--- title: Commodore C65 categories: - Computers params: name: C65 company: /companies/commodore company_name: Commodore tabs: - photos - software - emulators - links - docs - videos photos: - title: COMMODORE 65 subtitle: '' text: '[Thomas Conté](http://www.pas.net)' image: null - title: COMMODORE 65 subtitle: '' text: '[Thomas Conté](http://www.pas.net)' image: null - title: C65 subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: FRONT VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: BOTTOM subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: 'BOTTOM #2' subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: REAR subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: INSIDE subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: MOTHER BOARD subtitle: '' text: '' image: null screenshots: - title: BOOT SCREEN subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: SCREENSHOT 1 subtitle: '' text: Thanks to [Toxic Waste's C65 Information Page](http://www.toxic-waste.de/c65/gallery.htm) for this picture. image: null - title: SCREENSHOT 2 subtitle: '' text: Thanks to [Toxic Waste's C65 Information Page](http://www.toxic-waste.de/c65/gallery.htm) for this picture. image: null - title: SCREENSHOT 3 subtitle: '' text: Thanks to [Toxic Waste's C65 Information Page](http://www.toxic-waste.de/c65/gallery.htm) for this picture. image: null - title: SCREENSHOT 4 subtitle: '' text: Thanks to [Commodore C65 Prototype page](http://www.heimcomputer.de/english/comp/c65.html) for this picture. image: null emulators: - title: M.E.S.S. (Multi Emulator Super System) url: HTTP://WWW.MESS.ORG platform: Windows text: MESS emulates C65 disc and prg files. links: - title: Commodore C65 prototype url: http://www.heimcomputer.de/english/comp/c65.html text: Nice detailed German page with a list of C65 owners... - title: Secret Weapons of Commodore - Commodore 65 url: http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/65.html text: Détailed information about the C65 - title: Toxic Waste's Commodore C65 Information Page url: http://www.toxic-waste.de/c65/ text: News, docs, dowloads, pictures, screenshots, links and more - title: www.c65.org url: http://www.onlinekunst.de/c65/ text: Online documentation and more - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: c65 file archive docs: - title: C65 SYSTEM SPECIFICATION (AKA C65 MANUAL) url: http://www.onlinekunst.de/c65/documentation/index.html cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vide.gif text: |- [**C65 SYSTEM SPECIFICATION (AKA C65 MANUAL)**](http://www.onlinekunst.de/c65/documentation/index.html)written by Commodore  compiled/archived by Frank Koutros and Marko Mäkelä\  type of document : TXT\  size : 184 KB\  source : [www.c65.org](http://www.onlinekunst.de/c65/) videos: - title: Commodore C65 64DX Prototype url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16iq88QZQb4 text: 'Length: 2min 35s' comments: - author: Frankenburger date: Sunday 13rd November 2016 text: |- Too little, too late.\ Amiga was already taking the world by storm. Although this system should become a part of the VICE emulator$ It isn''t. A very smart man made a 90$ working emulator here:\ https://github.com/lgblgblgb/xemu/wiki And lots of videos of working units on www.youtube.com What''s really neat is that most of the advanced features are available in C64 mode through simple Poke commands! It''s easy to see why people paid $1000''s of dollars for the prototypes. It would be really cool if a perfect emulator can be constructed, and the gear heads could port their C64 demos to the C65 emulator. In fact the C65 could have challenged and beaten the IBM PC computers and Windows 3.1 of the era. - author: Mephisto date: Saturday 2nd April 2016 text: |- I do not think there was a special button to execute the transition between c65 and c64, but a particular power mode.\ Holding down the C$ key and turning the computer on, it went directly to c64. - author: rendomizer (france) date: Tuesday 28th October 2014 text: i think it was the best thing commodore did with the commodore 65 but.... amiga commes .... - author: matthew date: Saturday 6th September 2014 text: someone correct me if im wrong but the c65 compared to a c64 would be like an apple IIgs compared to an earlier apple II - author: Stefan Egger date: Monday 12th March 2012 text: |- Where shoud that special key 64/65 mode switch should be? There is no key, just enter "GO64" or Press down C$ key on startup like C128. Second false information is a 7510 IC. I don''t know what this should be? Please correct me but: A C65 has a VICTOR 4510 CPU, an BILL (VIC-III) 4567 graphics chip and 2 SID Soundchips as well as DMAgic (except Rev 1.1). There are probably 200-250 units made. Currently and today I know of about 50 units in collectors hand. Maybe someone should update the article. - author: Shadow (USA) date: Friday 8th April 2011 text: I once saw one of these as a C64 DX many years ago, but by that time I had evolved to a C128, so didn''t bother with a new 64 - author: MrTwo (Germany) date: Tuesday 8th June 2010 text: |- There are (estimated) about 200 existing units of this baby.\ One was sold last month on ebay for 6600€.... - author: Lars Fischmann (Denmark) date: Tuesday 19th May 2009 text: 'Peter Gordon: The Amiga 500 (which it''''s compared to) was able to display a maximum of 4096 colours and had a max resolution of 640x400, while the C65 had the same colour range, but went as high as 1280x400 in max resolution. I wish I had one of these babies in my Commodore collection, but they are impossible to get.' - author: Mike Stavola (Germany) date: Tuesday 6th November 2007 text: |- Growing up a few towns away from the Commodore HQ, I've seen a few oddball commodores in the trash or at yard sales.\ I found one of these at an older man's garage sale in the late 90's. The person who was selling it stated that he used to work at Commodore, and that it was a demo model 65, which was essentially a commodore 64 with a built-in floppy drive.\ I didn't purchase the system, as he wanted $500 for it. - author: Mnem (Canada) date: Friday 16th December 2005 text: While these where prototyped and produced (in what limited quantities I can't say) exclusively in the UK a lot of them ended up shipped here to Canada due to the Commodore Headquarters here being one of the last ones to close up shop when Commodore went under. As far as I know these where all liquidated during the bankruptcy and most ended up for sale online at Grapevine (old online Amiga store). I actually had one of these on order at one point but cancelled the order when they emailed me stating that they where all PAL models. REALLY wish I hadn't done that now, bad move in hindsight. I think at the time they where selling them for $150 USD. They where also selling A3000+ motherboard prototypes (AGA 3000s) and a few CDTV-II prototype units which I assume they aquired in a similar manner, but they wanted a small fortune for those. - author: cbmeeks (Chattanooga, TN) date: Tuesday 30th November 2004 text: |- BlackInMind: You are wrong. A stock Amiga 500 can display 4096 colors at once using a mode called HAM (or "Hold and Modify"). Plus, a stock Amiga 500 can display 32 colors easily. A stock Amiga 1200 or 4000 can display 262,144 colors at once using a mode called HAM8. Which is similar to the HAM mode on the Amiga 500 but it uses 8 bitplanes. A stock Amiga 1200/4000 can easily display 256 colors at once. cbmeeks - author: GloverX (Sweden) date: Tuesday 7th October 2003 text: |- I wonder.. If C65 had been massproduced today, how many had buyed it (today)? And then, if "they" (=commodore) had produced a C66 (today) how many had bought one? I was thinking. The past days, the graphic-processor, sound and cpu where "made" for working togheter in the computer. If a C66 was built today, and the "past days way" to look at it, - author: BlackInMind (Greece) date: Saturday 14th September 2002 text: Amiga cannot display 262,144 (!) colours on screen. Amiga500 could reach just 16... - author: Peter Gordon (UK) date: Friday 30th August 2002 text: |- Umm... better than Amiga graphics? I don't think so. The C65 cannot display 262,144 colours on screen for starters :) I really, really, really, really want one of these though! Also, I've heard differing estimates about the number of 65s produced. Some say around 50, others say as many as 200 or 300. AFAIK they were in a warehouse, and when Commodore died, the stock was sold off. - author: LGB (Hungary) date: Friday 14th June 2002 text: Please, donate me with a C65 ;-) oc_id: 273 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230321004130/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=273 date: '2023-03-21' --- Another case of vaporware ! In the end of 1990, Commodore decided to create a successor for the famous [C64](/museum/commodore-c64/).They worked on a prototype called C64 DX then C65. The C65 had new great features : a very special version of the 7510 with lot of new opcodes, great graphic modes (better than the [Atari ST](/museum/atari-520-st-st-stm/) or the [Amiga](/museum/commodore-amiga-1000/) !) and a great new processor : the DMA / Blitter. This chip can be programmed with a list of instructions to copy or set blocks of memory. The machine was meant to be fully compatible with the C64, but wasn't. A special key was added on the keyboard to switch between the two modes (C64 / C65). The development of this machine was stopped (apparently because of problems with the VIC III controller and because of the cost of this computer), and because of the success of the Amiga (Notice that the C65 case looks like the Amiga one !). Commodore produced about 50 C65's, the first ones display C64DX at boot, the latest display C65.
We need more info about this pong ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.