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Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64) was a popular home computer of the 1980s. Announced by Commodore Business Machines (founded and owned by Jack Tramiel) in January 1982 and released in September of that year at a price of US$595, it offered unprecedented value (sound and graphics performance) for the money. Its very aggressive pricing in comparison to competitors quickly started a price war. With estimated sales between 17 and 25 million units by the time it was discontinued in 1993, the C64 became and remains the best-selling computer model of all time.
In order to take advantage of the $100 rebate, some mail-order dealers and retailers offered a Timex Sinclair 1000 for as little as $10 with purchase of a C64 so the consumer could send the computer to Commodore, collect the rebate, and pocket the difference. Timex Corporation departed the marketplace within a year.
The success of the VIC-20 and C64 also contributed significantly to the departure of Texas Instruments from the home computer field (see TI-99/4AThe Texas Instruments TI-99/4A was an early home computer, released in June 1981, originally at a price of $525. It was an enhanced version of the earlier TI-99/4, which had been released in late 1979 at a price of $1150. The TI-99/4A added an additional) and to the infamous video game crash of 1983Atari 2600 version) The video game crash of 1983 refers to the sudden bankruptcy of a number of companies marketing home computers and video game consoles in late 1983. The term shakeout would be a more accurate description of what happened, but because o.
Commodore attempted in 1984This page is about the year 1984. For other uses of 1984, see 1984 (disambiguation). 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday (link shows calendar). Events January January 1 Brunei becomes a fully independent state January 1 AT&T is broken up into 22 indepe to replace the C64 with the Commodore Plus/4The Commodore Plus/4 was a home computer released by Commodore International in 1984 and intended to replace the Commodore 64 as its flagship computer. It had some success in Eastern Europe, but was less popular in Western Europe and a total flop in the U, which offered a higher-color display, a better implementation of BASICCommodore BASIC is the dialect of BASIC used in Commodore International's 8-bit home computer line, stretching from the PET of 1977 to the C128 of 1985. The core part was based on 6502 Microsoft BASIC, licensed from the young Microsoft on a "pay once, no (V3.5), and built-in software. But Commodore made the colossal strategic mistake of making it incompatible with the huge C64 software library. To top it all off, it lacked sprite capability and had poorer sound, two of the strengths that had made the C64 a star. It flopped, to no one's surprise except Commodore's, while the C64 soldiered on. Commodore probably made this mistake because in that era hardware was still considered more significant than software, and it was not understood that in the future hardware would become sort of a commodity item and software would rule as the most important selling point.
Commodore was determined not to repeat the same mistake twice and made sure that the actual successor to the '64 in 1985, the Commodore 128The Commodore 128 is a home/ personal computer, also known as the C128 . It was Commodore Business Machines (CBM)'s last commercially released 8-bit machine. Introduced in January of 1985 at the CES in Las Vegas, it appeared three years after its predeces (/128D) computer, were as good as and fully compatible with the original. As more advanced computers came onto the market, Commodore positioned the '64 as an entry-level computer, lowering the price as necessary.
In 19861986 is a common year starting on Wednesday. Events January January 1 Spain and Portugal enter the European Community January 1 Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands and is separated from the Netherlands Antilles. January 9 After losing a pa, Commodore released the Commodore 64C computer, which was functionally identical to the original, but whose exterior design was remodelled in the spirit of the C128 to reflect "modernism". In 19871987 is a common year starting on Thursday. Events January January 1 Nunavut's capital changes it name to Iqaluit from Frobisher Bay. January 3 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. January 4 An Amtrak train Commodore began to ship C64Cs with a totally redesigned motherboard in an effort to further reduce the cost of manufacturing the C64. The new board, commonly known as a "short board", featured a new and larger 64-pin PLA chip, which integrated many discrete TTL logic chips. The colour RAM was also integrated in later revisions of the PLA. The IC's were also re-numbered to 85xx in order to reflect the change to the newer HMOS chip manufacturing process. This made the C64C far more reliable, because these chips ran cooler than the previous generation of NMOS chips used in the C64.
The C64C often came bundled with the third-party GEOS GUI-based operating system.
At the time of its introduction, the C64's graphics and sound capabilities were rivaled only by the Atari 8-bit family. This was at a time when most IBM PCs and compatibles had text-only graphics cards, green screen monitors, and sound consisting of squeaks and beeps from the built-in tiny, low-quality tweeter. Due to its advanced graphics and sound, the 64 is often credited with starting a computer subculture known as the demoscene (see also Commodore 64 demos). As of the turn of the millennium, it is still being actively used as a demo machine, especially for music (its sound chip even being used in special sound cards for PCs). For all, other than special enthusiasts, however, the C64 lost its top position when the 16-bit Atari ST and Commodore Amiga were released in the mid-80s.
In 1990 the C64 was released in a form of a games console, called the Commodore 64GS (C64GS). It is basically a C64 motherboard modified to orient the cartridge connector to a vertical position, to allow cartridges to be inserted from above. A modified ROM replaced the BASIC interpreter with a boot screen to inform the user to insert a cartridge. Needless to say, the C64GS was another commercial failure for Commodore.
In the summer of 2004, after an absence from the marketplace of more than 10 years, PC manufacturer Tulip Computers BV (owners of the Commodore brand since 1997) announced the C64_Direct-to-TV, a joystick-based TV game based on the C64 with 30 titles built into ROM. It was similar in concept to other mini-consoles based on the Atari 2600 and Intellivision, which had gained modest success earlier in the decade.
Another modern development is the C-One [1] which will make use of modern hardware such as hard drives and ethernet.