Commodore 64 Ultimate faithfully recreates the original C64, review says

The Commodore 64 Ultimate is a new reproduction of the original 8‑bit Commodore 64 that, the Guardian review says, faithfully recreates the look and boot experience of the 1982 machine. Packaging is designed to resemble the original box and the unit is an uncannily accurate replica of the breadbox model, complete with brown-and-beige case, a red LED above the row of fawn-coloured function keys and an optional Starlight edition with extra LEDs and a transparent case.

On power-up it boots into the original Commodore 64 start screen showing “Commodore 64 Basic V2, 64K Ram system, 38911 Basic Bytes free. Ready.” and the flashing cursor; users can programme in BASIC or assembly as they did on the original machine. Technically, the Ultimate uses an FPGA rather than software emulation and can run original hardware and media: you can attach a C64 Datasette or disk drive and run original software (the device even simulates disk-drive noises), use a cartridge port for old game carts, and plug controllers into two joystick ports.

It also supports HDMI output, USB thumb drives (the review notes a sample drive shaped like a cassette with demos and games), and wired or wireless internet access to a community archive and bulletin‑board systems. The review notes a price of £260.50 ($349.99/AU$524) and asks whether the machine has value beyond nostalgia.

Key Topics

Tech, Fpga, Hdmi, Christian Simpson, Commodore, Datasette