I use the CCS64 Emulator to play the Commodore 64 games of my youth. There doesn’t seem to be a way to play online with other people built in, but I’m wondering if there’s a way to do it. Over a LAN? Screen sharing? Any ideas on a hack to make that work?
There are some games which are unsatisfying playing against the computer. I’d love to play against an actual human somehow, but I don’t feel like inviting other Commodore 64 afficianados to my house.
I cannot help you. But, I’m very interested to hear the solution. I still have several actual C 64’s (and a Plus 4 which was a C 64 preloaded with business software). I hope this thread is lengthy and i learn much.
The games being emulated weren’t initially networked, so the network multiplayer would have to emulate multiplayer in the way it was on the original hardware: at the input/output layer. Stuff like sharing sound and display from the controlling emulator instance and emulating controller inputs from all participants.
I haven’t heard of anything along those lines.
I started Googling for information on this topic and found a site that seems (I think) to be discussing networking physical C64’s for multiplayer gaming. 
It’s not what the OP wanted, but might be interesting for DocCathode.
Aside: My son and I fired up my C64 for some two-player Rampage action last year.
http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/RR-Net#C64_Games
The original era games weren’t written to be played on a network; local networks didn’t exist for Commodore. There were BBS games, but those weren’t even realtime, and unless it was a Commodore-only BBS (due to the character set), anyone who could dial in could play.
There are folks who still write new SIDs and demos and games for the Commodore. Do any of them make multiplayer games? That would actually be pretty cool. I’m a VICE user, but would be happy to try another emulator in order to give multi-player a shot.
I guess the real problem is to enable hardware forwarding so the remote player’s controller works in the emulator? It should be possible though I have never tried it. If it’s just basic keyboard/mouse any AnyDesk or similar remote desktop software should be able to handle it.
There is one real-time modem-to-modem game, though.
I believe you may have success adding CCS64 to Steam as a non-Steam game and then using Remote Play. However, it takes some setup, you have to install an actual Steam game that supports Remote Play and then substitute the game you really want to run: Does Remote Play Together work with non-Steam games? :: Steam Discussions
Some have said you can start a Remote Play session and then minimize Steam somehow and run whatever you like while your screen is shared with the other person, but I don’t see exact instructions on how to do that.
For arcade games I will say that the Steam version of the RetroArch arcade emulator supports Remote Play with no fuss and works well over the Internet. Retroarch itself takes some setup though.
Not really. Different chipset. Not compatible with C64 software. It was more related to the 16 and 116. But it did come with pre-installed software.
My shame is great. I sit corrected.
A new Commodore 64 will be available in a few months.
The Commodore 64 Ultimate will be the first new hardware released under the auspices of the new management. This new home computer product is now available for pre-order starting from $299, but shipping won’t happen until October at the earliest. For your cash, you will get a device which resolutely “isn’t a software emulator” but is built around an AMD Artix 7 FPGA, and is claimed to be compatible with “10,000+ original games, cartridges, and peripherals.”
I haven’t recently tried to emulate the simple games I enjoyed growing up. When they worked well, they often did not feel the same when played because I don’t have joysticks and such.
There are now excellent cheap handheld emulators. There are ones that sell on AliExpress for under $100 that may contain over 20,000 games, including many of your favourites. There are online communities should that not be enough. It is easy to research these, and the handheld includes the button and joystick equivalents that make playing many of these games enjoyable. Many have lots of hames for old systems, plus several Nintendo and PlayStation ones.
I find it fascinating that a YouTuber is now the CEO of Commodore. Granted all the money hasn’t been transferred but still interesting.
Brian
I still have two original 64s but they’re not in usable condition. One has a broken power switch and the other isn’t NTSC; one day, I’ll get around to swapping the power switch from the latter to the former and see if any of my floppies still work.