DID YOU KNOW

In 1990, Commodore re-packaged its popular Commodore 64 home computer as the little known ‘C64 Games System’ (C64GS) a cartridge-based home video game console to compete in a market that was dominated by both Nintendo and Sega.

Selling less than 20,000 units, its low sales meant it was never released outside Europe. It came bundled with a cartridge that featured four games: Fiendish Freddy’s Big Top O’Fun, International Soccer, Flimbo’s Quest and Klax.

Unplayable
The C64GS had a number of problems from the outset, it was a good idea recalled Vivid Image co-founder John Twiddy. Twiddy had been involved with the Trilogic Expert Cartridge so his initial suggestion when Commodore came knocking was to start with the circuitry. He’d already created hardware for the Expert that seemed well-suited for emulating the cartridge. Commodore asked his company to create the first compilation cartridge that would be sold with the console.

Twiddy said, “it had the potential to transform the traditionally slow loading speeds on the C64 but one of the biggest problems was that without a keyboard, converting many games was too difficult and games developed for the C64GS had a limited market.”

Commodore’s Other Gaming System
The C64GS was not Commodore’s first gaming system based on C64 hardware but unlike the 1982 MAX Machine (a game-oriented computer based on a super cut-down version of the same hardware family) the C64GS was very similar internally and compatible with the complete C64.

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