The Commodore SX-64 was the first ever colour portable computer, although “portable” in this context should probably be understood in the same way one might call a Boeing 747 portable. Released in 1984, it was essentially a Commodore 64 squeezed into a luggable case, complete with a built-in 5-inch colour CRT monitor and an integrated 1541-compatible disk drive. It even had a detachable keyboard that clipped over the front of the machine, making the whole thing look rather like a piece of serious business equipment that had accidentally learned how to play Boulder Dash.
Technically, the SX-64 was very close to the standard Commodore 64, which meant it inherited the same strengths: 64K of RAM, hardware sprites, excellent sound from the SID chip, and access to one of the largest software libraries of the 8-bit era. However, it also inherited some of the oddities of trying to make a games-friendly home computer into something that looked vaguely professional. There was no cassette port, which immediately ruled out a great deal of cheaper UK software, and the tiny screen was not always ideal for games or text-heavy applications. A second disk drive was planned in the form of the DX-64, but very few were produced.
Commodore aimed the SX-64 more at business users and travelling professionals than children loading games from tape in their bedrooms. In theory, a portable C64 with a proper disk drive and colour display should have been an appealing proposition. In practice, it was expensive, heavy, and arrived just as the business world was moving rapidly towards IBM PC compatibility. The C64’s huge popularity was built on price, games and the home market; the SX-64 pushed the same architecture into a market where those advantages mattered much less.
The result was a machine that sold in modest numbers but became highly collectable. It is one of those wonderful 1980s machines that feels both brilliant and faintly absurd: a full-colour, luggable Commodore 64 that looks like business equipment, weighs like industrial furniture, and is happiest running exactly the same games as the beige breadbin under the telly.