**** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****
64K RAM SYSTEM  38911 BASIC BYTES FREE

READY. LOAD "$",1 RUN "COMMODORE HISTORY"

In the early 1980s Commodore was a billion-dollar company, poised to dominate the global PC market with their affordable and popular computers.  Lame ass management caused Commodore's position to go downhill faster than a run-away skier in the C64 Winter Games.  In the wake of all that potential greatness wasted, legions of loyal fans are still hanging on to their Commodores, picking up spares off eBay, and maintaining dozens of good websites.

In 1954, Jack Tramiel founded a typewriter repair service that turned into Commodore International.  Jack's motto regarding making affordable computers was "Computers for the masses, not the classes."  The Personal Electronic Transactor was released in 1977 (PET), followed in 1981 by the VIC 20.  In 1982, the Commodore 64 became the best selling computer of all time up to that point.  The 64 featured the innovative 'Sound Interface Device' (SID), the first audio chip made for a home computer.  And in 1985, Commodore introduced the world's first multi-media computer - the Amiga 1000.

In the mid-1980s, Jack Tramiel unexpectedly resigned, surprising the industry as well as company insiders.  Commodore never recovered and totally lost it's ability to understand where the industry was headed.

By the late 1980s, IBM and Apple were already dominating the market, despite having what some view, to this day, as inferior technologies.