dogwomble
11-03-2007, 01:09 PM
This is a machine I feel somewhat nostalgic about reviewing. It was the first ever computer I ever owned as a kid, back around 1990, and it was a hand-me-down after my cousin upgraded to a Commodore 64. The memories….
The VIC 20 was originally released in Japan as the VIC 1001 in 1980, later released to the rest of the world as the VIC 20 in 1981. The proposed retail price was $299.95 The name VIC comes from “Video Interface Chip”, which handled both the graphics and the sound. There is plenty of debate over where the 20 came from. Some people believe that it’s to do with the screen resolution (22 columns x 23 lines), but one of the developers of the machine, Michael Tomczyk, thought that 20 sounded like a nice friendly number, and it stuck. The machine was originally going to be called the Vixen, but that caused problems in Germany, one of Commodore’s key markets, when it was discovered that it sounded like “wichsen”, a German word for “masturbate”.
When the machine was released, it came with a standard 5kb of RAM (upgradeable to 64kb with third-party products, or 32kb using Commodore products). About 1.5kb of this was used by the system, so normally 3.5kb was available to the user. The screen was capable of 22 columns x 23 lines with an unusual 176x184 pixel resolution. The machine also came with facilities to hook up a tape drive, up to 4 disk drives, two Atari 2600-compatible joystick ports, a “user” port (which was typically used to hook up a modem), and a cartridge port. If you wanted to hook up a printer, that was daisy chained off the disk drive port. The CPU was a Commodore 6502A, running at 1.0227Mhz, with a VIC-I chip handling sound and graphics.
Commodore were criticised for trying to sell a machine that was underpowered for it’s day, particularly as it was designed to compete against the likes of the Apple II. Commodore obviously got something right, as it was the first computer to sell more than 1 million units, reaching that milestone by January 1983. It ended up selling around 2.5 million units before being discontinued in 1985.
Even though it was considered underpowered by many, plenty of software was available for the VIC 20. An estimated 300 titles were available on cartridge, and over 500 titles were available on cassette tape. Games for the machine include Gorf, Cosmic Cruncher, Sargon II Chess, Omega Race, Frogger and many others. One game, Blitz, was so popular that it remained in the top 10 computer game listings for 6 months. Several computer magazines published type-in computer listings for the machine. For many VIC 20 users, this was their introduction to computer programming.
Despite there being numerous games for the VIC 20, there were also a few business and productivity applications written for the machine such as home finance programs, spreadsheets and communications programs. However, on an unexpanded VIC 20, these were generally pretty useless due to the limited memory of the machine, so most of the software available falls into the games and educational software categories.
Commodore insisted, though, that the machine could be used as a serious introduction to computing, and it is rumoured that Linus Torvalds was given a VIC 20 as his first computer. This was later upgraded to a Sinclair Q, then to a 386, which was used to write the first versions of the Linux kernel.
Despite it’s shortcomings, this was a highly successful machine before it was replaced with the Commodore 64, and serious owners will cherish the flexibility that Commodore were able to pack into such a limited machine.
The VIC 20 was originally released in Japan as the VIC 1001 in 1980, later released to the rest of the world as the VIC 20 in 1981. The proposed retail price was $299.95 The name VIC comes from “Video Interface Chip”, which handled both the graphics and the sound. There is plenty of debate over where the 20 came from. Some people believe that it’s to do with the screen resolution (22 columns x 23 lines), but one of the developers of the machine, Michael Tomczyk, thought that 20 sounded like a nice friendly number, and it stuck. The machine was originally going to be called the Vixen, but that caused problems in Germany, one of Commodore’s key markets, when it was discovered that it sounded like “wichsen”, a German word for “masturbate”.
When the machine was released, it came with a standard 5kb of RAM (upgradeable to 64kb with third-party products, or 32kb using Commodore products). About 1.5kb of this was used by the system, so normally 3.5kb was available to the user. The screen was capable of 22 columns x 23 lines with an unusual 176x184 pixel resolution. The machine also came with facilities to hook up a tape drive, up to 4 disk drives, two Atari 2600-compatible joystick ports, a “user” port (which was typically used to hook up a modem), and a cartridge port. If you wanted to hook up a printer, that was daisy chained off the disk drive port. The CPU was a Commodore 6502A, running at 1.0227Mhz, with a VIC-I chip handling sound and graphics.
Commodore were criticised for trying to sell a machine that was underpowered for it’s day, particularly as it was designed to compete against the likes of the Apple II. Commodore obviously got something right, as it was the first computer to sell more than 1 million units, reaching that milestone by January 1983. It ended up selling around 2.5 million units before being discontinued in 1985.
Even though it was considered underpowered by many, plenty of software was available for the VIC 20. An estimated 300 titles were available on cartridge, and over 500 titles were available on cassette tape. Games for the machine include Gorf, Cosmic Cruncher, Sargon II Chess, Omega Race, Frogger and many others. One game, Blitz, was so popular that it remained in the top 10 computer game listings for 6 months. Several computer magazines published type-in computer listings for the machine. For many VIC 20 users, this was their introduction to computer programming.
Despite there being numerous games for the VIC 20, there were also a few business and productivity applications written for the machine such as home finance programs, spreadsheets and communications programs. However, on an unexpanded VIC 20, these were generally pretty useless due to the limited memory of the machine, so most of the software available falls into the games and educational software categories.
Commodore insisted, though, that the machine could be used as a serious introduction to computing, and it is rumoured that Linus Torvalds was given a VIC 20 as his first computer. This was later upgraded to a Sinclair Q, then to a 386, which was used to write the first versions of the Linux kernel.
Despite it’s shortcomings, this was a highly successful machine before it was replaced with the Commodore 64, and serious owners will cherish the flexibility that Commodore were able to pack into such a limited machine.