Welcome to the world of friendly emulation
Say Hello to VirtualC64
About
VirtualC64 turns your Apple Macintosh into a Commodore 64. Both PAL and NTSC are emulated with a strong emphasis on PAL emulation accuracy. Due to cycle-accurate emulation, high emulation accuracy is achieved.
Web Assembly
The core emulator is designed to be compatible with WebAssembly and can run in your browser. With the new web version, viewing demos or playing games is just a few mouse clicks away.
History
VirtualC64 has a long history under it's belt. Originally, the emulator was intended as a virtual CPU environment for being used in a one-year or two-year course on computer engineering. Over the years, VirtualC64 has become more and more accurate and evolved into a full-blown emulator.
Philosophy
The development of VirtualC64 is based on three basic principles. Easy: VirtualC64 aims for bridging the gap between the emulated and the real machine with an easy-to-use interface. Clean: It is my deep conviction that the code quality is as important as system-level functionality. Free: VirtualC64 is open-source software.
Roms
When the emulator launches for the first time, you will be prompted to add four Rom images per drag-and-drop. Due to their unclear copyright status, the Rom images are not pre-installed. As a side note, however, it should be mentioned that VirtualC64 is compatible with the Rom images included with other C64 emulators such as VICE.
Free Rom replacements
If you do not have legal access to the original Commodore Roms, you can run the emulator with the free Rom replacements that have been developed as part of the Mega65 project. Recent versions of these Roms ship with the emulator and can be installed with a single click in the Rom configuration panel.
Input devices
To use a joystick within the emulator, either enable keyboard emulation or connect an external USB joystick. It is recommended to use the emulator with the Speedlink Competition Pro (USB), but other controllers such as the Sony Dualshock 4 are supported, too. VirtualC64 also supports the RetroFun! USB adapter which allows the connection of original Commodore joysticks.
Media formats
VirtualC64 supports all common C64 media formats. Disks can be imported in form of D64, T64, PRG, P00, or G64 files. The emulator also supports the TAP format for datasette tapes and the CRT format for cartridges that can be plugged into the expansion port of the C64.
License
VirtualC64 is open-source and published under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The CPU core has been re-licensed recently. It is published under the terms of the MIT license now, allowing much broader use. Please refer to the Peddle project for more details about this topic.
Related projects
by the same author
vAmiga is a Commodore Amiga emulator which is as user-friendly as VirtualC64. Check it out today.
Peddle is the virtual MOS 6510 CPU driving VirtualC64. The CPU core is maintained in a seperate repository and is easily integratable into your own application.
Moira is the virtual Motorola 68k CPU driving vAmiga. The CPU core is maintained in a seperate repository and is as easy to integrate into your own application as Peddle.
Spin-offs
by other authors
VC64Web
VC64Web is a WebAssembly port of VirtualC64 by GitHub user Mithrendal. The emulator runs in your browsers or on your mobile device as a progressive web app. It is also possible to embed VC64Web as a web player as you can see right here:
Neoartcr
This is another web WebAssembly port of VirtualC64 written by Christian Corti. The emulator has been optimized for running in web browsers.