Training Example: Commodore Computers: C64 VIC20 PET C128 Plus4 – 8 Bit PC’s – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation

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[H1] What’s New On Commodore.ca?
Below are some new pages we added:
Commodore In TV & Movies – A few images added
Ira Velinksy – Commodore’s Amazing Industrial Designer
Commodore Arcade – Play in browser Space Invaders, Gorf, Night Drive, Battleship and more RIGHT NOW!
Commodore 64 In-Browser Emulator added
The Crazy Story of How Irving Gould Ended Up Owning and Killing Commodore
Atari’s JACK TRAMIEL DECLARES WAR! on Commodore
Inventor of the Personal Computer, Chuck Peddle, Dead at 81
Commodore Bankruptcy – Associated Press 1994
The text only version of our site has been refreshed and is available now at Commodore.ca/text . The text only sub-site is intended for use by old school text only browsers but if you want to know what HTML 1.0 looked like in 1992, here is your chance.
Even we forgot about some of the great content buried in our site, so it is great to go back through each page line by line and find treasures like this computer comparison table:
[IMG: home-compuer-comparison-appleII-atari400=c64-pet-vic20-exidy-ibm-pc-osborne1-nec-trs80-ti99_compute_dec8-page2]
Welcome to the refreshed COMMODORE.ca site which provides history, manuals, ROM downloads, along with an active user forum for support of your 8 Bit Commodore computers, including:
Commodore / MOS  KIM-1 – The worlds first single board computer
Commodore PET Series – The worlds first personal computer
Commodore SuperPET – The worlds first multiple CPU Computer
Commodore VIC 20 – The worlds first computer to sell more than 1 million units
Commodore 64 – The worlds best selling computer
Commodore Plus/4 264 – Commodore’s worst selling computer
Commodore 128 – The natural successor to the C64
In addition to these mainstream machines we also cover Commodore derivatives like the:
Commodore PET 2001 3008, 4016, 4032, 8032, 8096SK, P500 B700 C710, and 8296SK
Commodore VIC VC-20, VIC-1001
Commodore 64C, 64GS, VIC-30, Commodore One, C-1
Commodore 116, C16, 232, 264, 364, Plus/4, “TED”
Commodore C128, 128CR, 128DCR
We detail the product announcements and secrets of Commodore Prototypes like the:
Commodore 65
Commodore MAX Machine
We provide everything from the original TV advertising to a Photo Gallery, to Print Advertising, History, Technical User Manuals, Schematics, downloadable ROM’s, and even a live browser based arcade of such classic games as Asteroids and PacMan… no install required!
Some of the most interesting content is our Commodore Chronology and Commodore people section, which has great detail on such notable Commodore management as:
Jack Tramiel – Founder and visionary
Chuck Peddle – Legendary Inventor of the PC and the 6502
Irving Gould – Commodores Canadian financier
Bill Mensch – Key MOS 6502 engineer and modern day owner of the 6502
Mehdi Ali – Commodore’s last President
and many more
It’s 8 Bit Commodore, we have it.
Commodore was, without doubt, the most important company in retail computer history, relentlessly driving the market forward.  Commodore INVENTED the PC Personal Computer and no-one else, including Apple, can stake that claim.  Commodore was the first computer company with a BILLION dollars in sales.  Commodore invented… and the list goes on and on and on.
Click through our site and drop us a line using our user forum if you have something to say!
Also, if you have an old device, click HERE to connect to our TEXT ONLY site.
Abandonware Banner

[H3] Welcome to the New Commodore.ca Arcade
[H3] These games are loading a Commodore 64 emulator in your browser and then loading the real D64 ROM.  This will take upto 60 seconds to complete and in todays world that feels like a very long time… just wait, it will work.  If you have problems just press F5 to reload.
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To give you a feel for the earliest graphical home computer games, we have intentionally selected many of the games that work on the C64 but would  likely work on the Commodore PET with minor code modifications.  Space Invaders is an excellent example of what was possible with some skill and imagination working with a limited graphics set.   These are all impressive games in one way or another.
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[H3] SPACE INVADERS – Click HERE to PLAY NOW
[IMG: Commodore 64 Space Invaders]
CONTROLS:   FULL SCREEN = F11     LEFT = Up Arrow     RIGHT = Right Arrow    SPACE = Shoot
STORY: Space Invaders needs no introduction.  If was the developed in 1978 by Taito Japan as an arcade game and became an instant commercial success.   It is estimated that Space Invaders has made about $15 Billion (in 2020 adjusted dollars).   This iconic game was first released for the Commodore PET in 1980 and then for the Commodore 64 in December of 1983.

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[H3] GORF – Click HERE to PLAY NOW
[IMG: Commodore 64 GORF]
CONTROLS:    FULL SCREEN = F11     LEFT = Tab     RIGHT = 2     UP = 1     SPACE = Shoot
STORY:  The Gorfian Empire poses a great threat for the Instellar Union.  The task is to destroy the flagship’s fleet.  The Gorf fleet consists of androids, laser ships, attack ships, the space warp fighter squadron, flagships and of course the Gorf themselves.  Each flagship sends four attack waves corresponding to four different levels.   During each battle you need to fight attackers and the flagship behind each force.
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[H3] NIGHT DRIVE – Click HERE to PLAY NOW
[IMG: Commodore 64 Night Drive]
CONTROLS:    FULL SCREEN = F11     LEFT = w     RIGHT =e2     UP = equals sign
This basic game is still alot of fun.  It is based on the 1976 Atari vector game Night Driver which was the first ever driving game played in the first person, from the persepective of the driver.  Go as fast as you can while avoiding the roads edges.  I

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[H3] BATTLESHIP – Click HERE to PLAY NOW
[IMG: Commodore 64 Battleship]
CONTROLS:    Follow prompts on screen
This game can take several minutes to actually start after it is loaded… be patient… back in the day we did not have a choice ?
This game was released for the Commodore 64 in 1987 but is based on the Hasbro board game of the same name released in 1984.   Battleship is a war-themed board game for two players in which the opponents guess the location of their opponent’s warships to sink them.

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[H3] LABYRINTH – Click HERE to PLA
[IMG: Commodore 64 Labyrinth]
Y NOW
CONTROLS:    FULL SCREEN = F11     LEFT = L     RIGHT = R     FORWARD = F
Released in 1983 this amazing first person maze game consumed dozens of hours in my youth.  I remember trying to write my own version of it using machine language because BASIC was just too slow to render the screens.  In the end I could not even figure out how to get the PET to create the maze in a way that guaranteed an exit path!  Eventually, I gave up and just played this very game on my Commodore PET 4016, without the colour graphics of course.

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[IMG: Commodore 3D Pinball 1985]
[H3] PINBALL 3D – Click HERE to PLAY NOW
CONTROLS:    FULL SCREEN = F11     LEFT = CNTL     RIGHT = RIGHT ARROW     BALL LAUNCH = F7       START GAME = F1
Note starting this game with F1 may cause your browser to launch help tab; just close it
Note lauching the ball with F7 may cause your broswer to ask you about CAROT BROWSING, just click NO or ignore it
This is a fine example of early 3D effects ,made possible by Commodore sprites.  It is less complex than other pinball games but looks great and is fun to play

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[H3]
[IMG: Commodore Poker]
POKER – Click HERE to PLAY NOW
CONTROLS:    FULL SCREEN = F11     ANTE = 2, 3, 4, 5    DRAW = D      HOLD = H
This is a classic card game that is easy to play with the keyboard.

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[H3]
[IMG: PoliceAcademy]
POLICE ACADEMY – Click HERE to PLAY NOW
CONTROLS:    None – This “game” is a fake
This is a clever early example of companies trying to protect their intellectual property in the 1980’s.  After the game loads, it runs through several pages from  “Hall of the things” and then prompts for a password.  The catch is there is no password and there is no game.
There is a austrospeed88 compiled part and then memory filled with stuff from another game.  These are the lines that asks for a password
8784 fort=1to80
8790 next
8791 print”{clr}{down}let’s begin !!”
8810 print”{clr}{down}enter your police-security-password{down}{down}”
8852 poke56325,34
8861 open1,0
8865 print”———–”
8879 print”{up}{up}{up}”
8884 input#1,a$
8888 t=1
8889 fort=1to1500
8896 next
8897 close1
8899 goto8810
8902 end
It’s a fake input, result is not even checked and goes in loop asking another.
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We still have our old Adobe Flash based arcade up and functional, if your browser will still use Flash.  Click HERE for Asteroids, Simon, Donkey Kong and more.
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This new arcade with built largely through the work of a very helpful young contractor on Fiverr that goes by the tag kappa8i in January 2020.  If you need some JS, Phython or CSS work, we are confident you will not be disappointed.
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These games are old but still enjoyable.
A trend is growing for slots lovers – free spins.  Find our with Lucky Stars
Commodore Banner Exchange

[H3]
19 Comments

[H4]
sharna
· July 23, 2015 at 8:10 pm
this was a great game for my class to play and learn the games that people had to play back in the day?

[H4]
sharna
· July 23, 2015 at 8:09 pm
this is a great website for kids to lurn about all the games that people played back in the day like what my class is doing

[H4]
Frank Franco
· June 3, 2015 at 3:25 am
Mice men would be great, if I can make a suggestion.

[H4]
Frank Franco
· June 3, 2015 at 3:23 am
Yes! Thanks for this blast from the past. These are still the best games ever created.

[H4]
ED
· April 9, 2015 at 6:26 am
cool place, I don’t know how I found this site. I was on my zeropc.com and in the games folder there was pacman and another game and that’s how I found this website.

[H4]
r8der4ever
· December 7, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Thanks for sharing these video games but there is a problem with Donkey Kong controls

[H4]
Ian Matthews
· February 2, 2015 at 9:36 pm
Yes, I am aware the some browsers have some problems with DK. Unfortunately I did not write them and can not update them ?

[H4]
Capt Commodore
· December 2, 2014 at 2:19 am
I bought a VIC20 in 1981. Later replaced that with a C-16 and then a Plus/4.
I learnt to program in BASIC and machine code. Shame that commodore failed. They were ahead of Apple and others in innovation.
Thanks for the memories.

[H4]
cpt James Hood
· November 9, 2014 at 9:17 pm
<3 love that commodore 128 i had
i used to play with a programe named word
funny thing the os was so simply
load "thegame"
loading please wait….load complete.
Run
and joystick
what the h@ck happend to this planet???Q@ack
[email protected]

[H4]
Gary @ RetailerDepot
· November 9, 2014 at 7:13 am
My very first computer was a Vic 20. Besides playing the cassette games posted here, I use to type in basic code from Compute! Gazette for other games and edit them to modify how they looked and played. Great stuff, thanks.

[H4]
Galaxy Tracking
· September 17, 2014 at 11:45 am
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon everyday.
It will always be interesting to read through content from other authors and use something from their websites.

[H4]
Ricky JJ
· July 23, 2014 at 8:39 pm
I can remember going to the bowling ally and playing most of these games for two to three hours dropping in quarters till I ran out of money and then watched other people lose their money.
It was a great way to enjoy myself but I wasn’t really losing much weight just standing there having fun.

[H4]
Kevin
· July 11, 2014 at 7:13 am
Would love to see Midway Campaign, Nuke war or Beyond Castle Wolfenstein. Great site though.

[H4]
Ian Matthews
· August 31, 2014 at 3:41 pm
If anyone has these, please send them to me and I will post them ?

[H4]
christie
· November 27, 2014 at 4:51 am
Why does donkey kong only have 1 level?

[H4]
Ian Matthews
· December 21, 2014 at 10:11 am
This is a good question which I cannot answer. I did not write the game but I had noticed it myself.

[H4]
Michael
· April 9, 2014 at 4:55 pm
This site is great! I loved playing these games! Thanks!

[H4]
nathaan
· February 19, 2014 at 6:41 pm
love this website

[H4]
Darren Burgess
· September 3, 2013 at 2:08 am
What a great site
I use to love playing all these games
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to play them all again for free

[H3] Leave a Reply Cancel reply
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Written by Ian Matthews of commodore.ca February 15, 2003  –  Seriously revised and expanded on January 18, 2006 – Last updated Nov 26 2018
[H2] Introduction
[IMG: mos-technologies-factory]
At the heart of what people think of as Commodore, was a company called MOS Technology.  MOS’ claim to fame was their development and manufacturing of the wildly successful 6500 line of microprocessors which in addition to being used in nearly all Commodore computers and floppy drives, was also what powered all pre-1984 Apples.  However, MOS was not started by Commodore or even by the engineers who made it famous, like Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch.
Started MOS as a ‘second source’ for Texas Instruments (TI) chips and even produced the famous Atari PONG chip for limited time.  A major player in the calculator business called Commodore Business Machines quickly became MOS’ number one customer in the early 1970’s.
[IMG: mostek-mk5011-chip-zebra]
During our January 2006 interview with Chuck Peddle, we were informed that MOS was always pronounced M.O.S. so as not to confuse it with the MOSTek which was a competing company that was also established in 1969.
[H2] Motorola’s Refusal to Innovate
As one of the lead Motorola 6800 engineers at a time before most people had even heard the term “CPU”, Chuck Peddle was often tasked with explaining the capabilities of a microprocessor to large industrial manufactures like Ford.  After an education from Chuck engineers were usually highly impressed with the potential for such a device but at US$300 ($1350 in 2018 dollars!) would inevitably say it was far to expensive to use.  Chuck asked Motorola’s customers the price they thought it would be possible to put CPU’s into their mass market products.  $25 came up as the magic number.
As one might guess, a companies engineers discussing a $25 ($110 in 2018 dollars) version of a successful $300 product did not impress Motorola management.  Conversely, management’s failure to pursue obvious improvements to their chip did not impress Motorola’s engineers.  When Chuck received a formal letter from management telling him to stop working on a cost reduced version 6800, he saw an opportunity.
[IMG: chuck_peddle]
[IMG: bill_mench]
Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch took six other key Motorola 6800 engineers to work for an old General Electric colleague who ran a small “fab” called MOS Technologies.  Bill Mensch explained that Chuck handled most of the negotiation with MOS and that part of the deal was that each of the eight were to receive “a fraction of the profits.”  The key word here is ‘profits’.  At this time, not many companies actually made money from chips and as your might expect, when the group found out about the deal months later Bill Said “they were all pissed!”
As might happen today in your work environment, it irked the existing MOS staff to have an entire team of highly qualified and recognized people parachuted into the organization.  Bill says that “it was painful, I had two flat tires in my first week at MOS.”   A MOS staffer of Italian decent told him “you don’t mess with the Godfather”, referring to one of the MOS Vice Presidents who was unhappy with the recent conversion of Motorola staff.  The existing staff wanted to work on development of a microprocessor and correctly felt they would be largely left out of the process.
Chuck said he gave the engineers a “..tight list…” of features to build into the chip along with a fixed die size.  To get to the $25 price they need to produce only the instructions that its customers would required, nothing extra.
[H3] MOS 6500
[IMG: mos-team-chuck-peddle-bill-mensch-6500-6501-6502-1975]
1975 picture and article, taken from Bill Mensch’s personal collection of the MOS 6500 design team.
Within a year the team developed the CPUs line that would change the world; The MOS 6500 series.  There are many interesting stories surrounding the 6501 but the most amazing is that Bill Mensch was able to take the 6501 schematics, create a layout completely by hand (remember no-one had computers back then) and produce a working CPU on the very first attempt.  This was unheard of.  Several engineers we talked with have said that they had never seen anyone manually produce a successful chip on the first pass.  It often takes 10 or more tries to get it right.  In a January 2006 interview with Commodore.ca , Chuck said “Bill …was like a layout savant… he can just picture an entire layout in his head.”
[IMG: commodore-msc-mos-6501-cpu-top-bottom]
MOS 6501 CPU EXTREMELY RARE: Purchased directly from MOS’ Norristown Fab in late 1975, This historically important CPU should not exist. Chuck Peddle, engineer of the fabled 6501 and famous 6502, said that none of the 6501’s should have ever left the factory because they were not for sale. It is likely that this the sole survivor.
Note that the MOS 6501 shown to the right is extremely rare and was purchased directly from the Norristown, PA factory for the princely sum of $20.  When we asked Chuck about it in March 2007 he said “…we stopped producing the 6501 so none really made it to market in any numbers.  We never intended anyone to buy it anyhow.  It was an in your face to Motorola…  It is indeed rare.”
The 6501 and 6502 where nearly identical.  The primary difference was the pin arrangement; a 6501 is pin compatible with the Motorola 6800 and 6502 is not.
The group was not without humour.  One of the important designers on this chip was Rod Orgill (who can be seen in this picture to the right and in the full 1975 article HERE).  Bill said that one of the 6502 pins is officially named SO (Set Overflow).  “Chuck, Rod, and I know that it’s real name is Sam Orgill… Rods dog”.
In the 1970’s, 70% of the industries chips produced were detected as defective at the factory.  This substantially increased the cost of each viable chip.  When a chip is being laid out for etching on a silicon wafer, it drawn at a large scale and then photo reduced over an over again (just like a photocopy reduction) until its microscopic size will fit on the required die.  Each reduction layer is called a Mask.  MOS figured out a process to repair Masks as they are reduced.  The end result was that they had a 70% success rate.  This obviously reduced the per chip cost of manufacturing and made the $25 processor a possibility.
[IMG: chuck-peddle]
Chuck explained that selling a dramatically less expensive CPU was not as easy as it sounded.  A few years earlier there had been a high profile scam involving a company that claimed it could produce mainframe terminals it would lease for just $10 per month.   The company went bankrupt in a cloud of scandal after taking millions of dollars from investors, and blamed the failure on industries inability to produce cheap chips.
[IMG: MOS_6501_Advertisement_August_1975]
In an effort to drum up interest in the chip they ran an advertisement stating that anyone could see and buy the amazing $25 microprocessor at WestCon (Western Electronics Show and Convention) in 1975.  Unfortunately when MOS arrived at the show they were told that, in an effort the keep the show ‘high brow’, exhibitors were not allowed to sell product at their booths.  Chuck quickly rented a nearby hotel room and had his very attractive wife sit at a table with two full glass jars of 6501’s and 6502’s.  Little did most people know that all of the chips in the bottom of those jars were defective.  Image is everything.
[H2] Motorola’s Anger: A Blessing In Disguise
In June of 1975 Motorola realized they had turned their engineers into their competition.  Motorola got mad and sued MOS for infringement of 6800 patents.  Chuck said “…there was no substance to their claims…” but it scared the old line industry management at Allen-Bradley.  “As soon as lawyers got involved, they wanted out.” said Chuck.  As a shock to everyone, Allen-Bradley walked away from MOS and basically gave it to the existing MOS management team.
It is interesting to note that Bill Mensch tells a more complete version of this important part of the story.  “It was not about patent infringement; it was about intellectual property.”  Those eight engineers knew an awful lot of unpatented concepts developed at Motorola and that is what Motorola was trying to protect.  “We knew we were (infringing).  The (MOS) 6520 was a direct copy of the (Motorola) 6820.”  MOS had agreements in place with Motorola and “…We paid Motorola all along.”
[H2] A Star is Born: The 6502
[IMG: KIM-1_april_1976_byte_magazine]
April 1976 Byte Magazine Advert for the KIM1
[IMG: MOS_6502]
MOS designed and manufactured two 6502 trainers call the TIM1 (Terminal Input Monitor) and KIM-1 (Keyboard Input Monitor).   They are often incorrectly referred to as kit computers the Altair.  The TIM and the KIM came fully assembled and were the world’s first single board computers.
Like many great products, the 6502 had a humble beginning.  Bill told us that he and a few others wrote a nearly complete specification for the 6500 line “…on the back of an Arby’s napkin!”  When it was completed in the Spring of 1975, the MOS 6502 initially ran at about 1Mhz, the same as the Motorola 6800.  However, 6500’s performed about 4 times the number of calculations a 6800 could.
In a 2005 book about Commodore, Bill Mensch is quoted as saying he had the 6502 running at about 12Mhz.  Remember that it wasn’t until 1983 that Motorola released the 68010 which runs at 12Mhz and Intel took until 1984 to release a 10Mhz 80286 chip.  This was WAY ahead of its time.  In our discussions, Bill clarified this amazing story, by explaining that the chips he had running over 10Mhz were actually early manufacturing errors to be discarded as trash.  For the fun of it, he played with these flawed units just to see if he could get them to work.  When I asked him why he did not present these as notable engineering successes to industry or to the Guinness Book of Records, he said “I was worried about eating… not making records.”
Motorola may or may not have had a solid legal case but they definitely had something that MOS did not, money.  It did not take long for MOS to kill the 6501.  The law suite dragged on a for a few years and MOS eventually settled the claims with a $200,000 payment to Motorola.
[H2] The Calculator Wars
[IMG: commodore_calcualtor_playboy_december_1973]
1973 COMMODORE MINI-SLIDE RULE CALCULATOR – From a December 1973 advertisement in Playboy… um uh ummmm yaaa well, this was the what I was looking for in the magazine… I was shocked to find naked women… I suppose I will have to take one for the team and scan all the old Playboys for Commodore materials. Its a tough job but I will sacrifice myself for Commodore.
In 1975, Commodore had a huge inventory of Texas Instruments based calculators when the market began to collapse.  Because Commodore sourced their TI chips from MOS, MOS was in financial trouble.  Then the unthinkable happened.  Texas Instruments started retailing their own brand of calculators at a prices less than Commodore manufacturing cost.  The November 1975 New Scientist magazine reported “Commodore is struggling to survive.  Two weeks ago the firm reported its end of year results, which showed a $4.3 million loss on sales which were up 12 per cent over the year to $55.9 million.”
[IMG: commodore-pet-original-prototype-in-wood]
COMMODORE PET 2001 WOOD PROTOTYPE DISPLAY: The Text on the board says: first truly affordable appliance computer to be manufactured first truly integrated personal computer housing a computer logic board, a keyboard, and a screen in one chassis first mass produced personal computer with operating system in ROM designed by the worlds famous MOS 6502 microprocessor designed and developed by MOS Technology Inc (A subsidiary of Commodore Business Machines Inc) first model shown in Consumer Electronics Show Chicago January 1977
Commodore’s founder and CEO, Jack Tramiel, convinced Commodore’s Canadian financier, Irving Gould, that vertical integration (owning all of the parts of production) was the only way Commodore could survive.  Soon after, the September 1976 edition of New Scientist noted “Commodore, quoted at $60 million on the New York Stock Exchange, has acquired 100 per cent of the equity of MOS Technology Inc of Pennsylvania in exchange for a 9-4 per cent equity stake in Commodore. MOS Technology is privately owned and valued at around $12 million.”
Commodore continued the KIM-1 and Jack Tramiel personally approved the development and production of Chuck Peddles unified computer, the PET.
In an effort to start sales of the 6502, MOS staff ran a quick tour of the US, dropping into see major manufacturing companies like Ford.  On the trip Chuck was told that two young guys working in their garage wanted some help using the 6502.  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were working on the first Apple and Chuck was happy to lend a hand even though he did not design the 6500 line for computer use.  “…Not in a million years… it was supposed to go into industrial and consumer products.”  Little did Chuck know that the computer business would quickly become the mass market consumer product he was targeting.
[IMG: commodore-pet-2001]
Over the previous few years Chuck had met with hundreds of computer enthusiasts, educational institutions and main frame corporate users.  He learned that “…what people wanted was a computer that looked like a terminal.”  He bought a little book on how to build your own television, written by the legendary Adam Osborne and contracted out the construction of a wood case to house the computer.  Yes, that’s right, the prototype was made of wood!.  Using a motherboard based on the 6502 processor Chuck designed and built the worlds first computer which would later be named the Commodore PET.  Explaining how experimental this was, Chuck said “The first time we turned it on, the image was upside down… we got Adam’s book out to figure out how to turn it…”
In a January 2006 interview, Chuck told a great story about trying to sell the CPU’s to Atari.  Atari was so worried about industrial espionage that they sequestered their top engineers in a remote facility on a dirt road, several hours from Los Angeles.  Chuck packed himself and his wife for brief holiday and made plans to stop in to see this top secret Atari think tank on the way.  Atari was working on three new options for their new machine one of which called for a 6502, an IO chip and a custom chip.  Atari wanted him to produce the 6502 and the IO chip for just $12!  By this time, Chuck estimated that MOS’ production cost on two of those chips was just $4 and so it was easy to agree; the Atari 400 and 800 were announced in December of 1978.
[H3] Engineer Exodus & The Rise of 16Bit
Shortly before the Commodore take over, frustrated 6502 co-designer Bill Mensch left the company.   It had been made clear that “Commodore was going into Game Systems… stopping microprocessor development”  I was the hea

This was taken from a 1989 Australian interview.  Jack’ last name is misspelled as Trammel by the author and we have not corrected it:
Formatting cleaned up and links added Nov 23 2018
[IMG: jack tramiel]
Presenter: I don’t know if you like computers or if you use computers but computers are so much a part of life that it’s hard  to resist them I think and Commodore 64 is  still the best selling home computer in Australia, in fact the whole world, and my next guest is the man who created the Commodore 64, Jack Tremmel. He’s now  heading another computer company which is called Atari, he actually bought up the company in 1984 and we’ll learn about that in a moment, but when he took over Atari the company was said to be losing an enormous amount of money every day, but within only a couple of years it was out of the red, into the black, and Atari is churning out more than 70-million dollars worth of profit these days, which is pretty healthy indeed.
Jack Tremmel is here in Australia to open the PC ’89 exhibition at Darling Habour which starts today, and he’s given us a little bit of time in the studio this morning. Good morning.
Jack Tramiel: Good morning.
Presenter: We work our guests hard when they come to Australia and you’re finding that out,  aren’t you?
Jack Tramiel: I do yes.
Presenter: You’ve had a very busy time.
Jack Tramiel: But I’m enjoying it.
Presenter: Are you?
Jack Tramiel: Yes.
Presenter: Well I’m glad to hear that. In fact we’ve got a line of Americans in this hour of the program which is interesting because it’s a lot of people from your part of the  world making their way to our shores. Commodore 64 is big here, it’s big just  about everywhere isn’t it?
Jack Tramiel: Yes it is.
Presenter: Did you really invent it?
Jack Tramiel: No I’m not the engineer. I’m a businessman, but I do know what the public wants and I know how to bring technology and people together. And by living in Silicon  Valley where the technology was born I know it’s available, I know how to bring like I said people together and sell volume to bring the price down that the average person can afford to buy. In this we’ve made the 64 so successful.
Presenter: Commodore started out as a fairly small company I think didn’t it? What did they  start out as?
Jack Tramiel: Well I founded Commodore and that was in 1955 in Toronto Canada.
Presenter: Where did you get the name from?
Jack Tramiel: From the back of a Opal Commodore of a car.
Presenter: It was as ordinary as that was it?
Jack Tramiel: I was sitting in a taxi cab and I was trying to get the name for the company which  I was building, and I was really looking to make it call it General, I’d just come out of the army and I was in the army for three years and seven months, so I was looking for something strong, so I was looking for a name like General which I couldn’t get because it was taken. Then I was looking for a name like Admiral, and that was taken, and as I was talking to a friend of mine in the cab right in front of me this car with the name Commodore. I said well let’s try  this one.
Presenter: And  that was it.
Jack Tramiel: And that was it.
Presenter: What  a wonderful story, I love it, I love it.  We’re back in 1955, let’s go a  little bit further back, life started for you in Poland, is that right?
Jack Tramiel: Yes I was born in Poland, I was born in 1928, in 1939 the war started and that’s  the time when I to a certain extent left Poland. Auschwitz was still in Poland  but it was not Poland for me.
Presenter: When  you were in Auschwitz.
Jack Tramiel: Yes.
Presenter: For how long?
Jack Tramiel: I was in the camps altogether for five years and a few months.
Presenter: And then America?
Jack Tramiel: Then I spent two years in Germany from April 10th 1945 till November 19th 1947.  In November 1947 I left Germany and went to the United States.
Presenter: Did you have a lot of money?
Jack Tramiel: I had absolutely no money at all when I arrived in the States, I’m Jewish, that’s  the reason I was in camp, and a Jewish organisation paid for my ticket and they  also gave me 10 dollars spending money. And when I arrived I was in a hostel  like which was done by the Jewish Immigration Association and for three weeks I had to find my own way and I started to work for whatever job I could find. But  when I did arrive in New York I did not believe that I’m in the United States.
Presenter: Why?
Jack Tramiel: Because it was just like being back in Poland, same language, the area I was in  it was lots of immigrants and it had the same smell of pickles and of herring  and all that which was very nice but this is not what I came for. And I made a decision that the United States was extremely good to me, I was liberated by the Americans and I felt I wanted to learn more about America so I joined the army.
Presenter: Where did you fight, or did you not fight? Did you go to Korea?
Jack Tramiel: No I didn’t go anywhere.
Presenter: You just joined the army.
Jack Tramiel: I joined the army and it did me a lot of good to learn all about America because  it was a peopledom. Washington State, from California, from Texas and from New York and black and green and white – all kinds of different people, and I found that America is not New York City only, there is much more to it.
Then I left the army  and after two years and the Korean War started and I was recalled, but I was still lucky that I was not shipped to the front and there the second time around  I made a decision that I’d better learn a trade, and the army gave that opportunity to start repairing office equipment like typewriters and adding machines etc. And before I left I was in charge of the First Army Office Equipment Repair Department which we had something like 25-thousand pieces of  equipment in there for repairs. And when I left the army I actually continued working in the same field.
Presenter: And  that was the genesis of your interest in computers.
Jack Tramiel: Correct. And so during the day I was working in an office equipment repair shop, at night I was driving a cab to be able to feed my family and after a while I decided I’d better use my allowance which I received from the United States Army.  I was entitled to borrow 25 thousand dollars from the bank with a government guarantee. And I actually took that money and I started my own business, my own  little shop. And after I have done that I found that New York City in which I  was in the Bronx, it was just a little too big, people were too smart and 25 thousand dollars which is not enough. And my wife had lots of family, she’s  also a survivor, also from Poland, and she had a lot of family in Toronto and we used to go there every once in a while, so we decided to move to Toronto. And  there I repaired again the typewriters and adding machines in a company by the  name of Sears Roebuck liked my services and they asked me if I’d possibly could  find a way how I could assembly a typewriter for them. Being young enough and  foolish enough I figure it’s an easy task, as long as you have money you can do  almost anything. Well I get 176-thousand dollar loan from Sears and I started to try to find a license to build typewriters. Well no American or West European country or company wanted to give me a license, so I wound up getting a license from Czechoslovakia.
And I actually brought 50 technicians over the counter, we started building typewriters. And we built so many that we could not sell them all in Canada and I had to start exporting them back to the States and that’s the way Commodore started.
Presenter: That’s a fantastic story and it tells me because you haven’t said this, but it tells me that you’re a man of great determination, that you don’t think that any  obstacle can get in your way. Do you feel that?
Jack Tramiel: I don’t feel that. When I look back you know there must be something you know. In the camp that I told you I was in there was 10-thousand people in 1944, and we  moved from Auschwitz to Hanover and when the war came to an end, of these 10-thousand there was only 60 left.
Presenter: 60 individuals?
Jack Tramiel: 60 individuals from 10-thousand people. I was one of those 60. So from there on  nothing was difficult to me.
Presenter: No, having survived that.
Jack Tramiel: Right. So I believe when a person has a goal, when a person is willing to work  hard, the person does not want to become rich the same day but he looks at it in the long term, he can make it. The key is to give first and receive after. We live in a society today that’s just the opposite.
Presenter: Everybody wants to take, take, take don’t they.
Jack Tramiel: Right now.
Presenter: Instant gratification.
Jack Tramiel: But if you are willing to invest your time, your effort and you’re willing to  serve society, society will reward you in time.
Presenter: Extraordinary, an amazing story. And you’ve got a very happy face. Are you a happy person do you think?
Jack Tramiel: Well a very happy person because I, I’m just looking at that in 1945 I was reborn, I don’t look back, I do remember but I don’t have any hate in me. I have built a company, I have built a family, I have three sons and four grandchildren and they all know about my background and about success and they’re all working together with me, my three sons are part of my company, and we are very happy with what we’ve accomplished.
Presenter: Well welcome to our country, I hope you have a happy stay, and I hope they don’t work  you too hard, not in this humidity anyway.
Jack Tramiel: Thank you

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