Commodore Development in Japan

You wouldn't know it today, but in the 1980s, Commodore was one of the biggest names in home computers. Their most successful machine was the inexpensive and incredibly durable Commodore 64, which sold 17 million units worldwide (according to Commodore's 1993 annual report). But let's focus on two of the company's other budget-friendly products, both of which were made possible with help from Japan.

VICtory

The VIC-20 was Commodore's first attempt at a low-priced color computer, and it was made with Japan in mind.

Commodore founder and president Jack Tramiel announced his intention to develop what would become the VIC-20 at a meeting of managers held near London in 1980. Most opposed the idea, to which Tramiel responded, "Gentlemen, the Japanese are coming—so we will become the Japanese."

Tramiel predicted the Japanese would capture the home computer market. By "becoming the Japanese," always coming up with something new and better, Commodore could stay ahead of the competition.

I'm skipping over a lot of details, but the project was eventually handed over to Commodore Japan, where Yash Terakura and his team would take charge of the engineering.

After that was done, the VIC-20 went on sale in Japan in October 1980, months before it was available in the US. There, it was called the VIC-1001 and made its retail debut at the prestigious Seibu Department Store in Tokyo.

The VIC-1001 was a relative hit in Japan and managed to stave off Japanese companies from selling their low-end computers Stateside. The VIC-20 would go on to become the first color computer to sell one million units.

MAX Power

The MAX Machine suffered a much less noble fate. It was announced at the Winter CES in 1982, along with the C64, and was essentially a cut-down version of the latter. The C64 even has a MAX Machine compatibility mode.

Designed by Terakura, who was working in the US by this point, the MAX Machine was meant to be a "game computer," an idea that Tramiel would seemingly revisit at Atari Corp. with the XE Game System. However, the MAX Machine was eventually cancelled, but not before it was released in Japan.

The Games

In addition to hardware, Commodore also leaned on its Japanese group for software, namely arcade-style games that would help the VIC and the MAX compete with game systems like the Atari 2600.

But who developed these games? This is of particular interest because we know some of them were by HAL Laboratory, and at least one was programmed by future Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.

The Commodore International Historical Society uploaded internal software status reports. Let's compile what was developed in Japan and dissect the data:

The Reports:
https://archive.org/details/maxsoftwareprojectstatusreport19820430
https://archive.org/details/vic20contractreport19820505
https://archive.org/details/vic20maxsoftwarereport19820512
https://archive.org/details/maxsoftwarereports

MAX games developed in Japan

• Avenger**
• Bingo Math**
• Clowns**
• Football (unreleased)
• Gorf***
• Jupiter Lander*
• Kickman***
• Mole Attack*
• Money Wars*
• Omega Race***
• Pinball Spectacular*
• Radar Rat Race**
• Road Race*
• Seawolf**
• Super Alien**
• Tornado Baseball (unreleased)
• Wizard of Wor***
• Darts (possible)
• Golf (possible)
• Windsurfing (possible)

* Has HAL Laboratory copyright
** No HAL Laboratory copyright, but uses same font
*** These look similar to each other, and were probably done by the same group (SAS?).

MAX games that do not appear in reports
Have HAL Laboratory copyright

• Billiards
• Bowling
• Le Mans
• Slalom

VIC-20 Games Developed in the US

• Radar Rat Race (Bill Hindorff's name appears in the ROM.)

VIC-20 Games Developed in Japan

• Mole Attack
• Pinball Spectacular
• Sky is Falling
• Breakout (possible)
• Darts (possible)
• Golf (possible)
• Kickman (possible)
• Windsurfing (possible)
• Wizard of Wor (possible)

"Possible" candidates were ultimately scrapped and may have never gone into development.

Now let's break down this earlier VIC-20 status report from 1981. It's from before the US launch, so it uses a lot of early/working titles.

Cartridge programs being developed in Japan

• VIC Invaders (Avenger?)
• VIC Avengers (Wait, is this Avenger?)
• "Pacman" (Jelly Monsters?)
• Blackjack (Is this actually Poker? A released game, Vic 21 Casino-Style Blackjack, was on cassette and is credited to Neil Harris.)
• Slot Machine (Slot/Superslot?)
• Race X (Rally-X/Radar Rat Race?)
• Super Invaders (?)
• Lunar Lander (Presumably this is Jupiter Lander, but it is listed as a U.S. game.)

C64

There are no status reports for C64 software available. Some MAX games were sold overseas as C64 games.

It's easy enough to figure out what games were developed by HAL, but what about those four MAX games: Gorf, Kickman, Omega Race, and Wizard of Wor?

Unfortunately, one person who would have known passed away in 2013. That was Taro "Tony" Tokai, the general manager of Commodore Japan, whose name you see on these status reports.

Former Data East programmer Akira Sakuma converted games for Commodore at SAS before he joined Data East. However, when I asked him about it, he didn't seem to know the platform or recognize screenshots I showed him.

Note: Some information in this post came from the books The Home Computer Wars: An Insider's Account of Commodore and Jack Tramiel by Michael S. Tomczyk and Commodore: A Company on the Edge by Brian Bagnall.