The MSD Super Disk were a series of 5¼-inch floppy disk drives compatible to some degree with the Commodore 1541 disk drive. produced by Micro Systems Development (Dallas, Texas; later MSD Systems) for use with Commodore 8-bit home computers . Two different versions of the MSD Super Disk were available: the single-drive model, SD-1 ; and the dual-drive model, SD-2 .
125-674: Introduced in 1983, the MSD Super Disk drives were the first third-party devices designed for compatibility with the Commodore 64 , although other manufacturers soon followed suit. The MSD drives include both an IEEE-488 parallel interface and the custom Commodore serial interface . Therefore, they can be connected to any Commodore 8-bit system, from the Commodore PET to the C64 and C128 , without any converters or other add-on devices. The MSD SD-1
250-575: A Timex Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) for as little as $ 10 with the purchase of a C64. This deal meant that the consumer could send the TS1000 to Commodore, collect the rebate, and pocket the difference; Timex Corporation departed the computer market within a year. Commodore's tactics soon led to a price war with the major home computer manufacturers. The success of the VIC-20 and C64 contributed significantly to Texas Instruments and other smaller competitors exiting
375-579: A 1 MHz Rockwell International 6511Q microcontroller . Ahoy! noted the SD-2's incompatibilities with some 1541 software, but concluded that "serious users of the Commodore 64 will easily be able to justify the $ 695 price tag. The time savings alone, when backing up disk files, will rapidly pay for the machine", and also a good replacement for the CBM 4040. This microcomputer - or microprocessor -related article
500-779: A 1989 interview, "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years." In the UK market, the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro , the ZX Spectrum , and later the Amstrad CPC 464 , but the C64 was still the second-most-popular computer in the UK after the ZX Spectrum. The Commodore 64 failed to make any impact in Japan, as their market was dominated by Japanese computers, such as
625-584: A challenge against Apple's iPod line, which by that time did not have a portable video player. Creative Technology planned to be the first to introduce a player based on PMC. Digital video recorders (DVC) were highly prolific during the show of 2004, as well as the HDMI interface. The Blu-ray Group held at the PRIL April 2004 CES the first US press conference to promote the Blu-ray Disc format. The 2005 CES
750-414: A compatible video game console , to run these programs today. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demoscene and is still used today by some computer hobbyists . In 2011, 17 years after it was taken off the market, research showed that brand recognition for the model was still at 87%. In January 1981, MOS Technology, Inc., Commodore's integrated circuit design subsidiary, initiated
875-481: A consistent group that's not growing... it's going to shrink as part of our business." One computer gaming executive stated that the Nintendo Entertainment System 's enormous popularity – seven million sold in 1988, almost as many as the number of C64s sold in its first five years – had stopped the C64's growth. Trip Hawkins reinforced that sentiment, stating that Nintendo
1000-437: A disk drive, and using BASIC 2.0 simplified VIC-20 owners' transition to the 64. "The choice of BASIC 2.0 instead of 4.0 was made with some soul-searching, not just at random. The typical user of a C64 is not expected to need the direct disk commands as much as other extensions, and the amount of memory to be committed to BASIC were to be limited. We chose to leave expansion space for color and sound extensions instead of
1125-424: A keyboard, so any software that required a keyboard could not be used. In 1990, an advanced successor to the C64, the Commodore 65 (also known as the "C64DX"), was prototyped, but the project was canceled by Commodore's chairman Irving Gould in 1991. The C65's specifications were impressive for an 8-bit computer, bringing specs comparable to the 16-bit Apple IIGS . For example, it could display 256 colors on
1250-408: A lack of software; although most commercial CP/M software can run on these systems, software media is incompatible between platforms. The low usage of CP/M on Commodores means that software houses saw no need to invest in mastering versions for the Commodore disk format. The C64 CP/M cartridge is also not compatible with anything except the early 326298 motherboards. During the 1980s, the Commodore 64
1375-412: A large spike in 1984 when 2.6 million were sold. After that, sales held steady at between 1.3 and 1.6 million a year for the remainder of the decade and then dropped off after 1989. North American sales peaked between 1983 and 1985 and gradually tapered off afterward, while European sales remained quite strong into the early 1990s. Commodore itself reported a robust sales figure of over 800,000 units during
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#17328686033741500-469: A leftover feature of the unsuccessful MAX Machine. These cartridges map into $ F000 and displace the KERNAL ;ROM. If Ultimax mode is used, the programmer will have to provide code for handling system interrupts. The cartridge port has 16 address lines , which grants access to the computer's entire address space if needed. Disk and tape software normally load at the start of BASIC memory ($ 0801), and use
1625-637: A lower price and more flexible hardware, it quickly outsold many of its competitors. In the United States, the greatest competitors were the Atari 8-bit computers and the Apple II. The Atari 400 and 800 had been designed to accommodate previously stringent FCC emissions requirements and so were expensive to manufacture. Though similar in specifications, the C64 and Apple II represented differing design philosophies; as an open architecture system, upgrade capability for
1750-492: A mid-1984 conference of game developers and experts at Origins Game Fair , Dan Bunten , Sid Meier , and a representative of Avalon Hill said that they were developing games for the C64 first as the most promising market. By 1985, games were an estimated 60 to 70% of Commodore 64 software. Computer Gaming World stated in January 1985 that companies such as Epyx that survived the video game crash did so because they "jumped on
1875-549: A new production process, and a shortage of 1541 disk drives, which also suffered rather severe reliability issues. During 1983, however, a trickle of software turned into a flood and sales began rapidly climbing. Commodore sold the C64 not only through its network of authorized dealers but also through department stores, discount stores, toy stores and college bookstores. The C64 had a built-in RF modulator and thus could be plugged into any television set. This allowed it (like its predecessor,
2000-693: A preview version of Windows XP Media Center Edition at CES 2002. The Memory Stick PRO was introduced as a joint effort between Sony and SanDisk . Adobe announced Adobe Photoshop Album to import, organize and edit digital photos, and allows quick and easy searching and sharing of entire photo collections. Pentax announced the OptioS digital camera. Sony launched its first DVD Handycam Camcorders . Olympus announced weather proof metal body Olympus mju U10D, S300D, u300D and 400 Digital cameras. The first handheld video players based on Microsoft's Portable Media Player (PMC) were introduced. The media saw this as
2125-615: A project to design the graphic and audio chips for a next-generation video game console . Design work for the chips, named MOS Technology VIC-II (Video Integrated Circuit for graphics) and MOS Technology SID (Sound Interface Device for audio), was completed in November 1981. Commodore then began a game console project that would use the new chips—called the Ultimax or the MAX Machine , engineered by Yash Terakura from Commodore Japan. This project
2250-443: A series of television commercials after the C64's launch in late 1982. The company also published detailed documentation to help developers, while Atari initially kept technical information secret. Although many early C64 games were inferior Atari 8-bit ports , by late 1983, the growing installed base caused developers to create new software with better graphics and sound. Rumors spread in late 1983 that Commodore would discontinue
2375-513: A small BASIC stub (such as 10 SYS(2064) ) to jump to the start of the program. Although no Commodore 8-bit machine except the C128 can automatically boot from a floppy disk, some software intentionally overwrites certain BASIC vectors in the process of loading so execution begins automatically (instead of requiring the user to type RUN at the BASIC prompt after loading). About 300 cartridges were released for
2500-474: A system lockup or other undesirable side effects if the restore key is accidentally pressed (which activates the NMI thread). The C64 retained the VIC-20's DE-9 Atari joystick port and added another; any Atari-specification game controller can be used on a C64. The joysticks are read from the registers at $ DC00 and $ DC01 , and most software is designed to use a joystick in port 2 for control rather than port 1;
2625-419: Is Club Caribe . First released as Habitat in 1988, Club Caribe was introduced by LucasArts for Q-Link customers on their Commodore 64 computers. Users could interact with one another, chat and exchange items. Although the game's open world was very basic, its use of online avatars and the combination of chat and graphics was revolutionary. Online graphics in the late 1980s were severely restricted by
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#17328686033742750-760: Is 20 KB of ROM, made up of the BASIC interpreter, the KERNAL , and the character ROM. Because the processor can only address 64 KB at a time, the ROM was mapped into memory and only 38 911 bytes of RAM (plus 4 KB between the ROMs) were available at startup. Most " breadbin " Commodore 64s used 4164 DRAM with eight chips totaling 64K of system RAM. Later models, featuring Assy 250466 and Assy 250469 motherboards , used 41464 DRAM (64K×4) chips which stored 32 KB per chip (so only two were required). Because 4164 DRAMs are 64K×1, eight chips are needed to make an entire byte;
2875-626: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Commodore 64 The Commodore 64 , also known as the C64 , is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show , January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas ). It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing
3000-719: Is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada , United States, the event typically hosts presentations of new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry. CES 2024 was held from Jan 9–12. Press days started two days prior. The first CES was held in June 1967 in New York City . It
3125-488: Is commercially available today and under active development. It features a full GUI in character mode, and many other modern features. A version of CP/M was released, but this requires the addition of an external Z80 processor to the expansion bus. Furthermore, the Z80 processor is underclocked to be compatible with the C64's memory bus, so performance is poor compared to other CP/M implementations. C64 CP/M and C128 CP/M both suffer
3250-500: Is present. The second revision is found on all C64s made from late 1982 through 1985. The final KERNAL ROM revision was introduced on the 250466 motherboard (late breadbin models with 41464 RAM), and is found in all C64Cs. The 6510 CPU is clocked at 1.023 MHz (NTSC) and 0.985 MHz (PAL), lower than some competing systems; the Atari 800, for example, is clocked at 1.79 MHz ). Performance can be boosted slightly by disabling
3375-444: The Commodore 1702 monitor, providing even better video quality than a composite signal. Aggressive pricing of the C64 is considered to have been a major catalyst in the video game crash of 1983 . In January 1983, Commodore offered a $ 100 rebate in the United States on the purchase of a C64 to anyone that traded in another video game console or computer. To take advantage of this rebate, some mail-order dealers and retailers offered
3500-469: The KERNAL went from two separate chips into one 16 KB ROM chip. The PLA chip and some TTL chips were integrated into a DIL 64-pin chip. The "252535-01" PLA integrated the color RAM as well into the same chip. The smaller physical space made it impossible to put in some internal expansions like a floppy-speeder. In the United States, the 64C was often bundled with the third-party GEOS graphical user interface (GUI)-based operating system, as well as
3625-545: The NEC PC-8801 , Sharp X1 , Fujitsu FM-7 and MSX , and in France, where the ZX Spectrum, Thomson MO5 and TO7 , and Amstrad CPC 464 dominated the market. Part of the Commodore 64's success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics or computer hobbyist specialty stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control costs , including custom integrated circuit chips from MOS Technology . In
3750-527: The Philips Compact Cassette analog audio tape system: MiniDisc created by Sony and Digital Compact Cassette (DCC), created by Philips and Matsushita . In a one-time experiment, the 1993 Summer CES was open to the general public. Major announcements during this edition were: AT&T displayed prototype AT&T 3DO units at the Winter CES. The 1998 CES was dominated by players for
3875-661: The Summer Consumer Electronics Show (SCES). The winter show was held in Las Vegas in 1995 as planned. However, since the summer Chicago shows were beginning to lose popularity, the organizers decided to experiment by having the show travel around to different cities starting in 1995 with a planned show in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Convention Center . However, the inaugural E3 gaming show
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4000-453: The Telnet protocol. There were major commercial online services , such as Compunet (UK), CompuServe (US – later bought by America Online ), The Source (US), and Minitel (France) among many others. These services usually required custom software which was often bundled with a modem and included free online time as they were billed by the minute. Quantum Link (or Q-Link)
4125-762: The "Best of Innovators" award for Personal Electronics. It is the only British company to have won this award. The 2006 exhibition took place on January 5–8, 2006, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Convention Center , the Alexis Park hotel and the Las Vegas Hilton hotel. HDTV was a central theme in the Bill Gates keynote as well as many of the other manufacturer's speeches. The standards competition between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc
4250-813: The 1970 CES, Philips unveiled the first-ever home VCR , the N1500 videocassette recorder. Until that point, VCRs cost upward of $ 50,000 and were used mainly by TV stations, but the Philips model with a built-in tuner was just $ 900. The 1976 Winter CES was held January 7–9 in Chicago at the Conrad Hilton Hotel. Per the show guide, it included video (with television receivers and video systems panels), audio (including CB radio, radio, audio compacts, audio components, and tape equipment panels), and calculator and watch areas (considered separate component conferences). Speakers included
4375-516: The 1981 CES, Philips and Sony introduced the CD player , which they had developed together. The 1982 Summer CES in Chicago at McCormick Place saw the first appearance of the Commodore 64 and General Consumer Electronics' Vectrex . In 1983, Summer CES retired to McCormick Place in Chicago and featured the introduction of the Coleco Adam and the Atari 600XL . The Amiga was first shown publicly at
4500-515: The 1984 Summer CES. In addition, Japanese jazz fusion artist Ryo Kawasaki performed with the Commodore 64 as a demo for the Kawasaki Synthesizer . At the 1985 Summer CES, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the American version of its Famicom, with a new case redesigned by Lance Barr and featuring a " zero insertion force " cartridge slot. The video game Tetris
4625-622: The 1991 fiscal year, but sales during the 1993 fiscal year had declined to fewer than 200,000 units. Throughout the early 1990s, European sales had accounted for more than 80% of Commodore's total sales revenue. In 1982, Commodore released the MAX Machine in Japan . It was called the Ultimax in the United States and VC-10 in Germany. The MAX was intended to be a game console with limited computing capability and
4750-556: The 40-pin IC package. These are used for two purposes in the C64: to bank-switch the machine's read-only memory (ROM) in and out of the processor's address space, and to operate the datasette tape recorder. The C64 has 64 KB of 8-bit-wide dynamic RAM , 1 KB of 4-bit-wide static color RAM for text mode, and 38 KB are available to built-in Commodore BASIC 2.0 on startup. There
4875-553: The 64C computer, which is functionally identical to the original. The exterior design was remodeled in the sleeker style of the Commodore 128 . The 64C uses new versions of the SID, VIC-II, and I/O chips being deployed. Models with the C64E board had the graphic symbols printed on the top of the keys, instead of the normal location on the front. The sound chip (SID) was changed to use the MOS 8580 chip, with
5000-475: The 64C, a redesigned 64, which Compute! saw as evidence that—contrary to C64 owners' fears that the company would abandon them in favor of the Amiga and 128—"the 64 refuses to die". Its introduction also meant that Commodore raised the price of the C64 for the first time, which the magazine cited as the end of the home-computer price war . Software sales also remained strong; MicroProse , for example, in 1987 cited
5125-415: The Apple II was granted by internal expansion slots, whereas the C64's comparatively closed architecture had only a single external ROM cartridge port for bus expansion. However, the Apple II used its expansion slots for interfacing with common peripherals like disk drives, printers, and modems; the C64 had a variety of ports integrated into its motherboard, which were used for these purposes, usually leaving
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5250-564: The Apple II+ (upgraded within months of C64's release to 64 KB with the Apple IIe) and 48 KB for the Atari 800. At upwards of $ 1,200 , the Apple ;II was about twice as expensive, while the Atari 800 cost $ 899. One key to the C64's success was Commodore's aggressive marketing tactics, and they were quick to exploit the relative price/performance divisions between its competitors with
5375-439: The Atari or Apple, like the ability to change color of the character basis across the screen. That gave us a lot of color capability that had not been exploited. With sales booming and the early reliability issues with the hardware addressed, software for the C64 began to grow in size and ambition during 1984. This growth shifted to the primary focus of most US game developers. The two holdouts were Sierra , who largely skipped over
5500-418: The C128 would be 100% compatible with the C64, thereby raising the bar for C64 support. In a case of malicious compliance , the 128 design was altered to include a separate "64 mode" using a complete C64 environment to try to ensure total compatibility. The C64's designers intended the computer to have a new, wedge-shaped case within a year of release, but the change did not occur. In 1986, Commodore released
5625-404: The C64 and C128: the 1350 and 1351 . The 1350 is a digital device read from the joystick registers, and can be used with any program supporting joystick input. The 1351 is an analog potentiometer -based mouse, read with the SID's analog-to-digital converter . Consumer Electronics Show CES ( / ˌ s i . i . ˈ ɛ s / ; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show )
5750-472: The C64 because "it will sell the most on that system". In Europe, the primary competitors to the C64 were British-built computers: the Sinclair ZX Spectrum , the BBC Micro , and the Amstrad CPC 464 . In the UK, the 48K Spectrum had not only been released a few months ahead of the C64's early 1983 debut, but it was also selling for £175, less than half the C64's £399 price. The Spectrum quickly became
5875-459: The C64 in favor of Apple and PC-compatible machines, and Broderbund , who were heavily invested in educational software and developed primarily around the Apple II. In the North American market, the disk format had become nearly universal while cassette and cartridge-based software all but disappeared. Most US-developed games by this point grew large enough to require multi-loading from disk. At
6000-629: The C64 include Pascal , C , Logo , Forth , and FORTRAN . Compilers for BASIC 2.0 such as Petspeed 2 (from Commodore), Blitz (from Jason Ranheim), and Turbo Lightning (from Ocean Software ) were produced. Most commercial C64 software was written in assembly language, either cross-developed on a larger computer, or directly on the C64 using a machine code monitor or an assembler. This maximized speed and minimized memory use. Some games, particularly adventures, used high-level scripting languages and sometimes mixed BASIC and machine language. Many third-party operating systems have been developed for
6125-533: The C64's 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 -year production. Claims of sales of 17, 22 and 30 million of C64 units sold worldwide have been made. Company sales records, however, indicate that the total number was about 12.5 million. Based on that figure, the Commodore 64 was still the third most popular computing platform into the 21st century until 2017 when the Raspberry Pi family replaced it. While 360,000 C64s were sold in 1982, about 1.3 million were sold in 1983, followed by
6250-450: The C64's price was $ 149 ; with an estimated production cost of $ 35–50 , its profitability was still within the industry-standard markup of two to three times. Commodore sold about one million C64s in 1985 and a total of 3.5 million by mid-1986. Although the company reportedly attempted to discontinue the C64 more than once in favor of more expensive computers such as the Commodore 128 , demand remained strong. In 1986, Commodore introduced
6375-524: The C64, but it was the only non-discontinued, widely available home computer in the US by then, with more than 500,000 sold during the Christmas season; because of production problems in Atari's supply chain, by the start of 1984 "the Commodore 64 largely has [the low-end] market to itself right now", The Washington Post reported. Some of the graphics modes on the 64 are really strange, and they have no analogs to
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#17328686033746500-453: The C64, avoiding the Plus/4's flaws. The successors had many improvements such as a BASIC with graphics and sound commands (like almost all home computers not made by Commodore ), 80-column display ability, and full CP/M compatibility. The decision to make the Commodore 128 plug compatible with the C64 was made quietly by Bowen and Herd, software and hardware designers respectively, without
6625-488: The C64, most arcade conversions were produced by UK developers and converted to NTSC and disk format for the US market, American developers instead focusing on more computer-centered game genres such as RPGs and simulations. In the European market, disk software was rarer and cassettes were the most common distribution method; this led to a higher prevalence of arcade titles and smaller, lower-budget games that could fit entirely in
6750-400: The C64, primarily during the machine's first 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 years on the market, after which most software outgrew the 16 KB cartridge limit. Larger software companies, such as Ocean Software , began releasing games on bank-switched cartridges to overcome the 16 KB cartridge limit during the C64's final years. Commodore did not include a reset button on its computers until
6875-509: The C64. As well as the original GEOS , two third-party GEOS-compatible systems have been written: Wheels and GEOS megapatch. Both of these require hardware upgrades to the original C64. Several other operating systems are or have been available, including WiNGS OS, the Unix-like LUnix, operated from a command-line, and the embedded systems OS Contiki , with full GUI. Other less well-known OSes include ACE, Asterix, DOS/65, and GeckOS . C64 OS
7000-551: The CBM-II line, but third-party cartridges had a reset button. A soft reset can be triggered by jumping to the CPU reset routine at $ FCE2 (64738). A few programs use this as an exit feature, although it does not clear memory. The KERNAL ROM underwent three revisions, mainly designed to fix bugs. The initial version is only found on 326298 motherboards (used in the first production models), and cannot detect whether an NTSC or PAL VIC-II
7125-663: The CES portion of the show was cancelled. In 1998, the show changed to a once-a-year format, with Las Vegas as the location. In Las Vegas, the show is one of the largest (the other being CONEXPO-CON/AGG ), taking up to 18 days to set up, run and break down. The first CES was held in New York City from June 24 to 28, 1967. The 200 exhibitors attracted 17,500 attendees to the Hilton and Americana hotels over those four days. Also displayed were pocket radios and TVs with integrated circuits . At
7250-522: The CPU. Because doing so necessitates swapping out the I/O registers, interrupts must first be disabled. By removing I/O from the memory map, $ D000 – $ DFFF becomes free RAM. C64 cartridges map into assigned ranges in the CPU's address space. The most common cartridge auto-starting requires a string at $ 8000 which contains " CBM80 " followed by the address where program execution begins. A few C64 cartridges released in 1982 use Ultimax mode (or MAX mode),
7375-626: The Commodore and IBM PC markets as its top priorities. By 1988, PC compatibles were the largest and fastest-growing home and entertainment software markets, displacing former leader Commodore. Commodore 64 software sales were almost unchanged in the third quarter of 1988 year over year while the overall market grew 42%, but the company was still selling 1 to 1.5 million units worldwide each year of what Computer Chronicles that year called "the Model T of personal computers". Epyx CEO Dave Morse cautioned that "there are no new 64 buyers, or very few. It's
7500-580: The Commodore bandwagon early". Over 35% of SSI 's 1986 sales were for the C64, ten points higher than for the Apple II. The C64 was even more important for other companies, which often found that more than half the sales for a title ported to six platforms came from the C64 version. That year, Computer Gaming World published a survey of ten game publishers that found that they planned to release forty-three Commodore 64 games that year, compared to nineteen for Atari and forty-eight for Apple II, and Alan Miller stated that Accolade developed first for
7625-520: The FTC's Joan Bernstein on "The Warranty Law – Its Status and Impact", and the FCC's Richard M. Smith on "Regulating Citizens' Band Radios". The 1976 Summer CES was also held June 13–16 in Chicago at McCormick Place. The Atari VCS was shown publicly for the first time at the 1977 CES. The 1979 Winter CES was held in January in Las Vegas. Atari 400 and 800 computers were introduced. Bill Gates appeared at CES for
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#17328686033747750-549: The January 1982 Consumer Electronics Show , as recalled by Production Engineer David A. Ziembicki: "All we saw at our booth were Atari people with their mouths dropping open, saying, 'How can you do that for $ 595? ' " The answer was vertical integration ; due to Commodore's ownership of MOS Technology's semiconductor fabrication facilities, each C64 had an estimated production cost of US$ 135 (equivalent to $ 350 in 2022). In July 1983, BYTE magazine stated that "the 64 retails for $ 595 . At that price it promises to be one of
7875-528: The Las Vegas Hilton, with contributions from Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo , CEO of Nokia and John Chambers , CEO of Cisco . In the gaming section for Windows Vista and DirectX 10, there were two games shown: Age of Conan and Crysis . The 2008 exhibition was from January 7 to 10, 2008, in Las Vegas with 141,150 attendees. Bill Gates gave the keynote speech, in which he formally announced his retirement from his day-to-day duties at Microsoft. Along with
8000-400: The MSD SD-1 single drive over the Commodore 1541, MSD claimed to offer several advantages over the 1541. In an August 1985 review of 1541 replacements, RUN Magazine wrote that the MSD SD-2 was "built like a tank and can run 24 hours a day for weeks". And while program loading and saving was no faster than on the 1541 when using the serial interface due to that interface's limitations, both
8125-433: The NES. Because of lower incomes and the domination of the ZX Spectrum in the UK, almost all British C64 software used cassette tapes. Few cassette C64 programs were released in the US after 1983 and, in North America, the diskette was the principal method of software distribution. The cartridge slot on the C64 was also mainly a feature used in the computer's first two years on the US market and became rapidly obsolete once
8250-431: The NMI and exits. Run/stop-restore is normally a soft reset in BASIC which restores all I/O registers to their power-on default state, but does not clear memory or reset pointers; any BASIC programs in memory will be left untouched. Machine-language software usually disables run/stop-restore by remapping the NMI vector to a dummy RTI instruction. The NMI can also be used for an extra interrupt thread by programs, but risks
8375-399: The PET over the standard C64's separate components, which could be easily damaged, vandalized, or stolen. Schools did not prefer the Educator 64 to the wide range of software and hardware options the Apple IIe was able to offer, and it was produced in limited quantities. Also in 1983, Commodore released the SX-64 , a portable version of the C64. The SX-64 has the distinction of being
8500-423: The SD-1 and SD-2 were several times faster when connected to the computer via the IEEE-488 interface. MSD Systems also offered the VIE and CIE IEEE-488 interface for the VIC-20 and Commodore 64, respectively. Furthermore, a blank disk could be formatted in only 18 seconds on the MSD Super Disk series, compared to 1 minute and 22 seconds on the 1541. The MSD SD-2 implements the Commodore DOS Duplicate command from
8625-407: The Sunday evening. The opening keynote was presented by Gary Shapiro (President/CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association , which hosts the event), with Ed Zander , Chairman/CEO of Motorola . Other keynote speakers scheduled included Robert Iger from The Walt Disney Company , Michael Dell , founder of Dell Inc., and Leslie Moonves of CBS . Finally, Industry Insider presentations moved to
8750-418: The United States, it has been compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative and affordable mass-production. Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles have been made for the Commodore 64, including development tools, office productivity applications, and video games . C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or
8875-463: The VIC-20) to compete directly against video game consoles such as the Atari 2600 . Like the Apple IIe, the C64 could also output a composite video signal, avoiding the RF modulator altogether. This allowed the C64 to be plugged into a specialized monitor for a sharper picture. Unlike the IIe, the C64's NTSC output capability also included separate luminance/chroma signal output equivalent to (and electrically compatible with) S-Video , for connection to
9000-505: The VIC-II's video output via a register write. This feature is often used by tape and disk fast loaders and the KERNAL cassette routine to keep a standard CPU cycle timing not modified by the VIC-II's sharing of the bus. The restore key is gated directly to the CPU's NMI line, and will generate an NMI if pressed. The KERNAL handler for the NMI checks if run/stop is also pressed; if not, it ignores
9125-511: The VIC-II) and Charles Winterble (manager of MOS Technology), they proposed to Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel a low-cost sequel to the VIC-20. Tramiel dictated that the machine should have 64 KB of random-access memory (RAM). Although 64- Kbit dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips cost over US$ 100 (equivalent to $ 283.29 in 2023) at the time, he knew that 64K DRAM prices were falling and would drop to an acceptable level before full production
9250-424: The announcement, he presented a lengthy comedy skit on what his last day with Microsoft would be like, complete with cameos from celebrities including Jay-Z , Steven Spielberg , Barack Obama , Hillary Clinton and many others. Panasonic attracted much attention by releasing a 150" Plasma TV as well as a 50" TV as thin as 0.46 inches (11.6 mm). The 2009 exhibition, held January 7–10, 2009, returned to
9375-586: The burgeoning DVD format, with a variety of features and price points. The DIVX format was also showcased, but received relatively little attention, and no companies had DIVX players on display. Microsoft and chair Bill Gates officially unveiled the final design of its Xbox console and controller. The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) announced expansion of Charge Up to Recycle! program to include all consumer rechargeable batteries, adding Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-Ion), and Small VRLA (SSLA/Pb). Microsoft demonstrated
9500-509: The cartridge port free. Commodore's was not a completely closed system, however, the company had published detailed specifications for most of their models since the Commodore PET and VIC-20 days, and the C64 was no exception. C64 sales were nonetheless relatively slow due to a lack of software, reliability issues with early production models, particularly high failure rates of the PLA chip , which used
9625-420: The category of home computers under $ 500 . Despite criticizing its "slow disk drive, only two cursor directional keys, zero manufacturer support, non-standard interfaces, etc.", the magazine said that at the C64's price of less than $ 200 "you can't get another system with the same features: 64K, color, sprite graphics, and barrels of available software". The Tandy Color Computer was the runner up. The Apple II
9750-403: The computer will not function without all of them present. The first chip contains Bit 0 for the memory space, the second chip contains Bit 1, and so forth. The C64 performs a RAM test on power-up and if a RAM error is detected, the amount of free BASIC memory will be lower than the normal 38,911. If the faulty chip is in lower memory, then an ?OUT OF MEMORY IN 0 error is displayed rather than
9875-445: The computer's memory without requiring multiloads. European programmers also tended to exploit advanced features of the C64's hardware more than their US counterparts. The Commodore 64 Light Fantastic pack was release in time for the 1989 Christmas holiday season. The package included a C64C, a Cheetah Defender 64 Light gun and 3D-glasses. This pack included several games compatible with the light gun, including some developed purely for
10000-419: The core voltage reduced from 12V to 9V. The most significant changes include different behavior in the filters and in the volume control, which result in some music/sound effects sounding differently than intended, and in digitally-sampled audio being almost inaudible, respectively (though both of these can mostly be corrected-for in software). The 64 KB RAM memory went from eight chips to two chips. BASIC and
10125-519: The cost of producing the disk drive. In March 1994, at CeBIT in Hanover , Germany , Commodore announced that the C64 would be finally discontinued in 1995, noting that the Commodore 1541 cost more than the C64 itself. However, only one month later in April 1994, the company filed for bankruptcy . When Commodore went bankrupt, all production on their inventory, including the C64, was discontinued, thus ending
10250-581: The disk features. As a result, you will have to handle the disk in the more cumbersome manner of the 'old days'." The version of Microsoft BASIC is not very comprehensive and does not include specific commands for sound or graphics manipulation, instead requiring users to use the " PEEK and POKE " commands to access the graphics and sound chip registers directly. To provide extended commands, including graphics and sound, Commodore produced two different cartridge-based extensions to BASIC 2.0: Simons' BASIC and Super Expander 64 . Other languages available for
10375-492: The earlier CBM/PET systems and the Atari 400 and Atari 800. This means that no memory space is dedicated to running a disk operating system , as was the case with earlier systems such as the Apple II and TRS-80 . Commodore BASIC 2.0 is used instead of the more advanced BASIC 4.0 from the PET series, since C64 users were not expected to need the disk-oriented enhancements of BASIC 4.0. The company did not expect many to buy
10500-407: The field. The price war with Texas Instruments was seen as a personal battle for Commodore president Jack Tramiel. Commodore dropped the C64's list price by $ 200 within two months of its release. In June 1983 the company lowered the price to $ 300 (equivalent to $ 900 in 2023), and some stores sold the computer for $ 199 . At one point, the company was selling as many C64s as all computers sold by
10625-455: The first commercial full-color portable computer . While earlier computers using this form factor only incorporate monochrome ("green screen") displays, the base SX-64 unit features a 5 in (130 mm) color cathode-ray tube (CRT) and one integrated 1541 floppy disk drive. Even though Commodore claimed in advertisements that it would have dual 1541 drives, when the SX-64 was released there
10750-529: The first time, introducing the first BASIC compiler for the Apple II . Texas Instruments showed off the TI-99/4. The 1979 Summer CES was held June 3–6 in Chicago at McCormick Place . Features (per the show guide) included personal communications, retail advertising, promotion and store layout, exports, video, audio, auto sound/telephone sales, and a large series of retail sales and sales management breakouts. At
10875-482: The hottest contenders in the under- $ 1,000 personal computer market." It described the SID as "a true music synthesizer ... the quality of the sound has to be heard to be believed", while criticizing the use of Commodore BASIC 2.0, the floppy disk performance which is "even slower than the Atari 810 drive", and Commodore's quality control. BYTE gave more details, saying the C64 had "inadequate Commodore BASIC 2.0. An 8K-byte interpreted BASIC" which they assumed
11000-405: The knowledge or approval by the management in the post Jack Tramiel era. The designers were careful not to reveal their decision until the project was too far along to be challenged or changed and still make the impending Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Upon learning that the C128 was designed to be compatible with the C64, Commodore's marketing department independently announced that
11125-438: The low-end computer market (except in the UK, France and Japan, lasting only about six months in Japan ) for most of the later years of the 1980s. For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two million units sold per year, outselling IBM PC compatibles , the Apple II , and Atari 8-bit computers . Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore's founder, said in
11250-608: The market leader and Commodore had an uphill struggle against it in the marketplace. The C64 did however go on to rival the Spectrum in popularity in the latter half of the 1980s. Adjusted to the population size, the popularity of Commodore 64 was the highest in Finland at roughly 3 units per 100 inhabitants, where it was subsequently marketed as "the Computer of the Republic". By early 1985
11375-545: The microcontroller used. Internally, both models feature TEC brand (model FB-501) floppy drive mechanisms. The electronics on the mechanisms are modified by MSD to be compatible with the GCR recording format used by all Commodore floppy disk drives at that time (the D9060/90 hard disks and the later produced 1581 3½-inch drive used the MFM recording format). The main control board utilizes
11500-467: The need to support modem data transfer rates as low as 300 bits per second . Habitat's graphics were stored locally on floppy disk, eliminating the need for network transfer. The C64 uses an 8-bit MOS Technology 6510 microprocessor that is almost identical to the 6502 but has three-state buses , a different pinout , slightly different clock signals and other minor changes for this application. It also has six I/O lines on otherwise-unused legs on
11625-478: The new computer; the latter set a final deadline for the first weekend of January, to coincide with the 1982 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The product was code named the VIC-40 as the successor to the popular VIC-20 . The team that constructed it consisted of Yash Terakura, Shiraz Shivji , Bob Russell, Bob Yannes, and David A. Ziembicki. The design, prototypes, and some sample software were finished in time for
11750-579: The number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$ 595 (equivalent to $ 1,880 in 2023). Preceded by the VIC-20 and Commodore PET , the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes ) of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware. The C64 dominated
11875-450: The older Commodore PET dual drive series. Because the SD-2 has paired drive units and 6 kB of internal RAM, it allows entire disks to be copied in less than 2 minutes. It is still unable to read and write an entire track of data (over 7kB) in a single rotation of the media, which would be optimal. It does have an empty PCB pad available to add a 4th 2kB chip. A third-party hardware & software add-on (Chip Level Designs' Mass Duplicator )
12000-434: The packs release (Mindscape.) In the United States, demand for 8-bit computers all but ceased as the 1990s began and PC compatibles completely dominated the computer market. However, the C64 continued to be popular in the UK and other European countries. The machine's eventual demise was not due to lack of demand or the cost of the C64 itself (still profitable at a retail price point between £44 and £50), but rather because of
12125-673: The popular Apple II . The C64 is often credited with starting the demoscene subculture (see Commodore 64 demos ). It is still being actively used in the demoscene, especially for music (its SID sound chip even being used in special sound cards for PCs, and the Elektron SidStation synthesizer). Even though other computers quickly caught up with it, the C64 remained a strong competitor to the later video game consoles Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Master System , thanks in part to its by-then established software base, especially outside North America, where it comprehensively outsold
12250-447: The price and reliability of 1541 drives improved. A handful of PAL region games used bank switched cartridges to get around the 16 KB memory limit. As is common for home computers of the early 1980s, the C64 comes with a BASIC interpreter, in ROM. KERNAL, I/O, and tape/disk drive operations are accessed via custom BASIC language commands. The disk drive has its own interfacing microprocessor and ROM (firmware) I/O routines, much like
12375-507: The rest of the industry combined. Meanwhile, TI lost money by selling the TI-99/4A for $ 99 . TI's subsequent demise in the home computer industry in October 1983 was seen as revenge for TI's tactics in the electronic calculator market in the mid-1970s, when Commodore was almost bankrupted by TI. All four machines had similar memory configurations which were standard in 1982–83: 48 KB for
12500-612: The same as previous years: the Las Vegas Convention Center was the center of events, with the adjacent Las Vegas Hilton, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center hosting satellite exhibitions. The location for the main keynotes was the other major change for 2007. Previously held at the Las Vegas Hilton's Main Theater, they staged for the first time at The Palazzo Ballroom in The Venetian. Bill Gates gave his ninth pre-show keynote address on
12625-476: The same technology. Games for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 , Sega Genesis , and SNK's Neo-Geo took center stage. Winter CES was held in Las Vegas. A major video game of the show was Street Fighter II on the SNES. In the summer CES held in Chicago and dominated by video game products, Apple Inc. unveiled its Newton MessagePad . First recorders introduced for the two rival digital systems targeted as replacements for
12750-590: The screen, while OCS based Amigas could only display 64 in HalfBrite mode (32 colors and half-bright transformations). Although no specific reason was given for the C65's cancellation, it would have competed in the marketplace with Commodore's lower-end Amigas and the Commodore CDTV . In 1982, the C64's graphics and sound capabilities were rivaled only by the Atari 8-bit computers and appeared exceptional when compared with
12875-524: The show, after the team had worked tirelessly over both Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends. The machine used the same case, same-sized motherboard, and same Commodore BASIC 2.0 in ROM as the VIC-20. BASIC also served as the user interface shell and was available immediately on startup at the READY prompt. When the product was to be presented, the VIC-40 product was renamed C64. The C64 made an impressive debut at
13000-478: The software needed to access Quantum Link . The 1541 drive received a matching face-lift, resulting in the 1541C. Later, a smaller, sleeker 1541-II model was introduced, along with the 800 KB 3.5-inch microfloppy 1581 . In 1990, the C64 was repackaged in the form of a game console, called the C64 Games System (C64GS), with most external connectivity removed. A simple modification to the 64C's motherboard
13125-453: The system ROMs and the I/O area at $ D000 . If the KERNAL ROM is swapped out, BASIC will be removed at the same time. BASIC is not active without the KERNAL; BASIC often calls KERNAL routines, and part of the ROM code for BASIC is in the KERNAL ROM. The character ROM is normally invisible to the CPU. The character ROM may be mapped into $ D000 – $ DFFF , where it is then visible to
13250-486: The upper bits of $ DC00 are used by the keyboard, and an I/O conflict can result. Although it is possible to use Sega gamepads on a C64, it is not recommended; their slightly different signal can damage the CIA chip. The SID chip 's register $ D419 , used to control paddles, is an analog input. A handful of games, primarily released early in the computer's life cycle, can use paddles. In 1986, Commodore released two mice for
13375-502: The usual BASIC startup banner. The C64 uses a complicated memory-banking scheme; the normal power-on default is the BASIC ROM mapped in at $ A000 - $ BFFF , and the screen editor (KERNAL) ROM at $ E000 – $ FFFF . RAM under the system ROMs can be written to, but not read back, without swapping out the ROMs. Memory location $ 01 contains a register with control bits for enabling or disabling
13500-400: Was "the last hurrah of the 8-bit world". SSI exited the Commodore 64 market in 1991, after most competitors. Ultima VI , released in 1991, was the last major C64 game release from a North American developer, and The Simpsons , published by Ultra Games , was the last arcade conversion. The latter was a somewhat uncommon example of a US-developed arcade port as after the early years of
13625-666: Was a US and Canadian online service for Commodore 64 and 128 personal computers that operated from November 5, 1985, to November 1, 1994. It was operated by Quantum Computer Services of Vienna , Virginia, which in October 1991 changed its name to America Online and continued to operate its AOL service for the IBM PC compatible and Apple Macintosh . Q-Link was a modified version of the PlayNET system, which Control Video Corporation (CVC, later renamed Quantum Computer Services) licensed. The first graphical character-based interactive environment
13750-583: Was a spinoff of the Chicago Music Show which, until then, had served as the main event for exhibiting consumer electronics. The event had 17,500 attenders and over 100 exhibitors; the kickoff speaker was Motorola chairman Bob Galvin . From 1978 to 1994, CES was held twice each year: once in January in Las Vegas as the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (WCES) and once in June in Chicago as
13875-453: Was based on a cut-down version of the hardware family later used in the C64. The MAX was discontinued months after its introduction because of poor sales in Japan. 1983 saw Commodore attempt to compete with the Apple II 's hold on the US education market with the Educator 64 , essentially a C64 and "green" monochrome monitor in a PET case. Schools preferred the all-in-one metal construction of
14000-460: Was because "Obviously, Commodore feels that most home users will be running prepackaged software - there is no provision for using graphics (or sound as mentioned above) from within a BASIC program except by means of POKE commands." This was one of very few warnings about C64 BASIC published in any computer magazines. Creative Computing said in December 1984 that the C64 was "the overwhelming winner" in
14125-401: Was conspicuous, with some of the first HD movie releases and first HD players being announced at the show. Philips showed a rollable display prototype whose screen can retain an image for several months. Hillcrest Labs won the "Best Of Innovations" award in the video accessories category for software and hardware that allows a television to be controlled with natural gestures. Attendance
14250-513: Was eventually cancelled after just a few machines were manufactured for the Japanese market. At the same time, Robert "Bob" Russell (system programmer and architect on the VIC-20 ) and Robert "Bob" Yannes (engineer of the SID) were critical of the current product line-up at Commodore, which was a continuation of the Commodore PET line aimed at business users. With the support of Al Charpentier (engineer of
14375-565: Was first shown publicly in the U.S. at the 1988 Summer CES. The game John Madden Football was unveiled at the 1991 CES. Winter CES saw unveiling of Game Gear . In Summer CES, Sony revealed a Super Famicom with a built-in CD-ROM drive, that incorporated Green Book technology or CD-i , called "Play Station" (also known as SNES-CD ). However, a day after the announcement at CES, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Philips instead while using
14500-483: Was from January 6 to 9, 2005, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Las Vegas Convention Center . The event started off with a twist when the main keynote address by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates went wrong, as his demonstration of the Xbox 360 resulted in an out of memory error , much to the amusement of the onlookers. Samsung showed off a 102-inch (2.6 m) plasma television . Zimiti Ltd (renamed Boardbug Ltd in 2007) won
14625-431: Was made 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. Designed to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega's Master System , it suffered from very low sales compared to its rivals. It was another commercial failure for Commodore, and it was never released outside Europe. The Commodore game system lacked
14750-482: Was more expensive than the Commodore 1541. For instance, a typical mail-order advertisement in the January 1985 issue of RUN Magazine lists the MSD SD-1 single drive at $ 249.95, compared to $ 199.95 for the Commodore 1541. The SD-2 was listed at $ 449.95, much less than the comparable Commodore PET dual drive ( CBM 4040 ) which sold for $ 699. To justify the typically $ 50 or so (equivalent to $ 142 in 2023) higher price of
14875-522: Was only one and the other became a floppy disk storage slot. Also, unlike most other C64s, the SX-64 does not have a datasette connector so an external cassette was not an option. Two designers at Commodore, Fred Bowen and Bil Herd , were determined to rectify the problems of the Plus/4 . They intended that the eventual successors to the C64—the Commodore 128 and 128D computers (1985)—were to build upon
15000-517: Was over 150,000 individuals in 1.67 million net square feet of space, making it the largest electronics event in the United States. In a break from recent tradition, the 2007 CES exhibition did not begin on a Thursday, nor span a weekend. It ran from Monday to Thursday on January 8–11, 2007. The venues also changed slightly, with the high-performance audio and home theater expo moving from the Alexis Park venue to The Venetian . The remaining venues were
15125-518: Was produced to add the extra RAM and allow for full-track-per-rotation 22-second disk duplication. The Commodore BASIC V4.0 COPY command can also be used to copy files from one drive to another on the MSD SD-2, a feature not available with two 1541 drives. However, the MSD Super Disk drives have difficulty loading most copy-protected software, due to substantial differences in the DOS code, memory mapping and
15250-403: Was reached. The team was able to quickly design the computer because, unlike most other home-computer companies, Commodore had its own semiconductor fab to produce test chips; because the fab was not running at full capacity, development costs were part of existing corporate overhead. The chips were complete by November, by which time Charpentier, Winterble, and Tramiel had decided to proceed with
15375-766: Was scheduled to be held on the West Coast in May and proved a source of increasing competition, causing the Philadelphia Summer CES show to be cancelled. The 1996 Winter show was again held in Las Vegas in January, followed by a Summer show this time in Orlando, Florida ; however, only a fraction of the traditional exhibitors participated. The next "Summer" show was scheduled to be held in conjunction with Spring COMDEX in Atlanta ; however, when only two dozen-or-so exhibitors signed on,
15500-417: Was the winner in the category of home computer over $ 500 , which was the category the Commodore 64 was in when it was first released at the price of $ 595 . Commodore had a reputation for announcing products that never appeared , so sought to quickly ship the C64. Production began in the spring of 1982, and volume shipments began in August. The C64 faced a wide range of competing home computers , but with
15625-474: Was used to run bulletin board systems using software packages such as Punter BBS, Bizarre 64, Blue Board , C-Net, Color 64 , CMBBS, C-Base, DMBBS, Image BBS, EBBS, and The Deadlock Deluxe BBS Construction Kit, often with sysop -made modifications. These boards sometimes were used to distribute cracked software . As late as December 2013, there were 25 such Bulletin Board Systems in operation, reachable via
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