{
  "id": 15250633,
  "title": "The Commodore 64 hardware simulator: break chips and pins, see the results",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/the-commodore-64-hardware-simulator-break-chips-and-pins-see-the",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-15T07:18:14.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hacker News",
    "slug": "hacker-news",
    "url": "https://github.com/antirez/c64-hw-simulator"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Commodore 64 hardware simulator allows users to break chips and pins on the motherboard and observe the resulting effects. The program, ASSY 250407, simulates the board pin by pin, considering the electrical connections and behavior of each chip. Users can lift legs off chips, short them to ground or +5V, remove chips from their sockets, or open resistors. The simulator then demonstrates how the machine behaves, showing the output on the monitor, keyboard input, and every signal on the board.\n\nFor example, lifting pin 17 (A7) of the color RAM before powering on causes the machine to boot and function normally. The CPU writes to the incorrect address while the VIC reads it, making the affected portion of the color RAM display random colors. Replacing the lifted leg restores the correct display. Similarly, removing the character ROM (U5) also causes the displayed characters to lose their shapes. The simulator runs at reduced speed on powerful computers, such as Apple M3 Max, AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495, and Apple M5 Max, but this is not intended for playing games. The simulator is based on floooh's chip cores and uses parts data from bwack's C64-250407-Replica-KiCad.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}