Commodore 64 was released 1st September 1982, 44 years ago

Commodore 64 was released on 1st September 1982 with an entry price $595 ($1,990 in 2025 prices, see Wikipedia). C/64 costs a lot, more than an iPhone by today standards (impressive!). On December 1981, an Atari 800 with 32K of RAM cost $1,000, so for half the price you get double of RAM.

But around Xmas 1983 C/64 price dropped between $230 and $200 and that was the game changer. The reason was the “home computer price wars,” largely between Commodore and Texas Instruments.

C/64 keep selling despite a more powerful retro-compatible model (C/128) was produced:

Commodore expected both the VIC-20 and C-64 to have a shelf life of around 3 years. They were about right in the case of the VIC-20, but the C-64 kept selling about 700,000 units a year through the end of the decade and was still hanging on in 1993. It wasn’t selling well in 1993, mind you, and Commodore didn’t want to be making them by then. But there was still demand for them, and Commodore in 1993 wasn’t in a position to say no to a sale.

In the last years Peri Fractic Youtuber was able to acquire the copyrights around the C/64 and to start selling again a new version with a whopping price around $300 which is high for today standard: choose on your own if the deal is right for you.