Give C64 Emulation a Realistic Touch

The Commodore 64 keyboard is one of the most unique features of that machine and its siblings the VIC-20 and C128. Some people love it, some people hate it – but it’s undeniably how millions of people interacted with the C64. While emulation has opened up a whole new era of enjoyment for vintage computers, some people miss the real feel of the keyboard and joysticks. Well, the KEY2USB makes this a cinch!

Simply plug the KEY2USB into the expansion port of the C64, connect it with USB to your modern PC, and use the keyboard and joysticks as USB HID devices! There is no modification of any kind needed to any part of the C64, so you don’t need to even open it up. It’s great for playing video games with the real Commodore or compatible joysticks, or doing cross-development where you develop your code in VICE and then you can test it with real hardware controlling it, or vice-versa – test your C64 developed code in the emulator with single-step debugging and the real interface.

The only gotcha for new users is that VICE must be set to use a “positional” key map instead of the default “symbolic”. This setting is under Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Mapping. It will still work just fine, but VICE will interpret each key incorrectly and show the wrong character.

Oh, and because this shows up as a standard USB HID device, you can use it with the VIC-20/C128 emulators, and you can also plug it in to a C128 where it will boot it into C64 mode. It also works with the Ultimate 64. It should even be usable as a regular keyboard input device, so you can write your next novel on your C64 keyboard. Unfortunately, the VIC-20 uses a totally different set of expansion headers, so while you can use your C64/C128 to control the VIC emulator, you can’t use the VIC-20 hardware with this kit. Perhaps a sibling project might show up down the line?

It’s a simple, easy to solder through-hole kit. The chips come with sockets, and so future firmware updates will be very easy to install for end-users. The entire project is fully open-source (woo!) and is available under CERN OHL-P v2 at the GitHub repository.

source https://blog.tindie.com/2026/07/give-c64-emulation-a-realistic-touch/