Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is, by most counts, the best-selling single computer model in history. Launched in 1982 at a keen price with genuinely impressive hardware, it strode through the mid-1980s as the king of the American home, and sold strongly almost everywhere else too.

Its secret weapons were two remarkable chips. One handled graphics and sprites with real flair; the other was the legendary SID sound chip, whose warm, musical voice gave C64 games and demos a sound quite unlike anything else, and turned a generation of bedroom musicians into chiptune composers. Together they gave the machine a personality you could hear as well as see.

Backed by a vast software library and a demoscene that is still going strong decades later, the C64 became more than a product; it became a culture. It remains one of the most beloved computers ever made, and for millions of people it is simply the machine that says "home computer".