The C64 Direct-to-TV, called C64DTV for short, is a single- chip implementation of the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

computer, contained in a

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Also known as the control column, it is the principal control devic ...

(modeled after the mid-1980s Competition Pro joystick), with 30 built-in

games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

. The design is similar to the

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

Classics 10-in-1 TV Game. The circuitry of the C64DTV was designed by Jeri Ellsworth, a computer chip designer who had previously designed the C-One. Tulip Computers (which had acquired the Commodore brand name in 1997) licensed the rights to Ironstone Partners, which cooperated with DC Studios and Mammoth Toys in the development and marketing of the unit. Released in late 2004,

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network and a flagship shopping channel specializing in televised Shopping channel, home shopping, owned by QVC Group (formerly Qurate Retail Group). Founded in 19 ...

purchased the entire first production run of 250,000 units and sold 70,000 of them on the first day that they were offered.

Versions

There exist multiple versions of the C64DTV. DTV1 (

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

television type) comes with 2 MB

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

. It first appeared in late 2004 for the American/Canadian market. DTV2 (called ''C64D2TV'' sometimes) is a revised version for the European and world markets (

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

television type) and appeared in late 2005. The ROM has been replaced by

flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

in these devices. However, the DTV2/PAL version suffers from a manufacturing fault, which results in poor colour rendering (the resistors in the R-2R ladder DACs for both the chroma and the luma have been transposed). In the DTV3, a problem with the

blitter A blitter is a circuit, sometimes as a coprocessor or a logic block on a microprocessor, dedicated to the rapid movement and modification of data within a computer's memory. A blitter can copy large quantities of data from one memory area to a ...

was fixed.

Hardware specifications

* Core circuitry **

ASIC An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...

running at 32 MHz internally, implementing 6510 CPU,

VIC-II The VIC-II (Video Interface Chip II), specifically known as the MOS Technology 6567/6566/8562/8564 (NTSC versions), 6569/8565/8566 (PAL), is the microchip tasked with generating Y/C video signals (combined to composite video in the RF modulator) ...

, SID,

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

, and PLA * Casing/Connectors ** integrated in a

(as if connected to port 2 of a real C64) ** five additional buttons (acting like keys) ** running from batteries only (four

AA batteries The AA battery (or double-A battery) is a standard size single cell cylindrical dry battery. ANSI and IEC battery nomenclature gives several designations for cells in this size, depending on cell features and chemistry. The IEC 60086 system c ...

) **

Composite video Composite video, also known as CVBS (composite video baseband signal or color, video, blanking and sync), is an analog video format that combines image information—such as brightness (luminance), color (chrominance), and synchronization, int ...

monaural Monaural sound or monophonic sound (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduce so ...

audio (

RCA connector The RCA connector is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry analog audio and video signals. The name refers to the popular name of Radio Corporation of America, which introduced the design in the 1930s. Typically, the output i ...

s) ** looks similar to a ''Competition Pro'' joystick * Graphics **

(DTV2 and later:

on chip, only

wired in end-market devices) ** reprogrammable palette with 4

bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...

s of luma and 4

s of chroma ** DTV2 and later: "chunky" 256 color mode, additional

for fast image transformation * Sound ** no support for SID

filters Filtration is a physical process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture. Filter, filtering, filters or filtration may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming * Fil ...

** DTV2 and later: 8 bit digital sound, additional options for

envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter (message), letter or Greeting card, card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one o ...

generators * Memory ** DTV1: 128 KB

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

, 2 MB

** DTV2 and later: 2 MB

, 2 MB

** DMA engine for RAM/RAM and ROM/RAM transfers ** DTV2 and later: additional RAM access using bank switching and

* CPU ** implementing a 6510 at 1 MHz ** DTV2 and later: Enhanced CPU (fast/burst mode, additional registers and opcodes, support for illegal ops of the 6510)

Built-in games

The official games for the unit are mostly a mix of

Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and video game publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded in 1978 as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, publishing a series of tactical combat games. The Epyx ...

and Hewson C64 games. Games unique to the NTSC or PAL versions are noted below.

Hardware-modding

Since the internal

circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a laminated sandwich structure of conductive and insulating layers, each with a pattern of traces, planes and other features (similar to wires on a flat surface) ...

has exposed

solder Solder (; North American English, NA: ) is a fusible alloy, fusible metal alloy used to create a permanent bond between metal workpieces. Solder is melted in order to wet the parts of the joint, where it adheres to and connects the pieces aft ...

points for floppy-drive and keyboard ports, hardware modifications of the C64DTV are relatively simple. Known hardware mods * Keyboard connector * External joystick (Port 1 and 2) * Floppy connector * Power unit connector * Fixing the palette problems of the PAL version (to some degree this is possible in software by adjusting palette entries) *

S-Video S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video) is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate chann ...

connector * User port * Original C64 casing and PS2 keyboard Additional hardware * Data transfer cable (

Parallel port In computing, a parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers ( personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once (paralle ...

(or USB/serial port via DTV2ser) to Joystick or user port) *

SD card Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including dig ...

interface ''1541-III'' or ''MMC2IEC''

Limitations

The internal flash memory is accessible as device 1. However, software is not included to support write operations so high-score saving is not possible. Also, flash devices used in the DTV are specified for a very limited number of write accesses only. When using the standard keyboard mod, the F7 key does not work. There is a workaround, the "Keyboard Twister."

Software-modding

The DTV contains software-flashable memory. A number of tools have been released to compile programs into DTV-compatible flash images and load it onto the DTV. People made their own game compilations, adding popular (sometimes DTV-fixed) games that were not in the original DTV, added boot menus to make homebrew software development easier or enable new features, for example transfer programs like DTVtrans for transferring data from PC to DTV RAM and vice versa via the PC parallel port (or USB) and the DTV joystick port.

References

External links

* - DTV versions overview, HOWTOs, DTV Programming guide
The Official C64 DTV site
- user manual plus some other information
David Murray's Commodore DTV Hacking

C64DTV stuff by tlr
Flash Tool, ML-Monitor, PC<->DTV transfer system
Mr. Latch-up's C64 DTV & Hummer Advice Column

A page about the history of the device

Details on fixing colour problem on PAL DTVs
- Note that

surface-mount Surface-mount technology (SMT), originally called planar mounting, is a method in which the electrical components are mounted directly onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB). An electrical component mounted in this manner is referred ...

soldering Soldering (; ) is a process of joining two metal surfaces together using a filler metal called solder. The soldering process involves heating the surfaces to be joined and melting the solder, which is then allowed to cool and solidify, creatin ...

skills are required.
DTVtrans, connecting a DTV to a PC via parallel port

DTV2ser, connecting a DTV to a PC/Mac via USB or serial port

Four ways to turn a C64 DTV into a C64 clone

Grokk´s DTV Stuff
DTVBIOS and DTVBASIC - make your DTV code-ready.
dtvhacking.retrosafe.com
* http://dtvhacking.cbm8bit.com/v1/index.html * https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/the-commodore-64-bounces-back-to-life-as-a-direct-to-tv-plug-and-play-joystick
C64 DTV Games Joystick Specs and History
{{Dedicated consoles Dedicated consoles Home computer remakes Handheld TV games Commodore 64