Commodore VIC-20

The Vic-20 followed Commodore’s first personal computer, the PET, and was the first computer of any kind to sell one million units. Commodore founder Jack Tramiel had seen an emerging market for low-price computers in the US; in many respects, his vision paralleled Clive Sinclair’s vision for the ZX80 and ZX81 in the UK. His philosophy was to make “computers for the masses, not the classes”, based in part on the threats coming from low-cost systems originating in Japan.

Commodore engineer Robert Yannes had designed a computer at home that he called the MicroPET. Jack Tramiel had wanted a product that would directly compete against the Apple II, and when Yannes showed his machine to Tramiel, he immediately ordered it to be mass-produced, and instructed Commodore engineers to abandon the more powerful and complex design they’d been working on. Like Clive Sinclair in the UK, Tramiel saw the potential of the low-price retail market for home use, and machines designed for novices rather than professionals.

Released in 1980 in Japan and worldwide a year later, the machine was limited but flexible. The small memory size and low-resolution display confined the machine’s role primarily to an educational and games platform, although some productivity applications were released. A cartridge slot provided a means to load games instantly, and Commodore positioned the machine as a competitor to dedicated games consoles as well as rival computers. A William Shatner-led advertising campaign asked “why buy just a video game” when you could have a full computer that also played “great games”, declaring it "the wonder computer of the 1980s", and the pricing point was pitched to be competitive compared to dedicated consoles.

Over the course of its five year life the machine sold 2.5 million units, and paved the way for its successor, the legendary Commodore 64.