25c3: The Ultimate Commodore 64 Talk
Christiaan0083 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2011–2025
talk · intermediate · evergreen · 2011–2025 on HN
Michael Steil's 25C3 talk covers the Commodore 64's architecture, quirks and demoscene tricks in about an hour. It aims to convey everything about the machine in a compact, nostalgic tour.
HN people treat it as the canonical C64 talk and rewatch Steil's 'Ultimate' series regularly.
Up next
10 mo on HNThe Ultimate Game Boy Talk (33c3)
media.ccc.de
10 HN recommender · 2017–2026
2 mo on HNWhy Sony's Beta Videotape System Failed--and failed hard (Part 1)
Technology Connections
2 HN recommender · 2022–2026
7 mo on HNNaN Gates and Flip FLOPS
suckerpinch
7 HN recommender · 2020–2025
12 mo on HNReverse emulating the NES to give it SUPER POWERS!
suckerpinch
12 HN recommender · 2018–2025
3 mo on HN8088 MPH by Hornet + CRTC + DESiRE
Jim Leonard
3 HN recommender · 2017–2024
4 mo on HNBytebeat: Experimental music from very short C programs
Ville-Matias Heikkilä (viznut)
4 HN recommender · 2014–2023
7 mo on HN34C3 - The Ultimate Apollo Guidance Computer Talk
media.ccc.de
9 HN recommender · 2018–2025
2 mo on HNRobotic Liberation by PWP (VIC-20)
Ville-Matias Heikkilä (viznut)
2 HN recommender · 2010–2015
10 mo on HNelevated by Rgba & TBC | 4k intro (FullHD 1080p demoscene demo)
Demoscene High-Quality Videos (Annikras)
7 HN recommender · 2013–2025
9 mo on HNA Mind Is Born (256 bytes)
lftkryo
8 HN recommender · 2017–2025
10 mo on HNCppCon 2016: Jason Turner “Rich Code for Tiny Computers: A Simple Commodore 64 Game in C++17”
CppCon
13 HN recommender · 2016–2024
7 mo on HNCompiling C to printable x86, to make an executable research paper
suckerpinch
8 HN recommender · 2018–2023
3 comments from Hacker News
Michael’s blog is one of my favorites. His “Ultimate Guide” talks are great and I rewatch them at least once a year. Ultimate Guide to the C64: ▶ this video Ultimate Guide to the Game Boy: link Ultimate Guide to the Apollo Guidance Computer: link
Not exactly what you're asking for, but ▶ this video while being 480p and rather noisy, was very sufficient for me to watch and enjoy the talk back in the day. The presented material does not suffer much on the relatively low resolution.
> Back in the 80s, the Commodore C-64 had an intelligent floppy drive, the 1541, i.e. an external unit that had its own CPU and everything. I remember by the time I got a floppy drive for my C64 it was twice the price of a new C64, $400 vs $200. It was a real luxury item in those days. Obligatory link to Michael Steil's The Ultimate Commodore 64 Talk: ▶ this video