Games - Commodore VIC-20

Home > Listing Index > Games > Commodore VIC-20

	Games - Commodore VIC-20

The VIC-20 (Germany: VC-20; Japan: VIC-1001) was an 8-bit home computer, made by Commodore Business Machines, with 5 KB RAM and a MOS 6502 CPU. The machine's external design was later used by the Commodore 64 and C16. The VIC-20 was released in June 1980, about 3 years after Commodore's first personal computer, the PET.

History

Origin, marketing

The VIC-20 was intended to be more of a low-end home computer than the PET. The VIC-20's video chip, the MOS Technology VIC was a general-purpose color video chip designed by Al Charpentier in 1977 and intended for use in inexpensive display terminals and game consoles, but Commodore couldn't find a market for the chip. With Apple II gaining momentum with the advent of VisiCalc in 1979, Jack Tramiel wanted a product out that would compete in the same segment, to be presented at the January 1980 CES. For this reason Chuck Peddle and Bill Seiler started to design a computer named TOI (The Other Intellect).

The TOI computer failed to materialize, much due to the fact that it required an 80-column character display which in turn required the MOS Technology 6564 chip, which could not be used since it required very expensive static RAM memory to operate fast enough. In the meantime, freshman engineer Robert Yannes at MOS Technology (then a part of Commodore) had designed a computer in his home dubbed the MicroPET and finished a prototype with some help from Al Charpentier and Charles Winterble. When Jack Tramiel was confronted with this prototype he immediately said he wanted it to be finished and order it to be mass produced following a limited demonstration on the CES, since the TOI had not yet been finished.

The very hackish prototype produced by Yannes had very little of the features required for a real computer, so Robert Russell at Commodore headquarters had to coordinate and finish large parts of the design under the codename Vixen. The parts contributed by Russell included a port of the operating system (kernel and BASIC intepreter) taken from John Feagans design for the Commodore PET, a character set with the characteristic PETSCII, an Atari 2600-compatible joystick interface and the cartridge port. The serial IEEE 488-derivative interface was designed by Glen Stark. Some features, like the memory add-in board, were designed by Bill Seiler. At the time, Commodore had an oversupply of 1Kbit×4 SRAM chips, so Tramiel demanded that these be used in the new computer. The end result is arguably closer to the PET or TOI computers than to Yannes prototype, albeit with a 22-column VIC chip instead of the custom chips designed for the more ambitious computers.

While the PET was sold through authorized dealers, the VIC-20 primarily sold at retail, especially discount and toy stores, where it could compete more directly with game consoles. Commodore took out advertisements featuring actor William Shatner of Star Trek fame as its spokesman, asking, "Why buy just a video game?".

Although the VIC-20 was criticized in print as being underpowered, the strategy worked: it became the first computer to sell more than 1 million units and was the best-selling computer of 1982. At its peak, 9,000 units per day were produced, and a total of 2.5 million units were sold before it was discontinued in January 1985, when Commodore repositioned the C64 as its entry-level computer due to the forthcoming release of the C128 and Amiga (the latter taking Commodore into the 16-bit world).

Applications

Because of its small memory and low-resolution display compared to some other computers of the time, the VIC-20 was primarily used for educational software and games. However, productivity applications such as home finance programs, spreadsheets, and communication terminal programs were also made for the machine. Its high accessibility to the general public meant that quite a few software developers-to-be cut their teeth on the VIC-20, being introduced to BASIC programming, and in some cases going further to learn assembly or machine language. Several computer magazines sold on newsstands, such as Compute! and CBM-produced publications, offered programming tips and type-in programs for the VIC-20. Many VIC users learned to program by entering, studying, running, and modifying these type-ins.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Commodore VIC-20 ]

Searches on eBay

commodore vic-20

Games - Commodore VIC-20

History

Origin, marketing

Applications

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay