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A Twitter Client For the Commodore 64

Posted by kdawson on from the welcome-aboard-commodore dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Johan Van den Brande has developed a Twitter client for the Commodore 64, allowing 140-character messages to be posted directly from this TV-connected 1982 home computer. This YouTube video shows how the Twitter client is — slowly! — loaded from a 5.25" floppy disk, how the latest Twitter messages are downloaded and shown on the TV screen, and how this tweet is posted. All that is needed is a C64, a TV, and a C64 Ethernet card. The Twitter client is implemented with the Contiki operating system, which otherwise is used for connecting tiny embedded systems to the Internet."

8 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Software really has yet to catch up to hardware by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Friend at Intel corp said once - that software we are running will be really impressive once they catch up to the hardware. I think the Commodore 64 really goes to show what can be done on a really minimal environment.

    1. Re:Software really has yet to catch up to hardware by peppepz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True, but... if we can reach such achievements on a C64, it’s also because we can use nice development tools, running on much beefier machines, programmed using cycles-eating high level languages, with the comforts of a contemporary operating system. I don’t think Contiki was programmed on a C64 monitor cartridge, in 6510 assembly.

    2. Re:Software really has yet to catch up to hardware by houghi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wrong, you decide to give it to Bill. I decide to give it to Linus and he asks for a lot less.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    3. Re:Software really has yet to catch up to hardware by Jurily · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I decide to give it to Linus and he asks for a lot less.

      Care to count how many layers of abstraction there are between a typical GUI application and the bare metal on a modern *nix?

  2. Twitter isn't exactly an intensive application by rugger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The hardest parts of doing this will be the TCP/IP stack and drivers to connect to the internet.

    The messages are not long/require lots of screen realestate or memory.

    It certainly scores *cool* points for making exceptionally OLD hardware do very new things, but it doesn't score points for difficulty or complexity.

    But if someone finds it useful, then it wasn't a waste of time.

  3. Before anyone asks... by GF678 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Before anyone asks why someone bothered to do this, I'll answer it - because they can. Simple as that.

    It has no practical use, that's for sure, but not everyone needs to be done to have a practical use. Some stuff is just cool. That's why we have these things called hobbies. I certainly wouldn't have invested my time into getting something like this to work, but I can't disparage anyone who does. It's a hobby. I would even argue that it does not reflect one way or another on a person's ability to get laid. :)

  4. Re:FW by jonbryce · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How can anything to do with Twitter be cool?

  5. Re:FW by harry666t · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is this a new fucking meme? Are all these guys asking "why" kidding or what? It's been a hacker/geek tradition since the very first days after the world has been created to pull off amazingly weird hacks just for the sake of the fun involved. What's wrong with /., god damn!