Commodore Vic-20

The Commodore Vic-20

Considered by some to be the best selling color computer of all time. Like many other early computers it left its mark in the industry and helped to set Commodore as a leader in the home computer market.

Released in 1980 this 8-bit computer was the first to sell over A million units. Equipped with 20K of RAM of which only 5K was available for the programmer. Using the MOS 6502 CPU the same CPU as the Commodore Pet. To get around its limited memory Game Cartridges were created with the programs residing on ROM. Thus programs did not have to be loaded into system memory via Cassette tape as they did on other computers such as the Apple II.

Scott Adams owner of Adventure International Games and creator of Dilbert was commissioned to port many of his games over from the TRS-80 systems. The Vic-20 continued to be a leader in the home computer market until the release of the Commodore C-64.