Commodore VIC-20 — the first computer of any description to sell a million units, and it did it two years before the machine most people actually remember for that.
Why it matters
The VIC-20 was Commodore founder Jack Tramiel’s proof of concept that a real, colour, cartridge-capable computer could be priced like a toy and sold through ordinary shops rather than specialist dealers. William Shatner’s US adverts calling it “the wonder computer of the 1980s” were shameless, but the pricing wasn’t a bluff — at $299.95 it undercut rivals from Texas Instruments and Atari while still running BASIC out of the box. Commodore then used exactly the same playbook, better executed, to sell the C64 that quietly ate the VIC-20’s lunch a year later.
What to check before you buy
- Ask what RAM expansion, if any, is included — the stock 3.5 KB free is genuinely tight for anything beyond the simplest programs
- Confirm which PSU revision the board needs before plugging in a spare one; the wrong voltage can take out the motherboard
- Listen for video garbage on power-up, a common symptom of failing SRAM in the low memory range
- Check it’s the original 1981 hardware and not a modern mini/reproduction unit sold under a similar name
