What New Secrets Have Been Discovered?

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Intending to use pictures or text from this page? Please read this notice. Last modify 15 September 2022.

15 September 2022: Another update to the TV Games entry based on even more further research into the MOS 7600/1.
5 August 2022: Minor update to the TV Games entry based on further research into the MOS 7600/1.
11 August 2020: Fifteenth edition, with a completely reworked TV Games entry (lots of new pictures, split writeup, better documentation on the 5601 and 7601), an expanded Drean entry is now the Latin American Remixes page (lots of new pictures including "Drean GEOS," new Drean Datasette entry, new Sigma Commodore 16 entry), 1570 spotted in Ready Player One, a better Blu-ray grab of the CBM-II series from Jewel of the Nile, added bootdisks and ROM images for the 900, and the usual custodial cleanup.
SWoC dedicates its 15th edition to MOS 6502 designer Chuck Peddle, who passed away on 15 December 2019 at the age of 82. I never got to meet him in person, but I did see him over Skype at VCF East, and he was a gentle, humble man whose hard work ushered in today's great era in computing. Rest in Peace.
21 January 2018: A quiet update, almost a decade later, with new photos and/or updates to the 65 (thanks Dennis Jarvis), SX-64 (new pictures), PET Remixes (new model PET 8296-GD, thanks Steve Gray), TOI and MicroPET (new picture, thanks Jim Brain and Steve Gray), B128, VIC-1020 (new picture, thanks Jacob Lindberg), Magic Voice (new pictures), SFX series (lots of new pictures), 128 Remixes (thanks Bo Zimmerman), 64GS (new pictures), 64CGS (thanks Kroc Camen), Drean 16 (new pictures), Drean 128 (thanks Jorge Pedriera), Japanese C64 (thanks Spiro Trikaliotis), 116 (thanks Spiro), LCD (new pictures, thanks Terry Ryan), SFD-1001 (thanks Dave Gardner), 1570 (new pictures) and the Swedish Remixes (thanks Anders Carlsson). Plus, cleaned out a lot of dead wood from the old Story of Commodore edition, including all the Amiga legal faffing about that turned out not to matter, and custodial link cleanup.
13 July 2007: With new information from the Commodore Gaming E3 party, adjusted the history section. More "post-update" fixes coming soon.
1 July 2007: The bright sun of 2007 shines on these new changes in the very lucky 13th edition! New entries: multiple internationalized 128s (thanks Nicolas Welte and friends) for Switzerland, Spain, France and Italy with pictures!, Drean DC-320, Danish 64 (thanks Christian Lyng) with pictures!, 1571CR (thanks Wolfgang Moser, Spiro Trikaliotis) with pictures!, Music Maker II (64 and 128), "VIC-16" (thanks Bob Russell) with pictures!, Tseng PET Graphics Board (thanks Bob Russell) with pictures!, VC 40 IEEE-4888 Cartridge (thanks Bob Russell) with pictures! Swedish 610 (thanks Anders Carlsson) with pictures!, Swedish PET 700 [720] (thanks Anders Carlsson) with pictures!, TED Developer Prototype (thanks Anders Carlsson, Bil Herd) with pictures!, Commodore Light Pen, C64 80 Column Card (VDC Cartridge) (thanks Jon Mines) with pictures!, new pictures: complete PET 64 (thanks Bryan Pope), 128 Prototype (thanks Bil Herd), DX-64 (magazine scan running an SX-100 demo?), LCD (thanks Bil Herd), 128D/81 (thanks Al Anger), 1551 manual scans and Jim Butterfield with the 1551 at CES, PET 8061 8" (thanks Leo/George Page), MDS 2040 disk drive (thanks Leo/George Page), Sound Expander retakes, 116 retakes, Digi-Drum magazine scan, "Music Synthesizer" magazine scan, BX 8088 processor board (thanks Bruce Faierson), 264 (thanks Bil Herd), new audio!: MP3 audio for Sound Expander, and two for Magic Voice (access-controlled: please follow prompts); updates: revised early Commodore history based on Chuck Peddle's comments at VCFE4 and E-mail; updated current Commodore events; reorganized 4064/PET 64/Educator 64 taxonomy; additional 65 history; Ira Velinsky's case designs (with some details provided by his family); large rewrite to SFX series; two Color PETs; additional portable 64s (thanks Nicolas Welte); VIC-40: codename or real product? (with On the Edge); additional SuperPET history (thanks Dave Dunfield, Heinz Wolter), technical details on Ultimax; additional 264 series info (thanks Dave Haynie, Bil Herd); plus the usual various custodial updates, link corrections and typo fixes.
On a more serious note, SWoC dedicates its 13th edition to Jim Butterfield, Commodore consultant extraordinare and teacher to generations of Commodore users and programmers, who lost his battle with cancer this weekend. I wish you Godspeed, Jim, and I also send my condolences to his family for the loss of a wonderful human being.
29 December 2004: I broke my promise, but at least the 12th edition is better late than never! New entries: the Drean Argentine remixes (thanks Pablo Trincavelli) with pictures!, the Norwegian 3032 and 128DCR (thanks Asbjorn Djupdal) with pictures!, the Swedish PET 200 (thanks Anders Gronberg) with pictures!, the Commodore "MIDI Keyboard" (thanks Holger Karlson), the 1582 (thanks James Crook), new pictures: complete pictures of the Ultimax (from my own unit), as well as additional pictures from Dan Benson; additional pictures of the V364 (thanks Dan Benson); additional pictures of the 232 (Dan again); additional pictures and commercial blurbs of VIC-1001 (Dan encore); complete (and real this time!) pictures of the Lorraine boards, taken at VCF in Dale Luck's possession; complete pictures of the Swedish 3032 (thanks Peter Karlsson); keyboard pictures of the Swedish 128DCR (Peter again); and the awful Swedish localization stickers (Peter encore); internals of the Sound Sampler (thanks John Selck); a screenshot of the 65 Burn-In board at work and an updated screenshot of the 65 intro screen (thanks Moise Sunda); better picture of the 65 RAM expansion (thanks Riccardo Rubini); picture of the C116 box (yours truly); press clipping on the Music Maker (thanks Todd Elliott); updates: significant rewrites for clarity/accuracy of the Amiga early days; updated current history of the Amiga and Commodore brand names, along with the C-One and DTV (thanks Jeri Ellsworth); the TV Game series' technical data as evidenced by the Coleco Telstar; notes on the C65 board, firmware and chip revisions (thanks Anders Carlsson, Riccardo); another possible HHC-4 sighting in the Toshiba IHC-8000 (thanks Scott Jones); information on the disk version of the SFX software; the Music Maker seems to be an Incredible Music Keyboard clone (thanks Todd); a little more history on the SX-500 (thanks Dale); early specifications of the Lorraine; the 364 does not have the same vocabulary as the Magic Voice (thanks Bo Zimmerman); notes on the Ultimax's expansion port and rewrites for clarity; Michael Tomczyk seems to call the 364 the "MAX"; where the Sound Sampler's creator is now; custodial updates to the 900, Golden 64, and Colour PET/TOI pages.
8 December 2002: Couple of last minute editorial changes post-edition release.
7 December 2002: I promise, we won't be doing updates only annually again. May we present to you the long-overdue 11th edition? New entries: the VIC-40 (thanks Mike Stein), the SX-500 (thanks Dale Luck), TOI and the Colour PET (now separate entries, thanks Mike Stein), the TT13 (thanks Riccardo Rubini), the Canadian Plus/4, the Swedish PET 3032 (thanks Peter Karlsson), the German C64 (thanks Markus Mehring), new pictures: complete views of Dave Haynie's NTSC 116 prototype (thanks Ray Castaldo), enhanced portrait and port views of the 128DLs (thanks Bo Zimmerman), views of the 1565 and mainboard (thanks Bo), the 3000H light rifle (thanks Lee Rayner), the Colour PET prototype (thanks Bo), the Gold VIC (maybe?) (thanks Bo), the Commodore 65 burn-in board and widget board (thanks Moise Sunda), the Commodore thermostat in the flesh! (thanks Joe Torre), comparison 116 keyboard shots (thanks Ray), better C65 mainboard/ports/portrait photographs (thanks Moise), C65 PSU images (thanks Moise *again*), higher resolution pictures of the CHESSmate, a proper DX-64 portrait, a better 3008 portrait (thanks Tiziano), a colour view of the HHC-4 (Bo) and the VIC-TV (Bo encore), a real SFS 481 (thanks Antonio Pagliaro), SX-100 faceplate (thanks Bo), views of the SX-500, the TT13 (thanks Riccardo); updates: Fred Bowen's big ideas for the 65, the 600s seem to be the same as the B500s, the HHC-4 might be more similar to the Panasonic HHC than previously thought, the Lorraine pictures are actually of an early developer prototype (thanks Dale Luck), CCR has a scale too (thanks Mike Shartiag), more SFX history (thanks Richard Atkinson), TOI is not the same as the Colour PET (thanks Mike Stein), the 6562/3 was likely not in TOI (thanks Mike Stein), the 65 widget and burn-in boards (thanks Moise), the 7601 is the CPU in the TVG series, plus some great notes on its internal architecture (thanks Lee Rayner), the SX was the first colour portable computer, additional history on the 116 and 364 (thanks Dave Haynie), the SX TV tuner package?, more Magic Voice history and architecture explanation, the 116 was designed by Commodore Japan (thanks Dave Haynie), custodial link repair, various smaller changes.
31 December 2001: Happy new year, it's the 10th edition! New entries: the Multi-User Cash Terminal Register (thanks T.J.T. van Kooten, with pictures), Microchess for the Commodore 64 and KIM-1! (see the Chessmate entry, thanks to Peter Jennings, original programmer; and to Paul Foerster for the original); new pictures: VIC-21 (courtesy Bo Zimmerman), TV Game 2000K (Bo again), Ultimax screenshot and Mini-BASIC (thanks Ray Castaldo); updates: history of the VIC-21 (thanks Bo); new pictures link, footnote about the A2500 and ZEUS systems, better notes on the Z8000/Z80000 on the 900 page (thanks Claus Schoenleber, Tony Duell, et al.); complete history and hardware information on the Chessmate from its original creator (thanks Peter Jennings); analysis of the VIC-1001 ROMs vs. the VIC-20's (thanks Marko, and William Levak); defining ICS and where Agnus really comes from on the Lorraine page (thanks Ville Jouppi, Jim Williams); Nicolas gives a source for the MV's 6525 chips and Nick Coplin finds another Voice-capable cartridge (thanks Nicolas Welte, Nick Coplin); custodial updates to the PET Breeds, Swedish VIC/64/128 and 264/7501 series pages.
26 June 2001: Quick post-edition edition, with changes to the Lorraine entry from Ville Jouppi and a footnote on the TVGame electronics from Bo Zimmerman.
16 June 2001: Many, many months later, the long-awaited ninth edition. New entries: The Lorraine (with complete pictures, including concept sketches!); new pictures: the Commodore Cash Register (complete views) and a completed entry -- thanks Ric Rainbolt; better pictures of the Max Machine (thanks Ray Castaldo); scattered news clippings from Anthony Beckett, including 1571/72, LCD and CBM 900; backplane and even screen images on the 900; updates: 'Dave Haynie' (?) tells us lots and lots more on the 900, including the multiuser aspects!; minor LCD rectifications/disagreements; Excruciating History fixed a bit, plus notes on the Cadtrac suit (thanks Raymond Bryan) and the resurrection of Tulip's Commodore line (thanks Paul Foerster); Magnus Eriksson sent in corrections for the SFX Sound Expander; finally got the FUnet SFX disk image linked; Oliver Graf reminds me where the Aldi was sold :-) ; the 1565 is not TCBM (thanks Nicolas Welte); fixed the P500's varying availability on either side of the Pond (thanks Larry Anderson + others); custodial updates to 264 page.
14 February 2000: After over eight months, we're finally back with the eighth editorial edition. Glad to have y'all with us! Now hosted by retrobits.com! New entries: Digi-Drum, Commodore "Music Synthesiser", Touch Screen (all thanks David Vohs), the entire SFX Sound Expander series -- with complete pictures! Wow! (thanks Markus Mehring and Richard Atkinson); new pictures: VIC-1001 (thanks Peter Karlsson), VIC 6562/3 (thanks Dave Seiter); complete views of the Sound Expander; dipped? edge of the Jubilee (thanks Markus), a portrait shot of the SX (Markus encore), updates: a little more history of Commodore Japan, 116 sales and publicity controversy? (thanks a lot, Markus! :-P), TED was designed by Dave Diorio (thanks Andy Finkel), specs on the 6562/3 (thanks Dave Seiter), SFD 1001 inaccuracies repaired (thanks Nicolas Welte), Commodore Canada did exist after the bitter end (thanks Hymie), a little more TOI history (thanks Brian Ketterling), corrected 65 chip names, proper timeline entry of the 65 (thanks Markus Mehring), notes on the Video Supergame 64 campaign [see 64G] (thanks Markus), 64GS joystick circuitry (thanks Niall Tracey), some stuff on Jack Tramiel's early life, SFX Sound Expander and Sound Sampler on their own page, custodial updates.
1 June 1999: Quick custodial updates to the SuperPET (thanks Andre Fachat), 6509 systems entry (thanks Nicolas Welte), Commodore history page (thanks Bo Zimmerman, Martijn van Buul, Markus Mehring) and SFD 1001 (thanks Nicolas Welte).
30 May 1999: After many long months, the next edition. Now featuring a complete (?) history of Commodore! And hopefully comprehensive, too. New entries: SFD 1001 (with picture, thanks Marko Mäkelä), 8060, 8061, 8062, 8280 disk drives, "HD10"; new pictures: better internals shot of the Magic Voice (thanks Danny O'Day), pictures of the 900, finally! (thanks Steve Gray, Claus Schönleber), BX256 (thanks Steve Gray), 364 complete views, 64G (thanks Nicolas Welte), Chessmaster (thanks Martijn van Buul), full keyboard shot of the LCD (thanks Steve Gray); updates: Magic Voice and the 128, multiple 900 prototypes, multiple 900 versions (thanks Dr. Peter Kittel), LCD keyboard and case notes, TOI and the Colour PET (thanks Dr. Peter Kittel), TOI and the unreleased 6562/3 chip (thanks Richard Atkinson), 1591 and disk spin (thanks Nicolas Welte), 65's BASIC 10.0 notes, 1570 and case colour (thanks Nicolas Welte, Bo Zimmerman), VC-1020 corrections (thanks Asbjoern Djupdal), 64G corrections (thanks Nicolas Welte), SFX upgrade options (thanks Richard Atkinson), the 8088 board for the 6509 series (thanks Steve Gray), more CBM-II history (thanks Steve Gray), 1565, 128CR, various custodial updates.
27 February 1999: Next iteration. New entries: 1571-II (thanks Ron Slaminko, Nicolas Welte), VC-1020 (with picture, thanks Nicolas Welte), "Aldi" 64 (with picture, thanks Nicolas Welte, Marc-Jano Knopp), 1570 and 1572 now separate entries; a new multimedia section: hear the Magic Voice speak! (.mp3); new pictures: internals of the Magic Voice, internals of the Sound Expander (thanks Nicolas Welte), scans of ZZap!64's 65 coverage (thanks Iain Black), scans of Commodore Format's 64GS cover (thanks Iain Black); updates: major history update to the B/P 6509 series (thanks to Hans Franke for setting me straight), the 64G picture has been identified as an "Aldi" (finally fixed, thanks Nicolas Welte), complete specifications on the 9090/9060 hard drive series (thanks Ethan Dicks), more history on the 1570 (thanks Stefan Nagel), some neat stuff on the Victor 9000 and how it might relate to TOI/the Colour PET, source code and complete programming guide for the Sound Expander (thanks Nicolas Welte, Magnus Eriksson), complete programming guide and vocab list for the Magic Voice (thanks David Vohs, Darren Spiteri), the Olivetti M20 computer and its relationship to the CBM 900, the Quasar HHC and its (non)relationship to the HHC-4 (thanks Woodrow Hinkleman), the 6809-less SuperPET is *not* the 8096 (thanks Andre Fachat, Hans Franke), the 1563 and the serial bus, the 1551 -- TCBM for the C64? (thanks Doug Cotton), extra background info on the 64GS (thanks Niall Tracey), PET 200, various custodial updates.
22 December 1998: Quick update to the 65 page with new information from Moise.
21 December 1998: Merry Christmas -- Santa brought you some new stuff! Next iteration. New entries: 128DL prototypes (with pictures, thanks Doug Cotton), PET 200 (with pictures, thanks Per Olofsson, Marko Mäkelä), CBM 3008 (with pictures, thanks Sascha Hoogen), 128CR (thanks Nicolas Welte), Magic Voice Cartridge (with pictures), SFX/Sound Expander and Sound Sampler (thanks Richard Atkinson, Randy Winchester), P500 and B500 now split into separate entries (P500: thanks Larry Anderson, B500: thanks Hans Franke, with pictures); new pictures: extra Jubilee 64 pictures (thanks Sascha Hoogen), board view of the 64GS (thanks Sascha Hoogen), 232 pictures and complete information! It does exist! (thanks Hans Karsten, Arwin Vosselman), fantastic images of the 65, including screenshots and board photographs (thanks Moise Sunda), 1551 (thanks again Moise!), 364 (thanks Don Judy); updated entries: SuperPET (including the 6809 board, thanks Hans Franke and Andre Fachat), CHESSmate (thanks Hans Franke), the untold story of UltiMax banking (thanks Marko Mäkelä), TOI (thanks Andre Fachat, Larry Anderson), 264 and the Magic Desk II evolution, HHC-4, German 128 (thanks Nicolas Welte), 128D/81, 256.
9 December 1998: Some rescans at higher resolution of the images for the HHC-4 and VIC-TV. Because of the large size of these images, the .gifs have swollen considerably -- but because they were originally available in .gif I'm keeping a .gif version, as well as the inevitable .jpg. Please remember that my space here isn't infinite (though it is admittedly generous).
12 November 1998: Next iteration. Made new game machines section, portables section and peripherals section. New entries: 1542; CBM D9090, CBM D9060 (thanks Simon Laule, with pictures); 116 Portable; Book 116 (thanks Jim Butterfield); CHESSmate (thanks Martijn van Buul); Silver VIC (with picture); Gold VIC (thanks Jim Butterfield); Gold 64 (now separate from Jubilee 64 because it's a US model); German 128 (with picture, thanks Nicolas Welte); C64CGS (thanks Patrick Kelly); PET Register (thanks Jim Brain); SuperCartridge (thanks Dave Haynie); MBS-100/150/CP (thanks Jim Brain, Scott MacLauchlan); new pictures: the keyboard evolutions of the 264 and 116 (thanks Marc-Jano Knopp!); complete views of the 610/B128 (thanks Ullrich von Bassewitz), views of the Japanese 64 and keyboard (thanks Hidehiko Ogata), updates to the TV Game series with chip type, updates to the B series page (information on the various 500 models, programming and banking), updates to The Other Intellect (is the CBM 8033 the Colour PET?), significant updates to the 264 series, including information on the option ROMs and the Magic Desk ROM, the 364 Magic Voice system, the 364 numeric keypad, the 116 and 264 keyboard evolution; updates also to the VIC-TV, 1551/SFS 481, Commodore 128D/81/256, SuperVIC, 1563, 1572 and 64GS.
18 September 1998: Not three days after the last big update, there's more to be added! New entries: 1541D (on the Peripherals page); "The Other Intellect" series; the Swedish and Finnish remixes (thanks Anders Carlsson, Peter Karlsson); new pictures: complete views of the TV Game 3000K -- with screenshots! Cool! (thanks Lee Jones); updates to the Executive series, the Educator/4064 series, the TV Game series.
15 September 1998: Some great new stuff for the Crypt! New entries: 1543, 1551 (on the Peripherals page); the "VIC-TV", on the SuperVIC page, and the HandHeld Computer/HHC-4 (thanks David Vohs); TV Game 2000K/3000H series (thanks Gareth Young, L. Jones); the 128 remixes (128D/81 and 256); photograph of the SX-100 (thanks Dave Vohs again); updates to the 65 and the Executive 64s.
27 August 1998: Added some tech data to the 264s (a memory map for you two or three Plus/4 programmers).
26 August 1998: Another huge clot of changes. The entry for the P128 is now the D128 -- the actual name, includes history of the 8563 and the 128 (thanks to Bil Herd); some fun facts on the 900 (thanks again to Bil); the B series have been significantly updated (thanks to Ullrich and Andre Fachat); the 7501s have new technical information (thanks to Dave Haynie); the 64GS entry has been cleaned up a little; and new pages: the Jubilee is now on the Remixes page with a new entry for the 64G; new entries for the Japanese remixes including the Japanese 64 and the Japanese VIC-20 (thanks to Hidehiko Ogata and Markus Mehring). And Martijn van Buul has offered to send me a real live C116 casing so I can take some colour photographs. Kewl! Some photos are in the works.
10 August 1998: Rear ports photograph of the 116 (thanks Markus) and lots of new information on the GS (thanks again Markus :-) -- plus a picture of the unit!
6 August 1998: Some additional information on the 6509 (the CPU for the B and P series computers). Also, a note: the 232 may in fact exist and someone might have one. Where are you?!
16 June 1998: A couple of updates to the C65.
14 May 1998: Wow, lots of changes. New screenshots of the LCD from Christian Janoff; image of the Jubilee 64 from same. Marc Walters cracked open his 64GS and gave me a chip inventory; Marko made tons of ROMs available, including the 4064 and the 64GS; Moise Sunda sent me a crapload of images of the 4064, and Markus Mehring scanned a photo of the 116. Have at it! Screenshots too!: now for the 64GS and 4064, thanks to Marko's ROM dumps and Frodo v4.1.
20 April 1998: Jan Neuvians has provided screenshots of the LCD, plus images of the 1561 and the 1572. Thanks! Also some great new tech data on the LCD's specifications.
19 April 1998: New information available on the Commodore LCD, the 1561 disk drive, and the 1572 disk drive. Pictures soon, hopefully.
19 April 1998: Constructed this what's-new page.