Commodore Computer

The Profile

Commodore International was an American computer company active from 1954 to 1994, best known for the VIC-20, Commodore 64, and the Amiga line of personal computers.

C64 introduced in 1982 and produced until 1994; over 17 million units sold; a gold C64 was presented at CES 1984 upon hitting one million units. Amiga 500 featured a Motorola 68000 at 7.09 MHz with Agnus, Denise, and Paula chips; Workbench 1.3 offered multitasking and spawned the “Guru Meditation” error message. The unreleased C65 prototype included enhanced graphics (256 colors from 4096), dual sound chips, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, ~3.5 MHz CPU, and became a valuable collectible; a working unit reportedly sold for over €20,000 in 2019.

Three nostalgic, tech-leaning reviews revisit Commodore’s legacy: the C64 user manual and its chips, the Amiga 500’s multitasking glory (and dreaded Guru Meditation), and the elusive C65 prototype. Facts include C64’s 1982–1994 run and massive sales, plus hardware trivia galore. Overall tone: affectionate and geeky.