Aficionados of the most popular computer of all time, the low-cost Commodore 64, soon can lay their hands on a piece of history, provided they are willing to pony up a few thousand dollars.
Commodore's former head of engineering, Charlie Winterble, who oversaw the design of the early '80s computer, will auction off a prototype next month at the Vintage Computer Marketplace.
"I've had it for a lot of years, and I think it is more valuable in someone else's hands," said Winterble, now retired and living in Princeton, Massachusetts. "For someone who's into this stuff, it's a pretty good find. It's like one of the first vintage Model Ts off the production line."
The Commodore 64 has frequently been compared to Ford's Model T, as it was the first cheap home computer for the masses. The Commodore 64 featured 64 KB of RAM and a 1-Mhz chip, and looked like nothing more than a bulky keyboard. However, it boasted color graphics and sophisticated sound, sold for less than $500 and excelled at playing early video games.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Commodore 64 is the best-selling computer of all time. About 30 million were sold between its launch in 1982 and its "commercial decline" in 1993, when it was discontinued.
Winterble held onto the prototype when leaving the company shortly after the machine's launch. He and two of the machine's other major contributors -- Al Charpentier, who designed the machine's video chip, and Bob Yanis, who did the sound -- left to set up a spinoff company.
Winterble said his prototype machine functions, but warned there are likely to be bugs -- it went through several design iterations before going to market. In addition, the Commodore 64 was notoriously unreliable. It's been estimated that 80 percent of early machines were returned to Commodore for repairs.
The auction of the prototype will preview later this week. Bidding will start Oct. 6 and end Oct. 12.
Winterble said he has no idea how idea how much the prototype is worth, but vintage-computer expert Sellam Ismail valued the machine at $10,000.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60349,00.html
Commodore's former head of engineering, Charlie Winterble, who oversaw the design of the early '80s computer, will auction off a prototype next month at the Vintage Computer Marketplace.
"I've had it for a lot of years, and I think it is more valuable in someone else's hands," said Winterble, now retired and living in Princeton, Massachusetts. "For someone who's into this stuff, it's a pretty good find. It's like one of the first vintage Model Ts off the production line."
The Commodore 64 has frequently been compared to Ford's Model T, as it was the first cheap home computer for the masses. The Commodore 64 featured 64 KB of RAM and a 1-Mhz chip, and looked like nothing more than a bulky keyboard. However, it boasted color graphics and sophisticated sound, sold for less than $500 and excelled at playing early video games.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Commodore 64 is the best-selling computer of all time. About 30 million were sold between its launch in 1982 and its "commercial decline" in 1993, when it was discontinued.
Winterble held onto the prototype when leaving the company shortly after the machine's launch. He and two of the machine's other major contributors -- Al Charpentier, who designed the machine's video chip, and Bob Yanis, who did the sound -- left to set up a spinoff company.
Winterble said his prototype machine functions, but warned there are likely to be bugs -- it went through several design iterations before going to market. In addition, the Commodore 64 was notoriously unreliable. It's been estimated that 80 percent of early machines were returned to Commodore for repairs.
The auction of the prototype will preview later this week. Bidding will start Oct. 6 and end Oct. 12.
Winterble said he has no idea how idea how much the prototype is worth, but vintage-computer expert Sellam Ismail valued the machine at $10,000.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60349,00.html