ly be my
last Commodore project. I will then use my free retro computing time not for creating stuff but to finally check out those new projects that others are working on.

- - - - - - - - - -

Q. Many thanks for your time.

A. You're welcome, and thank you.


*************************************
A TOTALLY INCOMPLETE HISTORY OF
THE VIC COMPUTER
By Commodore Free
*************************************

Well the title may not inspire much confidence in the article or even set your mind racing, but back in the 80`s the Commodore Vic literally did set people's hearts racing. 16 colour graphics and 3 channel sound were just some the many features that made the machine stand out to the home user. Of course we can look back nostalgically at the machine as for many people it was "their" introduction to the world of computers. Yours truly hadn't touched a computer until the Vic appeared as we had to be in the top set for Maths and English before we could even look at the school's 3 Commodore Pet machines locked away in the as now aptly named secret ITC suite.

Putting the nostalgia aside for a minute, we also have to remember this was a cutting edge machine and although it sounds corny to say it now the machine
did indeed change the lives of many people. Not only was the Vic a very powerful machine for the time, it was a design work of genius with a full
sized QWERTY keyboard that made typists feel at home and of course it introduced many to the world of computing, programming and software design.

WHAT'S IN A NAME

Well the not so humble Vic was known by many names, you notice I hesitated by not calling this machine the Vic 20 (as most of Europe would call it). That's because it was renamed or rebranded for different countries, some of the
common names were Vic20, vic1001 and vc20 (although I am told other names existed). The machine was manufactured by Commodore as a way to break into the home computer environment as current Commodore models notably the PET had been more hobbyist or college / technology installations and of course demanded a price premium to own. Not only did it break into the home computer market it SMASHED through into homes and made its way into computing history.

CHIPS 'N STUFF

The Vic's video chip was designed by MOs Technologies Al Charpentier in 1977 called the "Video Interface Chip 6560" or VIC1 as it is more commonly known.
It was designed for the video game market and was originally destined for game consoles. At the time Commodore was supplying several of its competitors with chips for consoles, including Atari. Sadly the chip didn't sell as intended
and Jack Tramiel, the founder and head of Commodore, decided the market was right for a home system. He ambitiously wanted the machine to be unveiled at the CES in 1980 so Chuck Peddle and Bill Seiler began to design what became known internally as the TOI (The Other Intellect). Sadly that machine never appeared, with Chuck interested in pursuing a business machine.

However another Commodore engineer named Robert Yannes who was also working at MOS Technologies designed a machine using the same chip. He called it the "Micropet" and the machine was shown (albeit in prototype form) to Jack
Tramiel who immediately said he wanted the machine finished and to be ready
for the CES show. A rough and ready version was shown at CES and caused some considerable interest from various parties. Although the press would slate the machine for being underpowered but heck what do they know, Jack knew better
and emerged with the infamous phrase "computing for the masses not just the classes".

CODENAME

The machine was then given the codename or internally branded as the Vixen, Robert Russel constructed the Kernel and Basic interpreter and the machine was given an Atari joystick port. At the time it is rumoured Commodore had a very large supply of 1kbitx4 SRAM chips they couldn't get rid of so Jack Tramiel demanded that they be used up in the (Vixen) machine. The resulting machine seemed most like a PET albeit with a 22 column VIC chip and of course
reference was made to it by the original Minipet name. The VIC chip could also handle a light pen signal the input was provided on the DE-9 joystick connector. Few of these devices ever appeared on the market though, but it was carried over to the Commodore 64.

JAPANESE

In 1980 Jack Tramiel said he wanted and was insistent that Commodore needed to mass produce a low-cost colour machine. He insisted to the other managers that if we don't make it the Japanese will! The machine was given a 30 page memo by Michael Tomczyk which he presented to Jack Tramiel. Some of the recommendations
were an RS232 interface, and full size typewriter style keys. The push here
was to make the system as user friendly as possible and the proposed retail price was set at $299.95. A marketing team was created working in England and Japan to create colourful and friendly manuals for the machine.

PROCESSING

Commodore's successful 1Mhz, 8 Bit CSG / MOS 6502 CPU powered the Vic. But Because the Vic and the PET used completely different memory maps, the BASIC PEEK and POKE commands were not compatible between the two machines. Also because the VIC had only a 22 character screen and the original PET's had 40 character screens, only rudimentary Basic 2.0 software would function on both machines. However, the Vic-20 was generally peripheral compatible with other Commodore machines. Unfortunately most programmers found that 3.5K was not
even large enough to load a machine language compiler and start working on a project. So developers were often forced to write machine code in the machine by hand! Later cartridges would be used to hold the programming languages allowing the whole memory to be available for the programmer's use.

The Vic was expandable to a massive (for the time) 32k, and with the use of
its modulator the machine could be plugged into a domestic television set by way of an external modulator. The modulator had to be external to meet FCC regulations on interference to radio & TV signals. The whole Vic strategy of Commodore worked and in 1982 the machine was listed as the bestselling
computer of the year with over 800,000 units sold. In 1983 this figure passed the 1 million point with an alleged 9,000 units selling per day.

In 1982 however rumours were rife that Commodore was working on an updated Vic called the Vic64 (or alternatively the VIC-40). Of course this became the Commodore 64. To many the term upgrade would rest uneasy as it does now but it was a term never heard of before in the computing world. In 1985 the Vic was discontinued when Commodore would use the Commodore 64 for their entry-level system. The Vic had no reset button but users found that by typing the command SYS 64802 from Basic would cause the machine to reset. Many people found they could create hardware projects easily and then have them connect to the machine
for things as mundane as temperature sensors to measuring devices, up to robotic sensors.

The VIC chip had three rectangular-wave sound generators. Each had a range of three octaves, and the generators were located on the scale about an octave apart, giving a total range of about five octaves. In addition, there was a white noise generator. There was however only one volume control, and the
sound output was in mono. The Vic didn't have hardware sprites but for many programmers this didn't seem to matter looking at some of the later titles released. The low-cost VIC modem also opened up the world of BBS (bulletin board systems) and would pave the way to the Internet we know today.

RETAIL

Commodore decided the Vic`s retail chain would be via toy stores, shops and many places you wouldn't normally associate a computer with. Of course the
more technical electronic shops could provide more support and more knowledgeable staff could advise about the machine. Ultimately though it
seemed the Vic would sell where it had to compete with other "games systems". It was also the first computer sold by the famous K

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.01 (GNU/Linux-i386)
* Origin: Dragon's Lair (39:901/280)