Going through my ‘stockpile’ of Commodore 64 bits and pieces, I realized that several 3D printed add-ons have found their way into my precious Commodore 64s. I therefore decided to grab the 3D prints that I have, shoot some photos and describe why 3D prints for the Commodore 64 rocks!
The cool thing about 3D printing is that it can be made in small quantities in the creator’s own home using commodity 3D printers or by having printing companies like Shapeways make the 3D objects in pretty much any color or material that you desire. However, the most important thing is that people share their creative 3D skills online in order for others, like myself, to get a copy. In my experince, when it comes to 3D prints for the Commodore 64, most often the 3D prints have been made to fill in some kind of missing piece of hardware or to produce a part that is hard to come by. The three 3D printed pieces that I have all fall into those categories.
C64 Reloaded Power Plate
My most recent 3D printed purchase came from Canada. It is basic a simple plastic plug that fills the gap surrounding the power plug of the newly produced Commodore 64 Reloaded boards from Individual Computers. The original DIN type power plug of the Commodre 64C looks like this:
The new C64 Reloaded motherboards use a modern barrel connector. The problem is that this modern type of connector does not fill the hole of the original Commodore 64C case. This is how the power connectors of the C64 Reloaded look like in my two Kickstarer Cases. As evident from the photos, a lot of space surrounds the power plugs.
A C64 enthusiast therefore decided to do something about it and made a little 3D printed plug available on Ebay. The plugs are called ‘Commodore 64 Reloaded Mainboard Power Plate’ and is sold by a user named my427sc. I bought two of them for my C64 Reloaded precision and C64 Reloaded ZIF boards. The plugs look like this:
The plugs are placed directly on top of the barrel connector and screwed onto the C64 Reloaded boards. The 3D printed plastic pieces fits tightly around the female power connectors. They also have mounting flanges with countersunk screw holes so there is no need to get longer screws to attach them.
And the cases have been closed!
This is one of the best (and simplest) mods for the Commodore 64C and a must-have add-on for the newly produced Kickstarter cases! Commodore 64 innovations at its best!
Casing for the 4 Player Joystick Adapter
Quite a few Commodore 64 games support 4 players playing simultaneously. Individual Computers have a solution that plugs into the user port of the Commodore 64. However, the adapter looks like this when it comes from the German online shop:
It is therefore pretty hard (or impossible!) to find a suitable case. A guy named bubbob42 came up with a solution and uploaded the 3D print files for a case for the 4 player adapter on thingiverse.com. The 3D print files are free to download. As I do not have access to a 3D printer I had a copy printed at Shapeways. All I had to do to assemble the case was two small screws and I had a professional looking product. Nice! This is how the finished case looks like in black:
The details are awesome and a worthy upgrade for a great product.
3D printed Keybard Mounts
I already covered these mounts here but I had to show off some of the other colors that they come in. The story behind the mounts is that the new Kickstarter Cases combined with the release of the new Commodore 64 Reloaded mainboards, created a possible need for new keyboard mounts without having to sacrifice old machines. A guy named Tommes made the mounts available on Shapeways. I have a transparent case that I just had to have some blue mounts installed into. The original C64C mounts are made of metal and are quite ugly, especially when you can see them through a nice transparent case.
In the first batch, the right mount had to be trimmed a little to fit with the C64 Reloaded. The mount has now been modified and no trimming is needed to make it fit. The right mount is revision 3 and the version that needed a little trimming was Revision 2.
And this is how they looked inside the transparent case:
A blue case is holding my second C64 Reloaded board and as I’m apparently going through an orange phase a the moment, I had to get orange mounts:
This wraps up the post on 3D prints for the Commodor 64 for now. I hope that people out there keep sharing their creativity online to keep a steady flow of new gear for the Commodore 64.
© breadbox64.com 2015
Very nice review. Enjoyed reading it!
Thomas
Thanks! 3D prints simply rocks! Especially when it is used to fix something that does not have an easy solution – like the gap surrounding the C64 Reloaded power connector. Gear like that and the other two examples in the post would normally be impossible to get a copy of as they most likely will never be mass-produced. In this context, 3D prints makes it possible to produce very small production batches (or on demand) and use the on-line communities to connect people. The stuff is of course a little more expensive, but retro computing is a hobby so people often tend to be willing to pay a little extra to get it :o)