The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, C-64, C= 64, or occasionally CBM 64 or VIC-64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International. It is listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing the number sold between 10 and 17 million units.
Volume production started in early 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595 (roughly equivalent to $1,500 in 2015). Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 takes its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM, and has technologically superior sound and graphical specifications when compared to some earlier systems such as the Apple II and Atari 800, with multi-color sprites and a more advanced sound processor.
The C64 dominated the low-end computer market for most of the 1980s. For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC compatibles, Apple Inc. computers, and the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore's founder, said in a 1989 interview, "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years." In the UK market, the 64 faced competition from the BBC Micro and the ZX Spectrum but the 64 was still one of the two most-popular computers in the UK.
Part of the Commodore 64's success is because it was sold in retail stores instead of just electronics and/or computer stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control costs, including custom IC chips from MOS Technology. It has been compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative mass-production.
Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles have been made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications, and games. C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or a compatible video game console, to run these programs today. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demoscene and is still used today by some computer hobbyists. In 2008, 17 years after it was taken off the market, research showed that brand recognition for the model was still at 87%.[6]
There are couple of very good c64 emulators for Mac:
VICE is an emulator collection which emulates the C64, the C64-DTV, the C128, the VIC20, practically all PET models, the PLUS4 and the CBM-II (aka C610). You can download it from Sourcefoge page.
Power64 is older but good emulator. You can find it at author Roland Lieger's site Infinite Loop.
Frodo is also one of the older emulators but with accurate emulation (FrodoSC). It is ported to Mac by Richard Bannister and You can download it from Banister web site.
VirtualC64 is a new kid in town. It gets better with every update but author switched to Metal so now it only runs on 10.11 El Capitan. You can download it from Dirk W. Hoffmans site.
GameBase64 is an ongoing effort to document and catalog every Commodore 64 game ever made. It's a database of over 20000 games and includes many additional bits of information about each game, such as manuals, covers and maps, along with the original game media. You can get additional info and download from GameBase64 Browser homepage.
There is also an excellent player for SID chiptunes, SIDPLAY. You can download it and also SIDplay browser plugin from SIDPLAY homepage.
