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The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982. Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US $595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of memory with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of that time. It is commonly known as the C64 or C=64 (after the graphic logo on the case) and occasionally as the CBM 64 (for Commodore Business Machines), or VIC-64. It has also been affectionately nicknamed the "breadbox" and "bullnose" due to the shape and color of the first version of its casing.

Commodore 64
Commodore 64 Logo.png
The Commodore 64
Commodore 64
Manufacturer Commodore
Generation Second generation
Retail availability August 1982
Discontinued April 1994
Units sold 12.5 million
CPU 0.985MHz-1.023MHz MOS Technology 6510 8-bit processor
Predecessor Commodore VIC-20 (Wikipedia)
Successor Commodore 128 (Wikipedia)

During the C64's lifetime, sales totaled 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. For a substantial period of time (1983–1986), the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC clones, Apple Inc. computers, and Atari 8-bit family computers. Sam Tramiel, a former Atari president and the son of Commodore's founder, said in a 1989 interview "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years."

Part of its success was because it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores, and also because these machines can be directly plugged into an existing home television without any modifications. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost. It is sometimes compared to the Ford Model-T automobile for bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative mass-production.

Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office applications, and games. Various C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or a compatible game console, to run these programs today. The machine is also credited with popularizing the computer demo scene. The C64 is still used today by some computer hobbyists.

Since 28 March 2008, Commodore 64 games have been available to buy through Nintendo's Virtual Console service in Europe; the first games available were Uridium and International Karate. Later, on February 23, 2009, the Commodore 64 section was launched in North America with the first three titles, International Karate, The Last Ninja and Pitstop II. A C64 emulator application with classic games also appears on Apple Inc.'s App Store.

Commodore 64 Global Problems

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There are no known global problems with Commodore 64 titles on Dolphin.

Virtual Console Compatibility List (Commodore 64)

Help complete the list!

  • Click the icon   to the right of the rating stars and put just a number 1 through 5 into the page. Use the compatibility guide below as a reference of what rating to use.
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Compatibility Description
  Perfect: No issues at all!
  Playable: Runs well, only minor graphical or audio glitches. Games can be played all the way through
  Starts: Starts, maybe even plays well, but crashes or major graphical/audio glitches
  Intro/Menu: Hangs/crashes somewhere between booting and starting
  Broken: Crashes when booting
  Unknown: Has not been tested yet
Region indicator Region description
AU Australia
CA Canada (NTSC /w French translation)
EU Europe, PAL/SECAM territories
JP Japan and Asia (NTSC-J)
KO Korea
NA North America and NTSC territories
RU Russia
Title Year Region Compatibility
Boulder Dash 2008 NA 5  
California Games 2008 NA/EU 5  
Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine 2008 NA/EU 5  
Impossible Mission 2008 EU 5  
Impossible Mission II 2008 EU 0  
International Karate 2008 NA/EU 5  
International Karate + 2008 EU 0  
Jumpman 2008 EU 0  
Last Ninja, The 2008 NA/EU 5  
Last Ninja 2: Back with a Vengeance 2008 NA/EU 5  
Last Ninja 3 2008 EU 0  
Mayhem in Monsterland 2008 EU 0  
Paradroid 2008 EU 0  
Pitstop II 2008 NA/EU 5  
Summer Games II 2008 NA/EU 5  
Tower Toppler aka Nebulous 2009 NA 5  
Uridium 2008 EU 0  
Winter Games 2009 EU 0  
World Games 2008 EU 0  

See also