can the internet be accessed with a commodore 64?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. But keep in mind that you'll be having a 1995 web experience on a 1983 machine...

The easy route is to connect to a UNIX shell account using a modem or by hooking up to UNIX machine directly through a null modem cable. But, there are very few ISPs around that still offer this kind of connection -- a list can be found at The Shell Game @ http://www.armory.com/%7Espectre/shell/

For hooking up a modem, you have a few options. You can use one that plugs right into the user port, or use a serial modem with a user port RS-232 interface. These options max out at about 19,200 on a stock C64. You can also get an interface that plugs into the expansion port and uses a 16550 UART or 6551 ACIA, such as the Turbo232.

If you have a modem, you can surf the web using HyperLink to surf the web. It requires a UNIX-based proxy to convert HTML to HyperLink's proprietary markup language. Info on HyperLink can be found at http://www.armory.com/~spectre/cwi/hl/

You can buy an ethernet adapter called the RR-net which works with the Contiki operating system. Contiki comes with a suite of network programs including a simple web browser, IRC client, and I think there's even a VNC client. More info on Contiki can be found at http://www.sics.se/contiki/about-contiki.html

There's also a hack to convert a Palm III ethernet cradle into a cheap Ethernet interface. But, the functionality is very limited. Information @ http://members.shaw.ca/cue64/palmcradle.html

LUnixNG is a project to create a UNIX-like operating system that runs on a stock C64. It supports TCP/IP over SLIP or PPP. Info on LUnixNG can be found at http://lng.sourceforge.net/

There's an expansion called the SuperCPU that accelerates the C64 with a 20MHz 65816 CPU and up to 16MB of RAM. This allows a few more options for connecting. The Wheels operating system is a "modern" update to the old GEOS operating system, and there is a web browser and telnet package called The Wave that requires Wheels and a SuperCPU: http://cmdrkey.com/cbm/wave/wave.html

Wings is a microkernal UNIX-like OS (actually based on the QNX microkernal) for the SuperCPU. It has a bunch of web applications, and Linux command-line programs can be ported fairly easily (from what I hear). Information on Wings can be found at http://wings.webhop.org/

There was also a demo thrown together just to prove that you could have a C64 browser that does (limited) CSS. It's not terribly functional -- it's more just a proof of concept. Anyway, the Singular browser can be found at http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=30400

If you're seriously interested in hooking up a C64 to the Internet, I suggest joining the Homestead mailing list @ http://lists.videocam.net.au/mailman/listinfo/homestead The Homestead list is run by the people who wrote the book "The Internet for Commodore 64 Users" ten years ago. There are also a bunch of Commodore user groups still kicking around.

Answer 2

Being the age the good old Commodore is, and having used one many years ago, I would doubt you could,.

Do a search for a user group in Google and you could find someone that has been able to do it.

Answer 3

Nothing was as stupendously nice to work with as my beloved Commodore 64. The Amstrad looked... squalid in comparison. Best personal computer of its day, barring absolutely none.

Answer 4

Its been many DECADES, but yes there is a modem that you can purchase for the C64. From there you can dial into any ISP that still has dial-up.

You can access the internet, but the question is, are there any browsers that you can use to surf web pages? Not sure.

Answer 5

Holy crap, I haven't seen one of those in 20 years.

Question, why would you want to try and connect an old dog like that, you can buy up to date pc's for pretty cheap nowadays

Answer 6

No, sorry.