VICIIdizer

This board is inserted between the VIC-II chip and its socket in the C64 home computer. The FPGA on the board listens to the digital communication between the VIC-II and the rest of the system and re-generates the video output in a near-digital form. This output signal (we call it 'lumacode') can then be flawlessly upscaled to a pixel-perfect HDMI signal using an RGBtoHDMI device or something with equal capabilities.

The original video output of homecomputers of the 1980th is of pretty low quality. Using a modern TV to display this signal normally does not make this any better. In fact it normally just exaggerates the visible noise. Also there is basically no way to improve the analog signal because of the random nature of the noise.

With my digital-only approach, the monitor picture is absolutely perfect without any noise or ghosting.

The board can autodetect the type of the VIC-II chip and adjusts its operation accordingly. This works with one exception: The very early and rare revision 6567R56A has slightly different timings than the other NTSC variants and will not work with the autodetection. In such a case, you need to specifically request the variant with the necessary firmware before ordering.