/log: 100DTO

back to BASICs

2026-06-04 by N. Ron Hubbard

Now I have two 8-bit systems. Both Commodores, one modernized and one original. The former remains boxed up as I start to excavate my studiolab. The latter continues to gather dust, awaiting parts and upgrades, as is tradition. Meanwhile, I've been looking into the wide variety of small computer projects out there, searching for some kind of panacea to soothe my aching disdain for modern computing.

Existing Projects

RC2014 and RCBus both scratch an itch for the aesthetics of bare circuitry and the love of modular design. I like these projects quite a bit and will probably end up pulling the trigger on some kits eventually. In my mind, I have visions of a wedge case with dedicated keyboard, spine of cards protruding upward from one side with a small screen propped up on the other, in homage to the TRS-80 Model 4.
Cerberus 2100 is a really interesting project with multiple 8-bit processor architectures, intended as an educational board for learning about the Z80 and 65C02 processors. It even has a 40-pin expansion slot, which may be a good target for an RCBus backplane that can integrate devices from that ecosystem.
Commannder X16 and its open source cousin, OtterX both take the original C64 hardware philosophy and soup it up a bit, with more RAM and using a mini-ITX form factor with an ATX power supply input. Lovely homage to the Commodore with just the right amount of modern improvements.

Of course, this is my usual gear hunt. More rounds of New Object becoming Object. In reality, I already have a pair of systems that do this kind of stuff that I can tinker with, but I'm currently doing nothing of the sort. The better choice is to hold off on getting more kit for now and eventually pull the trigger when I feel like I've exhausted the novelty of what I already have.

All of these systems run some kind of BASIC under the hood, because most modern languages hadn't been invented quite yet. BASIC is fairly limited in a lot of respects, and most of the very basic programming skills i have are rooted in things like bash scripts, Lua, and python. But there's certainly an elegance to the hardware design of these systems, the spirit of which was rekindled in fantasy consoles like PICO-8 and TIC-80. Those systems use Lua for scripting, which is easy to embed in applications.

Instead, I could...

So I started thinking - what if I made a hardware device that used the same kind of principles as these older systems, but based in a modern language and using off-the-shelf components?

Someone else had the same idea, dubbing the project FicusOS. Using readily available dev boards like the Pi Pico and ESP32, Shane Mason put together an ecosystem in which the original chipsets are emulated by dedicated hardware. There's a similar project in MCUME but that's geared more towards using a single board for an entire system. As previously mentioned, I like modularity, so FicusOS is approaching what I'd like to make.

In the end, I'd want a single board for each of the following:

640x480 (VGA) or 800x600 (SVGA) display controller instead of the VIC-II chip
Full unicode character ROM with emoji and Font Awesome glyphs
An 8-bit or 16-bit CPU module with bootloader
A Lua interpreter instead of the BASIC ROM
A dedicated synth engine instead of the SID or OLP3
An ESP32 handling wireless communication
A dedicated Lora device for connecting to mesh networks

I could probably implement these using the RCBus standard and find a way to integrate them. The tricky part would probably be the Lua interpreter, though there are plenty of projects out there to control a z80 with a higher level language. Another rabbit hole to fall down, I'm sure.

But now that I've braindumped for this here, I'm going to turn back to the many projects left unfinished and try to get some momentum in Actually Finishing A Thing.

5/100 DTO

another day, another gewgaw

2026-05-19 by N. Ron Hubbard

My C64 Ultimate arrived, and as expected, it went from "New Object" to "Object" almost instantly. Did a side-by-side comparison to my existing original C64, and yup, it's the same. Also as expected. I haven't fired it up quite yet, partly because I'm waiting for a rainy day to do a bunch of tech stuff, but mostly because my studiolab is a clutterfuck. Read more…

100DTO for real this time

2026-05-18 by N. Ron Hubbard

Tried 100 Days To Offload a couple years back and failed spectacularly. As is often the case with the "Do X in Y Timeframe" sorts of things, I don't generate enough momentum to actually get it done.

The other day, I was thinking about posting something on fedi, and kept getting in my own way because that's a microblogging environment and I wasn't thinking about a quick quip. I like longform writing a bit more, which isn't conducive to the firehose of particulate matter. I don't write about things in terms of soundbites and virality, and I don't really want to shoehorn that kind of thing into a string of language beads.

But I have a similar problem with writing at all. It's the same problem I have with finishing projects or developing habits - I stop before I gain real momentum. Of course, that's kind of the point with these sorts of challenges - you do them to build that momentum, and next thing you know, it becomes a habit. Hopefully a good one.

So my last couple blurbs about Commodore computers are going to count for the start of a new 100DTO. I have a lot of things I want to be doing more but just haven't gotten going. I have land to work. I have projects to build. And any time that I spend mindlessly stumbling through the Internet of Slop could be far better spent retraining my brain to do the things I really want to be doing.

3/100DTO

but you can have some nostalgia as a treat

2026-05-15 by N. Ron Hubbard

Of course, after writing a thing about the urge to repair the Commodore 64 I already have as opposed to buying the 64 Ultimate, I ended up buying the latter anyways. The trigger came from pricing out parts and upgrades for my existing unit, and once it got more expensive than just buying the C64U, I just pulled the trigger.

This bothers me. I know full well that I'll get the C64U soon, and I'll mess around with it for awhile. Maybe I'll even fall in love with it a little bit and spend lots of time tinkering. Maybe. More likely, I'll experience the immediate loss of novelty once the New Object simply becomes an Object. Read more…

in&out my hovel

2024-11-02 by Enron Hubbard

The past year has been wild. I found my dream house and moved into it. Starting to clear away land to build a growing dome for food production, settling in to the sleepy little town I've found myself choosing as the place to spend the rest of my life. It's quaint and idyllic here, the kind of place that's a close community without being exclusive or unwelcoming. I found my place here, and I'm quite content with it.

Part of this has meant spending a lot of time adjusting to homeownership and less time tinkering with projects on the bench, though the past month or so has presented a gradual shift to the latter. As winter approaches, I find myself subconsciously preparing for days with less sky and more screen. While the earth tucks itself into her deep slumber, I'll be spending my time honing contraptions and creating things that make me smile.

Looking over this site, there are some updates I should probably make. Not so much out of obligation, but more to keep myself occupied and continuing to make the things I want to see in the world. I've abandoned my feelings of guilt over being "not productive" just because I'm not constantly publishing or hitting milestones on the things I do. It occurred to me that I can just do what I want to, when I want to, and tinkering doesn't have to be some kind of surrogate hustle. Read more…