January 20, 2022 – Commodore 64

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today we’re spotlighting the year 1982, which is the year that the Commodore 64 home computer was introduced! It was first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that year, and went on sale in August 1982. It sold for just $595. To give you some perspective, the average cost of a computer at the time was $2700! The C64 dominated the market, not just because of the price point, but because it was accessibly sold in regular retail stores. The C64 hold the Guinness World Record for the highest selling single computer model of all time, with sales estimated at between 12.5 and 17 million units. Video games were hugely popular on the machine. By 1985, games made up an estimated 60-70% of C64’s software. The demand for 8-bit computers waned in the early 1990s, and by 1994, Commodore announced that the C64 would be discontinued. The company declared bankruptcy just a month after the announcement, effectively ending C64’s 11 and a half year production. Learn more here.