Make your own JavaScript Home PC (C64-style!)

New tutorial: http://www.espruino.com/Espruino+Home+Computer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d3uGQUm7tM

I'm pretty pleased with how this came out. Cheap, easy, and I think it shows off what Espruino is actually capable of now.

...nice homage/rebirth to/of Sinclair ZX 80, 81, Spectrum series of affordable home/personal computers - among peers, such as Commodore PET 40 and Apple II...

...noticeable: the breadboard friendly PICO version used in this project: @Gordon's centipede crawler! ...just brilliant!

PS: will this be the versions on sale? pico pinned, unpinned, and crawling ;-)

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Thanks! Yes, ZX80 - complete with horrible keyboard!

For the crawler, I got the idea from the add-on you'd made - this one just requires a few less parts :)

That's cool!
I'm a lowlevelstuff noob, so probably this is a dumb question.. but, would it be possible to compile espruino for the actual Commodore 64?
I've seen there are a couple of (old ) C compilers and tools for the C64/C128 and also a complete cross development package for the 65(C)02 systems (cc65)

Yes, I think you probably could.

The C64 itself wouldn't have enough memory (at least according to Wikipedia), but it seems like you could put Espruino on a ROM cartridge (I guess that's how you'd develop normally anyway).

Or if you just wanted the feel of it, you could connect something like an Espruino Pico up to the serial port on the back (I think you'd need an adaptor), and write a terminal application in C64 basic.

Thanks!
Sounds like a fun project, I probably need some more fiddling around before being able to do this though :-P

Just quickly googled this, and it looks like the C64 has RS232 on the user port, but probably at 5v levels. There's a page here with info on how to wire the level shifter.

But it looks like you could wire a Pico directly to a user port connector if you wanted - no level shifting needed :)