Commodore 64 is back in 2026

 So, in 2026, we have a new owner of the Commodore trademarks and a new Commodore 64! Well, actually, it is a bundling of a number of already available components into one system.

But, whatever. It has the original Commodore logo splashed on it, and the system itself looks exactly like a Commodore 64 breadbin system. 

In 2026, it is called the Commodore 64 Ultimate.

The C64 Ultimate offers many enhancements and modern features to the classic system like SD/USB loading support, ethernet/wifi support, internet connection for downloading software, modern PSU, while still retaining backwards compatibility with C64 peripherals, tape players, Commodore disk drives, cartridges, joysticks, video output, and more. I'll look at some of these in this blog post.

I originally started this blog post earlier in the year, but my health issues delayed me finishing it until now - it gave me the chance to try out more things including some new music application software made especially for the C64 Ultimate - hopefully it is worth the wait!

There is also a C64C system (based on the same hardware) with the later model casing that is also available now on pre-order in 2026.

Recently Commodore has announced a pre order for a new deliberately dumb and ugly Commodore flip phone. It seems they are trying to sell it as a simpler phone to allow people to remove complexity and social media intrusion on their phone (and life). 

However, in my opinion the transparent bling flashing lights flip phone design looks as dumb and stupid as its reduced functionality! Clearly I am not the target market for that...apparently quite a few people have pre-ordered them, good luck to you if you did order one, each to their own!

My opinion - if you want to reduce intrusion/privacy/screentime using social media and related apps on your modern smartphone, here's a thought, uninstall them all from your phone! Achieves the same thing! 

I used to own a Motorola flip phone in the early 2000's, alongside several Nokia phones in the 1990's, O2 XDA (Windows Mobile), a flip J-Phone (for use in Japan & Korea)  and even a Blackberry, before I moved to iPhone in 2007 and never looked back. I don't miss the limitations of those older mobile platforms at all - there is a reason why iPhone destroyed them all in 2007 and changed the mobile phone market forever... 

Today we have smartphones which are an evolution of the original iPhone concept - some run Apple iOS (iPhone devices) and the rest of the mobile market sells Google's Android OS overlaid with some annoying proprietary skin and go faster stripes to try to look unique. They all look very similar - unless you have a Nothing Phone of course - which has bling lights in a more modern and cool way. And no, I don't have one.

Former dominating players like Nokia and Motorola now run Android OS on their phones, which mostly look the same as iPhones or AndroidOS smartphones. Before someone mentions it, I know there is a Ubuntu Mobile OS - buggy as hell and it is very far from a daily driver - I have a PinePhone Pro that runs it and "not ready for production use" is an understatement. Nokia was selling some old model phones as "retro" from the 1990's era in the late 2010's too. I bought one for my late Dad to use on the boat in the late 2010's as he said he hated smartphones. He never used it, and kept using the iPhone I gave him until he dropped it in the ocean one day while fishing. Heh.

So, I have no nostalgia for old mobile phones, but I realise some people might so don't be offended - this is just my opinion! I enjoyed playing Snake on my old Nokia 8210 while waiting in a line at the supermarket or waiting for a bus in the late 1990's, but don't care about reliving that now in 2026. 

Upgrading a retro computer like the C64 in 2026 to be able to do more than it could is one thing, dumbing down a modern phone to do less makes no sense at all. Anyway, no more about that phone here..

I had my doubts about this C64 Ultimate system seeing the light of day - which I expressed on this blog last year also. I said if they started shipping the system for real and I could see what people were getting, I would order one then.

So, in February 2026, after I confirmed people were getting them and they worked as promised, I finally pre-ordered one for delivery in April 2026.

My system was delivered locally in Australia by a distributor in Adelaide, so I guess the whole batch of systems destined for Australian customers was sent in one shipment from China, and then distributed from Adelaide in one go. 

Following Facebook retro groups, it seems most Australian purchasers got their system around the same time as me.

It came in this box:

Inside was a nicely presented Commodore 64 Ultimate box, looking very professional indeed.

I admit it - I like the box:

Done in the Commdore original style, it looks wonderfully retro.

"Welcome back to the world of friendly computing" greets you as you open the box.

Included is a ring bound manual, USB "tape" contains various software to try out, Commodore brand HDMI cable, power supply, and stickers.

Looks just like an original breadbin C64. Admittedly my original breadbin came with darker brown colour function keys, but I won't quibble.

Keyboard feels nice to type on, without the stiffness the original keyboard had.

On the right side is the power switch (also used as a function key switch when on), two joystick ports and the power input.

Switching to the back of the C64 Ultimate the port cutouts look familiar, but there are definitely changes.

The usual cartridge port is present, with phono audio port, IEC Serial and monitor output ports, and Tape drive port. The user port has been replaced with more modern functionality.

This omission of the user port means any expansion you have that use the user port will not work with the C64 Ultimate out of the box. There is (I heard) a user port option you can buy that connects via ribbon cable internally, but will mean an ugly ribbon cable and port needing to be poking outside the case somewhere.

The User port is replaced with HDMI output, ethernet port, and two usb ports. Having modern video output and modern data transfer options is very welcome. We will see what the ethernet port can be used for later on.

Using a C64C in my current C64 setup, the breadbin C64 Ultimate is of course noticeably taller:

My C64 Ultimate has its own built in version of the external 1541 Ultimate II (with tape drive connector) that I use on the C64C currently. So it is not needed at all on the C64 Ultimate:

I swapped out the C64C with the c64 Ultimate and connected my existing video port to RCA/S-video output converter. To use HDMI I would need to change the 4:3 TFT screen and I didn't want to do that as I don't have space for a wide screen HDMI screen here.

Feels nice that a 2026 delivered computer can connect directly to my original Commodore 1541-II floppy drive, Commodore tape drive and video output.

Here is the power supply. Personally I hate the transparent casing. 

Actually, I hate transparent casing on anything, period. I don't think it looks pretty at all in most cases. It takes effort to make an internal board and seated components look good when the casing is transparent - most don't look good at all. I don't see the point personally, but I know some people do like that look so YMMV.

I powered on the C64 Ultimate (C64U from now on) and the familiar C64 screen appears instantly.

With the C64U turned on, If you quickly press up on the power switch on the right hand side, the menu to control the settings for the C64U and to load tape/disk images appears.

There are a lot of options you can do with the C64U - setting up audio settings, turbo mode support, internet/network settings and many others too:

Personally I always turn on the REU (RAM Expansion Unit) to the full 16MB size, as I use it for REU demos, some games that have been modified to do "one load" using the REU, and to play back videos that use the REU. It is disabled by default.

You can also set up the internal 1541 virtual floppy drive settings, including whether the drive is enabled or not, the ID number it uses, and which rom (for example if you want to use JiffyDOS instead of the default ones):

Disabling the virtual drive is useful if you plan to use real floppy drives and real disks, since it stops it's ID8 conflicting with the ID set on the external floppy drives..

Something I found it really quickly is that you need to physically disconnect the external 1541-II floppy drive to use the internal floppy drive in the C64Ultimate. This was never an issue on the C64C with 1541Ultimate II installed. I was surprised by this limitation, and I find it irritating to have to leave the drive disconnected unless I am using it.

I suppose there will be updates to the system over time - hopefully this limitation will be addressed in a future update.

There is an internal SD card slot inside the C64U you can store d64/d81 (floppy), crt (cartridge) and tape images. You can also read them from a USB stick plugged into the USB slot on the back of the C64U.

Clearly using USB is preferably to disassembling the C64U to get to the SD card slot. A strange choice not to have a trapdoor slot underneath for easier access without opening the system. It means most people will use USB. No SD card is included with the unit, so the system information section shows the SD path does not exist.

IThe c64U has modern ethernet/wifi connectivity options, which makes life easier for downloading files to the C64U, using FTP, Telnet, web control and other services. More on them later.

When loading files (cartridge, floppy or tape images), you can browse them from SD Card, Flash or USB stick if connected:

For now I powered off and connected a real physical C64 cartridge to the cartridge port. Rogue 64 works well:

I tested Polar Bear in Space next, and that worked well also:

Soul force also worked very well:

Next I went legacy free to try some games from USB:

I copied across the contents of my SD Card in the 1541 Ultimate II to a FAT32 formatted USB stick. I could then read it on the C64U:

I bought Tyrian's Towers earlier in the year and I have to say I am very impressed with it.

Next I checked to see if there was an update for the C64U on their website, and sure enough there was. So I downloaded it to the USB stick on my Mac and plugged the stick into my C64U. From the file browser menu I can see the update file (with .ue2 extension) as below.

On selecting it you get an option to Run Update, so I did that next.

The C64U updater ran and I walked through the update process as below:

It will reformat the flash disk during this process so if you have anything on it you want to keep, this is important to note:

The update and flash process then proceeds:

This takes some time - so it is coffee time:

The machine turns off when the update is completed. On power on I checked the system information and confirmed the update has now been successfully applied.

Sadly the update didn't fix the external floppy drive connected preventing virtual drive from working issue..maybe the next update will sort it.

As with the 1541Ultimate II for my original C654C, the C64U also supports SID file playback within the file browser - A feature I really like:

I keep a lot of my favourite game and demoscene SID files on the USB stick for this exact purpose.

Next I tested the REU functionality of the C64U, by playing through several Nuvie videos and demos that use REU:

TMS's JCN is a great example of a nuvie demo:

As expected, they worked perfectly:

Switching to physical cartridges again, I ran into trouble with several cartridges that don't fit easily in the cartridge slot!

I found I need to force the cartridge into the slot for it to fit - example is DubCRT:

Seems strange that the cartridge slot is just slightly too small for most of the modern cartridges to insert easily, requiring force to get them in. I am surprised if this was not tested prior to shipping..

That said, the cartridges (once inserted) work well.

If you use original Commodore cartridges for example, they are slimmer and have no issue. The later made games released in the last 10-15 years use thicker cartridge shells quite often. These work fine in the C64C, but as mentioned are a tight fit in the C64U.

Turning to cassettes (real cassettes), I tried out the C64U with my external Commodore tape drive next:

Delta - yes, I think so.

It loads and works well - which is great to see:

Eventually the tape load finishes and the game works great!

Next of course I had to try some scene demos:

Pleased to say the demos I tried worked great, with disk swapping also working well.

To solve the tight fitting cartridge port, I brought out my cartridge port extender:

I also made some time for one of my old favourite games, Nodes of Yesod.

I didn't try C64OS on it yet - given it uses SD2IEC to work I suspect the ID conflict might be an issue - like it is on the Mega65. Then again, I don't use it right now as I ran into trouble when upgrading it to the latest version. The upgrade failed and left it read only and useless - I have tried several times restoring it to factory and each time upgrading it I get the same result. I am not that motivated at the moment, so perhaps someone else will try it and report how it works on the C64U!

The C64U has other features too - let's explore some of the internet/ethernet features.

There is plenty of useful information online on their website - apparently you can even stream from the C64U over ethernet! This is something I need to play with in the future!

The C64U has a web interface built in, which you can connect to do some tasks directly on your C64U from another computer connected to the same network.

In the BASIC editor section of there web interface, you can type commands from another computer and upload to run on the C64U remotely! 

There is also a 6510 live monitor function - this is beyond my knowledge of C64 stuff, but I assume it is helpful for development, and imagine for those who have a use for such monitoring it would be handy to view remotely from a Windows/Mac/Linux computer:

Something that is more my speed is the ability to upload PRG (program files) or CRT files to the flash on the C64U remotely:

Another cool thing is the ability to get the C64U to playback SID tunes you upload from the web interface from another computer. This is something I never thought a C64 could do, so I am impressed.

Speaking of the SID chip, let's discuss that a bit. The C64U doesn't have the original SID chips, but re-implements them in FPGA as with the rest of the original chips the C64 used. 

That said, it enhances it by supporting multiple SID chips, the old version from the Breadbin and the newer version used in the C64C which work a bit differently.

C64U also supports up to 8 SID chips and "Ultimate Audio" for SID and other amazing audio output options!

The C64U motherboard also has two SID Chip sockets on the main board (as shown above and below) which allows you to use the original SID chips if you prefer to the FPGA ones implemented. 

You can also see signatures from the developers of the C64U.

Personally I don't notice any sound difference for C64 games/demos with the C64U compared to the output of my C64C that I tested it with, but I am sure some SID musicians would be quick to correct me on that!

Interestingly enough, I found out about a new software developed in 2026 especially for the C64U called Heartbeat Soundtracker. 

This new music composition software for the C64U takes advantage of the 8 SID support, and supports 7 CD-quality sampler channels too! 

I was intrigued so I bought it. 

There is also an evaluation version you can use to try it out first which has some restrictions as shown in the screenshot below. The author recommends trying the eval version first to make sure it works well for you before you decide whether to buy it. Prices for the software are also shown below:

I tried it and decided to buy a physical boxed Collector's Edition version, which is on its way to me as I write this. In the meantime, I was sent downloads for the electronic version and my registration code, and I printed out the manual and keyboard cutout on my colour laser printer. 

The keyboard cutout gives you the keyboard commands at a glance while composing on the C64U. The main editor interface is similar to soundtrack/protracker on the Amiga, which was one of the reasons I was attracted to this software.

The manual advises to put the Heartbeat soundtracker program files and any samples you want to use on a MicroSD card rather than using a USB stick due to performance considerations transferring music data from the USB in real time.

So this requirement gave me the excuse to open the C64U to do that step. There are three screws on the underside to allow you to open the case. Inside the case on the main board, you can see the user port connector for the optional user port accessory - I should probably get it...

To the left of the User port connector is the MicroSD port I need. As mentioned, I don't get why this wasn't mounted underneath and a trapdoor slot made on the bottom to make it easier to access.

Anyway - I had a 2GB MicroSD floating around, so I copied the files from the Heartbeat soundtracker archive to the MicroSD on my Mac and then inserted into the C64U MicroSD slot.

Interesting thing I notice at this point was the audio out phono port is a line out port and has SPDIF support! 

I'll have to move the C64U in the future to my main room to try digital output from the C64U on my HiFi setup I have been building out!

I then closed the case up and powered on the C64U again. 

I went to the file browser menu to locate the Heartbeat.cfg file first on the MicroSD, and select to load the settings:

It loads in the C64U settings needed for the Heartbeat soundtracker application to run,

I can then run the Heartbeat soundtracker PRG file to launch the application:

Heartbeat Soundtracker initially opens and presents the pattern editor screen:

There is plenty of useful information in the software to explain how things work too:

The software uses the REU to store samples and instruments used for composing, so the 16MB REU is the maximum limit for storing samples in your song.

I entered my registration info to register my copy:

I loaded an example song from the MicroSD, which uses wav samples and SID preset instruments. Accordingly, the pattern view reflects this:

Samples are .wav files. Only 16-bit mono wav is supported. Sample rate doesn't matter, but ideally you want to use either 44.100 Hz (which is note C4 in the tracker) or 22.050 Hz (which is note C3) or perhaps 11.025 Hz (good guess, C2). You can look at the Samples folder on the MicroSD for some examples of the wav samples so you know what you can do - but keep in mind the 16MB REU memory limit for samples used in your songs.

When playing back songs, the view changes, and you can see the Ultimate Audio channels being used, and the SID channels also.

Personally I find the software interesting as I am more likely to compose with it than hacking away on SID composition software - this is because of the tracker interface, which is something I am way more familiar with from composing modules on the Amiga.

You can also modify parameters on sample instruments - volume, pitch, looping, and other parameters too:

 

Like with a tracker, there is a view to enter the pattern track order for the song:

There is also a Song Parameters screen to modify parameters that impacts the whole song, not just one pattern or instrument.

When I started to compose my own music with it, I started with a clean slate, and played around with the included instruments and presets (SID presets)

I mucked around for a bit.

You can loop one pattern over and over while you work on getting it to sound how you want. The usual copy/paste functions exist, and there are plenty of options to modify the samples/instrucments played in the patterns, in a similar way to module tracking.

I saved my work in progress song to the MicroSD. It is a long way from finished of course, but I am glad to be using the C64U for music making, using software especially made to take advantage of its new audio features!

Saving takes a bit of time so be patient.

I am impressed to see this software released in 2026 for the C64 Ultimate, taking advantage of it's new features!

Overall I am very happy I bought the C64 Ultimate. It is built well enough, and having Gideon's Ultimate 64 packaged as a complete system called the C64 Ultimate is wonderful to see in 2026. Out of the box it just works well - for games, demos, cartridges and tapes! REU stuff works well also. 

The proof of how good it is would be that I haven't felt the need to put my C64C back in its place - it is in storage now. I found I can use the C64 Ultimate to run anything I wanted to run for the C64 so far, and I am very happy with it!