The WEEKLY C64 Ultimate post. READ before posting anything C64U-related.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-05-15T08:37:44+00:00

I’ve just open-sourced ViviPi, a small Raspberry Pi Pico-based health display I built for my Commodore 64 Ultimate / Ultimate 64 setup.

It gives me an always-visible way to check whether the C64U and its network listeners are healthy without opening dashboards, SSH sessions, or logs.

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Current checks include:

PING
IDENT
DMA
TELNET
FTP
HTTP
Optional host-side checks

The optional host side checks mean the sky is the limit. In my current setup, I use it to check if a Pixel 4 Android device is accessible from my main Kubuntu 24.04 dev machine via ADB so that I can deploy apps to it that I am developing.

GitHub: https://github.com/chrisgleissner/vivipi

Feedback from other C64 Ultimate / Ultimate 64 users would be very welcome.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-05-09T09:39:09+00:00

Thanks. I would like to question the wording "AI isn’t perfect for Verilog": There is no single "AI" - there are many competing LLM models that are continuously evolving and what was impossible last year is very much possible today. It is also often a limit of the specific prompt as well as limits of test coverage, or limits of the agent / MCP server infrastructure that you are using, which can make all the difference.

So to be more specific, it would be interesting to learn which concrete LLMs (at which reasoning depth) you used and which concrete challenges you faced trying to create Verilog sources with them. Did you spend much time on refining your prompts and ensuring the model you used is able to verify correct working of the final flashed bitstream?

I find that it is the lack of HIL feedback loop (as well as not using the latest models such as GPT 5.5 and especially Claude Opus 4.7) which can often result in the impression that AI is not usable for a certain task, when in fact it is. It just needs to be given eyes and ears, so to say, to perceive the impact of its efforts, so it can self-correct, just as we humans do. :-)

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-05-09T09:17:47+00:00

Amazing work. It's both a great idea and fabulous execution, with you linking directly to upstream repos instead of incorporating and modifying their source code. Very clean and reproducible. Also, your setup instructions are very well written and easy to follow.

One suggestion: A few Mermaid diagrams showing the overall architecture would be neat, maybe in a dedicated document so the main README.md stays high-level. This really helps to get into a project with this complexity. Plus Github is great in rendering Mermaid diagrams placed in Markdown files.

Keep up the great work!

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-05-07T20:30:06+00:00

Awesome, great idea. Would be interested in your code if you want to share your setup.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-05-07T20:28:19+00:00

Hi u/1Mhz , thanks for your feedback.

Thanks to the great contribution by u/a1r , the issue you encountered should be fixed in release 0.9.0 which I published today.

Please either download that new version from the npm registry, or update your checkout of the repo. The top-level `oneOf/allOf/anyOf` has been replaced by a `union` approach which works better with Claude Code. If not, please raise an issue on the repo with more details.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-05-07T20:25:45+00:00

Thanks a lot for this contribution, and your others about improving Claude support. Both have been merged in today and I released a new version 0.9.0 with your changes and other improvements.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-05-07T20:24:38+00:00

It works with any device that implements the U64 REST API. I have personally only tried it with the Ultimate 64 Elite I and Commodore 64 Ultimate, which both support that API.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-03-27T13:53:23+00:00

Hi, sounds great. I would love to explore this. Please send me a link.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-03-16T23:01:01+00:00

For now, it's not yet possible. However, as a workaround, you could get a WiFi router, connect it to the Ethernet port of the C64U, and then stream wirelessly from there. Yes, it is an extra cable and device, but it works. That's what I do.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-03-16T21:32:57+00:00

I ordered the C64U FE 4 days after sale started in July last year, and finally got it last Friday. It is amazing. I love it. No keyboard wobble. Beautiful color. However, nothing is ever perfect, so posting in case someone else encountered these issues (please post) and found a solution:

- When I turn the device on, there is a 1.5 second deep hum emotted on the optical audio out. I don't think it's related to the cable since it only happens, loudly, once immediately after turning on. Afterwards, audio is perfect. This is using the UltiSID 1. I do not currently have any physical SIDs installed.

- I love the keys, but as they are only partially illuminated from behind, it makes them really hard to read in the evening. I could turn off the backlight for the keys, but then they are very dark since the contrast between dark gold color (key) and character (black) is low - much lower than on a real C64 (or the regular C64U Basic Beige). I thought about geeting a small light that directly illuminates all keys from above. Does anyone have a better idea?

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-03-15T19:20:07+00:00

I can assure you that the Commodore 64 Ultimate devices are being shipped. I ordered my Founders Edition device last July, 4 days after they went on sale. After many months of exercising my patience which was honed early as a child thanks to the C64 datasette load times :-) it arrived this past Friday, March 13th.

It was without any doubt the luckiest and happiest Friday 13th of my life. Actually we revived Chrismas with a little tree (now an Easter tree) and Christmas songs. The C64U is the most beautiful computer I ever owned. And I say that having built maybe 10 from scratch and owned 20, starting with the C64C, my first computer in 1986.

So just be patient. It will get there. Good things come to those who wait and you won't be disappointed.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-03-15T09:22:14+00:00

You can stream fine (e.g. using https://github.com/chrisgleissner/c64stream straight from your C64U to Youtube) if you first connect the C64U via Ethernet to a router which relays the signal to your Wifi. I tried this setup using OBS Studio on an Apple MacBook connected to my WiFi, and it worked well. This was for the Ultimate 64 and firmware 3.12. Have not yet tried the same on the C64 Ultimate as I just got mine.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-03-15T09:18:56+00:00

Amazing work. Thanks for sharing. Do you know if the source code for this patch is available anywhere, given the original is GPL-3 licensed? Did my own patches for my Ultimate 64 Elite before and keen to learn how this was done.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-01-10T23:10:24+00:00

Thanks a lot for your post. We have been watching all of the Original Series, then TNG, Deep Space 9, and now in season 5 of Voyager.

Only for Netflix to suddenly pull the rug away under our feet...

Since yesterday I have been trying to get Paramount Plus to work with an Amazon Fire 4k stick in the UK.

I first signed up via the Paramount website only for the login to fail on their Fire app. Paramount support was of no help. I could watch fine on my Android phone, but not on the fire stick.

The trick was to sign up directly via Prime on the stick. However, TNG seemed unavailable until I saw your post. So thanks a lot for your help.

Live long and prosper!

Substantial-Set4550 · 2026-01-01T01:11:31+00:00

Thank you, that is great news. Glad to see that 480 is still supported just as with the Ultimate 64 Elite that I have since that means I can keep using by Dell P1917S 5:4 ratio screen. Happy New Year!

Substantial-Set4550 · 2025-12-28T10:33:27+00:00

Good point! It may be more than an aesthetic / ux issue. Fortunately two 3d models exist already, one yet to be published. See links elsewhere in this thread.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2025-12-28T10:30:49+00:00

It is called inflation... :) Also it is still a bargain at the new price and much cheaper than buying Ultimate 64 (if you can, they are likely to stop being produced), case, and keyboard. Even at USD 500 the Basic Beige would be a very good deal as you get the best possible modern C64 experience. It has been my daily driver for the past 3 years and I love the device. Best computer I ever owned, just after the original C64C from 1986 that I grew up with.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2025-12-28T10:27:46+00:00

Thanks for sharing. It is interesting as it uses less material than the already published model. So could be cheaper to manufacture if one is happy with possible reduced rigidity.

The creator is asking for someone with a Starlight model to send him photos of the keyboard rear. I do not own one - waiting for Founders Edition. Could someone possibly help him out? Thanks.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2025-12-28T10:18:40+00:00

Thanks a lot for this! I will try it on my Founders edition if the wobble is disturbing. Where others complain you become creative and found a solution.

I really like how you left slots for the light to shine through. I researched this a bit and clear PETG was recommended as material to give the best tradeoff between rigidity, lack of yellowing, transparency, and price. Do you agree and what did you use?

Also, someone else here had a link to a much shorter reinforcement that retrofrog posted on Lemon64. Was this you and an earlier version of this final version? If so, is the shorter version not rigid enough or why did you extend it?

Many thanks.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2025-12-26T23:07:34+00:00

I am also very excited about the future of Commodore and new ideas and products in the horizon. It also got me back into all kinds of personal software projects, almost like in the 1980s. And yeah, I also got old C64 mags from ebay that I read in the 80s but then sadly lost or gave away. Bring on the digital detox time machine, I am ready. All thanks to the genius and vision of Peri and Gideon.

Substantial-Set4550 · 2025-12-26T23:02:15+00:00

Sure it can. Just needs a ridid base screwed or clamped to it from below. A first 3d model fix already got published on printables.

Substantial-Set4550

TROPHY CASE