【文章标题】：Commodore 64 released September 1, 1982 【文章标题】：Commodore 64于1982年9月1日发布
【文章正文】： On September 1, 1982, the Commodore 64 launched. Its name referred to the amount of memory it had on board: 64 kilobytes. And it was the first computer with 64K of memory to sell for under $600. 1982年9月1日，Commodore 64正式问世。其名称源自其搭载的内存容量：64千字节。这是首款售价低于600美元且配备64K内存的计算机。
When the Commodore 64 was introduced vs when it was released Commodore 64的发布与上市时间差 When the C-64 first shipped is a bit of a mystery. Commodore showed prototypes at the January 1982 Consumer Electronics Show, but these weren’t production-ready models yet. Some engineers quoted in Brian Bagnall’s books say they shipped some units in August. Michael Tomczyk’s book, The Home Computer Wars, says it launched September 1. Given that Tomczyk was writing in 1984, not long after the actual launch, I’m inclined to think Tomczyk’s date is correct. Why the discrepancy? Commodore wasn’t selling direct. So if they intended to sell any machines on September 1, they had to ship the first units in August. C-64的首批出货时间存在谜团。虽然Commodore在1982年1月的消费电子展上展示了原型机，但当时尚未达到量产标准。Brian Bagnall著作中引述的工程师称8月已有部分设备出货，而Michael Tomczyk在《家用计算机战争》中记载的发布日期是9月1日。考虑到Tomczyk的著作出版于1984年（距离真实发布时间不久），我更倾向于采信这个日期。差异源于Commodore采用分销模式——若要在9月1日实现销售，就必须在8月完成首批出货。
Commodore built the initial units in Santa Clara, Calif., but ran into quality control problems, so they outsourced production to a Japanese company called Kentron. Kentron was mass producing C-64s by January 1983. Commodore最初在加州圣克拉拉生产，但因质量控制问题转由日本Kentron公司代工。到1983年1月，Kentron已实现C-64的大规模量产。
Within six months, they’d sold half a million units. And it quickly went up from there. By the end of its fiscal 1984 years, Commodore had sold about 5 million units. 六个月内销量突破50万台，随后持续飙升。1984财年结束时，总销量已达约500万台。
It became the best selling computer of all time, selling about 12.3 million units. Or, if you count the C-128 as a separate product, the C-64 alone sold about 10.6 million units. 它最终以约1230万台的销量成为史上最畅销电脑（若将C-128视为独立产品，则C-64单独销量约1060万台）。
It was the computer I grew up with, and invariably, when I join a videoconference from my basement, where I have a C-64 hanging on my wall behind me, someone my age will say something about it, that they had one, or remember using one. 这台伴随我成长的电脑至今仍挂在我地下室的墙上。每次视频会议时，同龄人看到背景中的C-64总会感慨——他们也曾拥有或使用过它。
Its early success was no accident but its staying power was 早期成功并非偶然，但持久生命力才是奇迹
By modern standards, it wasn’t cheap. Even in 1984, when we got one, the computer with a disk drive typically cost $450 unless you really shopped around. But the only other thing comparable both price-wise and capability-wise at the time was an Atari 800XL, and Atari was having supply chain problems in 1983, so it was a lot easier to find a Commodore 64 that year. 以现代标准衡量它并不便宜：1984年购买带磁盘驱动器的套装仍需450美元（除非多方比价）。当时唯一价格性能接近的Atari 800XL在1983年遭遇供应链危机，这使得Commodore 64成为更易获得的选择。
The Commodore 64 probably would have been successful just because it was cheap and had a lot of memory for 1982. Its predecessor, the VIC-20, was the first computer to sell a million units, and it did so because it was the first computer with color to sell for less than $300. It took some weird compromises to hit that price point, with rudimentary graphics and sound capabilities and an oddball 5K of RAM. C-64的成功源于1982年语境下的”低价大内存”。其前身VIC-20作为首款销量破百万的电脑，凭借”首款300美元以下彩色电脑”的定位创造历史——代价是简陋的图形音效和怪异的5K内存配置。
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. Commodore预估VIC-20和C-64的生命周期均为三年。VIC-20符合预期，但C-64直到90年代初仍保持年销70万台，甚至在1993年仍未退市。尽管当年销量不佳且厂商已无意生产，但市场需求迫使困境中的Commodore继续供货。
Why the C-64 had staying power C-64持久生命力的奥秘 The C-64 went through plenty of compromises to reach its price point. But they got the mix of compromises just about right. The disk drive was slower than it needed to be, largely because of a last-second design change. Its modem support was pretty limited too, but there wasn’t a lot of demand for modems yet in 1982. But it had 16-color graphics at a resolution of 160×200 or 320×200. The lower resolution mode gave you more flexibility with how you used the colors. It also had 8 sprites, which was very useful for game programming. C-64为实现低价做出诸多妥协，但取得了完美平衡：因最后一刻设计变更导致磁盘驱动器速度偏慢；1982年调制解调器需求有限故支持较弱；但拥有160×200/320×200分辨率的16色显示——低分辨率模式提供更灵活的色彩运用，8个硬件精灵对游戏开发极为关键。
The sound chip was a compromise. Its designer, Bob Yannes, was both an engineer and a musician. The chip he wanted to design would have been impressive for 1992, let alone 1982. He built the elements he needed, then replicated them until he ran out of room on the silicon wafer. He ran out of room at three voices, so the C-64 had three-voice sound. Some competing designs had four, but the 64’s SID chip had more flexibility with the volume of each channel, and could produce more complex sound waves than competing chips from General Instrument and Texas Instruments could. 音效芯片是妥协的产物。设计师Bob Yannes（工程师兼音乐家）原本构想的芯片即便在1992年都堪称惊艳。他在硅晶圆上不断复制电路模块直至空间耗尽，最终实现三声道输出。虽然竞品有四声道设计，但C-64的SID芯片拥有更灵活的声道音量控制，能生成比通用仪器和德州仪器竞品更复杂的声波。
Creative programmers could coax impessive video and audio effects out of the C-64 beyond what its designers imagined in 1982. So even as the machine aged late in the decade, there was still interesting new software being released for it. By then, there were much more powerful computers on the market, but for a while that helped the C-64, as artists could develop graphical assets on one of those other computers using more powerful software, then move them to the C-64. 创意程序员能挖掘出远超1982年设计预想的视听效果。即便到80年代末，仍有令人惊艳的新软件问世。当时市场上虽已出现更强性能的电脑，但这反而短暂助力了C-64——艺术家可用高端设备制作图形素材，再移植到C-64平台。
How the Commodore 64 affected me, personally Commodore 64对我的个人影响 My story with the C-64 is a familiar one. I learned how to program it a little using Basic and 6502 assembly language. By the time I was 12, I knew how to take one apart and do simple repairs. And by the time I was a teenager, I could run a sector editor and recover data from corrupted disks, edit saved game files to make video games 我的C-64故事是那个时代的缩影：用Basic和6502汇编语言入门编程；12岁就能拆机维修；青少年时期已能用扇区编辑器修复损坏磁盘，甚至通过修改游戏存档文件来”制作”游戏。