Frodo vs TRX64
Frodo
frodo.cebix.netTRX64
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Frodo | TRX64 |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Commodore 64 Emulators | 8.7 (#1) | 8.4 (#2) |
| Cartridges | V4.5 added support for banked cartridges including Ocean, Fun Play, Power Play, Super Games, and Simons' BASIC. | Supported cartridge formats include generic 8K/16K/Ultimax, Ocean, Magic Desk, EasyFlash, GMod2, GMod4, MegaByter and C64MegaCart. |
| Documentation | The repository includes an HTML manual and a beginner guide covering controllers, display, drives, loading software, keyboard mappings and emulator shortcuts. | The repository includes a README, a 228-line monitor reference and a separate CLI README. |
| Installation | The repository documents building with autogen.sh, make and make install on Unix-like systems, macOS and Windows. | Prebuilt archives target macOS, Linux and Windows on x86_64 and arm64; Homebrew and cargo source builds are also documented. |
| Licence | The public source repository identifies the project as GPL-2.0 licensed. | The project is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later and says its emulation cores derive from VICE under GPL-2.0-or-later. |
| License | The repository lists Frodo under the GPL-2.0 license. | The project is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. |
| Maker identity | The maker site identifies Christian Bauer as a physicist who turned his computer hobby into a career and lists Frodo among his projects. | The GitHub account identifies the maker as Alex Damhuis and lists TRX64 among its public repositories. |
| Purpose | Frodo is a portable Commodore 64 emulator focused on reproducing special graphical effects possible on the C64. | TRX64 is a cycle-accurate Commodore 64, 1541, and 1581 emulation runtime written in Rust. |
| What it does | Frodo is a portable Commodore 64 emulator focused on reproducing the machine's special graphical effects. | TRX64 is a Rust runtime for cycle-accurate Commodore 64, 1541 and 1581 emulation. |
Plans
In their own words
Frodo
Frodo is a free, portable Commodore 64 emulator for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It focuses on reproducing special graphical effects from the C64 and supports disk and tape software, many game cartridges, and formats including D64, G64, T64, TAP, X64, and LYNX. It offers a cycle-exact regular mode and Frodo Lite, a less compatible version intended to run better on slower machines. The official site lists V4.5, which adds Datasette TAP emulation and support for banked cartridges including Ocean, Fun Play, Power Play, Super Games, and Simons' BASIC. TAP emulation is unavailable in Frodo Lite. V4.5 can auto-start disk and tape images, cartridges, and C64 BASIC program files from the command line. Frodo can detect connected controllers for C64 joystick ports and map additional buttons to C64 keys. Display settings include windowed or fullscreen mode and an initial window size. The V4.5 snapshot format changed, so it cannot read snapshots from earlier versions. Frodo is listed under GPL-2.0.
TRX64
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.