Commodore 64 is 30 years old

The legendary Commodore 64 is 30 years old. Introduced to the world in January 1982, the brown-toned C64 went on to become the best-selling personal computer ever.

The Commodore 64 was an 8-bit computer that dominated the world of personal computing for almost ten years. It boasted a MOS Technology 6510 processor running at a peppy 1MHz, with 64k of memory, a 16-colour graphics chip and a full motherboard of memories.

This Craver fondly remembers whiling away the 80s playing classic games like Dizzy and Jet Set Willy, and the tie-in games to Ghostbusters and Tim Burton's Batman. Ah, halcyon days of cassette-based games that took so long to load you had to play another game while you waited.

Work on what would become the computer we know and love began in 1981, and a year later the Commodore 64 was unveiled at top tech extravaganza the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It went on sale in late summer 1982. Although initial sales were modest, as many as 17 million C64's eventually appeared in living homes and offices.

But as the 80s became the 90s Commodore fell hard, filing for bankruptcy in 1994. A Commodore 65 prototype was built, but never released, and by the mid-90s the C64 was no more.

It may have been gone, but the Commodore 64 was not forgotten. In 2010 new company Commodore USA set out to ressurrect the beige behemoth with modern componentry, and the result is the Commodore 64x, pictured above. Not only does the 64x match the boxy brown styling, it also matches the original C64's price.

Did you own a Commodore 64? What were your favourite C64 games? And what are your best vintage computing memories? Tell us in the comments or on our Facebook page.