Trend: Commodore 64 music - all your eardrum are belong to us

I don't make a secret of my love for the Commodore 64. It was the iMac of its time - small, inexpensive, simple enough to use right out of the box, more powerful than most of its competitors, with an impressive library of games that still frustrate me to this day. (Damn you, Miner 2049er!)

Part of the secret to the Commodore's success was the SID, or Sound Interface Device. One of the first integrated sound chips on any home computer, the SID was a capable digital sound synthesizer built into a tiny chip, enabling programmers to include music soundtracks and sound effects miles beyond anything else available in 1985. The SID's distinctive, crunchy sound arguably did more to influence video game music than perhaps any other single piece of hardware. In fact, it's so coveted that a music synthesizer based on the SID, known as the SIDStation, was sold in the late 2000s by Swedish firm, Elektron:

The sad news is that the SID hasn't been made since 1987, and though its patent expired in 2007, no new SID chips are being made. Therefore, the only way to get your hands on a SID chip nowadays is to rip one out of a broken Commodore 64 - which is exactly what the creator of the MIDIBox SID did:

The MIDIBox SID is one of the more elaborate Commodore 64 hacks I've seen. (Still not as elaborate as the Commodore 64 Laptop, but close.) The body was created from a broken C64 body, with the MIDI and Serial ports on the side of the machine, and the keyboard replaced by a sophisticated adonized-steel front panel with 15 knobs and a small screen for data input. Its sound is hard to adequately capture with words, but let's just say it'll simultaneously remind you of a late-night rave in early-90s Detroit and a game of Montezuma's Revenge.

The MIDIBox SID is unfortunately not commercially available, but the plans are downloadable if you're savvy with a breadboard. They do, however, show up on eBay and other auction sites from time to time, but be prepared to burn a $1,000-sized hole in your wallet. I'd rather buy a used Commodore 64 and a program like MSSIAH or Cynthcart for a fifth of the price. Still a nifty piece of hardware hackery, though.

Homebrew Handhelds (or, Hillbilly Industrial Design)

You don't see this every day. Sure, anyone can write a boring ol' NES game in a few weeks. But to whip up a console right there in your bedroom? That takes way more skill and patience than I will ever have.

To be fair, this article isn't about creating an entirely new video game system from scratch; that is more power than we mere mortals have. But it is possible (not easy, but possible) to hack apart your old Atari, Nintendo, or Sega machine, slap it together with an LCD screen and a few buttons, and create a portable version of your favorite childhood timewaster. Success! You'll never be productive again!

I've always thought it'd be a smart investment for Nintendo or Sony to create an officially licensed version of one of these. It's happened before; Sega released the Nomad, a portable verson of the Sega Genesis, in 1995, but it was a commercial failure due to its blurry screen and pitfully short battery life. Thankfully, modern technology (better screens, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries) enable you to enjoy classic games the way they were intended to be played: on a bus, plane, subway, jury duty, prison cell, or wherever else boredom strikes.

The most famous, and by far most productive, console hacker is Benjamin Heckendorn, an amateur industrial designer whose creations look like they come from an alternate world where the 80s happened in the future. Since 2000, he's created dozens of sideshow-like weird portable consoles, like portable versions of the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Neo Geo, and Dreamcast. But that's all child's play when compared to my personal favorite: the Commodore 64 laptop...

Can you imagine what would happen if I tried to pull this out in class? The techno-geeks would swarm me like a pack of wild dogs! I'd finally be able to get a date! Score one for the sexy beige plastic of 80s computers...

Compare the Commodore 64 laptop to the actual portable Commodore 64 that was manufactured in 1982, and you'll see just how much of an upgrade it is:

Any cheap Chinese bootleg electronics manufacturers (I know they're out there), take note - there's a market out there for laptop updates of outdated computers. Stop making those worthless iPads and get crackin' on one of these!

Of course, if you aren't a Chinese bootleg electronics manufacturer, or if you don't have a degree in electrical engineering from MIT, making your own portable homebrew console is... hard. Luckily, Ben has written a fantastic book to walk you through making one of these machines, called Hacking Videogame Consoles. Pick it up at Amazon and crack out that TurboGrafX16 from your closet!