Commodore 64

Computer facts

CompanyCommodore
Type home
Year 1982
End year 1987
Language Commodore Basic V.2.0
CPU 6510
Speed 0.985 MHz (PAL) / 1.023 MHz (NTSC)
RAM 64 KB
ROM 20 KB
Commodore 64

Trivia

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, at a price of US$595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of that time. It is commonly referred to as the C64 or C=64 and occasionally known as CBM 64 (Commodore Business Machines Model number 64), or VIC-64. It has also been affectionately nicknamed the "breadbox" and "bullnose" due to the shape and colour of the first version of its casing.

During the Commodore 64's lifetime, sales totaled 30 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. For a substantial period of time (1983-1986), the Commodore 64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC clones, Apple computers, and Atari computers. Sam Tramiel, a former Commodore president said in a 1989 interview "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years."

Part of its success was due to the fact that it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores, and that Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost. It is sometimes compared to the Ford Model-T for bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative mass-production.

Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office applications, and games. The machine is also credited with popularizing the computer demo scene. The Commodore 64 is still used today by some computer hobbyists, and various C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or a compatible game console, to run these programs. Since 28 March 2008, Commodore 64 games have been available to buy though Nintendo's Virtual Console service in Europe; the first games available were Uridium and International Karate.

Commodore 64 images