The first few weeks with the Commodore 64U [waynejohnson.net]

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====== The first few weeks with the Commodore 64U ======

Only the very astute among you would have noticed that I've been on a bit of a Commodore fanboy high since July 2025 with the resurrection of Commodore and the production of the Commodore 64U. 

I know there are probably hundreds of reviews out there already. I've deliberately avoided reading any just yet while piecing this article together. But if I happen to wind up covering the same stuff... well, then I do. I wanted to write from the perspective of having used the machine for a number of weeks.

I put my order up in June 2025, and being something like 5000th in the queue, true to their word, two days before Christmas, notification arrived that the C64U was waiting at the Post Office. 

The first thing that put a smile on my face was the black and white shipping box with the mark of MOS Technologies and the Commodore logo. Not only is the name of Commodore back but MOS as well.

Once home, I started the slow unboxing process with my son, who felt it was all moving along a tad too slow. So he left me to it while I photographed every angle and moment.

Once done, he joined me again to unwrap everything. It was nice to see the "Welcome back to friendly computing", some Commodore stickers and the Commodore branded power supply.

I had also been looking forward to receiving the Commodore "cassette" included as an extra gift.

One of the nicest surprises was the new Commodore Manual that was included in the box. Remember those? It has been produced in the same style as the original manual and it is actually very useful for getting started. 

The manual also serves like the original: to teach you how to program, create sprite graphics, sound and other functions of the machine.

I knew the new machine was going to feature a fancy "multi-switch" to replace the original legacy rocker switch. This new switch goes in two directions, up and down, but returns to the centre position. Up turns on the machine and there to greet you is the classic Commodore BASIC screen.

This may seem like a small detail, but thank you, Commodore for presenting the 64 as it should be, and as it always was. Of course I appreciate the effort of other vendors who have brought a form of C64 to market in recent years, most of which usually boot to some sort of menu. For me that removes a little something of the original experience.

The other very cool thing to note is the internal speaker that indicates the emulated 1541 disk drive activity.

If you do want to take advantage of the menu system for disk image loading and configuration, this can be done by pressing up on the switch again. If you're a purist, you never need know about it. Holding the switch down for four seconds shuts the machine off.

In the weeks leading up to the machine's arrival, I had been carefully curating my file list of D64 and T64 titles, getting rid of modern trainer editions in exchange for plain originals or cracks from the period. So with USB stick in hand, I plugged it in.

My first port of call... do what I did forty years prior with my first machine, and that is to paint reverse coloured bars to the screen like I did back then with my mother sitting next to me.

While she is no longer with us, and I wasn't going to bore anyone in the family with this moment, I did it myself.

The colours and output of the screen on my LG OLED TV was gorgeous. And I realised there was a rather subtle scanline effect being produced. This is quite different to the overly emphasised scanline output that is generated by something like the RetroTINK. On the latter device, the effect makes the image a little darker. 

I had two main requirements... no, I'll say hopes for this machine:

  - That it would be a 50hz machine producing a perfect raster output for 50 frames per second (not US 60hz) to produce silky smooth scrolling. Ok, I know it's not a real raster for non-CRT displays anymore, but as long as the output looks the same, I'll be happy.
  - That the SID emulation would give me the output of a 6581. There is a huge volume difference for speech sound between the 6581 and the 8580.

Time to test the first game. And again, the first game I owned back then: Tronic Cycle, a rarer and simpler title.

This is where I got my son to give it a go. He gave it maybe three tries and wasn't not overly interested to try again. And it wasn't a great test for the machine really. To quote him: "I got down on the floor for this?". Stolen quote.

We moved to one of my favourites of all time: Wizball. This one he stuck with for a while as he has played this one in the past on the Commodore 128 hooked up through the RetroTINK. So he was interested to get back into that game.

And Wizball restored my biggest hope: perfect side scrolling. Thank you, Gideon!

Ok, next to I-Ball and Impossible Mission. Sound and speech were spot on. Second hope restored.

===== Menu System =====

I want to talk a little about the menu system where disk and tape images can be loaded. Clearly, there has been a lot of thought and refinement put into making the navigating of disk image files really intuitive and simple. 

More than the standard cursor arrow up/down for selection, there is the F3/F5 keys to jump pages up and down, as well as an alphabetical keys to jump to the first file with that letter. Run/Stop backs you out of a menu choice. 

Returning to a menu list returns you in the middle of list where you left off. A thoughtful idea.

Then there's the Run Disk versus just Mount Disk. For Run Disk you can quickly boot a single disk without having to think about it too much. And for multi-disk games like California Games, you can switch disk sides by mounting disk 2, Run/Stop back to the game, and pressing space to continue loading.

Oh my goodness... so easy to operate!

I'm not sure if the 1541 drive implementation is loading faster than the original, or if that is just an impression. Fast loaders like the Action Replay Cartridge can be used. I have not plugged my real AR6 cartridge in yet. Instead I used a file image version of the cartridge and copied it to the available flash storage.

Each time you reboot, the virtual cartridge will be there just like a real cartridge. And by mounting a disk image and using the cartridge fast loader, you get the expected reliable fast load.

In fact, you can mix and match your retro experience as much as you like. You can connect 100% original drives, carts and other hardware. Or you can go all virtual, or somewhere in between. It's nice to be able to choose.

I recently brought it into work to show a few friends, and it's pretty portable and easy to take around to share with mates. You only need to take the C64U, the power supply, an HDMI cable and a couple of joysticks. That's all you need to crack out the old favourites. Expect questions like: "Oh have you got game X or game Y?". Now you can say: "Yep, I do".

It has been quite a few weeks since I've had the C64U now. Has the novelty worn off? I keep it by the TV near the Playstation and it has it's own dedicated HDMI connection and is hooked up all the time. That makes it easy to pass by for a quick go if I have some spare time. 

Mind you, there's not always a lot of that. And yes I don't play it as often as the first month, but I have a few titles queued up to try and complete again. These include Impossible Mission, V, Nexus, and... oh why not... Wizball again.

I've got the "freezer" set up, and a couple of blank D64 disks to save my progress. Whenever the family are out and I have a quiet hour, I'll be working my way through those.

There's a number of features I am yet to explore: the network and WIFI features, the online games database and BBS access.

===== Overall =====

After all these weeks I am still in love with this Commodore 64U.

Every detail has been thought of. CEO Perifractic, Gideon and all the Commodore staff and creators care about what they have made here. There's a lot of love in this machine. And it's a real Commodore 64, not an emulation. FPGA is real hardware operating on the hardware level.

And there was actually something nice about having to wait for this to arrive, and not to have been an item that was instantly available from some online store.

I appreciate having had that experience.

In the world of retro computing, these are positive times in 2026. The Commodore 64U and return of Commodore has caused such a buzz. But the internet is what it is, some people might be annoyed by all the fuss over Commodore.

For me it's been a joy to reconnect with people around the world who remember these days fondly and who now get an opportunity to share this machine and the games we found special with our kids, family and old friends.

Hope you're keeping up with the Commodore.
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