[vcf-midatlantic] Super Sketch drawing tablet for Commodore 64

David K davekre17 at gmail.com
Sun Feb 7 18:37:40 UTC 2021


I recently bought a Super Sketch drawing tablet for the C64 from eBay.  I
was surprised by how sophisticated it was and how much fun I had trying it
out.

I have a video about it on YouTube that features:
-unboxing of the tablet and all the extras that were included
-a demonstration of drawing and the many other functions (2:57)
-a look inside at how it works (21:20)

My question is about the last part; about how it works.  When I opened up
the drawing tablet there were two, what I believe to be, linear
potentiometers.  Since the tablet plugs into the joystick port I was
surprised that the C64 could "read" the potentiometers.  There was not an
IC (?) in the tablet itself but when I opened up the plug there was indeed
an IC that I assume converted the variable voltage of the potentiometers
into something the C64 could read.  If anyone has feedback on whether I got
this right and whether this was a unique feature I would appreciate it.

The link to the video is: https://youtu.be/pLvQVJhRx2o. If that gets
scrubbed you can likely search "Super Sketch vintage drawing tablet for
Commodore 64 - also made for TI-99 / 4A and Atari 800 XL" to find it.

Interestingly I had initially bought another Super Sketch on eBay that said
it was for the C64 but when I received it the plug was not correct  (which
is why I bought the second one).  Interestingly the non-C64 tablet has
different circuitry in it and does not have the IC in the plug or anywhere
else.

So any help with this is appreciated.

David K


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