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randyrossi edited this page Aug 13, 2026 · 2 revisions

BMC64 Bare Metal C64 Emulator for the Raspberry Pi 3/2/Zero

BMC64 is a bare metal fork of VICE's C64 emulator optimized for the Raspberry Pi 3. (It will also work on RPi 2 and Zero models with reduced performance for some features.) It has 50hz/60hz smooth scrolling, low video/audio latency and a number of other features that make it perfect for building your own C64 replica machine.

Features

  • Quick boot time: 4.1 seconds! (over composite)
  • True 50hz/60hz smooth scrolling (no horizontal tearing or jitters!)
  • Low latency between input and audio/video
  • Excellent audio/video synchronization
  • No need to issue a shutdown sequence, just power off
  • Supports wiring real joysticks and a keyboard via GPIO pins (optional) Click Here for adapter build instructions
  • Supports a PCB for scanning a real C64 keyboard and joysticks for embedding a Pi inside a C64 shell (optional) See PCB Page for build info.
  • BMC64Lite version is also included for the Pi Zero. See BMC64Lite Info Page for how 'Lite' versions differ.

Links

See CHANGELOG for latest changes Follow the lemon64.com thread GitHub Link: https://github.com/randyrossi/bmc64 See README.md file for BMC64 documentation Also check the Full Board PCB by aminch

Downloads

Since Version 3.0, all supported machines for all supported Pi models are distributed in one release image. Format a SDCard with FAT32 and unzip the archive files onto it. You will also need to get emulator roms for each machine you want to emulate. You MUST obtain at a minimum Commodore 64 KERNAL, CHARGEN, BASIC, and d1541II rom files and copy them to the sdcard into the C64 folder. The emulator will not run without them. These are available from many sites.

TBD

SDCard

Example NOTE: You will have to rename files from the names you find here to the names the emulator expects above. For example, characters.901225-01.bin becomes CHARGEN. This is what your C64 dir should look like:

/C64
    kernal
    chargen
    basic
    d1541II (recommended)
    rpi_sym.vkm
    bootstat.txt
/C128
    TBD
/VIC20
    TBD
/PLUS4
    TBD
/PLUS4EMU (Pi3 Only)
    TBD
/PET
    TBD

Other disk drive ROM files are optional (dos1541, dos1571 and dos1581) Copy to your SD card your .D64/.TAP/.CRT files to the disks, tapes, or carts folders. All USB devices must be attached before you power on the PI. They must remain plugged in or the emulator will not function. F12 brings up the menu (or Commodore Key+F7 if enabled)

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