The Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64/CBM64, C= 64) is a home computer with 64 kilobytes of RAM that was popular in the 1980s. Released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM) to the public in August 1982 at a price of US$595, it offered sound and graphics performance that was good compared to the standard at that time. During the Commodore 64's lifetime (between 1982 and 1993), total sales exceeded 22 million units ...

Including:

• Commodore 64 - History
• Commodore 64 - Origins
• Commodore 64 - Winning the market war
• Commodore 64 - C64 successors and the 64C
• Commodore 64 - An active demoscene
• Commodore 64 - 1990s and 2000s hardware
• Commodore 64 - Hardware
• Commodore 64 - Graphics and sound
• Commodore 64 - Hardware revisions
• Commodore 64 - Power problems
• Commodore 64 - External hardware
• Commodore 64 - Software
• Commodore 64 - Representative screenshots
• Commodore 64 - Specifications
• Commodore 64 - Internal hardware
• Commodore 64 - I/O ports and power supply
• Commodore 64 - Trivia
• Commodore 64 - Notes

Read more here: » Commodore 64: Encyclopedia - Commodore 64

See also:

Commodore 64, Commodore 64 - History, Commodore 64 - Origins, Commodore 64 - Winning the market war, Commodore 64 - C64 successors and the 64C, Commodore 64 - An active demoscene, Commodore 64 - 1990s and 2000s hardware, Commodore 64 - Hardware, Commodore 64 - Graphics and sound, Commodore 64 - Hardware revisions, Commodore 64 - Power problems, Commodore 64 - External hardware, Commodore 64 - Software, Commodore 64 - Representative screenshots, Commodore 64 - Specifications, Commodore 64 - Internal hardware, Commodore 64 - I/O ports and power supply, Commodore 64 - Trivia, Commodore 64 - Notes

Read more here: » Commodore 64: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 - History

Commodore 64 - Graphics and sound. The C64 used an 8-bit MOS Technology 6510 microprocessor (a close derivative of the 6502 with an added 6-bit internal I/O port that in the C64 is used for two purposes: to bank-switch the machine's ROM in and out of the processor's address space, and to operate the datasette tape recorder) and had 64 kilobytes of RAM, of which 38 KB were a ...

See also:

Commodore 64, Commodore 64 - History, Commodore 64 - Origins, Commodore 64 - Winning the market war, Commodore 64 - C64 successors and the 64C, Commodore 64 - An active demoscene, Commodore 64 - 1990s and 2000s hardware, Commodore 64 - Hardware, Commodore 64 - Graphics and sound, Commodore 64 - Hardware revisions, Commodore 64 - Power problems, Commodore 64 - External hardware, Commodore 64 - Software, Commodore 64 - Representative screenshots, Commodore 64 - Specifications, Commodore 64 - Internal hardware, Commodore 64 - I/O ports and power supply, Commodore 64 - Trivia, Commodore 64 - Notes

Read more here: » Commodore 64: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 - Hardware

Battle Chess is a computer game version of chess released for the PC, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, Amiga, CD32, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes and Nintendo Entertainment System in which the chess pieces came to life and battled one another when capturing. There were 35 animations, one for each possible combination of battle (thus there was no animation for the King-takes-King battle). The rook, for example, would turn into a rock monster and kill a pawn by crushing him. Introducing this new twist to a classi ...

Including:

• Battle Chess - External link

Read more here: » Battle Chess: Encyclopedia - Battle Chess

The caps lock is a key on a computer keyboard. Pressing it causes the keyboard to go into a mode in which letter keys are interpreted as capital letters by default. The caps lock does not affect the number or punctuation keys on a typical QWERTY keyboard. Certain keyboard layouts such as the French, older computers such as the Commodore 64, and most typewriters have a shift lock key. This is akin to the caps lock, but also affects the number and punctuation keys, causing them to type the characters they would if the shif ...

Including:

• Caps lock - Cultural significance

Read more here: » Caps lock: Encyclopedia - Caps lock

The Wheels operating system for accelerated Commodore 64 home computers is partially based on (and generally backwards compatible with) GEOS. Wheels grants new abilities to the C64: the ability to play movies and MP3s, graphic web browsing (and limited server abilities), and true multitasking. Wheels operating system - System requirements. Wheels sets some steep demands on the hardware: a CMD SuperCPU accelerator (a 20 MHz WDC 65816 processor in place of the C64's own 1 MHz MOS 6502 processor) and a ...

Including:

• Wheels operating system - System requirements
• Wheels operating system - Licence

Read more here: » Wheels operating system: Encyclopedia - Wheels operating system

Alter Ego is a personality computer game released by Activision in 1986. It was created by Peter J. Favaro, Ph.D. for the Commodore 64, PC (under DOS) and the Apple II. The game allows the user to make decisions for an imaginary person (being therefore their alter ego) and shows what possible consequences these decisions could have on that person. Alter Ego was available in both male and female versions. The game is based on actual psychological knowledge and experience. The authors did their best to create a game ...

Read more here: » Alter Ego game: Encyclopedia - Alter Ego game

No mention of the Commodore 64 would be complete without game software. Due to the quality and quantity of games written for the computer (thanks in part to the advanced sound and graphic hardware), the Commodore 64 became well known primarily as a gaming platform moreso than a serious business computer. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Commodore 64's gaming history is the sheer number of game titles written for the machine. Whilst many commercial software companies produced prepackaged game software, an abundant supply of type ...

See also:

Commodore 64 software, Commodore 64 software - BASIC, Commodore 64 software - Development tools, Commodore 64 software - Games, Commodore 64 software - Gaming History, Commodore 64 software - 1983, Commodore 64 software - 1984, Commodore 64 software - 1985, Commodore 64 software - 1987, Commodore 64 software - 1988-, Commodore 64 software - Applications Utility and Business software, Commodore 64 software - Type-ins bulletin boards and disk magazines, Commodore 64 software - Retrocomputing efforts

Read more here: » Commodore 64 software: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 software - Games

Aside from its built-in features and different form factor, there were several other subtle differences between the SX-64 and the regular C64. The default screen color was changed to blue text on a white background for improved readability on the smaller screen. This sometimes caused compatibility problems with programs that assumed the C64's default blue background. The default device for load and save operations was changed to the floppy drive. In addition, the cassette port and RF port were omitted from the SX-64 because it had a built-in ...

See also:

Commodore SX-64, Commodore SX-64 - Description, Commodore SX-64 - History, Commodore SX-64 - Technical information

Read more here: » Commodore SX-64: Encyclopedia II - Commodore SX-64 - Description

The SX-64 did not sell well, and its failure has been variously attributed to its small screen, high weight, bad marketing, and smaller business software library than that of its competitors, the Osborne 1 (Zilog Z80 CPU, CP/M OS) and Compaq Portable (16-bit CPU, MS-DOS). In addition, the Osborne and Compaq computers were faster, and in the case of the Osborne, was competitively priced. SX-64 sales have been estimated as low as 9,000 units f ...

See also:

Commodore SX-64, Commodore SX-64 - Description, Commodore SX-64 - History, Commodore SX-64 - Technical information

Read more here: » Commodore SX-64: Encyclopedia II - Commodore SX-64 - History

Commodore 64 peripherals - Floppy disk drives. Although not always supplied with the machine, floppy disk drives of the 5¼ inch (Commodore 1541 and 1571) and, later, 3½ inch (1581) variety were available. The 1541 was excruciatingly slow in loading programs because of a poorly-implemented serial bus, a legacy of the Commodore VIC-20. A common joke advised users to "go grab a cup of hot chocolate milk" afte ...

See also:

Commodore 64 peripherals, Commodore 64 peripherals - Storage, Commodore 64 peripherals - Floppy disk drives, Commodore 64 peripherals - Tape drives, Commodore 64 peripherals - Hard Drives and expansions, Commodore 64 peripherals - Input/Output, Commodore 64 peripherals - Serial communications, Commodore 64 peripherals - RAM expansions, Commodore 64 peripherals - Input devices, Commodore 64 peripherals - Other peripherals, Commodore 64 peripherals - Notes

Read more here: » Commodore 64 peripherals: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 peripherals - Storage

While many businesses did not take the Commodore 64 seriously as a business machine, the Commodore 64 was still widely used for many important tasks, including computer graphics creation, desktop publishing, and word processing. The best known art package was perhaps KoalaPainter , primarily because of its own custom graphics tablet user interface - the KoalaPad. A Commodore 64 version of The Print Shop existed, allowing users to generate signs and banners with a printer. "The Newsroom" was a desktop publishing suite. Lightpens and CAD drawing softw ...

See also:

Commodore 64 software, Commodore 64 software - BASIC, Commodore 64 software - Development tools, Commodore 64 software - Games, Commodore 64 software - Gaming History, Commodore 64 software - 1983, Commodore 64 software - 1984, Commodore 64 software - 1985, Commodore 64 software - 1987, Commodore 64 software - 1988-, Commodore 64 software - Applications Utility and Business software, Commodore 64 software - Type-ins bulletin boards and disk magazines, Commodore 64 software - Retrocomputing efforts

Read more here: » Commodore 64 software: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 software - Applications Utility and Business software

Commodore 64 software - 1983. Even though the C64 was a real computer, the most successful application category were computer games. The C64 was designed with this in mind, supported sprites, music, joysticks and everything else that was necessary. Like video game consoles it has a cartridge slot. The early C64 games were mainly produced by well-known video game producers like Atari, Activision and Sega, released as cartridges and represent the style of the early 80s video games. Most of them were conversions of ...

See also:

Commodore 64 software, Commodore 64 software - BASIC, Commodore 64 software - Development tools, Commodore 64 software - Games, Commodore 64 software - Gaming History, Commodore 64 software - 1983, Commodore 64 software - 1984, Commodore 64 software - 1985, Commodore 64 software - 1987, Commodore 64 software - 1988-, Commodore 64 software - Applications Utility and Business software, Commodore 64 software - Type-ins bulletin boards and disk magazines, Commodore 64 software - Retrocomputing efforts

Read more here: » Commodore 64 software: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 software - Gaming History

Aside from games and office applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, and database programs, the C64 was well equipped with development tools from Commodore as well as third-party vendors. Various assembler solutions were available, though perhaps the Rolls-Royce of these was the MIKRO assembler, which came in cartridge form and integrated seamlessly with the standard BASIC screen editor. Several companies sold BASIC compilers, C compilers and Pascal compilers, and a subset of Ada, to men ...

See also:

Commodore 64 software, Commodore 64 software - BASIC, Commodore 64 software - Development tools, Commodore 64 software - Games, Commodore 64 software - Gaming History, Commodore 64 software - 1983, Commodore 64 software - 1984, Commodore 64 software - 1985, Commodore 64 software - 1987, Commodore 64 software - 1988-, Commodore 64 software - Applications Utility and Business software, Commodore 64 software - Type-ins bulletin boards and disk magazines, Commodore 64 software - Retrocomputing efforts

Read more here: » Commodore 64 software: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 software - Development tools

The Commodore 1701 and 1702 were 13-inch (33 cm) color monitors for the C64 which accepted as input either composite video or separate chrominance and luminance signals, similar to the S-Video standard, for superior performance with the C64. Early in the Commodore 64's life, Commodore released several niche hardware enhancements for sound manipulation. These included the "Sound Expander", "Sound Sampler", "Music Maker" overlay, and External music keyboard. The Sound Expander and Sound Sampler were both expansion cartridges, but had li ...

See also:

Commodore 64 peripherals, Commodore 64 peripherals - Storage, Commodore 64 peripherals - Floppy disk drives, Commodore 64 peripherals - Tape drives, Commodore 64 peripherals - Hard Drives and expansions, Commodore 64 peripherals - Input/Output, Commodore 64 peripherals - Serial communications, Commodore 64 peripherals - RAM expansions, Commodore 64 peripherals - Input devices, Commodore 64 peripherals - Other peripherals, Commodore 64 peripherals - Notes

Read more here: » Commodore 64 peripherals: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 peripherals - Other peripherals

Commodore 64 peripherals - Serial communications. Likewise, because Commodore offered a number of inexpensive modems for the C64, the machine also helped popularize the use of modems for telecommunications. In the United States, Quantum Computer Services (later America Online) offered an online service called Quantum Link for the C64 that featured chat, downloads, and online games. In the UK, Compunet was a very popular online service for C64 users (requiring special Compunet modems) from 1984 to the early 1990s. ...

See also:

Commodore 64 peripherals, Commodore 64 peripherals - Storage, Commodore 64 peripherals - Floppy disk drives, Commodore 64 peripherals - Tape drives, Commodore 64 peripherals - Hard Drives and expansions, Commodore 64 peripherals - Input/Output, Commodore 64 peripherals - Serial communications, Commodore 64 peripherals - RAM expansions, Commodore 64 peripherals - Input devices, Commodore 64 peripherals - Other peripherals, Commodore 64 peripherals - Notes

Read more here: » Commodore 64 peripherals: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 peripherals - Input/Output

The game comprises seven levels, each with an end-of-level boss who must be defeated before progressing to the next stage. Only after the defeat of the final boss for the second time, is the game's finale sequence displayed and the player declared victorious. Ghosts 'n Goblins - The Graveyard and Forest. The games begins in a graveyard with one of Astaroth's minions kidnapping Arthur's girlfriend, Princess Prin-Prin. Arthur must then make his way through the graveyard, avoiding or killing the zombie ...

See also:

Ghosts 'n Goblins, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Gameplay, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Controls, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Lives, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Weapons, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Levels, Ghosts 'n Goblins - The Graveyard and Forest, Ghosts 'n Goblins - The Ice Palace, Ghosts 'n Goblins - The Caves, Ghosts 'n Goblins - The Floating Platforms and Firebridge, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Lower Castle, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Upper Castle, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Astaroth's Throne Room, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Ports, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Commodore 64, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Commodore Amiga, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Other Platforms, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Screenshots, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Trivia, Ghosts 'n Goblins - Packaging artwork

Read more here: » Ghosts 'n Goblins: Encyclopedia II - Ghosts 'n Goblins - Levels

Castlevania has been ported to a variety of different video game consoles, handheld game consoles, home computer systems, and mobile phones. The NES release of the game was adapted for video arcades both as a part of Nintendo's Play Choice 10 series and (with the addition of s two-player competitive play mode) the Nintendo Vs. Series. In 1990, versions of the title were released for the IBM PC Compatible, the Commodore 64 (both developed by Unlimited Software), and the Commodore Amiga (developed by Novotrade). In 2002, Konami r ...

See also:

Castlevania video game, Castlevania video game - Releases, Castlevania video game - Enhanced Remakes, Castlevania video game - Story, Castlevania video game - Gameplay, Castlevania video game - Release details, Castlevania video game - Packaging artwork, Castlevania video game - Screenshots, Castlevania video game - Famicom Disk System / NES version, Castlevania video game - DOS version, Castlevania video game - Commodore 64 version, Castlevania video game - Amiga version, Castlevania video game - Mobile phone first version, Castlevania video game - Mobile phone second version, Castlevania video game - Mobile phone third version

Read more here: » Castlevania video game: Encyclopedia II - Castlevania video game - Releases

Besides prepackaged commercial software, the C64, like the VIC before it, had a large library of type-in programs. Numerous computer magazines offered type-in programs, usually written in BASIC or assembly language or a combination of the two. Because of its immense popularity, many general-purpose magazines that supported other computers offered C64 type-ins (Compute! was one of these), and at its peak, there were many magazines in North America (Ahoy!, Commodore Magazine, Compute!'s Gazette, Power/Play, < ...

See also:

Commodore 64 software, Commodore 64 software - BASIC, Commodore 64 software - Development tools, Commodore 64 software - Games, Commodore 64 software - Gaming History, Commodore 64 software - 1983, Commodore 64 software - 1984, Commodore 64 software - 1985, Commodore 64 software - 1987, Commodore 64 software - 1988-, Commodore 64 software - Applications Utility and Business software, Commodore 64 software - Type-ins bulletin boards and disk magazines, Commodore 64 software - Retrocomputing efforts

Read more here: » Commodore 64 software: Encyclopedia II - Commodore 64 software - Type-ins bulletin boards and disk magazines

The game was originally developed for the Apple II. It was later ported to several other systems, including Atari 800, Commodore 64, DOS and ZX Spectrum in 1986. The Atari 7800 port was released in 1987, but lacked the quality the original was famous of - and is widely regarded as one of the worst games for that console. The game was released in Japan for the Famicom in 1984, ported by Soft Pro. The Apple II version came on one apparently single-sided disk. As an easter egg, a second version of the game was placed on the flip side of ...

See also:

Karateka computer game, Karateka computer game - Pronunciation, Karateka computer game - Description, Karateka computer game - Versions

Read more here: » Karateka computer game: Encyclopedia II - Karateka computer game - Versions