Kmarion wrote:
Me and my Vic-20
http://oldcomputers.net/vic20.htmlThe VIC-20 was the first inexpensive color computer available, costing less than $300. 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.
[img]]http://i14.tinypic.com/66m3b85.gif[/img]
The machine's external design was later used by the Commodore 64 and C16. 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.
The VIC in VIC-20 stands for Video Interface Chip. This chip was designed by Commodore two years prior for video game machines, never intending it for use in their own computer system. Unfortunately no one wanted it, so Commodore engineers designed the VIC-20 computer around it.
# There are numerous rumours as to what the 20 in VIC-20 refers to, some say: The systems memory almost adds-up to 20: 5K (RAM) + 16K (ROM) = 21K.
# The system displays 22 characters per line of text.
Before the floppy drive was released in 1982, games and programs were available only on cassette tapes and cartridges. There isn't much to the 'carts', which plug into the back of the VIC-20, just a single ROM chip with the program burned into it.