MAX Machine

MAX Machine (or simply MAX), also known as Ultimax in the United States and Canada and VC-10 in Germany, is a home computer designed and sold by Commodore International in Japan, beginning in November of 1982, a cousin to the popular Commodore 64, also sharing a lot of components with the C64. The Commodore 64 manual mentions the machine by name, suggesting that Commodore intended to sell the machine internationally; however, it is unclear whether the machine was ever actually sold outside Japan. When it was officially presented, in Tokyo, for the first time, it was named Commodore VICKIE.

The unit has a membrane keyboard and 2 KB of RAM internally and 0.5 KB of color RAM (1024 × 4 bits). Display is output to a television set. It uses the same chipset and 6510 CPU as the Commodore 64, the same SID sound chip, and a MOS Technology 6566 graphics chip, a version of the VIC-II that powers the C64 graphics for the MAX's static RAM. A tape drive could be connected for storage, but each cartridge had to implement its own cassette driver and protocol routines, so the tape could only be used by 2 of 24 released programs. The MAX also lacks the serial and user ports necessary to connect a disk drive, printer, or modem. The lack of any built-in operating system, not even a simple bootstrap OS, combined with the fact that all the software released for the platform are video games (besides a scaled down cartridge-based BASIC with no disk, modem, or printer support) positions the Max as a video game console rather than a home computer, despite sharing much of the Commodore 64's chipset. The MAX's 2KB of RAM also indicates it was intended as a games machine and not a personal computer. Even the Commodore PET, released five years earlier in 1977, had a minimum of 4KB RAM, and rapidly 8KB became the minimum. Even the VIC-20, heavily criticized for its minimal RAM, shipped with 5KB of RAM.

Software is loaded from plug-in cartridges - turning on the MAX with no cartridge inserted yielded only a blank screen. Its ROM cartridge architecture was compatible with that of the C64, so that MAX cartridges will work in the C64. The MAX compatibility mode in C64 was later frequently used for "freezer" cartridges (such as the Action Replay), as a convenient way to take control of the currently running program.

It was intended to sell for around US$200. Although the MAX had better graphics and sound capability, Commodore's own VIC-20, which sold for around the same amount, was much more expandable, had a much larger software library, and had a better keyboard, all of which made it more attractive to consumers. The MAX never sold well and was quickly discontinued.