Commodore 64 Ultimate

In July 2025, Commodore International Corporation, now owned by Christian "Perifractic" Simpson, opened orders for the Commodore 64 Ultimate: the first official Commodore computer in more than 30 years.

It is not an emulator. An AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA recreates the original C64 hardware at the chip level, built on Gideon Zweijtzer's Ultimate 64 design. Commodore rates it over 99.9% compatible with original software and peripherals.

The machine

• Core: AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA

• Memory: 128MB DDR2 (16MB system, 16MB REU, 16MB GeoRAM, the rest as a RAM disk)

• Video: HDMI at 1080p, plus 8-pin DIN analog (composite, S-Video or RGB)

• Sound: two sockets for real SID chips, plus 8 SIDs inside the FPGA

• Keyboard: 66 mechanical keys in the original C64 layout

• Speed: Turbo Boost up to 64 times faster

Ports

The classic ports are all there: cartridge, Datasette, IEC disk drive, two joystick ports and an internal user port. Beside them sit 3 USB-A ports, 1 USB-C, an internal microSD slot, Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

In the box

The computer, a spiral-bound user guide, a USB "cassette" with over 100 titles, an HDMI cable and a power supply with world adapters.

Editions

BASIC Beige ($299.99) is the classic breadbin. Starlight ($349.99) is translucent with RGB lighting, and Founders ($499.99) is gold with collector extras.

Online

There is no web browser, by design. The C64 Ultimate goes online the 1986 way, calling bulletin boards over Ethernet or Wi-Fi with a terminal program. It can also search Commodore's CommoServe library for games, demos and music. Boards like this one are where it goes.