Compare
How it stacks up
Retro Commander next to the two tools most C64 people already use on Windows: DirMaster by Style and the CBM plugins for Total Commander. Both are good tools, and each does things Retro Commander doesn't. This page says which.
The Total Commander column covers two plugins by Loo: DIRCBM, which lets the panes open disk images like archives, and DirCBMLister, a viewer that shows the directory in PETSCII. Total Commander itself is a separate shareware file manager.
- Yes
- Partly
- No
- Not documented, so not claimed either way
| Feature | Retro Commander | DirMaster | Total Commander + CBM plugins |
|---|---|---|---|
| The basics | |||
| What it is | Two-pane disk-image manager in the Norton / Star Commander tradition | Disk-image explorer and editor, one window per image | Plugins that add disk images to the Total Commander file manager |
| Cost | ✓Free during the open beta | Yes. Free | Plugins free; Total Commander itself is shareware and needs a licence |
| Account needed | Yes. Email and password; some usage statistics are collected | No. | No. |
| Latest release | 1.0 beta, in active development | 3.1.5, March 2020 | DIRCBM 0.14, April 2024; DirCBMLister 0.2, September 2023 |
| Runs on | Windows 10 / 11 x64, installer or portable | Windows | Windows (32 and 64-bit Total Commander) |
| Ultimate 64, Ultimate-II+, C64 Ultimate | |||
| Find the device | Yes. Scans your network on first start, or with one click; no IP address needed | No. | No. |
| Browse and copy its files | Yes. PC in one pane, the device in the other; copy, move, rename, make folders, undo | No. | Partly. Through Total Commander's own FTP client |
| Edit a disk image on the device | Yes. Open a D64 that lives on the Ultimate and edit it in place | No. | No. |
| Run a PRG on the real machine | Yes. F1: mount and run, inject into memory, or load only; optional reset first | No. | No. |
| Mount a disk | Yes. On drive A or B (F9, Shift+F9) | No. | No. |
| Reset, reboot, power off | Yes. From the PC, plus an optional power-off when you quit | No. | No. |
| Device info and settings | Yes. Drives, network, firmware and the full configuration; export a .cfg | No. | No. |
| Play SIDs on the real chip | Yes. SID and Sidplayer .mus, with F1 | No. | No. |
| Write-protect the device | Yes. Safe Mode blocks every write to it | No. | No. |
| Disk images | |||
| D64, D71, D81, D80, D82 | Yes. Read and write | Yes. Read and write | Yes. Read and write |
| D64, 40 tracks | Yes. DolphinDOS, SpeedDOS, PrologicDOS | Not documented | Partly. Known variants (SpeedDOS, DolphinDOS); others open read-only |
| DNP (CMD native) | Yes. Read and write, with subfolders | Yes. Read and write, with subfolders | No. |
| D1M, D2M, D4M, DHD, DFI | No. | Yes. Read and write | No. |
| G64 | Partly. Read-only, decoded track by track; bad sectors are counted | Partly. Read-only | No. |
| NIB, M2I, HDD | No. | Partly. Read-only | No. |
| T64 | Partly. Read-only | Yes. Read and write | Partly. Read-only |
| Create a new image | Yes. D64 (35 or 40 tracks), D71, D81, D80, D82 | Yes. D64, D71, D81, DNP, DFI, T64 and more | Yes. D64, D71, D80, D81, D82, with interleave, ID and error-info options |
| Working with files | |||
| Two panes side by side | Yes. Plus a single-screen mode with two halves | Partly. Separate windows; drag between them | Yes. That is what Total Commander is |
| Copy in and out, scratch | Yes. | Yes. | Yes. |
| Rename with PETSCII | Yes. Inline (F2), Commodore key on Right Alt, PETSCII picker | Yes. Inline, with a PETSCII character dialog | Partly. Characters Windows can't show become underscores |
| Reorder the directory | Yes. Ctrl+Up / Down, drag | Yes. Drag or keyboard, plus sorting | No. Original order only with sorting off |
| Lock, splat, file type, block count | Yes. | Yes. | No. |
| Undo | Yes. 64 steps, and redo | Yes. Multi-level | No. |
| Deleted files | Yes. Show deleted, Restore as a file type, GEOS files too | Yes. Show and restore by hand; free-chain listing finds more | Partly. Shown as hidden files; no restore |
| PETSCII and directory art | |||
| PETSCII directory | Yes. Inline preview beside the list, charset switch, no need to open the image | Yes. The main view, in the C64 font | Partly. In the F3 viewer (DirCBMLister); the panes show plain names |
| Directory art | Yes. Stamp library plus an editor: pen, text, lines, frames | Partly. Separator library, dragged onto a disk | No. |
| Under the hood | |||
| BAM | Yes. BAM check that repairs, BAM / sector map | Yes. Visual BAM editor, Validate | Partly. BAM and error map in the viewer |
| Sectors | Partly. View as hex and PETSCII, follow the chain | Yes. View and edit as hex and PETSCII | No. |
| Forensics | No. | Yes. Cross-link checks, sector chains, disk-to-disk compare | No. |
| File viewers | Yes. Hex, BASIC listing, PETSCII, SID and CRT info; word-processor documents: Easy Script, SpeedScript, PaperClip, Tasword 64, VizaWrite, geoWrite | Yes. Hex, disassembly, BASIC 2.0 / 7.0, SEQ, REL, charsets, Koala and other pictures, GeoPaint | Partly. Total Commander's own hex / text lister |
| Batch export, printing | No. | Yes. TXT, CSV, HTML, PNG, RTF; prints disk-envelope listings | No. |
| Archives and search | |||
| C64 archives | Partly. T64, LNX, ARC, SDA, SFX, opened as folders | Yes. ARC, SDA, LNX, SFX, ARK, LBR, SPY, CVT, WR3, Zip-Code | No. |
| PC archives | Yes. ZIP, 7z, RAR, LHA, TAR / GZ, RP9 as folders, a D64 inside included; ZIP and RP9 writable | No. | Yes. Total Commander's own: ZIP, 7z, RAR and more |
| Search inside disk images | Yes. Also in images packed in ZIP, 7z, RAR; by disk name or ID | Yes. Recursive, wildcards, results saved to a file | Not documented |
| Emulators and drives | |||
| Run in an emulator | Yes. VICE, Denise, Hoxs64, CCS64; mount or inject a PRG | Yes. Up to eight launch slots for any emulator or tool | No. |
| Real drives (OpenCBM) | No. | Partly. Experimental | No. |
| Windows Explorer | Partly. File associations (installer) | Yes. File associations, icons, preview panel, right-click extract | n/a |
Which one fits you
Pick DirMaster when
- you need the CMD formats (D1M, D2M, D4M, DHD) or NIB images;
- you want to edit sectors or the BAM by hand, or do forensics on a damaged disk;
- you want a disassembler, GEOS viewers, batch export or printed envelope listings;
- you want it free, with no account.
Pick the TC plugins when
- you already live in Total Commander and just want disk images to open in it;
- copying files in and out is most of what you do;
- you want something small and free on top of a tool you already use.
Pick Retro Commander when
- you want a two-pane commander built for C64 disks, with PETSCII everywhere;
- your collection sits in ZIP, 7z or RAR files and you don't want to unpack it;
- you own an Ultimate and want to work on its disks directly;
- you build your own disks: undo, stamps and directory art.
Checked on 20 October 2026 against what each tool publishes: the DirMaster page and documentation, and the DIRCBM and DirCBMLister listings. Where a feature isn't documented, the cell says so instead of guessing.
Spotted something wrong or out of date, especially in someone else's column? Tell me and I'll fix it.