User:LuigiMan050-5/sandbox/Commodore VIC-20

The VIC-20 (known as VC-20 in Germany and VIC-1001) is an 8-bit home computer developed by Commodore International and released in June 1980. It uses a video chip called VIC (Video Interface Chip) or MOS 6560, hence the name VIC-20, but there is some debate as to where the number 20 used for the name came from.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Reasonable launch price of US$299.
 * 2) You could display the screen and sounds on a television by plugging it into it with composite cables, though most TVs at the time the VIC-20 came out rarely had composite ports.
 * 3) The RAM expander add-on gives the computer even more capabilities, like displaying high quality images, the latter that was ahead of its time. It even allowed the machine to play Doom, a port that pushes the computer to the limits with 3D graphics.
 * 4) It was even advertised as being able to play games, to compete with consoles like the Atari 2600 and Mattel's Intellivision. And there are still many good games on the system despite being clones of already existing games like Cosmic Cruncher which is a Pac-Man clone, and even the limitations the VIC-20 had.
 * 5) *In addition, just like its successor, the Commodore 64, developers can still make their own games for it today.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Its graphics capabilities are quite primitive for its time.

Trivia

 * The computer was renamed to VC-20 in Germany because the pronunciation of VIC with a German accent sounds like German curse words "fick" or "wichsen". The term VC was marketed as though it was an abbreviation of VolksComputer ("people's computer," similar to Volkswagen and Volksempfänger).