It’s hard to overstate just how seismic an impact the Commodore 64 had on home computing. Launched in 1982, the 8-bit machine—iconic in its beige plastic shell with integrated keyboard—went on to become the best-selling personal computer of all time. Despite the success, manufacturer Commodore International folded in 1994, with rights to the name floating around for years.

Then, retro gaming YouTuber Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson got the bright idea to buy the company wholesale and re-create its most important piece of hardware. This isn't the first effort to resurrect the Commodore 64, but this particular reborn rig might be the best attempt yet. It’s a near-perfect replica of that 43-year old titan, one that looks, sounds, and feels like the original. It is, by any measure, a frankly extraordinary achievement—but it’s not going to be for everyone.

Photograph: Matt Kamen

Everything Old Is Old Again

Dubbed the Commodore 64 Ultimate, the old-new (or new-old?) device looks like a relic of the ’80s—and I mean that as a compliment. It bears the same all-in-one wedge-shaped design as the original, the same chunky keys, even the same overall color palette for the beige model (it’s also available in a transparent “Starlight” model with RGB lighting and, for early buyers, a golden “Founder’s Edition”). If it weren’t for the distinctly un-yellowed plastic shell, it could be mistaken at a glance for the real thing, leftover stock straight from 1982.

For some, that will be the most compelling thing about the C64U—it is the real thing, sort of. At its core, this is a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device, an approach most often seen to re-create classic game consoles (as with the recent Analogue3D “remake” of the Nintendo 64). To strip the idea right back, FPGAs tell one chipset to pretend it’s another and, ideally, allow for performance near-identical to the original machine at a hardware level, rather than through emulation.

Photograph: Matt Kamen

This goes a step further, boasting a heap of physical connectors and ports that allow you to use authentic peripherals from the ’80s. If you still have your original joysticks or datasette to hand, they should all work as they did back in the day. For fans, collectors, or anyone who has their original Commodore gadgets stashed in a garage somewhere, that’s a fantastic proposition. The revived Commodore International hasn’t quite put the classic hardware back into production, but this comes damned close.

The C64U makes a few concessions to modernity. There are a pair of USB-A ports at the rear, where you’ll connect the cassette-shaped USB stick that comes with each unit, pre-loaded with games, software demos, music that makes use of the C64’s still legendary audio capabilities, and GEOS, a graphical user interface—more on that later. There’s also built-in Wi-Fi and an Ethernet port, allowing access to bulletin boards and the Commoserve file server, and HDMI output. Even there, though, there’s still the option for connecting to a CRT monitor, making the additions feel more like a tweak than an overhaul.

Photograph: Matt Kamen

This dedication to the past goes too far at times, with elements painfully authentic to the point of being actively obtuse in 2025—original ’80s labels on the casing, such as "H-L" and "RF" (how the C64 connected to CRT monitors or TVs), or "USER PORT" where the HDMI, USB, and Ethernet ports are. And, despite the presence of those USB ports, you can’t use a modern mouse with the C64U—you’ll either need a period piece or set the WASD keys to act as a virtual joystick whenever you might need to manipulate an onscreen cursor. There’s almost a sense of resentment here, as if anything too modern would be a desecration of the holy hardware, and any concessions made to ensure the C64U is even halfway usable with present-day displays or add-ons were made reluctantly.

Nostalgia Is Mandatory

The Commodore International of 2025, leaning into its deliberately dated approach, is another fascinating aspect of the Commodore 64 Ultimate. The company has labelled itself the “digital detox brand,” positioning the C64U as a bulwark against the distracting, loud, attention-grabbing devices we’re all accustomed to now. That actually appeals—I’m particularly sick of Windows cramming adverts into every corner of the OS and foisting unwanted AI features where they don’t belong (and then warning people not to use them anyway), so maybe a trip back to how computing used to be done would be a virtual balm. Unfortunately, that means travelling back to a time before I was actually born, and the temporal whiplash is brutal.

Be forewarned: If you do not have first-hand experience of the original Commodore 64, a deep and abiding love for its genuinely ground-breaking era of home computing, or a burning curiosity for retro technology, the C64 Ultimate is far from welcoming, and probably not for you. I wasn’t around for the original, so I have no innate nostalgia to lure me back in, but I can at least muster up that burning curiosity. Yet even then, getting used to the C64 environment is a steep learning curve.

Photograph: Matt Kamen

Boot up the C64U, and you’re greeted by a re-creation of the C64’s menu. Here, you can type in operation commands just as you would back in the day, using the BASIC programming language. Problem: I don’t have the first clue about BASIC. However, in what is possibly the greatest throwback of all, the C64U comes with a spiral-bound, 273-page user guide. It is an absolute tome. Somewhat surprisingly, it’s not a reprint of anything that came with the original, but rather a tailored guide to what the C64U does, where it differs from the C64, and how to get to grips with the computer’s capabilities. Equal parts history book and instruction manual, it starts out teaching you some simple commands and builds up to teaching you how to code. I’m still very much working my way through it, but that tactile approach—referring to the book, trying something out on the computer, back and forth—is a great touch.

Hidden Upgrades

If you don’t fancy having to do homework, the C64U’s own default menu, accessed at any time with a flick of the multifunction power button on the right-hand side of the unit, is a simple list of options and settings. Hit RETURN to go into any section—say, “Video Setup” to adjust whether the C64U outputs in original resolution, in PAL or NTSC modes (surprisingly important, given some games will only work with one display standard or the other), or a crystal clear 1080p with scanlines removed—and back out to save any changes to the system’s flash memory. It’s still a minimalist approach, but feels fairly intuitive.

This is also where you can start playing around with some of the other modern touches of the C64U, like how to leverage its far greater power. Well, “greater” in comparison to 1982. Spec-wise, this isn’t going to threaten any more modern machine, but running on an AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA chip and packing 128-MB DDR2 RAM—compared to the 64 KB of the C64—it blows its inspiration out of the water. While at baseline it replicates the performance of the 1982 hardware, meaning it operates as if there’s only the original 64 KB were there, you can menu-dive to activate a virtualized RAM Expansion Unit, or activate a “Turbo Boost” to accelerate the clock speed to a lightning-fast (in this particular context) 64 MHz.

Photograph: Matt Kamen

Then there’s GEOS, loaded on that cassette-shaped USB. Navigate to the “Disk File Browser” on the C64U’s menu to boot it up. This is the closest to a Windows or macOS type experience on the Commodore, a “regular” desktop environment. It has folders! And icons! It’s likely the most comfortable way to use the C64U for anyone who wasn’t there for the original—although if you don’t have a compatible mouse, you’ll have to get used to navigating it with WASD and RETURN to click.

However, while GEOS is clearer than BASIC, it’s still not as smooth as more modern graphical user interface (GUI) operating systems. I’ve found it a little confusing switching between programs, for instance, as they seem to need to be mounted and then loaded into the OS before opening them. Even writing that back from my notes, preparing this review, I’m honestly not sure if I’ve been doing it correctly. Plus, when something doesn’t work—failing to create a new document in GEOS apps like its word processor or paint suite was a low point—there’s rarely an explanation of why it hasn’t.

User Not Found?

Away from “proper” computing, the C64 was a pioneer for home gaming, and that’s one area where the C64U does feel extremely accessible. The USB drive includes a host of classic and modern retro-style games, and more can be added in the form of disk images if you have them.

The C64U can run games in NTSC or PAL format—there’s a whole other rabbit hole to dive down here, but some games ran better, worse, or not at all depending on the version, and because the C64U replicates the original hardware performance, games can present the same issues here—but switching display modes is simple through the main menu. Once you’ve chosen what you want to play, an internal speaker mimics the sounds of the original tape or disk drive as it loads up, which is a nice—and extremely nerdy—touch.

Photograph: Matt Kamen

The downside is that in authentically re-creating the performance of the original disk or tape drives, it’s also authentically slow—you can be waiting whole minutes for games to load (the same goes for programs in GEOS). Maybe it’s part of that digital detox approach, an attempt to teach us whippersnappers younger than the C64 itself some patience, but I wouldn’t have minded losing that particular aspect of the traditional Commodore experience.

Ultimately—pun slightly intended—that’s the tricky line the C64U has to walk. Yes, it’s tremendously accurate to the experience of using a Commodore 64 four decades ago, but who does that serve in 2025? Its proposition of a return to distraction-free computing could be a distinctive selling point, but I’m not sure that this much of a throwback, with its ponderous nature and leisurely pace of doing anything, is going to win many converts. Even for those with the necessary levels of nostalgia, if that hankering is mainly for the C64’s games, this is probably too much—emulation or those earlier C64 hardware re-creations that focused more on gaming are probably better options.

Despite all that, the Commodore 64 Ultimate really is an exceptional piece of kit. It’s a beautifully crafted love letter to the groundbreaking original, and a reminder that there’s a different way of doing things on a computer, and what they’re for, than what Microsoft and Apple offer now. Returning hardcore enthusiasts will undoubtedly love it—but it's hard to see the C64U reshaping the world as the original did.