Commodore 64

Commodore owned the chip maker MOS Technology and could therefore build custom silicon at cost. VIC-II handled graphics with hardware sprites and sixteen colours; the SID 6581, designed by Bob Yannes, offered three oscillators with filters and envelopes — closer to a small synthesiser than a beeper. That is why C64 music still gets released on vinyl.

Price was the weapon. Jack Tramiel's price war drove TI out of the home computer market and pushed the C64 from $595 to under $200. Sales estimates run between 12 and 17 million units, enough for the Guinness record as the best-selling single computer model. The tape drive was slow, the floppy drive slower, and a whole generation learned LOAD "*",8,1 by heart.