Chips › Graphics & video › Home-computer video › MOS VIC-II

MOS VIC-II

1982

MOS Technology's Commodore 64 graphics chip, generating its tiled backgrounds, eight hardware sprites and colour video.

Emulators

EmulatorTypeLicenseSite
C64 ForeverdownloadableCommercial
CCS64downloadableShareware
DenisedownloadableFreeware
Emu64downloadableGPL-3.0
FrododownloadableGPL-2.0
Hoxs64downloadableFreeware
Micro64downloadableFreeware
Power64downloadableShareware
VICEdownloadableGPL-2.0
VirtualC64downloadableGPL-3.0
XemudownloadableGPL-2.0
YACE64downloadableFreeware
Z64KdownloadableFreeware
c128onlineMITWebsite ↗
c64jsonlineMITWebsite ↗

Machines

Commodore 128

Commodore 128D

Commodore 64 (breadbin)

Commodore 64C

Commodore SX-64

Operating systems

CP/M 3.0 (Plus)

GEOS 1.0

GEOS 2.0

Reference & documentation

External technical references for programming MOS VIC-II and for writing emulators.

ResourceTypeNotes
MOS 6567 VIC-II Preliminary Datasheet (PDF) ↗DatasheetOriginal Commodore VIC-II preliminary datasheet
VIC-II Raster Interrupts - Bauer Article §3.12 ↗Interrupt listRaster/collision/lightpen IRQ sources and timing
VIC-II Registers ($D000-$D02E) - Bauer Article §3.2 ↗Memory mapAll 47 registers, bit-exact behaviour documented
MOS 6567 VIC-II Datasheet - Pinout & Signals (PDF) ↗Pinout40-pin pinout and electrical signal descriptions
MOS Technology VIC-II - Wikipedia ↗PinoutPinout diagram, register table, chip variants
VIC-II Graphics Programming - Codebase64 ↗ProgrammingScreen modes, sprites, FLI, hardware tricks
VIC-II and FLI Timing (1/3) - C64 OS ↗ProgrammingCycle-level bus/AEC/RAS-CAS timing explained
The MOS 6567/6569 Video Controller (VIC-II) - Christian Bauer ↗ReferenceDefinitive VIC-II reference for emulator authors
MOS Technology VIC-II - Wikipedia ↗ReferenceArchitecture overview, modes, NTSC/PAL variants
VICE-testprogs - VICII conformance tests ↗Test suiteCycle-exact VIC-II regression tests for emulators