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Commodore 64 Ultimate: One Minute Review
The Commodore 64 Ultimate is a modern recreation of the classic 1980s home computer. It's a tremendous achievement, one that joyfully takes me right back to my childhood and also makes me wonder how on earth seven-year-old me had the patience to really figure it out. It's wonderful and sometimes frustrating and slow to use, but for fans of that era, it's hard to resist (assuming money isn't an issue).
It's much more than just an emulated machine like if you had a Nintendo Classic Mini or PlayStation Classic. It provides compatibility with most of your old Commodore 64 hardware if, like me, you've kept a huge box of cassettes, cartridges and joysticks, but you can also connect to the internet to download some games.
Capturing that nostalgia has some drawbacks that are only truly evident now that we've moved on. Loading times are slow, although not as slow as in the past, while knowing which commands to press on the keyboard isn't as intuitive as it once was. However, a comprehensive manual goes some way to helping you remember how you used to do things and ensures that newcomers are not left in the dark.
Think of this as a project rather than a brief flirtation, and you should be delighted with the Commodore 64 Ultimate. I enjoyed rediscovering how to complete simple routines in BASIC, but also playing old favorites, even if they weren't exactly games I'd continue to play for dozens of hours.
It's a fantastic love letter to the computer that led me down a lifelong path of loving technology, but it also reminds me of how far we've come. At times, you'll feel a little frustrated by a system that doesn't seem as logical as before, but if you were here from the beginning, you'll always come back for more. Just be prepared for a bit of a learning curve.
Commodore 64 Ultimate: price and availability
- List price: $349.99 (around £260 / AU$524)
- Currently available for pre-order for March/April 2026
- Beige and Starlight variants available
The Commodore 64 Ultimate is currently available for pre-order directly from Commodore. At the time of writing, it is expected to ship in March or April 2026. The standard Beige variant costs $349.99 (around £260 / AU$524), while the more futuristic-looking Starlight model costs an additional $50 and the Founder's Edition with 24-karat gold-plated badges costs $549.99.
I chose the Beige version because it looks almost identical to the one from my childhood (more on that in a moment), but even that model is quite expensive compared to other retro gaming machines and consoles.
Of course, it's much more than just an emulator, given that it runs on your original hardware, but this isn't impulse-buy territory. I would think carefully about whether this is a novelty product for you or something you really plan to use for a long time.
Fortunately, if you're like me and kept your old collection, you won't have to worry about buying new games, joysticks, or a cassette recorder. If you're starting from scratch, a USB stick full of games is included, and an additional supply of games is available online through the computer store for free.
Commodore 64 Ultimate: specifications
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Commodore 64 Ultimate |
|
Price |
$349.99 (around £260 / AU$524) |
|
Weight |
5.6 lbs/2.56 kg |
|
Dimensions |
16 x 8 x 3 inches / 400 x 200 x 70mm |
|
Extras |
Integrated Ultimate-II+ functionality with tape emulation and DMA loader, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, 2 game controller ports |
|
UPC |
AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA |
|
RAM |
128MB RAMDDR2 |
|
Video |
HDMI 1080P at 50 Hz PAL or 60 Hz NTSC Analog via DIN-8: CVBS, S-Video or RGB |
|
Compatibility |
Commodore 64 cassettes, discs, cartridges, ROM |
|
Drivers |
Serial Port Joystick/DB9 Controller |
Commodore 64 Ultimate: Design and Features
- It blends well with the original aesthetic.
- Traditional interface combined with a more modern menu system
- Works with original accessories and games.
The Commodore 64 Ultimate is an instant nostalgia trip if you owned the original. Even the box design is similar. Open it and you'll be presented with a USB drive disguised as a cassette tape along with a wire-bound User's Guide that looks a lot like the one you looked at in awe as a kid. The computer itself also looks almost identical to the original, right down to the power switch on the side and all the possible ports.
These ports include modern essentials like USB and HDMI, but also older connectors for adding your original cassette deck, joysticks, or a disc drive. It also works with C64 cartridges if you have any lying around.
It's all plug and play, which is great if you have an old collection ready to try again, taking advantage of a model similar to the Atari 2600+. From what I remember, it also sounds like the Commodore 64, with a little crackle when something loads coming from the sound chip.
The Commodore 64 Ultimate's user interface is also just as you remember it, which is both a good and a bad thing. In the past, there was no drag and drop functionality, and everything was done through a keyboard with arrow keys that required the Shift key to change direction. This is replicated here, and it takes a hot minute to remember the old ways.
To make up for that old way of doing things, there are menus to navigate. It's still a little awkward, but it opens up more features, like being able to go online to download community-made games or access message board forums.
These menus have a lot of depth, so if you like to tweak and adjust settings, you're in luck. This is a model with many more features than the original. How far you want to go depends mainly on your enthusiasm. It can still be a relatively plug-and-play device if you just want to download games.
Commodore 64 Ultimate: performance
- Loading times are faster than the OG but still slow
- Overclocking options
- BASIC is just as you remember it
Remember when the Commodore 64 would take 10 minutes or more to load a cassette and then sometimes just crash? Those days are over with Ultimate! However, that doesn't mean it's fast. The processing power is there, but presumably waiting for a game to load is there to remind you of simpler times.
This applies whether you are loading a tape image from a USB or online, so this is not an old media issue. Long term, I plan to add a Tapuino to make it easier to load my original cassettes, but you don't really need anything extra besides what's in the box.
Connecting to the Internet is as easy as connecting any other device to your network, and in no time you'll be searching for games or browsing bulletin boards. While I never found my new favorite game through these methods, it was fun to check it out.
Interestingly, you can dive into a menu and activate turbo boost to improve performance from 1MHz to 64MHz with a RAM expansion unit, increasing the RAM to 16MB, which seems mind-blowing for a Commodore 64 machine.
However, my favorite part of using the Commodore 64 Ultimate actually has nothing to do with gaming performance. I loved coding in BASIC again. It was the first time I programmed anything and possibly also when my programming knowledge peaked. The wire-bound manual guides you through the early stages of BASIC, and hunting down some old books and magazines with programs was a lot of fun.
Variety is where much of the joy of the Commodore 64 Ultimate comes from. It is truly a complete home computer rather than a restrictive gaming emulator. Being able to switch between playing some old games and discovering new ones online, or just coding something, gives it tremendous depth compared to something like the previous C64 Mini.
Should you buy the Commodore 64 Ultimate?
Buy it if…
Don't buy it if…
Also consider…
Not sure if the Commodore 64 Ultimate is the retro hardware for you? Here's how it compares to two similar products.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Commodore 64 Ultimate |
Atari 2600+ |
Commodore 64 Mini |
|
Price |
$349.99 (around £260 / AU$524) |
$129.99 / £129.99 / AU$269.95 |
$79.99 / £69.99 / AU$149.95 |
|
Weight |
5.6 lbs/2.56 kg |
1.3lbs/0.59kg |
0.82lb/0.38kg |
|
Dimensions |
16 x 8 x 3 inches / 400 x 200 x 70mm |
10.6 x 7 x 2.8 inches / 269 x 178 x 71mm |
9.8 x 7.9 x 2 inches / 250 x 200 x 50mm |
|
Extras |
Integrated Ultimate-II+ functionality with tape emulation and DMA loader, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, USB, 2 game controller ports |
CX40+ joystick with DB9 connector, USB-C, illuminated Atari logo |
USB flash drive with support for disc, cartridge and cassette ROM files, two USB-A ports, THE Joystick (joystick with microswitch) |
|
UPC |
AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA |
Rockchip 3128 SOC |
SoC ARM A20 |
|
RAM |
128MB RAMDDR2 |
256 MB DDR3 RAM |
64KB |
|
Video |
HDMI 1080P at 50 Hz PAL or 60 Hz NTSC Analog via DIN-8: CVBS, S-Video or RGB |
HDMI (widescreen support) |
HDMI (720p 60Hz output; full width/4:3/CRT filter options) |
|
Compatibility |
Commodore 64 cassettes, discs, cartridges, ROM |
Atari 2600 and 7800 game cartridges |
Onboard games and games via USB port |
|
Drivers |
Serial Port Joystick/DB9 Controller |
CX40+ Joysticks |
ELjoystick |
How I tested the Commodore 64 Ultimate
- Tested for approximately 20 hours.
- I only used it right out of the box and also added my own original joystick and cassette to play with.
- I also spent time using it to code simple programs in BASIC.
I used the Commodore 64 Ultimate after digging up my old collection of C64 games and hardware. Unfortunately for me, not all cassettes survived their time intact, and a joystick was temperamental at best, but it gave me a chance to see how well new and old hardware worked together.
I also connected to the Internet with the Commodore 64 and examined seemingly every menu in the original user interface. I downloaded new games to play and see how well that experience worked, and I spent a lot of time writing BASIC programs and reveling in how easy it was, and feeling a lovely nostalgia for fooling myself into thinking they could rule the world because they knew a little about BASIC.
The Commodore 64 Ultimate is very different from other returning retro machines, so I mainly focused on comparing it to the original machine.
Read more about how we test
First review in January 2026
