Commodore 64

Commodore International · 1982 – 1994

The Commodore 64 is the best-selling personal computer model of all time, with estimates of 12–17 million units sold. Its custom SID sound chip is beloved by chiptune musicians to this day. Europe's dominant home computer through the 1980s, the C64 hosted thousands of games including Impossible Mission, The Last Ninja, and Elite.

The C64's three custom chips — VIC-II (graphics), SID (sound), and CIA (I/O) — created capabilities unmatched by competitors. The SID chip's three-voice synthesis with multiple waveforms produced music quality no other computer of its era could match. UK and German software houses thrived on the C64, producing a culture of bedroom coders who founded major game studios. The cassette tape as primary storage made software cheap and created a vibrant (if piracy-heavy) gaming scene.