Inside the Commodore 64

This pioneering PC made instant geeks out of millions of people back in the 80s. But what lies within the Commodore 64's fetching brown shell?

Can You Make It More Brown?

The Guinness Book of World Records lists the Commodore 64 as the best-selling computer model of all time: Sales estimates range from 17 million to 30 million units worldwide in the years between its splashy introduction in 1982 and its reluctant end in 1994. With so many C64s out there, this home computing pioneer clearly was the right product at the right time and at the right price ($595 at launch) for a lot of people. Even now, nerds everywhere get misty-eyed when they talk about it, heaping praise on the brown-on-brown low-cost wonder that dominated the low-end computer market for most of the 80s. (And according to PC World contributing editor--and onetime editor in chief--Harry McCracken, the C64's beguiling TV ads may have had a lot to do with the model's success.) Let's go to the workbench and look at the insides of this little PC that could.