The Mega65 8bit Computer

Dreams can come true and the arrival of the Mega65 will make a lot of Commodore 64 fans very excited. Let me explain a few things first so you understand the history and significance of the Mega65 name. Back in January of 1982 Commodore released the hugely successful Commodore 64 as the successor to the Commodore VIC-20. It is not known exactly how many units were sold but it’s estimated to be around 15 million. The original C64 computer was commonly referred to by enthusiasts as “the Bread bin” due to its shape resembling a tabletop bread storage bin. In 1986 Commodore released the C64C which was a redesigned machine with a new wedge-shaped case and cost reduced internals. They also released the C128 which shared the same look and design as the C64C case but had an upgraded Zilog Z80 cpu, was backward compatible and had double the memory capacity.

The sales of the Commodore 64 started to drop off significantly towards the latter end of the 1980’s due to far more powerful machines being released by other manufacturers. Commodore was not sitting still and had a new machine in development known as the C64DX which was a fully backward compatible machine that was far more powerful than the C64. This prototype unit is more commonly known as the C65, but it was never officially released. The engineers at Commodore did an amazing job in designing the C65 and there were many working prototypes and even sales listings in magazines but due to infighting in the company the project was canned by management.

If they had released the C65 maybe it could have saved Commodore and turned their fortunes around. However, when they finally went into liquidation in 1994 the liquidators sold the prototypes into the open market and estimates of the number sold range from 50 to 2,000 units, although the lower numbers sound more likely. Some have sold on Ebay in recent years for staggering high values between €40k and €80k.

The C65 had the following specifications:

CSG 4510 R3 CPU which was a derivative of the MOS 6502 @ 3.54MHz
Dual MOS 6526 CIA’s
UART Serial Interface
Up to 1MB of addressable memory
VIC III Graphics Chip CSG 4567 R5 capable of 256 colours from a 4,096-colour palette
40/80 column text mode
Genlock external video sync
Integrated DMA controller
Dual CSG 8580R5 SID sound chips
128K RAM which was expandable up to 1MB
128K ROM
Commodore Basic V10

The Museum of Electronic Games and Art (MEGA) started to build a recreation of the C65 back in 2015 with as closer feature set as possible but using modern components. It’s an 8-bit computer that is around 40 times faster than a C64, is FPGA based (so not an emulator) and backward compatible.

The Mega65 has the following specifications:

GS4510 single core enhanced 4502 8-bit CPU switchable between 1, 2, 3.5 and 40.5MHz
384KB fast RAM (128KB occupied by ROM), 8MB of “Hyper RAM” and 32KB colour RAM
VIC IV GPU (backwards compatible to VIC-III and VIC-II) with 128KB graphics memory
Supports NTSC or PAL
Four soft-SIDs + quad 4/8/16-bit switchable DACs with sampling rate between 2Hz and 2MHz
Twin SD Card slots (SD internal and Micro SD external, VFAT32 file system)
3.5″ floppy drive
C64 Cartridge slot
3.5mm stereo audio port
100mbit fast ethernet port
HDMI port
VGA port
Basic65 (which is based on Commodore Basic V10 but massively enhanced)
High quality Cherry MX based retro keyboard
Completely open source

The release version of the Mega65 is the R3A and is priced at €667 which is a bargain considering a used and boxed Commodore 128 in good condition can go for upward of €550. You don’t have any of the draw backs of a vintage machine, you have HDMI and SD card support, speed and capacity. Oh, and a warrantee, technical support and continued development of the platform.

The initial batch was for 1,400 machines, the second batch is due in Q4 2022 and the third batch in 2023 so pre-order yours now. Imagine reliving that Christmas from when you were a child and opening up a brand new Mega65 on Christmas morning and playing retro games with the family.