VIC-20

From Retrocomputing Wiki

The VIC-20 is an 8-bit home computer made by Commodore International. It was first sold in Japan in 1980 as the VIC-1001, and in North America and Europe from 1981 at a price of US$299.95. In Germany it was called the VC-20, for "VolksComputer".

The VIC-20 uses a MOS Technology 6502 at about 1 MHz and has only 5 KB of RAM, of which 3,583 bytes are free for BASIC programs. Its video chip, the VIC (Video Interface Chip, MOS 6560/6561), gives a screen of just 22 columns by 23 rows. Despite these limits it was the first computer of any kind to sell one million units, helped by a television advertising campaign starring William Shatner which asked "Why buy just a video game?"

Most of its software came on cartridges and cassettes. Many owners added RAM expansion cartridges of 3, 8 or 16 KB. Commodore stopped making the VIC-20 in January 1985, by which time it had been overtaken by its successor, the Commodore 64.