VIC-1001

The Commodore VIC-1001 was the Japanese version of the VIC-20 home computer, released in 1980 by Commodore International. It marked Commodore’s first color computer and was tailored for the Japanese market with Katakana character support. The VIC-1001 was based on the MOS 6502 CPU, offered 5KB of RAM (expandable), and featured a custom graphics and sound chip—the VIC (Video Interface Chip). Though it had limited commercial success in Japan, the VIC-1001 laid the groundwork for the international release of the highly successful VIC-20, which helped establish Commodore as a leader in affordable home computing.