Too Much Fun: The Five Lives of the Commodore 64 Computer

This is partly the story of how a typewriter company founded in Toronto in the 1950s evolved to become a dominant computer force worldwide. It also indicates how the Commodore 64 (C64) was first marketed as a computer for business applications. In the mid-1980s, it was considered a gaming computer with sound and color capabilities. But by the late 1980s, the C64 was considered a nostalgic item for programmers and gamers new to computers. Juul (The Art of Failure) spends quite a bit of time correcting the generally accepted idea, especially in the U.S., that the Apple II was dominant from 1977 to 1994. He argues that the C64 is the best-selling desktop computer model of all time; his book points to the Guinness Book of World Records entry, which shows there were approximately 12.5 million units sold, mostly in Europe. This book, filled with numerous photos, illustrations, and graphs, indicates that Commodore had nearly double Apple’s market share, making it the most popular computer manufacturer in the American market back then.