The Pre-C64 History of Jack Tramiel and Commodore Computer

Quite a lot of today's computer freaks fondly remember the "home computer" (1) age of the 1980s as a kind of golden age of computing. After all, it was a time when the life of a computer freak was much simpler and things like "installing an operating system" or "downloading the latest drivers" were mostly unheard of (in a domestic environment). It was a time when computers and video games were already mass-produced but not yet truly a part of mainstream culture like today's gigahertz Windows-PCs or the Sony Playstation. A time when games were BOTH simpler and more innovative, sometimes making you wonder what kind of stuff the designers of games like "Q*Bert", "Burger Time" or "Bubble Bobble" had been smoking :-). A joystick with four directions and one fire button was enough to avoid the ghosts and eat all the dots, deflect a nuclear attack or defend earth against "Space Invaders". Of course it was also a time of 8 bit, 1 MHz CPUs, few kilobytes of RAM (and little more disk capacity) and "high resolution" 320x200x16 colour graphics. Nostalgia can play the strangest tricks on you. But then of course, as most players know, high end graphics don't necessarily mean you get a great game :-) One of the most important brand names of those times was Commodore. The C64 and the Amiga are probably among the earliest computers that virtually "everybody" still remembers. But how did Commodore Computer become the company that it was in the 1980s? The scope of this essay is to show the history of Commodore BEFORE the introduction of the C64. (If you are looking for information ABOUT the C64, look here).

Chronicle
Tramiel's Early Years
A New Beginning in the USA
The Beginnings of Commodore
Commodore Goes Public
Irving Gould Joins the Company
Tramiel Learns a Lesson
6502 Inside
Commodore Enters the Micro Computer Business
The C64 is Born
Epilogue: Tramiel's Departure from Commodore
Conclusion
Emulation: The "VICE"
Comments
Links and Sources

• 1929:
• Tramiel is born in Lodz, Poland as Idek Tramielski
• 1939:
• Germany starts the Second World War by attacking and conquering Poland
• The Tramielski Family is transported to german concentration camps
• 1945:
• The concentration camp of Auschwitz is liberated by American troops and Tramiel is freed.
• 1947:
• After having worked for the US Army, Tramiel emigrates to the USA
• 1948:
• Tramiel becomes a member of the US Army
• 1952:
• Tramiel quits the army and once again works as a repairman.
• 1953:
• Tramiel becomes a citizen of the USA.
• Dissatisfied with his former job, Tramiel founds Commodore together with a friend.
• 1955:
• Commodore starts importing Olivetti typewriters.
• Commodore Business Machines is founded in Toronto, Canada
• 1962:
• Commodore goes public.
• The company starts producing mechanical adding machines.
• 1965:
• Tramiel and his investor are accused of improper business practice by the Canadian government.
• 1966:
• Commodore is still in financial trouble and Tramiel has to sell 17% of the company to investor Irving Gould.
• Commodore faces difficulties in the adding machine business which s dominated by Japanese companies.
• Tramiel discovers the electronic calculator on a trip to Japan.
• Early 1970s:
• Commodore starts producing electronic calculators.
• 1975:
• Texas Instruments enters the calculator market and effectively forces Commodore out of the market
• 1976:
• Commodore buys MOS Technologies among other companies.
• 1977:
• The PET, Commodore's first micro computer is introduced.
• 1979:
• Release of the improved PET 2001
• 1980:
• Release of the CBM8000
• 1981:
• The CBM 4000 and SuperPET are released.
• 1982:
• Release of the SuperVIC, a VIC modem, the B128 and the P128
• Introduction of the C64
• 1984:
• Tramiels leaves Commodore and purchases Atari's home division

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Idek Tramielski, future founder of Commodore, was born in Lodz, Poland in 1929. Shortly after german troops invaded poland (and thus started World War II), the jewish Tramielski family were put into a labor camp where they were forced to work as as slaves for about 5 years. In 1944, the family was transported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz and later to Hannover, in order to build a new concentration camp there. In 1945, the camp was liberated by american troops. Idek and his mother were the only family members that survived the Holocaust. Back to the index

For the next two years, Idek survived by doing different jobs for the American troops, before, in 1947, he decided to emigrate to the USA together with his wife, who was also a survivor of the Holocaust. It was when he arrived in New York City, that he took the name "Jack Tramiel", probably because it is easier to pronounce for americans (which seems to be quite a common practice for people that emigrate to the USA). In New York, he found work as a repairman in a lamp store and learned English very quickly by going to the movies (2).

In 1948, he joined the US Army, which would soon prove to be a life-changing step. He was stationed at Fort Dix and his job was to repair office equipment in the New York area . Tramiel showed a special talent for repairing typewriters, a talent that would soon help him in launching his own company.

So, maybe World War II (3) and the subsequent occupation of parts of germany by American forces was one of the reasons why this man from Poland would start a kind of archetypal "American Dream" career.

In 1952, Tramiel quit the army and once again worked as a repairman. His connections to the army enabled him to get the shop owner a deal for servicing of army machines. When he was refused a raise, he quit with the phrase "I have no intention of working for people without brains". Even at this very early stage of Tramiels success, this incident shows that Tramiel had strong opinions and the urge to to be independent from other people.

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In 1953, Tramiel became a citizen of the United States and opened a store in the Bronx together with his friend Manny Kapp. Tramiel wanted the name of his shop to have a military ring to it. Other military ranks like "General" were already used by other companies, so Tramiel chose the name "Commodore Portable Typewriter". Tramiel claimed in a 1989 interview that he was influenced by an Opel Commodore that he had seen back in Germany. This seems unlikely, though, since, as some people point out, the first Opel Commodore was made in 1967, a time when Tramiel had already emigrated to the USA.

Tramiel was still mainly doing what he was best at: repairing typewriters. However, he also managed to get a service contract with a local university and to further expand his business by buying and reselling used typewriter parts.

In 1955, the next big step was the decision to import Olivetti typewriters.

It was during the same year, that Tramiel founded "Commodore Business Machines" in Toronto, Canada, together with investor C. Powell Morgan. The decision to found the company in Canada was made in order to circumvent American import regulations.

Some of the sources on the Internet report that it was during the same period of time that Tramiel bought a typewriter factory in Berlin. The information I have found was generally quite vague, but this move seems quite typical of Tramiel. He is often quoted for his idea of "cutting out the middle man", thus gaining "more profit with less effort". If anyone can provide me with more detailed information, I would like to receive a message!

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In 1962, Commodore went public at a price of $ 2,50 a share. This was of course a success, but Tramiel needed all the money to repay his loans. The company is now producing typewriters and mechanical adding machines.

In 1965, Morgan's company, the Atlantic Acceptance Company went bankrupt and Morgan and Tramiel were accused by the Canadian Goverment for "defiance of all accepted business principles", including charges like insider trading. Morgan died before he could be convicted while Tramiel was suspected, but never formally charged.

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In 1966, Commodore was still facing financial difficulties. Tramiel had to sell 17% of his company to canadian investor Irving Gould for $ 400,000, creating a relationship that would prove troublesome in the future.
It was also at this time that Commodore began to have trouble surviving in the adding machine market which was dominated by Japanese companies. Tramiel flew to Japan in order to gain a better understanding of the market. During his trip, he saw electronic calculators for the first time and instantly recognised their potential which would lead to the demise of mechanical adding machines.

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As a consequence, Tramiel started to produce electronic calculators in the early 1970s. At this time, pocket calculators were still relatively bulky and fairly expensive items, selling for around $ 100, so Commodore was expecting some financial success. Commodore pioneered the introduction of the electronic calculator on the american market and managed to develop a model that was state-of-the-art for some years to come, using an integrated circuit from Texas Instruments and a Bowmar LED-display. It was in 1975, that Commodore ran into problems that taught Tramiel a lesson. Ironically, this time it was Texas Instruments who were trying to "cut out the middle man" and started producing complete calculators themselves. Of course, manufacturing the vital parts themselves, Texas Instruments were able to sell a calculator for significantly less money than it cost Commodore to even buy the necessary parts! Commodore's future was once again uncertain. It was this event which convinced Tramiel that he must never again be dependent on suppliers who are able to get in the way of his success. Back to the index

In 1976, Tramiel reacts to the calculator fiasco by purchasing MOS Technologies, one of their former suppliers of semiconductors, Frontier (another manufacturer of ICs) and Micro Display Systems (as the name suggest, a supplier of LED Displays). Being the ruthless business man that he is, one of the first things he did after buying MOS Technologies was to cut off most of MOS' about 200 research projects. What really caught his interest was the MOS 6502 (4) chip. Its designer, Chuck Peddle, explained to Tramiel this chip was basically a whole microcomputer on a chip and made the Proposal to produce desktop computer systems based on it. He predicted that "small computers are going to be the future of the world", which finally convinced Tramiel to enter the microcomputer market. Looking back at Peddle's bold Statement from almost 30 years later, one can see how right he was! Up to then, the only application for the 6502 had been the MOS KIM-1 single board computer, which, in a manner of speaking, is the ancestor of all Commodore computers up to 1985. The C128 with its 8502 processor was the final computer to be based on the 6502 CPU, before Commodore's interest shifted to the Amiga technology, which was not designed but rather bought by Commodore and consisted of a Motorola 68000 CPU aided by custom chips. But that's a different story :-) Back to the index

Tramiel was willing to give it a try and thus Peddle and Tramiel's son Leonard managed to develop a prototype that was shown at the 1976 Comdex electronics fair. The machine was called the "PET" (Personal Electronic Transactor) and received a lot of positive feedback. Tramiel, however, still wasn't completely sure the risky and expensive PET project would be able to generate a profit, so he decided to probe the potential customers' reactions by running newspaper ads offering his computer for the lowest price at which he thought he could still make a profit, $ 599,-. Shortly after the ads appeared, Commodore received a reassuring $ 3 million worth of orders. In 1977, the PET was officially introduced to the market. It was one of the first personal computers, together with the Apple II and the Tandy TRS-80 (nickname: TRaSh Eighty :-) It was the same year that Tramiel, true to his phrase "Business is war!" started to lower the price of the PET more and more, down to an amount of $ 200 in order to destroy the competition. In 1979, Commodore moved to a larger manufacturing in Santa Clara, California and introduced the improved PET 2001.

PET 2001 - System specifications

In 1980, Commodore released the CBM 8000.

In 1981 the PET/CBM 4000 and SuperPET computers were released.

(The "VIC-20", surrounded by a happy family, an all too typical cliche, those days... :-)

(An advert with William Shatner, promoting the VIC-20 (click to see the whole picture))

VIC-20 - System specifications

(German VC-20 advertisement: : "The computer for the people with colour and music!")

In Germany, the VIC-20 was called VC-20. One reason for this was the resemblance of VIC to the german word "fick" (6) (german for "fuck"), the other reason was, that VC was supposed to mean "Volkscomputer" (7), (literally: a computer for the people) creating a connection with the success of the original "Volkswagen" (also known as "Beetle" or "Käfer")
From 1981 to '83, Commodore managed to sell 1 million VIC-20 units.

In 1982, Commodore released the SuperVIC, sporting 16 kilobytes of RAM, a VIC modem and the B128 and P128 microcomputers.

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More importantly, 1982 saw the release of the Commodore 64 (named after its amount of RAM in kilobytes). Apart from fixing the VIC-20's memory deficiency, the C64 was equipped with the improved VIC-II graphics chip and the famous SID sound chip ("Sound Interface Device",a three voice synthesizer). The introductory price of the C64 was about US$ 430, but Tramiel once again started a price war by gradually lowering the price of the system, down to levels at which the C64 quickly made the "lower end" VIC-20 obsolete. This competitive pricing made the C64 the actual "Volkscomputer" with about 17 million systems sold worldwide. The C64 was the financial backbone of Commodore throughout the 1980s before the production was stopped in the early 1990s (when the C64 was actually long rendered obsolete by the far superior Amiga line of computers). For further information on the Commodore 64, look here. In 1983, the SX64 was released. It was a "portable" (approx. 11 kg) version of the C64 with a disk drive and a little CRT screen built in, very similar to the Osborne and Kaypro systems. Back to the index

In 1984, Tramiel's difficult relationship with Irving Gould reached its climax and Tramiel quit the company for good. Tramiel was trying put his sons into leading positions at Commodore, but Gould had different plans. Tramiel had been threatening to leave the company on numerous occasions before when things weren't going his way. But this time Gould just said "fine, quit the company" and Tramiel was out. Tramiel then went on to buy Atari's home division from Warner Communications but that is a completely different story and well beyond the scope of this essay.

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As Steven L. Kent (refer to the sources) put it, Jack Tramiel is "possibly the most complex person to enter the computer industry. A polish jew that survived" the Holocaust "and worked his way from poverty to fortune."
What Tramiel quite obviously is NOT is an idealist or philanthropist. One of his favourite business tactics was to make retailers pay early while paying suppliers late, often causing their bankruptcy. This often enabled Tramiel to buy those companies cheaply, not only eliminating his own debt, but also adding more companies to his business empire. He is also notorious for having an explosive temper, often pounding his fist on the desk, yelling at employees or doing mass firings when he was displeased. Tramiel is said to have called his idea of how to do business "the religion". Considering these things, it isn't really surprising that he once made 3rd place on a list of "bosses from hell" (8) that appeared in "California Magazine".

Something very obvious is Tramiels instinct for good opportunities. It was even back in the days he spent in german concentration camps that Tramiel volunteered for helping to build a highway. Even though this was unpleasant work and workers were treated badly, Tramiel realized that the germans had to keep their workers alive if they wanted any work to be done.
Another example for this instinct is Tramiels talent for recognizing future trends, like the growing market for electronic calculators and homecomputers.

Two things equally obvious are Tramiels struggle for independence and his strong opinions. Not only did he have "no intention for working for people without brains". He also disliked the idea of being dependent on other people like suppliers or investors. This partly explains the constant friction between Tramiel and Gould.

Credit has to be given to Tramiel and Commodore for helping to bring the computer revolution to the homes, together with companies like Atari, Apple and Sinclair. As Tramiel put it: "We need to make computers for the masses, not the classes."
And that's what they did. This is an achievement nobody can deny.

A complex person indeed... I will not try to offer any judgement here, but rather let the readers form their own opinion about Jack Tramiel and Commodore.

I hope you enjoyed this essay! If you have any comments, corrections or suggestions to offer, I would like to receive a message from you!

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Next to this paragraph, you can see a screenshot of the VICE (Versatile Commodore Emulator), which is capable of emulating several Commodore computer models, such as the VIC-20 or the PET, on todays "stayed off the art" machines. ;-) The screenshot has been taken under Windows, but the emulator is also available for other architectures and real operating systems, such as Unix, DOS, IBM OS/2, Acorn RISC OS or BeOS. Furthermore, the emulator allows a detailled configuration of video, audio, input, output and controlling devices, including VIC, SID, floppy drives, datasette drives or joysticks. It is capable of opening disk and datasette images, as well as recording datasette images and much more. Of course, it is also able to emulate games. ;-) You can download it from the VICE homepage.

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Comments

(1) By "home computer age", I refer to the time when domestic computer systems were referred to as "home computers". For example, most people would agree to call a Commodore or Atari a "home computer", whereas they wouldn't describe an IBM X86-compatible or Apple Macintosh computer that way.
(By the way, isn't it funny how marketing babble has an influence on our language? In what general way is an IBM clone different from a C64? Of course, for some time, X86 clones were considered "serious computers", mostly because of their limited graphics and sound capabilities. But then, you don't need that gigahertz CPU and the shiny new 3D graphics board for word processing or spreadsheets, do you? :-) )

(2) Learning English from movies and computer games is probably an idea that many members of computer and geek culture find to be quite familiar. Computer games were not an option for young Jack Tramiel of course :-)

(3) The possibility that World War II and the Holocaust helped starting Tramiel's career is not meant as an excuse or justification for the actions of Nazi Germany. Being german myself, I realize this is a sensitive topic and would not like anyone to get a wrong impression.

(4) The MOS 6502 microprocessor is pretty much a clone of the Motorola 6800 CPU. It is a modification of the 6501 which was pin-compatible with the 6800 and was introduced to avoid a lawsuit with Motorola. At an initial price of $ 25, it was an attractive alternative to the more pricey 6800.
Apart from the Commodore line of computers, the MOS 6502 (or variants) was used in systems like the Atari VCS 2600 and 8-bit computers, the Apple I and II, the BBC Micro and the Nintendo NES.
It is still in production today (used, for example, in microcontrollers), making it one of the oldest CPUs still in use. There's a website dedicated to it and apparently, there's even a C++ compiler for the 6502 platform, so if you feel adventurous, you might try to get Linux running on your C64, Apple II or Atari 8-bit. Don't expect KDE to run, though. :-)

(5) "Kernal" is not a spelling error. Commodore actually used this spelling variant.

(6) On a funny sidenote, one of the names Commodore considered to use for the VIC-20 was "Vixen". Apparently, Commodore had quite a talent for coming up with product names that resemble offensive german words. If you don't speak german, I leave it to your imagination what german word "Vixen" might resemble.

(7) Originally, the term "Volks-Something" probably originates in Nazi-Germany. For example there was the "Volks-Empfänger", a basic radio receiver sold at cheap prices, so that common people were able to listen to radio broadcasts (and more importantly, hear nazi propaganda speeches! ).
The Volkswagen was initially called the "KdF-Wagen", where KdF stood for "Kraft durch Freude" (roughly "gain strength through joy"; a government project that was supposed to raise morale among the german people). It was developed by Ferdinand Porsche and supposed to be a cheap car that many people would be able to afford. Actually, VERY few KdF-Cars were delivererd before germany started World War II and the production facilities were needed to produce military vehicles.
After the war, the "KdF-Wagen" went into production again and was sold as the "Volkswagen", creating the brand of cars still in existence today. The original "Volkswagen" was later nicknamed beetle (or "Käfer" in german) because of its shape. Today, the beetle is kind of a legend and a symbol for germany's economic success in the 1950s and 60s and the resulting optimism after the war. These fond memories are probably what the term "Volkscomputer" was expected to create a connection to.
One would suspect that in 2004, the term "Volkscomputer" and the idea behind it don't have much of a meaning anymore. After all, computers and the Internet have very much become a part of mainstream culture. Thus, I was quite surprised to see that some time ago, "BILD" (the most successful and notorious german tabloid paper) and "LIDL" (a chain of supermarkets, similar to ALDI) have revived the term in order to sell a plain vanilla X86 clone :-)
What an achievement! Some marketing-buzzwords never die, it seems :-)

(8) Today a lot of people criticize Microsoft (and Bill Gates) for its monopoly in the operating system market and its abusive business tactics (I totally agree with them). At the same time, many of those people remember their C64 days very fondly, which is slightly ironic since Tramiel is not exactly a saint. Well...to be fair, one probably has to seperate the company's founder and the computer itself, though.
(It is not my intention to start a "C64 VS. IBM-PC" debate here. Even though both platforms adhere to the same basic laws of computing, there's a 22-year technology gap between the C64 and the latest 2004 X86-Systems that makes them very hard to compare, APART from the fact, that in my experience, discussions like that usually lead to where they came from - NOWHERE. :-)

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Links and Sources

Links

• http://www.viceteam.org/ - The VICE project - An emulator that is capable of emulating a VIC-20 along with other Commodore models like the PET or the C64.

Sources

• Steven L. Kent - The Ultimate History Of Video Games (2001; more info on Tramiel's personality and Commodore history)
  (I really enjoyed reading this book. It is written in an entertaining style without being superficial, alternating historical facts with quotes from the people involved. If you are like me and have spent your childhood playing video and computer games, you might enjoy this book as well. The book cost about Eur 20 and features more than 600 pages crammed full of information. The only thing it lacks is a lot of colourful photos, which I didn't miss very much)
• Commodore Computers: http://www.commodore.ca/ (Commodore history, images, interviews)
• 8-bit Museum: http://www.8bit-museum.de/ (german; images, Commodore history)
• Digidome: http://www.digidome.nl/jack_tramiel.htm (Commodore history)
• Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Tramiel/ (german; Timeline)
• Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC_20/ (german; VIC-20)
• Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technologies_6502/ (German; MOS 6502 CPU)
• Commodore Computer Online Museum (CCOM): http://cbmmuseum.kuto.de/ (german; general info on Commodore hardware)
• Commodore Amiga Information Source: http://www.commodore-amiga.de/cbm.html (german; Commodore history, Opel Commodore?)
• 8-Bit-Nirvana: http://www.zock.com/8-Bit/D_Commodore.HTML (german; Commodore history)
• Bernd Leitenberger: http://www.bernd-leitenberger.de/c64.html (german; VIC-20 and VC-20)
• http://emulazione.multiplayer.it/cbmitapages/c64/sid1eng.htm
• Vintage Calculators Web Museum: http://www.vintagecalculators.com/ (pictures of Commodore mechanical and electronic calculators)
• http://www.strangecosmos.com/content/item/9908.html (William Shatner VIC-20 advert)
• http://www.geocities.com/system80pins/Qbert.html (Q*Bert artwork)

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"The Pre-C64 History of Jack Tramiel and Commodore Computer" was published by skillreactor.org - www.skillreactor.org.
Written by Stephan Szlosze (Email (harvest protected): )

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