Power64 vs Z64K

Power64 emulates the Commodore 64 for running C64 software on an Apple Macintosh. It models the MOS 6510 processor, including illegal opcodes, and provides cycle-precise VIC video features and SID sound with a reSID interface. Drive emulation covers 1541, 1571, and 1581 systems, alongside disk and tape images including D64, X64, G41, D71, D81, T64, TAP, and Lynx. Macintosh access supports C64 and P00 files. Input options include USB or mapped keyboard joysticks, mouse, paddles, and lightpen. Users can mount disks by drag and drop, copy files among disks, tapes, and the Mac hard disk, use the built-in monitor/debugger, and run multiple C64 instances. Version 4.9.5 targets PowerPC and runs on Intel Macs only through Rosetta; it does not work on OS X 10.7. The unregistered version allows ten-minute sessions. Registration costs $32, paid once.

Z64K emulates the Commodore 128, Commodore 64, Spectrum 48/128K, VIC 20, and Atari 2600, with pixel-exact emulation described by its maker. It runs through Java on Windows, macOS, and Linux and requires JRE 8 or later. Downloads include the main JAR, command-line files, a changelog, and a quick guide. Controls include fullscreen, clipboard text copy and paste, reset, mouse capture, and warp mode. C128 controls include switching display modes and toggling the second display; extended keys and function-key mappings are also described. The built-in debugger and SID Analyzer provide additional tools, with the analyzer offering waveform, envelope, oscillator, and combined display modes. Supported disk and tape formats include D64, D71, G64, G71, IMD, and CRT. The Virtual FS device is experimental, and its scratch command simulates deletion without removing files from the host system. Linux users might need to adjust the JAR's permissions to allow execution. Z64K is free.