open-roms

The C64 ROM is typically distributed in 2 files 8 KB each, one called kernal, one basic. This might be misleading, as the C64 Kernal takes about 6.5 KB, and the BASIC about 9.5 KB - some parts of BASIC is therefore placed in the kernal file. This is the main reason you can’t easily use the Open ROMs Kernal file with original C64 BASIC.

But it is still possible to combine them:

• copy the kernal file to the open-roms main directory
• from the Linux command line type make test_hybrid on make test_hybrid_u64 (for Ultimate 64 based Kernal build- this will crate the hybrid Kernal file, open-roms/bin/kernal_hybrid.rom or open-roms/bin/kernal_hybrid_u64.rom, and launch VICE emulator with it

Unfortunately, some features will be lost this way - for example, the Open ROMs DOS Wedge is BASIC based, so it won’t be available in the hybrid ROM.

Sorry, no Windows support (but it should work under Windows Subsystem for Linux if GCC and libpng devel packages are installed), and no macOS support (I don’t have a machine to test).

Please note, that it is illegal to distribute such a hybrid ROM:

• it contains proprietary Commodore/Microsoft code
• it contains LGPL 3 licensed Open ROMs code combined with code not available under compatible license

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