BMC64 vs TRX64

BMC64 is a free, bare-metal Commodore 64 emulator for selected Raspberry Pi boards. Its bundled release also emulates the C128, VIC-20, Plus/4 and PET, including C64 PAL and NTSC variants. It uses VICE, with Plus4Emu available on Raspberry Pi 3 for more accurate Plus/4 emulation. Frames are timed to 50/60 Hz display refresh for smooth scrolling, and the project advertises low input-to-audio/video latency. A reported C64 boot over composite takes 4.1 seconds, with no shutdown sequence required. Wi-Fi and Ethernet support uses such as BBS access and C64 OS networking. Installation involves writing a release ZIP or image to a FAT32 SD card. Required ROM files must come from a legal source, and the minimum C64 ROM set is needed to start. Supported boards are Pi Zero, Zero 2W, Pi 2 and Pi 3; Pi 4 and later are unsupported. An optional local-network web interface manages status and SD-card files and can use a PIN.

TRX64 is a free, open-source Rust runtime for cycle-accurate emulation of the Commodore 64, 1541, and 1581. Its reverse-engineering tools include rewind, byte-exact reverse stepping, write tracking, observers, traces, marks, and sandboxes. A daemon exposes JSON-RPC 2.0 over WebSocket, with project capabilities available through JSON-RPC methods. Users can work with trx64cli, a terminal cockpit with an optional native emulator window, or C64RE, a browser-based reverse-engineering workbench. The daemon supports c64, u64, and 128 machine selections, with PAL and NTSC C64 models documented. Media and hardware support includes D64/G64 disks in 1541 drives, D81 disks in 1581 drives, cartridge types, REU, GeoRAM, and the Ultimate Command Interface. It also supports machine snapshots, reverse-debug buffers, trace logs, and VICE .vsf snapshot conversion. Releases are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with builds for x86_64 and arm64 where listed. C64 ROMs, including the 1581 DOS ROM, are not included and must be supplied separately.