Commodore MAX Machine

Summary

The VIC-20 is a great success, thanks to the video interface chip (VIC) produced by MOS, which produces sound and graphics. Commodore expands the VIC capabilities with sprites and creates the VIC-II. He is to lead the successors VIC-10 and VIC-30 to success. The VIC-30 is renamed Commodore 64 and famous. The VIC-10 gets the name MAX Machine and leads a shadow existence.

The VC-10 is designed as a cheap gaming console with the VIC-II chip. Commodore has saved everywhere: there are only 2.5 KiB memory, a membrane keyboard makes it clear that typing is not the focus. There are no further connection options for hardware except for a cassette port. The MAX Machine does not have a built-in BASIC, which is why there are BASIC modules. In 1982, the MAX Machine in Japan comes into trade for $179, outside Japan the device is planned, but it does not appear anywhere. Commodore sold about 50,000 units, a flop, just like the C64 in Japan won’t succeed.

Like the C64, the MAX Machine has a MOS 6510 with around 1 MHz clock frequency, the same SID chip and the VIC-II, the successor of the VIC 6560/6561. The MAX modules work via the Ultimax mode in C64 and C128.

It is surprising that there are two BASIC modules. The small MINI BASIC variant gives the programmer 510 bytes and no way to save programs, the large MAX BASIC variant 2047 bytes and the possibility to access the datasette.

Today, the MAX machine is a rarely found home computer — at first the computer is called Ultimax, but that sounds too much like a hygiene product. The reason is that the computer only appears in Japan and only imports it to collectors. Commodore is also not successful with the second attempt to convert a home computer to the game console, the Commodore GS appears in December 1990 and fails as well.