The 8-Bit Construction Set (2001)
Vinyl record
Photo: Marcos Morilla
Commodore 64 song and Atari software: Paul B. Davis
Commodore 64 samples and Commodore 64 software: Joseph Beuckman
Commodore 64 locked grooves: Cory Arcangel
Commodore 64 locked grooves and engineering: Joseph Bonn
Acknowledgements: Atari samples, Atari locked grooves, Atari song
The 8-Bit Construction Set is a self-titled concept album/DJ battle record created entirely with Commodore 64 and Atari 800xl home computers. It has two programmatically matching sides structured as “Samples” – “Locked Grooves” – “Song” – “Data”. The “Samples” are from various games, demos and television commercials. The “Locked Grooves” and “Song” sections all contain original material composed by members of the band. The “Data” section uses vinyl as a medium for software distribution. The sounds of the inside tracks are actually data encoded as audio which can be dubbed to a cassette tape and booted in your respective Atari or Commodore 8-bit computers.
