiga 500 as it was sometimes included in the UK bundle.

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Everything fits in the box!

This model also contains all the interior packaging to hold all the contents of the bundle. Once your are done playing with your tiny retro computer everything can be tucked away neatly in this tiny box.

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The ultra mega-hit that took the Amiga community by storm, Captain Planet.

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I rented Bart vs. the Space Mutants for the NES when I was a kid.

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Here are the tiny game boxes.

The inclusion of these little boxes and diskettes helps to complete the illusion a tiny computer on your desk.

Special Polish add-ons are included in the papercraft which include a mini Historia Amigi Pixel Po Pixelu and other Pixel publications.

To help round out the project, I have included a number of Polish exclusive materials including the forthcoming “Historia Amigi Pixel Po Piexlu” and a few Pixel publications.
Robert at Pixel suggested that I include a couple of Polish developed games, namely Franko and Teenagent. I was not familiar with either but I am glad I got to know them. Franko especially appeals to my high school sense of humor. I plan on trying this game out for myself.

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Two Polish developed games were special-requested and I am so glad they were suggested. They both appear to be excellent games “in their own unique way”.

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Franko needs a 2021 HD remaster if any ever has.

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I watched a great deal of playthru footage of this one too.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my latest papercraft and if you are one of my Polish-speaking fans, I would strongly consider you check out the Amiga book campaign. The Chris Wilkins books at Retro Fusion Books are excellent and there are loads of stretch bonuses that have already been achieved so you can expect a pretty handsome package if you order!

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Special thanks to Robert at Pixel, Chris at Retro Fusion Books, and everyone involved in this project.

Commodore PET/CBM 2001 - Papercraft Design

The link to the PET papercraft can be found at the end of this post.

The Commodore PET has consistently been one of the most requested models but I have held off on making one as there already was a pretty great one on the internet. About a half year or so ago, I noticed the link to that model had broken and I took that as a sign to make my own.

I grew up with a Commodore 64 and I had seen a few VIC-20s but when my Computer Science teacher brought in his Commodore PET, released in 1977, I went bananas for the thing. The styling of this machine was so striking, even in its day, there weren’t many computers that could rival the presence of this machine. The first thing that struck me was the size of this beast, a footprint rivaling the PC XTs we were using at the time, and topped with the funkiest blue trapezoid you’ve every laid eyes upon. Following that, my eyes were drawn to that amazing/awful calculator keyboard. I am typing on a Apple chicklet-style keyboard today, but it doesn’t begin to reflect the sponge and springs experience that was the PET. The fact that all the keys were in a perfect grid pretty much made touch typing impossible. The keys on my teacher’s computer had received a generous coating of clear nail polish. He told us that this helped to keep the printing on the keys from rubbing off. I only used it for about a minute but if this isn’t the worst keyboard in the history of computers, I’d be curious what could be worse.

Commodore’s Floppy Drives were almost as large as the actual PET.

Our teacher had also brought in a disk drive and also brought in a few 8” floppy disks for us gaze at in disbelief. All in, my time with the PET measures in mere minutes, but the impression can still be seen today. I don’t know if I would ever have developed an appreciation for vintage computers had it not been for my time with that computer. I wonder if I would have ever made a single paper model if I had not been in that class thirty some years ago.

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The PET ecosystem is quite large, so there are plenty of accessories included in this design.

Once again, I need to give an extra special warm shout out to my good buddy George, who selflessly took time out of his life to help me test fit, assemble and photograph all the completed models in today’s post. He’s a testament to how clean my models can look. :)

Also, as I continued to research the design of the PET, I came to realize that when including the CBM line there are at least a dozen slight variations on this machine, with different badging, cassette players, colours, etc. While only two PET designs are shown in these photos, there are a total of four variations included in this pattern, including a CBM machine with a full-sized keyboard.

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The PET 2001 front

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The PET 2001 back

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Even though this was the early days at Commodore, I can see how this setup will have inspired many pioneers in the industry with it’s 2001 good looks and Pet Rock charms. The number of games that were produced for a machine with such a limited display is also impressive. I have also included a series of swappable screen plates so that you can have your model play all of your favorite games.

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All lined up!

Please tell me about your experiences with the PET by commenting below. What other systems should I turn into a papercraft? Please leave a like if you like.

See all of my retro computer models here.

Thank you to my Computer Science teacher and George for inspiring and helping brings these surreal tiny experiences to life. The link to the Commodore PET/CBM 2001 can be found here.

Commodore VIC-20 - Papercraft Design

This Commodore VIC-20 pattern can be downloaded at the bottom of this post.

I wanted to send out a tremendous thank you to all the new followers and visitors to the site. I know many people might be looking for: 1. unique things to do 2. at home 3. on a limited budget 4. using available supplies. I feel these models are a great way to spend an evening and learn a thing or two about retro computers. Possibly even build your own retro museum. I try to stay as close to the source materials as I can using images that I usually source from the internet.

Due to the current global health crisis, I am working from home and don’t have access to the tools I use to test build and photograph these models. An extra special thanks to the always amazing George Blanc for doing a test assembly and providing me with the excellent photos for this post. If you are ever looking for a great product photographer (or paper folder), he is one of the best.

I created a Commodore 64 papercraft model as one of my first models and based this VIC-20 model off of that design so all the accessories shown should work with the C64 design as well.

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The accessories with this model are size compatible with my earlier C64 design.

When my girlfriend told me she used to have a VIC-20 I did an image search for the different breadbins and asked her which one she had. There were at least three possible candidates but she was probably 10 when she last saw the computer so I decided to make all three (George folded and glued them all - you rule). Apologies to my German fans, I have not made the VC-20.. yet.

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Three variations of the Commodore VIC-20 breadbin to suit your personal nostalgia.

Designing early 8-bit home computers can be an interesting experience. Many of today’s standard components like monitors were considered nice-to-have’s in the early 80s. A branded monitor wasn’t marketed to consumers at first so I did my best to replicate the television shown on many of the VIC-20 boxes that graced store shelves. Anyone care to guess what the specific brand/model of television in being used?

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Commodore VIC-20 side view.

It’s always a challenge to say when enough is enough as far as the level of detail is concerned. I love doing little accessories like disks, cassettes and in the case of this VIC, some cartridges. The cartridge bay on the back of the pattern is not by default able to accept these cartridges. I try to consider the scale of the models and a general audience when making these designs and I think even George may have balked at the idea of making three keyboards with working cartridge slots. That being said, plenty of people have taken my patterns and pushed them further by making all sorts of working drive bays and ports. It is possible to adapt my designs with some extra imagination. If I had more time, I would release variations of each of these patterns to cater to different skill-levels. As you can see, the papercraft collection keeps growing so given enough time, I feel anything is possible!

Commodore VIC-20 rear with 16K RAM Expander cartridge.

Hopefully I can get my girlfriend a real VIC-20 someday soon but in the meantime I hope she will accept my (erm, and Geroge’s) gift of the papercraft VIC.

Thanks again to the community for your many suggestions of computers to do next. I have assembled a list of the “Top 5 most-requested computers” and was surprised and excited by what I saw. Do you want to know what the next five designs are going to be? Let me know in the comments below. I am willing to share but can keep it a surprise if that’s what you’d prefer. ;)

You can download the Commodore VIC-20 papercraft model here.

Amiga 500 - NEW ART - Papercraft Design

The Amiga 500 NEW ART designs can be downloaded at the bottom of this post.

Thank you Germany for being such steadfast fans of the site! As a way of giving back to the community I have reproduced some very limited designs for the German market. This edition was designed in 1989 by a well-know television and radio presenter, Stefanie Tücking.

Readers with exceptional vision may have noticed that I have also adjusted the keyboard to the German layout. For those of you who prefer your German Amigas unadorned, I have also included a plain Jane Amiga 500 with this adjusted keyboard configuration in the pattern link below.

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Grid Design

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Leopard Print

My ultimate dream is to visit Germany and show my papercrafts at a (few) retro computing event. I always tell my girlfriend that’s when I will have made the “big time”. I live in Canada but my heart is in Germany. I would love to immerse myself in the German culture if only for a while.

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Detail of the Grid design, please observe the German keyboard layout.

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Detail of the Leopard Print design. I can’t decide which crazy design I like more!

Limited editions were certainly less prevalent in 90s which made them extra special. Nowadays, limited editions are released every week which seems less special to me.

If you like these papercrafts please consider leaving a like. I find the hearts very encouraging. Also consider following @rockasoo on both Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with my papercraft projects.

You can download the Amiga 500 NEW ART papercraft here.
You can download the Amiga monitor and additional accessories here.

Commodore 64 Papercraft V3

This is the third update of my Commodore 64 papercraft series. This project consists of everything you will need to recreate the iconic image pictured above:

• Commodore 64 Computer - Update, original light-coloured function keys

• Commodore 1541 Hard Drive - Update, "active" power light

• Commodore MPS 801 Printer - New!

• Commodore VIC Modem - New!

• "Net Sales" Screenplate - New!

Download Link

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Commodore MPS 801 Printer - Front

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Continuous feed paper with MPS print test

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Commodore MPS 801 Printer - Rear

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VIC Modem, a mystery to me as a kid

I am enjoying this series. I have received a lot of words of encouragement as well as some great feedback.

Stay tuned for more cool stuff!

Commodore 1541 Disk Drive Papercraft

I was about 10 when I first saw Hover Bovver on my friend's C-64. He had a disk drive and fists fulls of games. I had a 64 for a while at that point but had been limited by the few cartridge games I could find in my small town and a very slow Datasette.

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The iconic 1541 drive I pined for as a kid.

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This drive would make my C64 a killer games machine.

I begged my mom for a disk drive for years before finally getting one towards the end of the Commodore's run. I bought a shiny new 1541-C (don't worry, the papercraft is a period correct 1541). Even though the scene in town had dwindled to about three kids, I quickly "amassed" hundreds of games. I was often more interested in the "cracktos" featured at the beginning of the games than the games themselves.

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Now I can shout out Hokuto Force!

This papercraft is dedicated to the times I spent experiencing exotic greetings from overseas in a time before the internet made such worldwide shout-outs commonplace.

The download is here. The papercraft model includes:

• New Commodore 1541 disk drive

• Two 5.25" floppy diskettes

• Swappable screen faceplates

• Improved Commodore 64 pattern

• Updated Commodore 1701 monitor pattern

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A couple of 5.25" floppy diskettes with a few games I owned back in the day.

Thanks so much for all the recent attention. I am glad these projects are providing enjoyment for others as well. Anticipate more updates in this Commodore papercraft series on this site. There are a LOT of accessories and I am also very nostalgic for these times.

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Now you can represent your favorite Demoscene with four interchangeable faceplates.

C64 Paper Craft Mini Monitor

Download the paper craft Monitor template v1 here.

A paper craft version of the Commodore 64 computer is already underway as part of a "Draw Your Favorite Computer" contest being put on by RetroManCave celebrating 30,000 subscribers. A link to the paper craft computer will be available by next weekend.

There are 10 screen variations of the paper craft monitor template to choose from in the download (PDF).

While I never personally had one of the 1701 monitors myself, a number of my C64 friends back in the day did and they were great!

Dicky's Diamonds - Arduboy Mockup

Start Screen

Option Menu

Making Arduboy mockups of classic Commodore games is great way to spend an evening. Dicky's Diamonds was a game published in 1983 by B. O'Shaugnessy for the Commodore 64. The game scales down handsomely to the Arduboy's scale and 1-bittyness.

My Home Circa 1990

I grew up with a Commodore. One of my favorite things to do was draw pictures of my house using the PETSCII characters on the keyboard. Back in the day there was no way to easily save this drawings so the image above is a modern take using the very cool PLAYSCII editor.

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 31 - FINAL

It was a lot of had work but I have finally completed the Retro Challenger for 2016. It was a fun experience as always. Perhaps one day I will team up with a programmer and Super Mario will find another home on the Commodore.

But that'll be for another Challenge. Thanks a million for all the support!

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 29

Thought I was finished? So did I, well almost. The SMB3 experience would not be complete without the Battle Game which is a shout out to the original Mario Bros. game.

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 27

I felt Canadian's in the 80's were quick to abandon old computer tech in favour of game consoles and eventually PCs. I was playing with my Commodore 64 for years after it had fallen out of favor. The 16-bit computer era practically passed us by. There is a lot of beauty wrapped up in limitation so I believe I will continue to appreciate what 8-bit and 16-bit system do.

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 25

I remember playing Super Mario Bros 3 for the first time. I rented it from out Canadian Tire (CT rented out games in our small town). I remember it like it was yesterday. My younger sister and I sat in front of our television and were transfixed as we played through the whole experience. I always had similar times with the Commodore so it only seems fitting to pay tribute to two of my favourite systems.

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 23

Mario reaches the final bonus stage before reaching the castle.

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 21

The leaf is green on the map screen and in the Mushroom Houses but red in the game. I wonder why this is?

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 19

The NES uses 2x2 tiles (16x16px) to define its world whereas my Commodore version uses 3x2 tiles (12x16px). This can make certain objects, like the rotating hammer especially challenging and interesting to translate.

Retro Challenge 2016/10 - Day 17

Mario takes a break from stomping Goombas to play a card game with Toad.