Xtreme Commodore Logo

This page is dedicated to my Xtreme Commodore Logo. The decision to build the Xtreme Commodore Logo was taken after the Retro Computer Day in the Netherlands 2005. I was one of the people who had a stand and had a few of my Commodore computers on display. I had five working Commodore's on display and a couple of collectors items such as the C65, Max and the VIC 1001.

Strangely a stand next to my stand had a lot of visitors. But this stand had only one computer. It was a Vectrex game console. The Vectrex had a beautiful display. It was a big bubble on a stand. I noticed that the display itself pulled more visitors than the computer itself.

Knowing this I had to come up with something like that myself. The idea of the Xtreme Commodore Logo was born inside my head. I kept on thinking about it for about a month. Then I got started and the result you can see on the photo. And yes there is a Commodore computer inside the logo.

I started designing the Xtreme Commodore Logo on my computer with a CAD program. The only parameters I had when I started was the size of a Commodore computer and the 1084 monitor. I scanned a C= logo and imported that into the CAD system. After measuring the dimensions I could draw the C= logo. I scaled it so it would take the 1084 monitor in the top part of the C= logo. On the screen it didn't look that big at all...... I also made a drawing of all part so I could see how much material I would need. Then it became clear to me that this logo was big, seriously big.

The main dimensions:
Circle diameter = 1700 mm
Total height = 1800 mm
Total width = 550 mm
Base = 1200 x 900 mm
Weight = 25 kg

Next step was a visit to the local DIY shop. I bought a lot of wood and strapped it on top of my car.
In total I used two sheets of wood 3.6 x 2440 x 1220 mm, one sheet of 18 x 2440 x 1200 mm, one sheet of very flexible wood 3 x 2440 x 1200 mm.

To glue everything together a used 20 m of 44 x 18 mm and 15 m of 18 x 18 mm.

In the picture you can see the making of the C part of the logo. I used a piece of angle iron with holes in it. I made four circles on the wood for the Inside and outside lines of the C and the circles where I would glue the reinforcements.

On the photo you can see all the pieces and the making of the bottom and upper = part. I sawed all pieces a bit too large and after that a made the piece exact with my router.

All wooden reinforcements of the C part are shaped to a circle. With a router and a piece of wood I could make the right shape.

The wooden reinforcements are glue-ed to the C parts. This took several days because I had only 12 clamps.

The two C parts are connected together with a couple of wooden beams. Also the base part is glued to the C parts.

The C parts are mounted to the base plate. The black strips you see are aluminum angles that are used to mount the = parts.

Here I'm building the bottom part. It is all glue-ed together without screws.

This is the upper part. In this part the joystick is mounted. It's made of thicker material for more strength. The whole construction is glue-ed and screwed together.

On the picture you can see that the space between the C parts is now filled with extra flexible wood. Also the panel for the monitor and the computer compartment is now finished. All sharp edges are sanded and all holes are filled with bondo. The logo is now ready for paint.

After the bondo and sanding a put on a layer of primer. After that I started painting all the parts the right color.

The base is painted black. All other parts are now blue and red. I used Marine Blue and Stone Red for the Commodore colors.

The joystick is the famous Arcade from Suzo mounted under a aluminum plate. Because the joystick is turned 90 degrees I had to solder the inputs to other pins on the connector.

I installed a cooling fan to keep the 1084 cool inside the logo. The fan sucks air from the gap at the bottom of the C part via an air hose.

There is a modded DTV (PAL) inside. It can also take a C64 with a 1541, a C128D, a A500 and many more Commodore computers.

Here you can see the Xtreme Commodore Logo in it's final shape.

It took me about 100 hours to build the logo in a period of three months.

Now I have to solve only one problem before I go to the next Retro Computerday (The Netherlands) getting the logo there..... It does not fit inside my car.

Remark 7-03-2006:
Apologies that the web site was down a couple of times. These pages were hosted on free web space and the ISP shut down the web site after only 4 hours on the first evening. I had about 1000 visitors the first weekend. (The data-limit was reached. ) Now the pages are on another ISP and this ISP doesn't do data limits.

The transportation of the Xtreme Commodore logo is not so easy as I had hoped. It was not possible to get the logo inside my car. I took the decision to transport the logo with a trailer. But my car did not have a towing-hook. Four days before the first presentation I installed a towing-hook under my car.

The first presentation was at the Retro Computer Day 2006 in Schiedam (the Netherlands).
In the car 4 complete Commodore computers and parts of the logo. In the trailer the C-part of the logo.

The next presentation was at the Dutch Commodore User Group. This time an Amiga 600 was in the logo and we could play Lotus Turbo Challenge.

After a while it became clear that the logo had a design fault. The red part was sticking out to far. Also little kids tried to get climb onto the red part to get there hands at the controls. So there was only one thing to do. Cut up the logo.

After gutting the hole I glued in the new wood panels. Put filler and primer on the new wood. After that I repainted the whole red part.

This is how it's looks now a days. I visited many shows with the logo. It is a bit of work to get the logo to a show. Taking the logo apart takes about an hour. Get to the show build up the logo, take it apart again at the end of the show and bring it back home again. It's a busy day for me to do a show.

At the moment it stands in my living room at home.