Commodore 64 Quarterly — September 2026

Published 13 September 2026

The Commodore 64 refuses to stand still. This quarter we explore the Commodore 77 Cyberpunk collaboration, Ultimate firmware developments, C64 OS and the MEGA1581 disk drive. We also visit BREAKOUT 2026, play the ambitious Lemmings Reloaded, and discover how developers, musicians and hardware enthusiasts continue finding new possibilities in a computer launched more than four decades ago.

Editorial

The C64 Is Becoming a Platform Again

The Commodore 64 has reached a curious point in its history: it is becoming difficult to describe it simply as a vintage computer. This quarter we find Commodore collaborating with Cyberpunk 2077 on the extraordinary Commodore 77, while new FPGA machines, firmware and C64 OS continue to build modern infrastructure around an architecture launched in 1982. Developers now work with sophisticated cross-assemblers, debuggers and emulators, yet still wrestle creatively with the same memory map, VIC-II and SID that defined the original machine. New games such as Lemmings Reloaded, TetrISO and Chrome Horizon demonstrate how much more can be extracted from familiar hardware, while BREAKOUT 2026 reminds us that the demoscene remains determined to find limits nobody noticed the first time around. Meanwhile, preservation projects continue filling gaps in the historical record, and old curiosities such as the Commodore MAX gain new relevance when viewed alongside today's machines. That combination is what makes the C64 fascinating in 2026. We are not merely preserving an old computer. We are watching several generations of enthusiasts, programmers, musicians and hardware designers collectively discover what else it might become.

News & Announcements

Commodore 77: The C64 Goes to Night City

C64C Ultimate and modern Commodore hardware

C64 OS v1.09 and the Software Center

THEC64 Handheld

The MEGA1581 Disc Drive

Community Highlights

BREAKOUT 2026

The Commodore 64 demoscene was very much alive at BREAKOUT 2026, held in Seevetal, Germany from 14–16 August. Competitions covered C64 demos, music, graphics and mixed productions, with Pixelated by Atlantis taking first place in the demo competition, while Toggle's Dano En La Pintura won C64 Music and Duce's A Void of Thoughts topped the graphics category. Perhaps the most striking result was the mixed competition, won by Lunatic Lab's Lemmings Reloaded, neatly connecting the traditional demoscene with the continuing development of ambitious new C64 games. With dozens of competition entries and 41 recorded attendees, BREAKOUT offered a compact but convincing demonstration that creating new software, graphics and SID music for the C64 remains a living community activity rather than simply an exercise in nostalgia. [6]

Headline Releases

The releases were strong for this competition with over 40 submissions across 6 categories. I sampled all of these tracks using VICE in a Linux/KDE Workstation.

• Keeping Up With the Commodore - Hokuto Force — The wonderful music from the famous Australian Commodore television advertisement realised directly on the C64. The familiar tune is accompanied by a fun graphical remake of the commercial, while some beautiful sonic tweaks throughout the arrangement give the SID version a character of its own. It is a particularly fitting scene production: an Australian piece of Commodore history being brought back to life on the machine it originally advertised. You can read more about the song, including the complete lyrics, in our feature Are You Keeping Up with the Commodore? Lyrics Full Version.
• Beat SID - TRS — A technically fascinating C64 cover of Bomb the Bass's 1987 hip-hop track Beat Dis. TRS combines two conventional SID voices with three-channel 8-bit signed samples, mixed and played through the third SID voice at 7819 Hz using cycle-exact timing. The result is far bigger than you might expect from a single SID, blending recognisable sampled elements with the character of the 8580. Even more interesting is the engineering behind it: TRS has been experimenting with these playback and mixing techniques since 2016 and now uses its own custom, as yet unreleased, tracker to compose its productions. Beat SID is a great example of the demoscene continuing to treat the C64's audio hardware as something to experiment with rather than a set of limitations to accept.
• Pixelated — Atlantis — The winning C64 One-File Demo opens with a pirate flag before launching into an exceptional sequence of animated 3D graphics. At first the movement can resemble impossibly smooth ASCII-style scrolling, but the detailed use of colour soon becomes mesmerising. TheK's music deserves particular attention too: laid-back enough to carry you effortlessly through the demo, yet filled with carefully crafted SID sound bites that remain remarkably crisp and clear.
• Welcome to Sunderhof — AMID — After an extended credit sequence and a call for new members to join AMID, the demo moves into its main BREAKOUT presentation. A richly coloured BREAKOUT title screen provides the centrepiece, accompanied by a bouncing asteroid and the traditional scrolling text along the bottom. More than any single technical effect, however, it is the atmosphere that stands out: the combination of imagery, movement and classic scene presentation gives Welcome to Sunderhof a distinctive character.
• Dano En La Pintura - Padua — A strongly rated SID tune, and it is easy to hear why. At times it barely sounds like a three-voice SID composition. The lead synth is the standout, with expressive effects reminiscent of a filter cutoff being actively played as part of the performance. The supporting voices are equally strong, while the percussion has the character of an early drum machine. The result is a surprisingly full and sophisticated arrangement that demonstrates just how much can be coaxed from three SID voices.
• No Place Like Home - Wrath Designs — A wonderfully stormy graphic, rich in detail and presented with a refined colour palette. What makes this release particularly interesting, however, is the supporting material: 107 images document the artwork's development through successive stages. Watching the composition gradually take shape provides a rare glimpse into the artist's process rather than simply presenting the finished result. That methodical record of development particularly appeals to the engineer in me.

Developer Corner

C64 development continues to benefit from an unusual mixture of modern tools and increasingly capable hardware. This quarter brings two particularly interesting examples: a visual approach to 6502 assembly programming and a major Ultimate firmware update that expands what developers can do directly with C64-compatible hardware. Both developments point towards the same goal — making it easier to write, test and debug new software without losing sight of the machine underneath.

C64 Visual Assembler

Ultimate64 Firmware 3.15a

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The Sprite Arcade

Welcome to The Sprite Arcade, where the joystick stays plugged in and the C64's game library continues to grow. Each quarter we will revisit a classic worth loading again while exploring the new games, previews and unexpected releases still emerging from today's developers. Old favourites or brand-new adventures, the only requirement is that they give us a good reason to press fire.

Lemmings Reloaded

Lemmings Reloaded — is the breakout release of 2026 by Lunatic Lab. A standout release and a remarkably detailed fan tribute to the original game, although I certainly don't remember Lemmings looking this good. The game is primarily mouse-focused, but I comfortably played the first level using a THEA500 GamePad controller. Progress can be resumed by writing down the level code supplied after completing each stage, preserving a wonderfully old-school approach to game saves. The package itself is equally impressive, including the Lemoid music player, a beautifully presented manual and binaries for THEC64 Mini, VICE, Ultimate hardware and cartridge use. This feels less like a simple remake and more like a carefully considered celebration of Lemmings on the Commodore 64. [9]

Recent Releases

The Library Shelf

K&A Plus #30

K&A Plus #30 — K&A Plus has long been my favourite contemporary retro-computing magazine, and its Spring/Summer 2026 edition offers another substantial 82 pages devoted to Commodore machines. Issue 30 reviews new releases including Impossible Mission III, Traps N’Gemstones, Orbital Mission and Terra Cresta 2026, alongside the seventh instalment of its 6502 assembly series and a practical C64 BASIC scientific calculator project. Elsewhere there is a look at the Amiga in the hands of famous owners, the first part of Bedtime for Democracy: A Demoscene Requiem, and an interview with Raistlin of Genesis Project. The printed edition also includes a digital coverdisk. I have purchased a physical English-language copy for myself; after following K&A Plus for so long, issue 30 seems an especially appropriate one to put on the library shelf and enjoy properly. [11]

COMPUTE!’s Gazette — Volume 2, Issue 4

The revived COMPUTE!’s Gazette has become another magazine I am genuinely enjoying, and I bought a physical copy of the April 2026 issue for the library shelf. Its theme, BASIC Is Not Dead, explores programmers still creating with BASIC today, including Steve Reuter’s C64 BASIC V2 game The Munching Millipede. The 80-page issue ranges much further, with features on classic video-game box art, the computers that preceded the famous 1977 “Trinity”, restoring and upgrading a Commodore 16, the recovered C64 game Cavey, BBS technology and the development of Jupiter Fracture for the C64 Ultimate. What I particularly love is the editorial feel. It captures something of the curiosity and variety of the original Gazette, but it is not pretending that it is still 1985: modern hardware, new software, preservation and today's retro-computing community sit naturally alongside the history. It feels like the magazine simply carried on publishing into the modern day. [12]

Redo From Start II

REDO FROM START II: Canada & Europe — Microzeit's second volume of its oral history of early Commodore computing turns to the emerging Canadian and European software industries of 1982–1985. Across roughly 400 colour pages, 32 developers, publishers, artists and other industry figures recount their experiences with the C64, including Andrew Braybrook, Jim Sachs, Jon Steele and former Zzap!64 editor Gordon Houghton. Interviews are supplemented by industry profiles, historical material and hundreds of images, making this less a conventional history than a collection of first-hand accounts from people who helped establish the C64 as a games machine. The hardback and accompanying PDF are scheduled to ship in September 2026. [10]

Feature Articles

The Commodore 64 has accumulated its own growing corner of PhilReichert.org, where I continue to write about the machine, its software, hardware and the culture that grew around it. Recent additions range from programming experiments and newly released games to original Commodore advertising and some of the more obscure branches of the company’s history. These are not simply companion pieces to the newsletter; together they are becoming an expanding C64 reference collection, mixing contemporary discoveries with material drawn from the archives.

Commodore MAX Machine: The Japanese Proto-Commodore 64

Before the Commodore 64 conquered the home-computer market, Commodore briefly released a curious machine that shared much of its emerging technology. The Commodore MAX Machine was aimed primarily at Japan and disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. We revisit this rare VIC-II and SID-equipped computer, its relationship to the C64 and why this fascinating branch of Commodore history is now so interesting to collectors and enthusiasts.

Everyone Wrote This Program on the Commodore 64

The C64 was not simply a machine on which we consumed software; many owners quickly discovered the pleasure of making their own. An AD&D character generator was almost the perfect beginner’s BASIC project, combining variables, loops, random numbers and a subject many young computer owners already loved. We recreate this wonderfully typical piece of bedroom programming and consider why small programs like it mattered to a generation learning how computers worked.

Commodore 1541 Disk Drive: The Essential C64 Companion

Slow, noisy and expensive, the Commodore 1541 nevertheless transformed what owning a C64 could be. That substantial beige box provided access to an enormous library of games and applications while introducing its owners to directories, formatting, disk errors and the unmistakable mechanical soundtrack of loading from a 5¼-inch floppy. We return to the 1541, its peculiarities and alternatives, and remember why the drive became almost as recognisable as the computer beside it.

SID vs MIDI: Two Ways Computers Make Music

SID and MIDI emerged from the same early-1980s technological world but proposed very different relationships between computers and music. The C64’s SID chip made the computer itself a synthesizer, while MIDI allowed computers to communicate musical performances to external instruments. We put the two approaches side by side to explore their technology, musical possibilities and the two remarkably enduring ideas about computer music they helped establish.

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