My Survival Guide to using a Commodore 64 today

Are you using a Commodore 64 keyboard and disk drive today?  I try to, and I can't live without some combination of the following.  (Self-promotion disclaimer - I created software for 1 & 2)

1. Remap the keys to match my PC keyboard muscle memory

• patch your KERNAL ROM (physically, virtually, or run in RAM)
  hint: use One ROM for replacing (and electronically switching) physical ROMs
• run a software keyboard remap driver (pre-built, or edit your own mappings)
• use positional keyboard mapping if using an emulator

2. scroll through program listings and make editing on the C64 more enjoyable

• SCRLEDIT Scrolling BASIC Editor original January 1988 Compute!'s Gazette, and updated
• SCRLEDIT2 Scrolling BASIC Editor updated 2025, more features, different keystrokes
  
  (note: not currently compatible with remap driver because of the way they sit in memory and hook the keyboard table vector for key presses.)

3. Use microSD or similar solution to managing disk images and files instead of floppies

• SD2IEC
• Pi1541
• Or a modern C64 replacement (Commodore 64 Ultimate, Ultimate64, TheC64)
• Many emulated C64 solutions support drive images, and host directories (e.g. VICE)

C64 Emulator for Teensy 4.1 LCD/USB/SD(D64)

Here is my Teensy 4.1 on a breadboard pretending to be a Commodore 64.  USB keyboard, color text, background, border, and D64 (1541 image) support for LOAD/$/SAVE.  6502 emulation supports machine language, and Commodore 2.0 BASIC programs.   Sorry text only, no games, no graphics, no sound, no joysticks, just simple stuff for now.  But that simple stuff works! (mileage may vary, lightly tested, please try this at home under controlled conditions).

My Open source: https://github.com/davervw/c-simple-emu6502-cbm/tree/teensy_lcd

Also see link from Adafruit's blog!