Commodore Founder Tramiel Dies

Jack Tramiel, one of the most influential and colorful figures in the early days of videogames and home computing, has died, aged 83.

Tramiel was the founder of Commodore International, which launched the Commodore 64 in 1982. He also founded Atari Corp in 1984, which launched the Atari ST.

Polish-born Tramiel was a Holocaust survivor who migrated to the U.S after World War II. He began his career in the typewriter-repair business, but understood the enormous potential of personal computers when the boom came in the early 1980s.

The C64 was the biggest-selling home computer of all time, with sales of over 15 million units. Tramiel is credited with saying, "We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes."

After leaving Commodore and buying the Atari brand in 1984, he launched the Atari ST, hugely popular especially in Europe and a fierce competitor to Commodore's own follow-up to the C64, the Amiga.

Source: Forbes

What are your C64 and Atari ST memories? Let us know in Comments.


Colin Campbell is a games journalist based in California. Follow him on Twitter and at IGN.

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