Vital Statistics

In 1980 Commodore began designing a new video chip (the VIC-1, aka 6560) for use in the video game industry. It was originally intended to be sold to third party video game manufacturers for use in their machines, but no one was interested so in April of the same year, Jack Tramiel, the then-president of Commodore, ordered the development of a computer built around this new chip that could sell for less than $300 USD in order to recoup their losses. Commodore pitched the VIC-20 as a more home-friendly version of the Commodore PET, despite it being software-incompatible. It was called 'VIC' because of the VIC video chip it was built around - this chip was the predecessor to the Commodore 64's VIC-II chip, and the C65's VIC-III chip, although the VIC-I was unable to generate hardware sprites which the VIC-II/III could. The VIC-20 also required the use of an external RF modulator in order to display on a standard television.

Originally unveiled at the 1980 CES (Computer Electronics Show), it had no name and was simply referred to as the MicroPET (internally within CBM still codenamed "Vixen"). When it hit the shelves in 1981, it was received with overwhelming enthusiasm, and soon daily production peaked at 9000 units! It was also released in Germany with the name 'VC-20', and in Japan with the name 'VIC-1001' with additional katakana characters on the keycaps and a different character generator ROM. While the PET was being sold only through authorised dealers, the VIC-20 was sold through retail stores where it could compete more effectively against games consoles and other toys.

In 1982, Commodore released the VIC-20 CR (Cost Reduced) model, which replaced the eight 1Kx4 SRAM chips with two 2Kx8 chips, although there were no cosmetic differences to the original. Commodore apparently had a major overstock of 1Kx4 SRAM chips when the VIC-20 was first released, hence their use in the earlier machines. The VIC-20 continued to sell in great quantity during the first few years of the VIC-30 (a.k.a. C64) due to the high price tag for the '64. Once the cost of the C64 was dropped, the VIC-20 disappeared into history.

The very last VIC-20 rolled off the production line in January 1985, following the release of the Commodore 64 two years earlier, which by this time had massively overtaken the VIC-20 in sales. The C64 was to become Commodore's entry-level home computer as part of it's product realignment before the forthcoming release of the C128 and Amiga.

The VIC-20 introduced millions of people to the fascinating world of personal computing all over the globe. As the VW Beetle was the people's car, the Commodore VIC-20 was a computer for the people. Indeed, it was, "The Friendly Computer".