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Commodore 64C

An icon of the 1980s. The most popular variant of the best-selling home computer.

It's hard to say anything about the Commodore 64 that hasn't been said. This hardware still has a surprisingly huge community, which creates add-ons, parts, software or even entire hardware. Thanks to this, even today you can easily buy new units of classic accessories like the the well-known in Poland joystick from MATT, a company from Lodz. Of course, it is also necessary to mention modern constructions like the power supply unit made by Electroware or self-assembled mass storage devices, such as Tapecart SD, SD2IEC or (my personal favourite) Kung Fu Flash. And it must be admitted that these make it very easy (and faster) to run programs and games.

But going back to the 1980s - in 1982, Commodore released the 64 model, which was the successor to the successful budget computer VIC-20. The Commodore 64 supported storage media in the form of cartridges, floppy disks and... compact cassette tapes, which was quite normal in home computers of that decade, due to the low price of the tape recorder and the tapes themselves.
In 1986, a redesigned, Commodore 128 styled variant called the 64C was released. A year later, this one underwent minor changes to reduce production costs. The type of key labeling was changed, as well as the motherboard to a smaller variant with a reduced number of chips.
The unit seen here is just a later edition, although it has a red power LED. This is quite unusual, as Commodore used a green LED on its devices in the late 1980s.

Of course, despite being a full-fledged computer, most C64 users used it as a machine for playing video games.
However, the computer also gained some recognition in the music field, not only because of the capabilities of the SID sound chip, but also a range of accessories and software for MIDI and music editing. It is worth mentioning that the leader of the Polish band Kombi was one of the first Commodore 64 users in Poland. Slawomir Losowski used it on stage, where it served as a MIDI sequencer thanks to an interface and software from Steinberg Research.

Highly recommended for the Commodore 64 is to stick heatsinks on the ICs, so you can extend their longevity.

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