The VIC-20 was the first inexpensive color computer available, costing less than $300. was intended to be more economical than the PET computer. It was equipped with 5 KB of static RAM and used the same MOS 6502 CPU as the PET. It can only display 22 characters of text per line, so its use for business applications is minimal, but people loved it for games – it has good color, a joystick port, and it was cheap.
The VIC-20 is also the first computer ever to sell over 1 million units, just a few months ahead of the Apple II 1 million mark, and production of the VIC-20 was up to 9000 units a day, with sales reaching $305 million. The price of a VIC-20 eventually dropped to less than $100, the first color computer to do so.
| Manufacturer | Commodore International | CPU | MOS Technology 6502 @ 1.1 MHz |
| Year Introduced | 1981 | RAM | 5KB (3.5KB for BASIC, expandable via cartridge to 32KB) |
| Introductory Price | $299.95 | Storage (external) | Cassette 5.25" Floppy Disk (170KB, with external 1540 disk drive) |
Additional Resources
| Wikipedia | Commodore VIC-20 |
| oldcomputers.net | VIC-20 |
■ 1981 / Commodore / Last Updated May 25, 2017 by Curator /