Run the Commodore 64 OS on the NES: "NES 64"
Seriously. Someone ported the basic C64 system to the Nintendo Entertainment System. It actually works.
File this under “Completely Useless But Crazy Awesome” category.
A gentleman by the name of Richard Calvi has ported the core operating system of the Commodore 64… to run on a Nintendo Entertainment System.
And, when I call the man behind this feat a “gentleman”, what I really mean is “technical wizard who deserves a limo with a hot tub in the back”.
From the GitHub page of NES 64:
“A port of Commodore 64 KERNAL and BASIC ROMs to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Much like Atari 64, it shows off what's possible when you have two machines from the same era that run on roughly the same CPU.
This project is experimental and comes with no warranties, guarantees or any expectations that it serves any useful purpose. Try it at your on risk.”
Here is NES 64 running the good old “Simple maze generator” line of BASIC code:
Some other details from the GitHub page:
NES 64 has been tested on FCEUX 2.6.2 for macOS and Nintendulator 0.985 for 64bit Windows. It hasn't been confirmed to work on hardware yet. To run it on hardware, you'll need MMC5 mapper support.
So… it may or may not work on actual hardware. Remains to be seen. Hopefully we see someone try this soon.
You should be able to type and run BASIC programs, but don't expect
POKE,PEEKorSYScalls to work as they did on the real Commodore 64. The memory and hardware layouts are totally different.Peripherals (the datasette drive, disk drive, RS232 devices, printers, modems, etc.) are not supported.
And… not absolutely everything works. Kinda to be expected. It’s the C64 OS. On an NES. There’s bound to be quirks!
One key you’ll want to note: You’ll want an emulator where you can configure usage of the Family Keyboard. Because, obviously, typing out BASIC code is hard with a D-Pad.
I tested it out with FCEUX. It works. Keyboard mappings need to be tweaked a bit in whatever emulator you use. But it works.
Download the latest released from GitHub, fire up your NES emulator, and away you go!
You won’t be able to use this to load and run Defender of the Crown any time soon… but it’s still super cool. Check this out… he’s even got some sound working:
Friggin’ rad. Seriously. Somebody buy this man a limo with a hot tub. Stat. He’s earned it.
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