The Commodore 64 holds a Guinness World record as the highest-selling single computer model of all time. After its initial release in August 1982, the C64 went on to sell millions of units – outselling all other popular 8-bit machines at the time, including the Apple II. For many long-time technology geeks, including me, the Commodore 64 was the first personal computer they ever owned. So, it’s no surprise that all these years later, the machine still hold a special place in our hearts.
It is with that in mind, along with knowing how popular our
Building An Amiga Emulator article was, that we decided to show you how to build your own ultra small form factor Commodore 64 emulator, for just a few dollars, using the teeny-tiny Raspberry Pi Zero.
The Commodore 64, like virtually all competing 8-bit machines at the time, was built around a modified version of the MOS 6502, dubbed the MOS 6510. Accompanying the CPU was a graphics chip (the VIC-II), a sound chip (the venerable SID), a whopping 64K of RAM and 20K of ROM. Although the Commodore 64 was relatively powerful and more capable than most of the other personal computers of its time, even the ultra-low-power Raspberry Pi Zero has significantly more horsepower than is necessary to emulate the machine.
