# The History of Commodore Pt 2 Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/they-create-worlds-47435/the-history-of-commodore-pt-2 Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/they-create-worlds-47435/the-history-of-commodore-pt-2.md Podcast: [They Create Worlds](https://stenobird.com/podcast/they-create-worlds-47435) Published: 2025-11-01T00:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.theycreateworlds.com/episodes/TCW245 Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/vf238m37mwmbzknq/TCW245.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/they-create-worlds-47435/episodes/the-history-of-commodore-pt-2 Duration seconds: 5793 ## Resource TCW Podcast Episode 245 - The History of Commodore Pt 2 Commodore’s shift from calculators to computers began with the PET, which found success in Europe as a business machine. After seeing the ZX80 in Britain, Jack Tramiel pushed for an affordable home computer, leading to the VIC-20. Guided by marketing manager Michael S. Tomczyk, Commodore promoted the VIC-20 as “the friendly computer” with William Shatner as spokesman. It first launched in Japan before reaching the United States and Europe, becoming a hit worldwide. Building on that success, Commodore released the C64, featuring the powerful SID sound chip and far more memory than its competitors. Marketed again under Tomczyk’s direction at a price under six hundred dollars, the C64 became one of the best-selling computers of all time, driving Commodore’s revenue past a billion dollars and securing its place in computing history. TCW 2025 Livestream: https://youtu.be/BXXAhEVD4Lk TCW 165 - Allied Leisure: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/allied-leisure/ TCW 172 - The Computer Price Wars Part 1: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-computer-price-wars-part-1/ TCW 173 - The Computer Price Wars Part 2: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-computer-wars-part-2/ TCW 174 - The Computer Price Wars Part 3: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-computer-wars-part-3/ TCW 130 - Uncle Clive's Radionics: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/uncle-clives-radionics/ TCW 131 - Sir Clive of ZX: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/sir-clive-of-zx/ KIM-1 Computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMxOWngmy8I The 8-Bit Guy - Commodore PET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP9y_7it3ZM The 8-Bit Guy - Commodore VIC-20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg04GyhS3ss The 8-Bit Guy - Commodore C64: https://www.youtube… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/they-create-worlds-47435/episodes/the-history-of-commodore-pt-2/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/they-create-worlds-47435/the-history-of-commodore-pt-2.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.