Commodore 64 launched Sept. 1, 1982 at under $600
The 64KB computer became the best-selling computer of all time, selling over 12 million units through the 1980s and beyond.
What to know
- The Commodore 64 launched September 1, 1982, as the first 64KB computer selling for under $600, offering strong value compared to competitors like the Atari 800XL.
- The machine achieved exceptional commercial success: 500,000 units sold within six months, 5 million by end of 1984, and over 12 million total, making it the best-selling computer of all time.
- Technical compromises—slower disk drive, limited modem support—were offset by strong features including 16-color graphics, 8 sprites for game programming, and the sophisticated SID sound chip.
- The C-64 maintained market demand for over a decade, with Commodore still selling units in 1993 despite the machine's age and the company's lack of active marketing.
Commodore Computer manufacturerBob Yannes Sound chip designer
Michael Tomczyk Author, The Home Computer Wars
The record 1 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 24 voices from 2 sites · best of 163 · verbatim
- Sep 3
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My first computer | Commodore 64 released September 1, 1982 # devopsish https:// dfarq.homeip.net/commodore-64- released-september-1-1982/
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Yeah, if I were 10 now I'm not sure where I'd end up in terms of life/career, but it wouldn't look anything like my actual path, even adjusting for the obvious technological differences.I'm fairly certain that computers to a 10 year old me in 2026 would be far less interesting than they were to actual 10 year old me in 1983.The relative mystery…
- Sep 2
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I'm what you'd probably call a "90s kid" but I lived in a rural area. Around 1994, while the kids in more 'normal' places were using Mac LC-IIs with color screens, and I'm assuming others were using Windows 3.1, I was reading the manual cover to cover to learn how to use MS-DOS on a Tandy 1000 and teaching myself Applesoft Basic on a Franklin ACE…
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> Commodore expected both the VIC-20 and C-64 to have a shelf life of around 3 years. They were about right in the case of the VIC-20, but the C-64 kept selling about 700,000 units a year through the end of the decade and was still hanging on in 1993. It wasn’t selling well in 1993, mind you, and Commodore didn’t want to be making them by then…
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I never ran up a phone bill, but I did get the cops sent to my house.I was into war dialing with my C64. Every night I would input the parameters, start the war dialer, go to sleep, then wake up the next morning hoping I got something. Well, one night, about an hour-or-so after I started the war dialer, there was a loud knock on the front door. I…
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My grandfather worked for Sperry and we had circuit boards from Univacs in our basement when I was young. Then I bought an Atari 400 and B&W TV for the display when I was 11. Looking back it was pretty neat getting to see what came before, down in my basement. I don't think I ever had a tape drive for the Atari. I met some kids that had C64s (and…
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I have a similar story. Single mom, early/mid 1980s C64.I recently found the framed receipt for this purchase. My mom still had it and framed it when she found it years ago, as it became clear that purchase led to my prosperity (until recently) as a software engineer. I found it in a box out in my garage, where it now sits next to my C64 (the…
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In praise of "obsolete" technology: I got my C64 for Christmas 1987, when there were already much more powerful machines available, but the C64 was the only one my parents could afford. Unexpectedly to me, they stretched their budget to get me the disk drive as well.I used it up into the 90's. There was enough to do and learn with this machine to…
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I was in nearly the same boat, not quite rural, but close enough that I was one of a couple of "computer kids" in the whole school. I got my hands on the "Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide"[0] and it was literally life-changing. It simultaneously demystified computers for me ("oh, this is how it knows where to draw my sprite, and here's…
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I've wondered about whether modern computers should come with the comprehensive manuals of the era. The Raspberry Pi 400 attempted to do it. But the problem isn't as much that companies don't want to ship these big manuals, but it's that 1) Nobody would read them because of the Internet and, most importantly, 2) you can't create comprehensive…
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> Greetings, fellow old people.Greetings back! The only drawback is that (statistically speaking) remaining lifespan is shorter for a 'greybeard' than a youngster.Apart from that, I feel lucky to have experienced in my life the introduction of: b/w -> color TV, walkmans, home/personal computers, networks/BBSes, floppy/hard drives, CD/DVD/BR, LAN…
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I owe my entire identity to this little machine. First laid my eyes on it in 1983, then unexpectedly got it from my uncle in 1984. It immediately opened my eyes to this new world of computer technology and sucked me right in.Between games and writing first code in Basic, something magical was happening. Over the years it defined how I think, and…
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My first PC was an XT Clone I suspect around the same time, One of these https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/15452/Olivetti-PC1-P...I adored that thing (coming from a ZX Speccy it felt like a proper computer), I've considered buying/tracking down a non functional one and putting a high performance ITX build into it a few times over the…
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To whom it may concern, I believe the year was 1987 or 1988. (I was around 9ish, I think.) My brothers and I stumbled upon a Commodore 64 amidst trash beside a country road. In the box, even the manual was in good shape.This was promptly carried home and plugged into the TV via coax, if I remember correctly. Sample programs from the manual were…
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> "LOAD .... 8,1" (I don't remember the middle part).Interestingly this was sort of the beginning of the end of digital computers as an operator-centered environment. So, the LOAD command took three arguments: the first was a filename (which was typically the first/only file in the directory for commercial disks, so the wildcard "*" was typically…
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I agree completely, it was a tragedy that Commodore shipped with that one.Even though I still have lots of original home / computer hardware including multiple versions of the C64 (working or still to be fixed..) I just ordered the Cyberpunk 2077 ornate "Commodore 77" so as to be able to play with it and potentially port over and adapt BBC basic…
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Oh damn that BASIC :) I remember as a kid going to the library and devouring all the microcomputer books and trying to enter their BASIC programs, only to find the C64 severely lacking. Everyone else's BASIC was better!I wanted to get into assembler as a kid, I'd read about assembly in computer magazines and wanted an assembler cartridge one year…
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Not so sure that that is true.You have to consider the backdrop/time as well - back then there was no BigTech(TM), there wasn't social media/the pervasive backdrop of everything you do with tech been monetised or commoditised.Fundamentally you felt like when you bought a computer/OS/Software you were the customer not the product.Your Commodore…
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Ahh, the Commodore 64. I never had one. I had a TI-99/4A with a Forth cartridge, while my friends had VIC-20s and C64s. Such an odd and wonderful time to be into computers.I managed to put together a decent Space Invaders clone in Forth that beat their Commodore BASIC version. I considered this an important victory and still have bragging rights…
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> I'm now 53. Where have all those years gone?Feel that way every time I see a YT video on a "retro" computer I would have been able to play while having a beer legally (18 in the UK so 1998), it's then a shock to realise that was nearly 30 years ago.> Don't get me wrong, I had a great life (so far) and I'd replay it just the same.So would I and I…
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> The magic in the air in those days will never be replicated.You say it “magic”, it wasn’t “better” or “different” or “worse”, it was a kind of magic that happens when tech is new and folks experiment.I’m sure many will look back in 40 years and say the same about AI - we’re living through the magical age of AI.Just as we did when we got our…
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> Disk drive luxury, all I had was the tape deck.A friend's father had an incredible stereo-stack, full Nakamishi stuff. We tried hard to copy C64 tapes of commercial games using his stereo gear but got nowhere: I was maybe 12 years old or so.Eventually noticed (through a window) the neighbors also had a C64, but with a floppy disk drive: so my…
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It's even a bit crazier than that: the Commodore Amiga 1000 came out in 1985, a bit less than three years after the C64, in july 1985.A friend of mine, whose father was an art teacher, had an Amiga 1000 at home. Mind blown (I'm super lucky for later on another friend had an early SGI Indy at home for his stepfather was president of SGI Benelux)…
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Blog poster's early computing history is remarkably similar to mine in terms of years/ages.Got a C64 (with a 1541 disk drive) around late 1983 (when I was 10). Hooked up to a 13 inch CRT TV at first.Got into games, computer magazines, magazine game listings (like the ones from old Compute!'s Gazette), taught myself MS BASIC and 6502/6510 assembly…