The VICMODEM it’s been the first modem to cost under 100$ and the first to sold over a million units, contributing to the diffusion of online services and BBSes outside laboratories, universities, big Companies and military agencies.

Much of the credit for the project goes to Michael Tomczyk, who also created the Commodore Information Network to decrease the workload of the customer service department of the company. In 1982 the section with the most traffic on Compuserve was the Commodore network.

The modem connects to the user port of the Commodore VIC 20/64/128; on one side there’s a switch to choose if the computer answers the call (A) or originates it (O).

On the back there’s the plug for the cable that usually is connected to the phone handset – the modem couldn’t directly dial the number, so you had to dial it on the phone and then connect the modem in place of the handset.

You can read the full article by Giacomo Vernoni here

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