In the last couple of years I have enjoyed building a couple of "modern" compatibles of the MSX (Sergey's Omega project), an Apple 2 org 0 reproduction, and the Sinclair Spectrum (Harlequin 128K project), and that left me wondering . . Would it be possible to recreate the C64 and/or VIC-20 in this fashion. Could one create a new PCB that is close to 100% compatible using only readily available parts with as few as possible custom ICs?
I am very sure that a Vic-20 compatible could be created with modern sram and eproms, a WDC 65c02, etc . . . only needing a single 6560 vic chip (and perhaps that could be replaced with TTL logic like the harlequin 128). I am also fairly sure that a 64 could be recreated needing only a VIC 2 and SID, using logic (GALs/CPLDs/TTL perhaps?) to allow the use of a 65c02 rather than the 6510, and perhaps finding a way to substitute 6522s for the harder to find 6526s with support logic filling in the gaps. I would prefer to avoid FPGAs in this as it is kinda cheating, and has already been done about eleventy million times
I have not done any detailed work on this yet, right now it is just a passing thought, and will likely stay that way until I get my Apple 2 WiFi card done, but I thought I would put the idea out there to see if any one else had thought of this (or better yet attempted it)
Dan W.
