Like alot of computer science people, my interest in the field stemmed from early experiences playing video games. While I enjoy my Xbox and Nintendo DS, I also have a small collection of older consoles and computers that are fun to break out every once in a while. I have a few Atari 2600's, an Atari 7800, an Intellivision, a Sega Genesis and Dreamcast, a Vic-20, and an original Gameboy.

My most prized possession is my first computer, a Commodore 64 that I got for Christmas when I was 12. I keep it at my desk and try to fire it up now and then (although here at CMU it is currently headless). For those of you who own are thinking about owning a C64, here are a few useful tips.

While there are plenty of C64 emulators out there, we all know that the only real way to play C64 games is on the original hardware itself - long load times, arcane command-line directives and all. The Star Commander is a terrific little program for transferring files to and from the Commodore 1541 drive. Note that it is a DOS program, so you either need to install DR-DOS or try it from the Windows shell (cmd.exe). Also, you'll need a cable to connect your drive to the PC or Mac. The Star Commander site has links for buying these cables or building your own (not too hard if you can solder pins).

To get disk images, there are several sources that I used to depend on that have been hindered by copyright threats and thus have fewer images than they used to. One is Lemon64, a generally good resource for C64 enthusiasts. Other places to try include Almighty64, BBC, or the Blast Collection.