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brew install viceprovider-native install command
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Install vice with Homebrew
Versatile Commodore Emulator. Version 3.10 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Versatile Commodore Emulator
Project links
Commands and aliases
- c1541
- cartconv
- petcat
- vsid
- x128
- x64
- x64dtv
- x64sc
- xcbm2
- xcbm5x0
- xpet
- xplus4
- xscpu64
- xvic
history
Project history and usage
VICE, the Versatile Commodore Emulator, is a long-running free software emulator suite for Commodore 8-bit computers. The current project covers the C64, C64DTV, C128, VIC-20, most PET models, Plus/4, CBM-II, and a C64 SuperCPU variant, with separate executables for the different emulated machines and tools.
Project history
VICE development began in 1993 under Finnish programmer Jarkko Sonninen, who founded the project and retired from it in 1994. The project later continued as a volunteer-maintained emulator suite under the VICE Team, with official distribution and source hosting on SourceForge.
By the 2000s VICE had become one of the standard Commodore 8-bit emulation packages, especially on free Unix-like systems where historically fewer full-featured Commodore emulators were available. VICE was released under the GNU General Public License from 2004, and its manual and source tree document a broad, preservation-oriented codebase rather than a single-machine emulator.
Adoption history
The VICE name also covered platform-specific identities over time: older Win32 builds were widely known as WinVICE, while OS/2 and BeOS variants were called Vice/2 and BeVICE. As the project modernized, some old host ports were retired; VICE 3.4 dropped support for several legacy Unix-like systems because of lack of maintainers, and VICE 3.5 dropped explicit OS/2 and AmigaOS support during the GTK3 UI transition.
How it is used
Users typically launch the machine-specific emulator they need, such as `x64sc` or `x64` for Commodore 64, `x128` for Commodore 128, `xvic` for VIC-20, `xpet` for PET, or `xplus4` for Plus/4. The suite also includes command-line and conversion tools such as `c1541`, `cartconv`, `petcat`, and `vsid`, making it useful both for playing preserved software and for retrocomputing development workflows.
Why package nerds care
For package maintainers and retrocomputing users, VICE is significant because it packages a large preservation stack into reproducible builds across operating systems. Its breadth means distributions often expose many executables from one package, and its SourceForge-era history makes it a classic example of mature free software infrastructure surviving multiple host-platform and UI transitions.
Timeline
- 1993: VICE development began under Jarkko Sonninen.
- 1994: Sonninen retired from the project.
- 2004: VICE was free software under the GNU GPL.
- 2008-12-19: VICE 2.1 release documented support for C64, C128, VIC-20, Plus/4, C64DTV, PET, and CBM-II families.
- 2019-2020 era: VICE 3.4 and 3.5 retired several old host ports while moving through GTK3 UI modernization.
- 2025-12-24: VICE 3.10 released.
Related projects
- Related Commodore and emulator projects include CCS64, MAME, and VICE.js, a JavaScript port of VICE.
- The suite targets Commodore 8-bit families rather than later Amiga systems, so it complements rather than replaces Amiga-focused emulators.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
local files
Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
Configuration files
Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.
- Unix
~/.config/vice/vicerc~/.vicerc
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
c1541 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
cartconv | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
petcat | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
vsid | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
x128 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
x64 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
x64dtv | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
x64sc | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
xcbm2 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
xcbm5x0 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
xpet | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
xplus4 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
xscpu64 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
xvic | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version3.10
manager updated
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:vice |
|---|---|
| Version | 3.10 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://sourceforge.net/projects/vice-emu/ |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation