The Competition

This machine was more powerful and cheaper than any of its rivals — the Apple II, IBM PC, or Radio Shack TRS-80. The success of the Commodore 64 was largely due to its successful marketing. This computer was sold not only by authorized dealers but also in department stores, toy stores, and college bookstores.

The MOS 6510 Chip

In 1980, MOS semiconductor company, a subsidiary of Commodore, completed development of the 6510 central processor and chipset. This chip had a standard 0.9875 MHz frequency of the 6502 processor (used in KIM-1 and PET) with an additional I/O port and the ability to use more RAM.

This chip was designed as part of the "next big video game" concept. Albert Charpentier hired another MOS engineer named Robert Yannes in 1981 to figure out how far competing companies could push their current technology. By their own admission, they examined and somewhat "stole" ideas from the Texas Instruments TI 99, Atari 800, Apple II, and others. However, considering that most of these computers used the powerful but inexpensive Commodore/MOS 6502 processor, calling it theft might be somewhat exaggerated.

Ultimately, with two designers and one CAD technician, they developed "first silicon" in just 9 months, and remarkably, it worked successfully on the first attempt.

The VIC-II 6567 Video Chip

The VIC-II 6567 video chip in the Commodore 64 can produce about 128 colors, but it is engineered and officially supported for only 16 colors. The VIC-II chip was used in machines built in 1982 and early 1983 besides the Commodore 64. Due to thermal reasons, it had a ceramic casing and produced 64 NTSC color clocks per line. These chips also do not produce separate chroma and luminance signals. Later revisions had cheaper plastic casings and 65 color clocks per line, plus separate color and luminance enabling early S-video.

Multiple revisions were primarily aimed at improving video output quality and eliminating glitches that caused random pixels to appear on screen (some early games deliberately exploited this for graphic effects).

Since switching to a plastic casing was necessary for cost reasons, overheating became a problem in the VIC-II. This was due to several factors including high die density relative to the process used and its high internal speed (8 MHz). Commodore tried an improvised solution using the aluminum RF shield as a heatsink, and this trick proved quite effective in preventing overheating and chip failure.

The 85xx series VIC-II chips used in the C64C are built with a more modern 3.5-micrometer process and require only a 5-volt power rail instead of the dual 12-volt and 5-volt rails of the 65xx VIC-II. These chips run considerably cooler and do not suffer from the overheating that affected the 65xx VIC-II.

The MOS 6581 SID Chip

The legendary SID 6581 sound chip was amazing for its time. This chip can play three different "voices" in complex patterns and with a little tinkering can create one or two additional sounds. The Commodore 64 was undoubtedly the best computer with audio power available on the market for several years to come, and its competitors lacked the ability to produce proprietary chips at any price. It was also probably the first computer in the world capable of reproducing recognizable human speech without additional hardware.

Commodore 64C

The Commodore 64C was released in a glossy beige plastic case. Apart from some minor circuit revisions, the 64C was identical to the original Commodore 64. This design positioned the Commodore 64 as a minor competitor to IBM PCs running early versions of Microsoft Windows 1, 2, and 3. GEOS was far more mature and capable than Microsoft's fledgling Windows, but the combination of excellent copy protection (which hindered its spread and popularity) and minimal base hardware (the Commodore 64) shortened GEOS's lifespan considerably. While newer GEOS versions are still developed and produced for sale, its commercial significance faded with the Commodore 64. GEOS was the graphical OS for the Commodore 64.

Commodore MAX

The most interesting derivative of the Commodore 64 was the Commodore Max machine. It was advertised in Germany and Canada but only released in Japan. The Max was something different from the Commodore 64. This much cheaper version of the Commodore 64 with only 8 kilobytes of RAM and a membrane keyboard may have looked quite bad, but this combination made it one of the rarest and most sought-after Commodore production computers. This limited system has two joystick ports, cartridge and cassette ports, RF output, audio output, channel selector, and power cable input.

Commodore 64 GS

The Commodore 64 GS was a keyboardless version of the C64 released in Europe in 1990. The main idea was to further reduce costs to produce a low-priced game console. The 64GS had a small white box containing the Commodore 64 motherboard with a cartridge slot on top. If a regular C64 cost $50 to produce, the GS probably cost close to $40, though ultimately it did not sell well.

Universal Cartridge

One of the attractions of the Commodore 64 was its ability to use cartridges alongside floppy drives and tape drives. Cartridges were produced by various companies, and each manufacturer at the time tried new techniques to dominate the market by offering programs with higher capacity on cartridge. Early cartridges were produced in capacities of 8, 16, 32, and ultimately 64 kilobytes. In the final years of Commodore's market dominance, manufacturers like Ocean mastered techniques to offer programs exceeding 64 kilobytes on cartridge.

In recent times, skilled hardware designers created a cartridge capable of running all types of old cartridges. These became known as universal cartridges. This cartridge can run programs from EPROMs with capacities of 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 kilobytes. The owner can store desired programs and games on these EPROMs and use them.

sd2iec Converter

The most valuable and practical peripheral hardware built with new technology for the Commodore is probably the sd2iec converter. It can almost completely simulate the 1541, 1571, and 1581 drives, and using SD memory, it can provide an extensive archive of Commodore floppy disk images to enthusiasts. The sd2iec floppy drive converter is compatible with all Commodore models, and Commodore 128 and Plus/4 owners can easily use this valuable hardware. This hardware has been designed and produced in various sizes and with different cases.

Years ago in Iran, it was considered a very rare component. The image below shows the first sd2iec board designed and produced in Iran, designed by my good friend Mohammad Soleimanpour in 2017. Before this board's production, several designs and prototypes were made for personal use, but the first complete production of the sd2iec converter is this very board.

Freeze Cartridge

One of the Commodore's advantages over competing home computers was its intelligent use of the expansion port. This port, with various types of cartridges, could expand the Commodore 64 in interesting ways. Freeze cartridges were the most important cartridges that gave unique capabilities to the Commodore 64. Besides providing important utility programs, these cartridges had a button called the freeze button that, when pressed, stopped all system operation.

After freezing the system state, cartridge menus would appear. With freeze cartridges in this state, it was possible to make changes to running software and, if needed, copy the frozen state to tape or disk as a new file. This was mostly used for saving games at advanced levels. Also, in frozen state, by modifying software codes, users could hack games and make game characters immortal.

Final Cartridge 3 is one of the most powerful freeze cartridges for the Commodore, which has gained attention and development in recent years. Hardware designers combined this powerful freeze cartridge with a universal cartridge to create Final Cartridge 3 Plus.

EasyFlash

The EasyFlash cartridge is essentially a type of universal cartridge. The difference is that programming EPROM ICs in a UCart is quite specialized work requiring a programmer device. But in EasyFlash, this process is simplified, and the user can reprogram this cartridge through the Commodore using the appropriate software. This cartridge provides one megabyte of memory to the user, which is a significant amount for the Commodore 64, storing approximately 40 programs and games. Erasing memory and reprogramming is simply possible for the user.

EasyFlash 3

This cartridge is one of the most effective and artistic Commodore cartridges. Seven EasyFlash cartridges are placed together, three separate sections are designated for storing ROMs of three dream freeze cartridges, and eight parts exist for storing eight valuable kernel ROMs! Recently, this cartridge has been programmed for use as a modem, and perhaps other applications will be defined for it in the future.

KungFuFlash

To understand KungFuFlash, let's start with introducing UCart. What is UCart? An interesting feature of Commodore computers was maintaining cartridge connectivity alongside tape and disk drives. These computers entered the market alongside consoles like Atari and Nintendo, and audiences still expected console-like experiences from these machines. Manufacturers took note and equipped these computers with cartridge ports.

The advantage of cartridges was much faster program and game execution compared to tape drives, though these cartridges also had high prices.

In recent times, skilled designers created a cartridge capable of running all types of old cartridges. These became known as universal cartridges. For this, you need a universal programmer device to program your EPROMs. You also need to install several programs on your Windows to convert various Commodore files (generally PRG) to binary files.

KungFuFlash is first and foremost a very complete and advanced universal cartridge at a much lower cost. To work with UCarts, you need a computer and a programmer — the cheapest programmers cost at least $100. Additionally, converting Commodore files to binary is relatively difficult and time-consuming, and many Commodore programs are fundamentally incompatible with these conversions.

KungFuFlash initially presents itself as a UCart with the required computer and programmer built inside. The method works by flashing various files very quickly into the IC on the board — much faster than you might think!

This program remains in the KungFuFlash microSD memory until you decide to flash another program. Unlike UCart, KungFuFlash works with all Commodore file types and easily supports PRG and CRT files. This cartridge can run CRT files of freeze cartridges like Final 3 or Action 6, and after running these files, KungFuFlash transforms into a freeze cartridge — a very interesting feature of this valuable cartridge.