Random You Can Now Track Your Steps With This Commodore 64 Fitness Watch

The Commodore 64 was a special machine that was home to incredible games like Wizball, Impossible Mission, and Maniac Mansion, but one software engineer named Nick Bild has found another purpose for the machine that doesn't involve microwaving hamsters: tracking your steps wirelessly (Thanks Hackaday!).

Using a Lilygo T-Watch with special Commodore 64 firmware installed, he can take advantage of the watch's in-built accelerometer to track his daily steps before uploading the results to his main machine in a flash by simply pressing sync and typing: LOAD"SYNC.PRG",8,1

If you're wondering how the device manages to do this wirelessly, well, it's all done via infrared, with the watch having its own built-in port and Bild manufacturing his own receiver using an Arduino Micro that plugs into the C64 user port. A custom program then displays the number of steps taken onscreen, and Bob's your uncle!

While not the most practical invention in the world, it's neat to see creators find new and random uses for the Commodore 64 all these years later. We're going to probably stick to using the machine for gaming, but who knows? Maybe you want to try and put one together for yourself!