The SID Files

Close encounters of the SID kind


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This page is dedicated to the unexplained, mysterious and paraphenomenal world of the SID, the 6581 chip, the HVSC, Commodore machines and anything related to them. What you will read about here may shock you, surprise you, but I definitely hope that it'll make you laugh.

  1. Submitted by LaLa on 2006. May 13.

    Corvette C64
    From time to time I do some drag racing with the local Las Vegas Corvette club. The same happened today: we went to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where every car that entered the race received a racing number. The numbers for the Corvettes always start with a "C" and numbers are assigned in ascending order. For some reason, today the organizers decided to start the numbering from a point other than 01...

  2. Submitted by Warren Pilkington on 2005. Oct. 14.

    So, this is where DRAX gets all his energy from to compose such great tunes?

    Here is a screen grab of the above article. And here is a link to Drax Power Ltd.

  3. Submitted by Warren Pilkington on 2005. Mar. 24.

    Commodore Kitchens. Nothing more needs to be said, except that the eagle on the front of the site reminds me of Eaglesoft's cracks...

  4. Submitted by Warren Pilkington on 2003. Sept. 21.

    Epson Stylus C64
    The latest computer gadget to get the C64 designation is a - new printer from Epson?
    See the details here.

  5. Submitted by Warren Pilkington on 2003. May 13.

    CBM channel coming soon
    A new TV channel appears in the lineup in England. Let's hope it will stay true to its name and it will be dedicated to everything Commodore related! See also the article at Digital Spy.

  6. Submitted by MattSid on 2002. August 3.

    A cash register made by SID
    Yet another company with a SID in its name: SID-Group, an Italian company (Societŕ Italiana Distribuzione (Italian Society Distribution)) that makes - cash registers??? (They also have "SID News" on the main page!)

  7. Submitted by MattSid on 2002. July 7.

    Apparently, this AccessCheck guy can't stand our beloved integrated chip (promoted to an Administrator!) in Windows XP - attaboy!

    Windows XP Administrator SID

  8. Submitted by Michael Schwendt on 2002. June 30.

    Here are some sample questions from the Hunt Valley Swim Club (HVSC) FAQ:

    Q Does HVSC have any Life Guard positions for the summer?

    Q Does HVSC have any Full-Season memberships left for this summer?

    Q How do I become a member of HVSC?

    A The single most important step is to register for the Club's Membership Waiting List. The Waiting List Registration Form can be printed, completed, and forwarded with a $25 check. The typical membership process is outlined on the membership pages.

  9. Submitted by Michael Schwendt on 2002. June 29.

    The Machinae Supremacy SID cover band found an ancient SID burial ground on the streets of London! (Thanks to Michael Schwendt for reporting this most peculiar archeological discovery!)

    Ancient SID burial site
    (Click on picture to enlarge.)

  10. Submitted by Warren and LaLa on 2002. June 21.

    Multiple fans, including the Press Play On Tape cover band and the HVSC Crew have seen the likeness of the familiar blue-red Commodore logo periodically reappear on the facade of a shop in London. Witnesses reported SID fans revering the site as sacred ground and going on a pilgrimage to London just to be able to touch the logo for good luck in hope of better game tunes.

    By PPOT By the HVSC Crew By the HVSC Crew
    By the Press Play On Tape SID cover band
    (Picture courtesy of Warren Pilkington)
    By the HVSC Crew

  11. Submitted by LaLa on 2002. June 20.

    Commodore Business Machines has transformed into a worldwide franchise of souvenir shops! Here's an example of it in the Montmartre district of Paris. (The Shark appears on the picture courtesy of HVSC).

    CBM Souvenirs in Paris
    (Click on picture to enlarge.)

  12. Submitted by MattSid on 2002. April 19.

    Seen in Barcelona, Spain, near the construction site of the famous cathedral "Sagrada Familia":

    Skate or Die!

  13. Submitted by Michael Schwendt on 2002. April 1.

    This is no April's fool joke: the HVSC site suffered a hostile takeover! Check it out yourself: http://www.hvsc.org

  14. Submitted by MattSid on 2001. December 7.

    Below is a screenshot from the game "Turbo Charge" (© 1991 System 3). "The Villain" sure looks a lot like Mark Cooksey! (Picture on the right is an actual picture of Mark Cooksey from the Back In Time Live event.)

    Is the Villain Mark Cooksey? This is the real Mark Cooksey at BIT Live

  15. Submitted by LaLa on 2001. July 25.

    Get this: SID Sports News Agency in Germany! Located at http://www.sid.de.

  16. Submitted by Matthew W. Miller on 2001. June 5.

    CBM Carpet Cleaning I saw this ad on the outside of the daily bag-o'-coupons-and-junk and felt... awed! "CBM Carpet Cleaning - No exception, only perfection" - sounds about right to me! (See picture to the right.)

  17. Submitted by MattSid on 2001. May 29.

    Another weird SID link, this time, from Italy: www.sid.it.

  18. Submitted by Warren Pilkington, LaLa and Adam Lorentzon on 2001. May 17.

    So, there we were, Adam, Warren and I at Warren's place in Manchester a day after Back In Time Live and as we turned on the TV, The Simpsons were on. And what episode they managed to show at that exact moment? The one called "Insane Clow Poppy", where the maffia dude wins Krusty the Clown's violin in a poker match and starts playing - the theme of One Man and his Droid on it!...

  19. Submitted by Lars Haugseth on 2001. February 11. A picture of Commodore LXIV

    Another C64 spotted in Futurama! In the episode "The Honking", Bender the robot inherits an old gothic castle. On the wall in the dining room there is a picture of one of his ancestors, labeled "Commodore LXIV"... (See pic on the side.)

  20. Submitted by Michael Schwendt on 2001. February 6.

    More totally not SID-related SID pages:

    SIDPLAY pictures? I think not! (WARNING: graphic content!) [1] [2] [3]

    SID City.

    Red Hat announces - SID.

    Sun Information Development (SID) - all in Japanese.

    School of Interior Design (SID)

    RESID' - a naturalist hotel???

    RESID Database Text Search - looks highly chemical to me.

  21. Submitted by LaLa on 2001. February 6.

    One finds SIDs doing the most unexpected things at the most unexpected times in the most unexpected places...

    SIDs remember Hancock

    Original article was found on ESPN's website. Click on the image above for a larger screen grab.

  22. Submitted by Szabolcs Temesvári on 2000. June 9.

    Maybrook 1.0 Urinal Model 6581

    Now, I could start making cheap jokes like "Finally, a musical urinal that has taste and a sense of style!", or "Disgruntled SID fans now can piss on the chip they used to like", or "Press release: high-tech finally reaches the urinal business in the form of a low-tech sound chip", but I won't, since we all know that this is purely a coincidence, right? Yeah, right...

  23. Submitted by LaLa on 2000. May 31.

    Andreas pointing at the STIL Café So, there we were, strolling the streets of Vienna with Andreas Varga, marking the first time ever that I met another fellow HVSC Crew member in person. After a nice dinner at a cool restaurant, we were on a short walk to a movie theatre to watch Gladiator, when we saw this... The guy pointing at the café is Andreas himself.

    Looking back, I should've asked Andreas to take a picture of this café with me, as it was me who was the first administrator of STIL (The SID Tune Information List found within the HVSC), but it's still pretty funny that after traveling across the Atlantic ocean to meet Andreas we bumped into this, isn't it?...

    (Click on the pic for a larger picture.)

  24. Submitted by Kai Spitzley on 2000. March 16.

    There's a little town in Ireland that claims to be the famous composer. Check out their petty attempt to appear serious at http://www.galway.net/!

    Galway Advertiser Galway Flying Club

    Who do they think they're follin' ?! Er...foolin' ?

    LaLa: "I especially like the 'This week in Galway...' line at the top. I know there are some hardcore SID fans out there, but to get INSIDE information about one of the composers is going too far for me..."

  25. Submitted by LaLa on 1999. Nov. 15.

    Bender's 6502 chip If you know what Futurama is, skip this paragraph. Otherwise, I need to explain to you that Futurama is a relatively new cartoon series here in the US created by the same Matt Groening who makes the now well-known "The Simpsons". It has the same (if not better!) sense of humor, but the cartoon takes place in the future (duhh!) and one of the characters in it is Bender, a robot with two legs, two arms, a head, and a twisted personality (he is actually very similar to Marvin from Douglas Adam's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series).

    In the brand new part that was aired just tonight, Bender's inner workings were shown with the new invention of the Professor, the handheld "F-ray lamp". When his head was illuminated with this device, I could clearly see Bender's "brain", which was a processor with the number "6502" on it. That's right!!! A 6502 - the C64's main processor!

    Needless to say, I don't remember what happened next, because I was laughing my ass off... ;)

  26. Submitted by Peter Sanden on 1999. Oct. 11.

    "Anyone wonder how Warren Pilkington can do so much work for HVSC? Rip, make music, fix credits, and so on?!?

    Well I´ve discovered it! He´s not a person, he´s a company! Check it out:
    Pilkington

  27. Submitted by LaLa on 1999. Oct. 9.
    Personalized license plates are very popular here in Illinois (USA), for example, mine is "IMRE 72". I was driving to home in my car today when I spotted a Cadillac in front of me with this license plate: "MRS SID". I wish I had my digital camera with me...

  28. Submitted by LaLa on 1999. Oct. 10.
    You gotta see this!
    This is actually a little sandwich place right around the corner where I live...
    (Click on the above thumbnail to see the big picture.)
    You gotta see this one, too!
    ...And it calls itself "Serino's Italian Deli" - bahh!

  29. Submitted by Peter Sanden and Per Bolmstedt on 1998. Sept. 25.

    LaLa and Rob Hubbard -
both wearing glasses, both have moustaches... Coincidence? I think NOT!


If you also happen to engage in such close encounters of the SID/HVSC kind, let me know. But if you can, please, support your story with some hard evidence that is undoctored and original, otherwise, I have to file it as marginal evidence and it may be lost in the archives forever...

And remember:

The SID is out there!
Fight the future!