Commodore: Vic 20

The Vic 20 Commodore, released in Germany as VC 20 and in Japan as Vic 1001, is a legend in the computer industry. Hitting the market in 1980, it was the first ever computer to cross the 1 million sales mark. Just what did it take for the Vic 20 Commodore to be the first one there?

A major factor behind the success of Vic 20 Commodore was its price. It was priced at $299 and this also made it the first color computer to break the $300 barrier. Later on, it bottomed at below $100, again being the first computer to do so. This made Vic 20 Commodore much more affordable for the large middle class.

Shedding light on the hardware of Vic 20 Commodore, it had a 1 MHz CPU called MOS 6502. It possessed 16 Kb ROM and 5 Kb RAM which could be expanded to 32 Kb. Vic 20 Commodore could displayed 22 characters in a line which made it unsuitable for complex business applications. Therefore it was considered more of a gaming machine than anything else.

Although it was clear what ‘vic’ in Vic 20 Commodore stood for (Video Interface Chip), what intrigued everyone was the number 20. No one could fathom a rational reason behind this number. Then came the interview of Michael Tomczyk (years later) in which he said;

"VIC sounded like a truck driver, so I insisted on attaching a number. I picked ‘20’ and when Jack Tramiel asked, ‘Why 20?’ I replied, ‘because it's a friendly number and this has to be a friendly computer.' He agreed. The number 20 has no relation to any technical feature -- just my idea of a friendly sounding number. That sounds a bit bizarre looking back on it, but we did a lot of things by instinct in those days."

The software and games commodore made were also a vital part of the success equation for Vic 20. The demand for it was so high that 9000 units were produced every single day for a good length of time!

Vic 20 Commodore retired in 1985. During its 3 year reign, it conquered the hearts of gamers and computer users alike. Even today, many fans are out there looking for a Vic 20. Theyse want to relive the memories left behind in the era of Vic 20. Those with a hobby of collecting game consoles will certainly pay huge sums to make Vic 20 Commodore a part of their collection. Although Vic 20 is 40 years old, it manages to work just fine!