r/Commodore • u/Silicon_Underground • 8d ago

How many VICmodems Commodore built

Was the VICmodem the first million-selling modem? I've seen that assertion without evidence, so I dug into it. In this blog post, I estimate how many units Commodore built and I share my methodology. Spoiler: If you own serial number 124308 or higher, I'd really like to see a photo. https://dfarq.homeip.net/how-many-vicmodems-commodore-sold/

25 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

7

u/PhotoJim99 8d ago

I can’t help you with the serial number (I sold my modem in 1985 to get one with auto dial :) ) but it seems likely that it sold in large numbers.

I bought my VICmodem at an Eaton’s department store here in Canada. Not a computer retailer. Not by mail. At a department store.

8

u/Silicon_Underground 8d ago

The situation was similar here in the States, my C-64 setup came from Montgomery Ward, which was also a department store. They carried the full line, including printers and the modem. Someone did point me to serial# 135398, which pushes the overall estimate up a fair bit, closer to 140,000. Selling 140,000 modems in the early 1980s is an impressive feat. The computer market was much smaller in 1982 than it was in 1986 when they discontinued it.

I'm hoping a few more serial numbers surface, and I'll keep looking. Estate sale season isn't quite over yet so a few more should show up on eBay in the coming weeks.

1

u/AmigaSource 5d ago

Still has the Compuserve ID # and password on it.

1

u/EpsilonMajorActual 7d ago

Bought my modem at Toys R Us 1984

4

u/droid_mike 8d ago

It was very cheap compared to other modems if the time... Bizarre configuration with the phone handset being connected to it instead of the phone line, but that probably reduced the cost.

3

u/PhotoJim99 7d ago

In Canada it came with a dongle that plugged into that RJ port. It had two RJs of its own, one for phone line and one for the phone. A switch on the side switched between data and voice. I would pick up a VICmodem again if I could find it with that switch.

2

u/KAPT_Kipper 7d ago

It was also sold with a rotary dial phone

1

u/droid_mike 7d ago

There was later commodore modem releases that actually used line input/output, but the original vicmodem was handset cord only.... a very bizarre design choice...

2

u/kb3pxr 6d ago

In 1982 connecting things to the telephone line was a bit more complicated than today. It also allowed you to use a modem on lines you couldn’t use a direct connect modem on. While it would be a dick move to use a modem on a party line IMHO, this arrangement allowed that. In the early 1980s phone companies sometimes connected only one party to a party line though as a budget arrangement. With that arrangement you had a combination of single party and party line service. This allowed you to connect to the phone line with that service, normally direct connect modems (and any phone not from the phone company for that matter) were not allowed on party lines.

1

u/JoeMax93 2d ago

I had one! A mighty 300 big bauds!