Pirate Raider II Returns to the Commodore 64 With Gold, Cannon Fire, Mermaids and an Extremely Irritable Sea

Developer chadlung releases Pirate Raider II as a free action voyage for the Commodore 64, featuring high-seas naval combat, mythical sea creatures, and King Neptune upgrades.

Pirate Raider II has sailed onto the Commodore 64 as a free new release from chadlung, continuing a modern C64 series that apparently believes retirement is for pirates who have misplaced their sense of financial ambition. The premise sends the player back onto the high seas in pursuit of gold while the Royal Navy once again attempts to turn the voyage into a brief administrative error.

Cannon fire is naturally part of the job, but excessive enthusiasm can awaken something considerably worse beneath the water. Fortunately, mermaids provide assistance and players who survive long enough can improve their vessel through an upgrade bestowed by King Neptune. It is precisely the sort of gloriously uncomplicated scenario that works on the C64: gold good, Navy bad, mysterious sea monster probably worse.

The game was released free on September 28 and entered the wider homebrew listings during the September 30 cutoff window, with C64 scene databases already recording cracked and trainer-enhanced variants — perhaps the most authentically Commodore sign imaginable that a game has actually arrived. The project also carries an AI-assistance disclosure in homebrew listings, another example of generative tools becoming increasingly visible in contemporary development for vintage systems. Forty-four years after the Commodore 64 launched, its software scene remains active enough that pirates are still setting sail and crackers are still waiting at the harbour.