Documentation
A cycle-exact Commodore 64 that runs entirely in your browser — guides for using it, and deep-dives on how it is built, chip by chip.
The emulator brings the whole breadbin to life: the 6510 CPU with every illegal opcode, VIC-II graphics down to the raster line, both SID sound chips (6581 & 8580), the CIA timers, PLA memory banking, and a true 1541 disk drive that handles the nastiest custom fastloaders. Every chip is held as close as possible to the real hardware, checked against hundreds of cycle-exact test programs alongside a growing unit-test suite of more than 2,400 labeled tests.
It is written from scratch and is not a VICE source port, but I could not have completed it without all the work done by the VICE Team: VICE was leaned on heavily to compare behaviour and hunt down bugs, especially the tricky fastloaders and cycle-exact demos. Thank you.
Overview & guides
About C64 READY.
What it is, what it stands for, and who's behind it.
Read ▸Specifications, source material and credits
The hardware references, tools, and people this emulator is built on.
Read ▸Getting Started
A Commodore 64 that boots in your browser — no install, no plugins, no login.
Read ▸User Guide
A complete tour of the C64 READY. interface — every panel, dialog and
Read ▸Features
Everything the emulator supports, seen from the user's side — not the internals.
Read ▸Known Issues
The honest list of what's still rough, approximate, or out of scope in C64 READY.
Read ▸Architecture & internals
Component status
Where the emulator stands against real Commodore 64 and 1541 hardware, subsystem
Read ▸C64 Emulator — Architecture
A schematic, top-down view of the whole emulator: the components, how they are
Read ▸C64 Machine — Architecture Overview
A high-level map of the top-level orchestrator: how the chips are wired
Read ▸6510 CPU — Architecture Overview
A high-level map of the MOS 6510 CPU emulation: the cycle-accurate microop
Read ▸VIC-II — Architecture Overview
A high-level map of how the MOS 6569 VIC-II emulation is structured: the timing
Read ▸SID 6581/8580 — Architecture Overview
How the emulator synthesises sound: three voices (oscillator + waveform DAC +
Read ▸Memory — Architecture Overview
A high-level map of the C64's bank-switched memory subsystem: the per-page
Read ▸1541 Disk Drive — Architecture Overview
A high-level map of the Commodore 1541 floppy-drive emulation: the drive as a
Read ▸Datasette — Architecture
Source: src/datasette.js. Wired into the machine in
Read ▸Retro Vibes 3D viewer — Architecture Overview
Retro Vibes is a browser-window-filling three.js scene that
Read ▸Performance
This is a cycle-accurate C64: every master cycle it clocks the VIC-II, the 6510,
Read ▸The test suite
How to run the tests, what the suite covers, the diagnostic/trace tools, and the
Read ▸