In the latest episode of RETRO is the New Black, Wolfgang dives headfirst into the curious case of the Commodore 64GS—Commodore’s short-lived and famously flawed attempt at a game console. Launched in 1990, long after the 8-bit era had started wheezing, the C64GS was essentially a gutted Commodore 64C in a snazzy case, minus one crucial thing: a keyboard. As you can imagine, launching a keyboard-less system for keyboard-dependent games didn’t exactly win hearts—or market share.
Despite its commercial failure, the Commodore 64GS holds cult appeal today. Only around 20,000 units were sold, yet 80,000 cases were produced. Many of those extra shells were offloaded in Germany, where the console wasn’t even released. Now, in this detailed DIY video, Wolfgang sets out to build his own GS replica from scratch using a shortboard C64, a 3D printed case from PCB Way, and a stubborn refusal to let vintage tech stay dead.
What unfolds is part repair saga, part comedy of errors. Finding a viable shortboard proves trickier than expected, and attempts to desolder components result in missing pads, mangled traces, and a fair amount of frustration. Two “longboard” machines bought from eBay turn out to be good repair candidates, but useless for the GS project. Eventually, Wolfgang sacrifices his own modded C64 shortboard—complete with clicky keyboard and SIDKick Pico—just to get the job done.
Yet even with setbacks, broken switches, dead VIC-II chips, and awkward cartridge port placement, Wolfgang persists. He walks viewers through each step of the case mod, desoldering, and head-scratching diagnostics with a tone that’s equal parts technical and tongue-in-cheek. The Commodore 64GS may not have been the console anyone asked for, but this build video is exactly the retro content C64 fans want.
