The Commodore 64: Machine of Destiny
by Ian Matthews of Commodore.ca May 19, 2003
Last Revised Dec 30 2018
NOTE: Your are in the TEXT ONLY version of our site; click HERE to go to our full Commodore 64 Page
Commodore 64: Machine of Destiny
The 64 began its design life in
January of 1981 when MOS Technology engineers decided they needed a new chip
project. MOS’ Albert Charpentier had been responsible for several of the highly
successful VIC-20 chips. “We were fresh out of ideas for whatever chips the rest
of the world might want us to do. So we decided to produce a state-of-the-art
video and sound chips for the worlds next great video game”.
By November
of 1981, the chips were completed but Commodore’s president Jack Tramiel decided
against using them in the faltering arcade game market. Instead he tasked the
engineers with developing a 64 kilobyte home computer for show at the Winter
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the second week of January 1982; just 6 weeks
away.
Two days after Jacks request, the basic design was completed and by
the end of December 1981 the hardware for five VIC-30 (the C64’s development
name) prototypes were assembled. In the remaining two weeks, the VIC-20
operating system with lowly Commodore Basic 2.0 was stretched onto the C64. With
an estimated retail price of just $595 ($1250 dollars in 2018), it was the buzz
of the show. It did not hurt that there were no other new powerful computers
shown at CES by Commodores competitors that year. The Commodore 64 was alive: it
was immediately ordered into production which hit full stride by August 1982.
In addition to being vastly more powerful than anything on the market at the
time, it was drastically cheaper than its competitors like the Apple II, IBM PC,
or Radio Shack TRS-80. (Click the advert on the right.)
COMPUTERS FOR
EVERYBODY, PRICED FOR NOBODY – C64 for under $600 – c64 compared to Radio Shack
TRS 80, IBM PC JR, and Apple IIc – Compute! August 1983
The Commodore 64
is arguably the easiest to use programmable computer that has ever been made.
Like the PET and VIC-20 before it, the 64 booted to a friendly screen with the
Commodore Basic Operating System ready and waiting for instruction. If writing
your own programs was too daunting and loading software from cassettes or
floppies was ‘just too much’ for you, you could just jam a cartridge in the back
of the unit and like magic your machine was doing whatever you wanted it to.
Creating the best selling machine in history is no small feat. Commodore did
not ‘knock the ball out of the park’, they ‘knocked the park into the next
city’. The pushed the industry to a level of scale that was previously thought
impossible.
Like its VIC-20 predecessor, the 64 was the first computer
that millions of today’s programmers, designers, engineers and enthusiasts had
ever used. It has inspired a countless volume of software and hardware that we
use today.
The Chips:
In 1980 Commodores semiconductor arm, MOS
Technologies, completed development of the 6510 Central Processor and chip set.
It was a standard .9875 MHz 6502 (used in the KIM-1 and PET) with a additional
input/output port and the ability to see allot more RAM. As part of the “next
great video game” concept, Albert Charpentier recruited another MOS engineer
Robert Yannes in 1981 to help figure out how far other companies could push
their current technology. By their own admission, they pulled apart and ‘stole’
ideas from Texas Instruments TI 99’s, Atari 800’s, Apple II’s and others. It is
worth noting that most computers of the day used Commodore / MOS’ powerful but
inexpensive 6502 processcor
According to Charles Winterable, Commodore’s
Worldwide Engineering Director, “We defined in advance the die size that would
give a yield we were willing to live with. …Then we prioritized a wish list of
what needs to be in there to what ought to be in there to what we would like to
be in there. …When he ran out of registers, he stopped.” With two draftsman and
a CAD technician they developed “first silicon” in just 9 months and shockingly
it worked on the first try.
The VIC-II 6567 video chip in the 64 can
produce about 128 colours but was only engineered for, and only officially
supported, 16 colours. “The width of each pixel is almost half of the NTSC
colour clock, so when you alternate the pixels of two different colours, instead
of getting the two colours that you think you’re getting you get a whole new
phase interpretation” Brian Dougherty, President of Berkley Software explained.
It displayed a large 320 x 200 character count.
The now legendary SID
6581 sound chip was astounding for its time. It could play three different
“voices” in sophisticated patterns and with some tinkering could be made to
create one or two more. It was without doubt the best sounding computer on the
market at any price for years to come. It was also likely the first computer in
the world capable of reproducing a recognizable human voice without the addition
of peripheral hardware.
The most common C64 chip question is why does the
screen say 38,911 bytes free when it supposedly has 64,000 bytes of memory. This
is because nearly half of its memory is used for internal functions like
Commodore Basic 2.0 (a.k.a. Microsoft Basic). .
The Costs:
C64 1982 &
1992 Motherboards You can see that there are about 40 chips on the 1982 board
(note that there are several chips hiding under the daughter board near the
bottom right and in the silver video housing). In comparison the 1992 board has
only about 1/3rd as many. That will save a few dollars!
Jack Tramiel
believed that budgets were a “licence to steal”. He wanted staff to argue for
every dollar they spent rather than giving them a fixed amount of money and
telling the to get the job done. As a result no one knows what it cost to
produce the initial year or so of engineering work. Commodore used an informal
accounting system that made extensive use of otherwise idle physical and human
resources at the MOS production facility in Norristown Pennsylvania. If
Commodore had not owned MOS, the design costs may have been prohibitive and the
C64 may have never been even conceived.
The 64’s initial production cost
target was $130 ($300 dollars in 2018); it actually came in at $135. The opening
price of $595 ($1350 in 2018 dollars) would leave a handsome profit for
Commodore, even after packaging, promotion and distribution. Within a few years
it was estimated that component cost decreases combined with production
efficiencies had dropped the cost of manufacture to less than $50 ($110 dollars
in 2018). You can see in the photo on the left that the original 1982 board had
about 40 chips on it while the the final 1992 board had only about 15.
The C64 uses Commodore Basic version 2.0 even though a substantially improved
Commodore PET Basic 4.0 was available. This is because the upgrade would have
required more Read Only Memory (ROM) which would have cost more. While
researching the Commodore VIC-20 we found claims the Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel
also liked the idea that shipping Basic 2.0 would leave a nice upgrade path for
consumers to buy an add on cartridge to provide more commands and we have to
think that logic was still at play with the C64.
Because the VIC was such
a huge success it was “obvious” that they should reuse that machines plastic
chassis. Reducing the size of the cartridge slot, changing the colour and
slapping on a new logo was all that was required.
Designing with cost as
the primary concern rather than the performance, fit very well with Yannes.
“Anytime I design something, I want to use the minimum number of components
possible. It’s a personal challenge. If there ‘s a spare [logic] gate in the
gate package, I’ll work to get rid of the entire package, because… I ought to be
able to use up everything that’s in them.”
The Retail Environment:
Before its announcement at CES, retail prices as high as $1000 ($2275 in 2018
dollars) per unit had been proposed for the base machine (i.e. no floppy drive,
cassette drive, or monitor). Quickly the price was set at a more reasonable $595
($1350 in 2018 dollars).
Based on the VIC 20 distribution model,
Commodore packaged the 64 in small and most importantly, cheap paper ‘boxes’
which were stacked inside of cardboard stand-up’s. Sears, Toys ‘R’ Us,
Montgomery Ward, Fred Meyer, K-Mart, Lionel Play World, sold these machines
along side their usual produces like toasters, clothes and hammers. Of course
the 64 was also available at through Commodores professional computer retailers
and specialty computer shops like Austin Hook’s The Computer Shop in Calgary
Alberta Canada which is the oldest computer store in the world.
By the
mid 80’s large dealers were buying the 64 for about $100. Some retailers sold
64’s for less than $100 hoping that consumers would buy the floppy drives,
printers, disks, modems and desks, which they made much higher margins on. In
2003 I sold a 1541 floppy disk that was originally purchased from Canadian Tire
and still had the shocking retail price sticker on it of $399! There was
definitely margin in the extras.
The early 1980’s is when the notion of
freeware and shareware came to fruition. Thousands of programmers were putting
millions of hours of labour into programs that they were making available
without charge. Because the C 64 had such a huge percentage of the market, it
was a primary beneficiary of this innovation. Some have argued that the 64 was
also the cause of this innovation; millions of high school age C64 programmers
with nothing but time and desire created thousands of pieces of software that
they had no retail outlet for. Because they had no cash to cover production
costs, giving software away in exchange for getting your name publicized seemed
like a pretty good deal to many kids
The Quality:
Engineering flaws
and supplier problems caused all kinds of issues with the early 64’s. Some of
the quality issues were simply caused by the C64’s enormous popularity. One
engineer is quoted as saying “You pick a switch that is listed as a ‘consumer
switch’. You design it in. …Then California [the production division] wants
50,000 a week but the manufacturer says ‘We can’t make that quantity.’ ”
Because production of 64 circuit boards was designed for the “auto-insertion”
VIC-20 factory in the US, there were problems from day one with the Japanese
plant which used manual-insertion production lines. Local standards also wrecked
havoc; the Japanese used mainly metric screws while the US lines worked with
‘English’ screws so when components were shipping between facilities, the result
was not always pretty. “It takes a very tough person to say ‘I’m not shipping
these because they’re not as good as they could be – especially when people are
clamoring to buy them” explained Charpentier.
There was a so called
‘sparkle’ problem which caused small ‘lights’ to appear on the screen of the
first few hundred thousand units. Most thought the problem was caused by defects
in the video chip but in fact the problem was voltage spikes caused by a series
of 64 systems that adversely affected the ROM chip. This same MOS ROM had been
used in 3 million other computers including the wildly popular arcade game
“Asteroids”, without problem.
Depending on the colours, the edges of some
objects would appear slightly out of line because Charpentier miscalculated the
number of clock cycles on each horizontal video line. “Instead of 65 clock
cycles per line, I had 64”. This problem took five months to correct.
“They don’t test. I’ve opened up brand-new Commodores and found traces cut. They
obviously use a power screwdriver to assemble the C-64, sometimes miss the screw
and chop the traces.” criticized one of Epyx Software staffers.
To top
this off Commodore had moved its engineers to Head Office in Pennsylvania, away
from the California production line which caused communication to be further
strained.
If you are having problems diagnosing your C64’s problems,
click HERE for a great troubleshooting guide.
The Revisions:
commodoore-sx64_compute_sept83
Commodore SX64 Laptop Announcement
The
Commodore 64 has sold more than any other computer in history. The Guinness book
of Records estimates that there were about 30 MILLION units pushed out of
Commodore plants even though most historians argue that the real number is
closer to 20 million units. Either way, it is a record breaking achievement.
In addition to the 64 being a fabulously powerful machine produced at time
of exploding computer popularity, it was also without doubt the longest
production run in history. From early 1982 through to 1992, Commodore
manufactured several minor derivatives of the machine to keep its profits paying
for Commodores many many mistakes with newer products.
The 64C came in a
sleek beige plastic case. Commodore kept the 64 in the ugly brown ‘VIC-a-like’
box because it was cheap. Other than some minor circuitry revisions (and the
case obviously), the 64C was identical to the original 64. The 64C came with
Berkley Software’s famous GEOS Operating System and modem linking software. This
made the 64 a minor competitor to IBM PC’s with original versions of Microsoft
Windows 1, 2 and 3. GEOS was MUCH more mature and capable than Microsoft’s
fledgling Windows, but a combination of excellent copy protection (which
hindered its spread / popularity) and it’s minimal base hardware (the 64) made
GEOS’ life all too short. While new versions of GEOS are still developed and
produced for commercial sale today, its commercial significance died with the
64.
The most interesting C64 Derivative was the Commodore Max Machine. It
was announced in Germany and Canada but was only released only in Japan.
The MAX was anything but. It was a much cheaper version of the Commodore 64 with
only 8K of RAM and a very bad membrane keyboard. This combination makes it one
of the rarest and most sought after production Commodore computers. This limited
system has two joystick ports, a cartridge and cassette port, RF out, audio out,
channel select and power input.
Commodore 64GS Game System – A C64
motherboard with no keyboard – not a big success
The 64GS was a
keyboardless version of the 64 released to Europe in 1998. The idea was to
further reduce cost to produce a low price gaming console. The 64GS was a little
white box containing a C64 motherboard with a cartridge slot on top. If the
production cost of a regular C64 was $50, the GS was likely near $40 ($90 in
2018 dollars). It did not sell well. In fact I have never seen one, other than
in pictures.
There were seemingly countless Commodore 64 bundles to keep
sales moving including Terminator II bundle, a 64C TV Quiz Pack and so many
more.
There were even several $995 ($2100 in 2018 dollars) laptops (ok,
laptop is a stretch; they were 25 pound luggables) executive versions of the 64
called the SX-64, DX-64, and the SX-100. These began to appear in 1983 which was
fairly early on in the 64 life cycle and taken by some to as an indication that
the C64 laptop was planned as an expansion product rather than a way to
resuscitate a dying line.
COMMODORE SX64 LAPTOP – PORTABLE: Who’s
keeping up with the Commodore Executive?
Golden Commodore 64 Very limited
“production” to celebrate 1 million units being productions. These units are
supposed to be fully functional, but in fact Commodore staff simply took problem
64’s that had been returned / warrentied and turned them into these highly
collectable units.
Commodore produced fully functional Golden 64’s in
various markets. These “Jubilee” machines commemorated the 1,000,000th unit
produced. In the US, Golden 64’s were shown at the 1984 winter CES. More than
350 Golden 64’s were produced for Germany’s one millionth celebration in
December of 1986.
Post Mortem:
Although the machine had important
flaws, the Commodore 64 design team created a fantastic machine at very low cost
which soundly thrashed the competition for years. How did they do it and why
would it prove to be nearly impossible for Commodore (and most other companies)
to replicate process in the future? The design success is widely attributed to
the fact that engineers were not intending to build a computer, just some chips,
so the corporate bureaucrats left them alone. Engineers did the core market
research and developed their own standards.
The 64 was the last machine
Commodore engineered on a whim. “If you let Marketing get involved with Product
Definition, you’ll never get it done quickly. And you squander the ability to
make something unique…” said Winterable. “When you get many people involved in a
project, all you end up doing is justifying yourself… The freedom that allowed
us to do the C-64 project will probably never exist again…”
ensoniq-sound-logoIn the end, nearly the whole C64 team, Al Charpentier, Robert
Yannes, Charles Winterable, David Ziembeicki and Bruce Crockette, left Commodore
early in 1983 and started Peripheral Visions which was quickly renamed Ensoniq.
Ensoniq was purchased by Creative Labs (the sound card company) in the late
1990’s.
Post Post Mortem: The C65 (1994):
Commodore 65 DX Prototype –
The C65 was never released and officially did not exist according to Commodore
before it went bankrupt in 1994
Before Commodore went bankrupt in 1993/4,
it was rumored that engineers were secretly working on a new improved (but still
8 bit) 64 called the C65. After the bankruptcy dozens of prototypes, schematics,
drawings, engineering notes, and system components were sold to the highest
bidder. Because Commodore Canada was the last division to fall, much of this
inventory had been moved from other sites to their Toronto headquarters and this
is where most of the of the prototypes came out of.
Post Post Post
Mortem: The C-One (2004):
The mighty 64 has sprung up from the ashes of
Commodores dissolution, in the form of the C-One. The Commodore One was
conceived in 1999 by engineering student Jeri Ellsworth. Her original intent was
to create a circuit that would allow the original Commodore 64 to function with
a modern VGA monitor. After learning the complications of such a task, the work
expanded and expanded and now is a full blown 100% C64 compatible machine for
about US$200, that uses a DIMM, Flash Memory, SVGA Monitor and other modern
hardware.
The C-1 has now been branded “The Reconfigurable Computer”. The
intent was to produce a machine that is as updatable as possible. Not just thing
like the BIOS but core system components: “…it evolved into a re-configurable
computer, a new class of computers where the chips do not have dedicated tasks
any more. The two main chips carry out different tasks, depending on the needs
of the program.
The technology used is called FPGA – field programmable
gate arrays. These chips can be programmed to do the tasks that the chips of the
C-64 or other computers have done. It’s no emulation, but it’s a
re-implementation of the chips that are no longer available since many years.
The one thing that is not contained in the FPGAs is the main processor – it
would take too much space, resulting in too high cost. To maintain flexibility,
the CPU resides on a card that can be exchanged by the user – as simple as
plugging in a PCI card.
After a cold start, the FPGA programs are loaded
from a mass-storage device like harddrive, disk drive or a compact flash card.
What’s described in one short sentence is a giant leap in computer technology:
The hardware can be altered by the user without even opening the computer. The
FPGA programs – so-called ‘cores’ – turn the C-One into clones of famous 80’s
computers like the C64, VIC-20, plus/4, TI-99/4a, Atari 2600, Atari 400/800
series, Sinclair Spectrum, ZX81, Schneider CPC and many more.”
For the
most current news and information on the Commodore One click HERE for the
official page.
As in it’s “hay day”, it seems the 64 is had to beat and
harder yet to kill. The final chapter of the history making Commodore 64 is not
still yet written nearly 40 years after it began as just an idea for some chips.
Post Post Post Post Mortem: Commodore USA (2010):
Commodore USA’s
reimagining of a Commodore 64 for the 2000’s – The C64x
Commodore USA was
setup by Barrie Altman who has an interesting background with media broadcasting
and now runs a furniture company that manufactures knock-off high end
furnishings. This new entity has a license to use the Commodore brand from the
Commodore BV (the Commodore brand copy write and trademark owner in 2013) .
Following the pattern established with the furniture business Commodore USA
originally sold re-stickered very low end PC’s manufactured in China. We
interviewed Barry in 2010 and he made no oligopolies for it.
CommodoreUSA-C64x-models-pricingIn 2012 Commodore USA produced a custom chassied
modern PC that looked like the classic Commodore 64. As an Intel Core i3 to i7
based PC it would run any modern Operating System including Windows 8 or even
Windows Server 2012!
In December of 2012 Barrie died and it did not take
long for Commodore USA to follow.
Final Note: If you want to play the
games or run other applications but do not want to bother with the hardware,
there are many of excellent emulators that allow you to run 64 programs on your
PC. We suggest using VICE because it emulates almost all Commodore hardware and
you can download it from this site on our Download menu item at the top of the
page. C 64 Software usually referred to now as ROM’s are available for VICE on
hundreds of websites.
Commodore 64 Timeline
Commodore announces the Commodore 64 microcomputer at the Winter CES. It
features a 6510 processor, 64 KB RAM, 20KB ROM with Microsoft BASIC, custom SID
sound chip, 8 sprites, 16-color graphics, 40-column screen, for US$595. It is
the first personal computer with an integrated sound synthesizer chip
Production is approved immediately after the show
1982 Spring
Minor
engineering changes occur which will later cause as many problems as they
resolve
Production problems, like sourcing odd parts and figuring out how to
use metric screws with ‘English’ nuts are worked out between several worldwide
plants
1982 June
Summer CES Commodore shows the 64 again but this time
production is well underway
1982 August
Production is stable enough and
large enough to start shipping the 64 to retailers
1983 January
Commodore
shows off the 23 pound “portable” $995 SX-100 with integrates black and white 5″
screen. A colour 5″ screen version with two 5.25″ 1541 type drives lists for
$1295. ($2950 in 2018 dollars)
The price drops $100 ($225 in 2018 dollars) as
Commodore starts distributing the machines through mass marketers like Sears
1983 Spring
Nearly the whole C64 team, Al Charpentier, Robert Yannes, Charles
Winterable, David Ziembeicki and Bruce Crockette, left Commodore early in 1983
and started Peripheral Visions which was quickly renamed Ensoniq (which becomes
part of Creative Labs in the late 1990’s).
1983 April
Commodore offers
$100 rebate on 64’s
1983 May
After many false starts and name changes,
Commodore Business Machines ships the Executive 64 with one 1541 type 170 KB
floppy and 5″ colour screen for $995. This is the worlds first portable colour
computer.
1983 June
Commodore drops the dealer price of the 64 all the way
down to $200
jack-tramiel-commdore-264-364-last-photo-of-jack-at-commdoore-CES-Janaury-19841984
January
January 13th – Commodore shows off prototype 264 and 364 at CES and
indicates they should be in production by June
January 15th – Commodores
founder, visionary and CEO, Jack Tramiel quits Commodore with secret plans to
buy the near bankrupt Atari
Commodore shows a Golden Jubilee version of the
64 to commemorate the 1,000,000 C64 to be produced in the US
Commodore
introduces the SX-64, the worlds first portable colour computer. It comes is a
hefty 10.5 kg and incorporates a 5-inch color monitor and one or two 5.25 inch
floppy drive all for $1600 ($3500 dollars in 2018)
1984
Commodore
introduces the Educator 64. A 64 in a Commodore PET 8032 style case.
1985
January
The last Commodore VIC-20 rolls off the line
Commodore shows off
the C128 Personal Computer at CES. This new machine has three modes: 64, CP/M
and the new 128KB mode.
1985
Commodore stops production of the 64 several
times (presumably in favour of the much more powerful Commodore 128) but
restarts the C64 line because of consumer demand.
1986 January
Germany
celebrates its 1,000,000 C64 with a Golden Jubilee version
Berkley Software
demonstrates GEOS for the Commodore 64 at Winter CES
Commodore 128D’s hit
retail stores in Europe and North America for about $500 ($1000 2018 dollars)
1986 September
Plus/4, C16, 116, 264 were in full liquidation were selling
for a mere $79 ($160 dollars in 2018)
1986 June
In an effort to revitalize
sales, Commodore releases a sleek new 128 like case, changes the name to 64C,
and bundles it with GEOS
The Commodore 1541C is displayed at Summer CES
1987 January
Berkley Software shows off a host of applications for GEOS,
including geoCalc, geoFile, and geoDex and sets them to retail at about $50 each
1987 December
Sales of the ‘new’ 64C cross 270,000 units
1988 June
GEOS
2 for the Commodore 64 is shown at Summer CES
1990
CMD Creative Micro
Designs releases 3 hard drives for the Commodore 64: 20 MB for $600, 40 MB for
$800, and a whooping 100 MB for US$1300 ($2200 dollars in 2018)
Commodore 64
Games System is released in Europe
1992
Last Commodore 64 is pushed off
the assembly line
1994
Commodore goes bankrupt and the Commodore 65
prototypes and documentation are auctioned off as part of the liquidation
2003 May 15
Jeri Ellsworth has her 3 year project to develop a 100% C64
compatible machine using modern hardware is released. This project is not
sanctioned by the current owners of the Commodore trademark so the machine is
called the C-One.
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