MEGA65: The First Ten Years. Dan’s MEGA65 Digest for April 2025.

<figure>

<figcaption>
MEGA65: The First Ten Years.
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure>



<figcaption>
MEGAVOXL, by MirageBD
</figcaption>
</figure>

Ten years ago, Paul Gardner-Stephen and the Museum of Electronic Games and Art announced a joint effort to recreate the Commodore 65. The MEGA65 would be an open-hardware open-source product, based on the original Commodore designs and prototypes, manufactured in Germany and sold worldwide. Instead of fading into obscurity as a historical footnote, the Commodore 65 would achieve new potential as a modern day platform for recreational computing, a revival both familiar and new to thousands of people looking for a way to reconnect with the creativity, stimulation, comfort, and digital sovereignty of the 8-bit era.

In this special edition of the Digest, we’ll review the first ten years of the MEGA65 project through published media, articles, videos, and conference talks. Take your time to click through the links below and experience the project through the eyes of the people that built it and the community around it.

We also have some exciting announcements to celebrate the anniversary! Don’t miss this one!

The Great MEGA65 Egg Hunt begins

<figure>



<figcaption>
This one-of-a-kind original MEGA65 prototype can be yours!
</figcaption>
</figure>

Breaking news from Detlef “deft” Hastik:

Having used citations and celebrated events from the history of computer nerds, and being fans of the book (not the movie!) Ready Player One, we have hidden an Easter egg in every MEGA65! The first person to find it will win an insane piece of MEGA65 history: the very first working and beautifully shaped MEGA65 prototype, shown in 2015 at AMIGA 30 in Neuss/Germany, six months after the project was officially announced by Paul Gardner-Stephen (AU) and Detlef Hastik (DE). This unicorn computer has an insurance value of over 15K USD, is signed by Dave Haynie, RJ Mical, Chris Hülsbeck, Dino Dini and other famous people, sports an unprinted (!) original C65 keyboard inside an SLS fabricated C65 case (yes, it’s made with lasers!) and - it also works!

Prepare for an unforgiving hunt through the depths of the MEGA65, through time, and of course, through space! There can be only one person to enter the nerd throne and win this nerd’s dream machine. Will it take days, weeks, months - or even years to solve the mind bending puzzles left by the creators and not discovered for years? Will you be the one to earn the crown?

Friends (and friends of friends) of the MEGA65 core team are not allowed to participate. Be prepared to be questioned. A time stamp will decide who the lucky winner is in case several people find the egg. It is allowed to build clans and search in groups :)

That’s right, this one-of-a-kind piece of MEGA65 history can be yours—if you know where to look! This multi-step trail has been under our noses for years and has not yet been discovered independently. Best of luck to everyone!

<figure>



<figcaption>
RJ Mical admiring the MEGA65 prototype, at AMIGA 30 in Neuss/Germany, October 2015.
</figcaption>
</figure>

Intro Disk #4

<figure>



<figcaption>
Intro Disk #4
</figcaption>
</figure>

Every MEGA65 comes bundled with a large collection of software produced by the community, browsable by a menu that opens automatically when you first turn on the computer. The Intro Disk collection has added more titles each year since the MEGA65’s debut in 2022, and it’s time to expand it again!

Intro Disk #4 is now available for download. MEGA65 owners, sign in to Filehost and use this link for a version with extra licensed content. The new archive has an all-new menu system by MirageBD with music by Hein, and adds 72 new titles and dozens of articles about projects you can download and install. This brings the total size of the Intro Disk collection to 264 games, demos, and tools.

The entire collection has been revised and tested with the upcoming v0.97 release core, ROM, and system software. ID4 should work with release v0.96, but if you notice issues, I recommend installing the test version of the upcoming release (as discussed in last month’s Digest).

Huge thanks to Gurce, who has spearheaded the Intro Disk project from the very beginning. Thanks to his efforts curating, building, and testing the collection, everyone can experience what the MEGA65 has to offer, right out of the box.

Screenful of BASIC Compo, last call!

If you’ve been waiting until the last minute to enter the Screenful of BASIC Compo, congratulations! It is now the last minute! The itch.io game jam page will accept entries until 11:59 pm GMT, April 22, 2025.

After the deadline, all entries will be revealed for download, and a friendly round of voting will begin. Try out all the entries for yourself, cheer on your fellow competitors in the comments, and boost your favorites.

If you have any last minute questions or technical issues with your entry, be sure to ask in the Discord or the Forum64.de thread. Go go go!

More from deft!

Another note from deft:

But what’s this? Something stirs behind the curtain - quiet talks, shifting shapes, and a name long thought dormant may soon rise to breathe new life into an extraordinary machine. Could something we all hold dear be wearing new clothes in the future? Those threads are being woven in fractures between past and present, by hands both trusted and unexpected. Something is cooking. What’s on the menu? Nothing is confirmed. Everything is possible. Watch this space.

Commodore: The Final Years

<figure>



<figcaption>
The Commodore 65, developer unit #23, rev 2A mainboard. Owned by Jim Brain, photographed at Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 2024, next to MEGA65 materials.
</figcaption>
</figure>

At the Consumer Electronics Show of 1985 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Commodore Business Machines announced two new computers: the Commodore 128 and the Commodore LCD. The C128 went on to sell 2.5 million units over the next four years. The CLCD was cancelled before it was released.

That same year, Commodore began developing the 4502 CPU, later rebranded as the CSG 65CE02. Originally intended as a more efficient CMOS version of the 6502, the final design of the 4502 was faster and more featureful, compatible with the documented 6502 instruction set, with new instructions and enhancements for making use of more memory. The new chip would be a drop-in replacement for the 6502, at least in some applications.

Chip designer Bill Gardei conceived of a new home computer using the new CPU, an 8-bit successor to the C64 and C128 that would eventually be known as the Commodore 65. The C65 would feature the 4502 (packaged with other components as the “4510”), along with an enhanced VIC-III (4567) graphics chip to follow the VIC-II from the C64 and C128. Like the C128, the C65 would run existing C64 software and support most C64 peripherals. And the faster CPU, improved graphics, and target price would beat the new home game console everyone was talking about: the Nintendo Entertainment System.

By 1989, Commodore needed the C6