It's really awesome how different people are able to engage in this hobby with different requirements.
For me, working on a real 64 is essential but I don't care about disk drives at all. So a Commodore 64 + Ultimate II+ (or pi1541) is a great combination. I love being able to use real 64 joysticks with no lag.
Keeping the hardware going is half the fun - I have replacement chips for everything on the board, diagnostic carts and have enjoyed picking up soldering again.
For Assembly language programming though, Visual Studio Code + Kick Assembler + Vice + C64 Debugger all the way!! Makes the development and debugging process completely seamless.
For me, working on a real 64 is essential but I don't care about disk drives at all. So a Commodore 64 + Ultimate II+ (or pi1541) is a great combination. I love being able to use real 64 joysticks with no lag.
Keeping the hardware going is half the fun - I have replacement chips for everything on the board, diagnostic carts and have enjoyed picking up soldering again.
For Assembly language programming though, Visual Studio Code + Kick Assembler + Vice + C64 Debugger all the way!! Makes the development and debugging process completely seamless.