Rubenerd

This post is dedicated to the lovely Paul Traylor, whom I amuse when I dive into retrocomputing topics :).

This discovery has shaken me up in ways I didn’t expect. While we all remember what colour the Apple II+ was, and the IBM 5150, and the Atari ST, I’m not not sure all C64 fans do… myself included.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The legendary machine came in so many permutations over its long production run, and even machines within the same generation had cosmetic and technical differences. It was Commodore’s way!

I don’t have every version of the 64—probably for the best—but I think I have a representative sample to perform a visual experiment. I’ve taken these photos in direct midday sunlight at the same time.

Compare the pair

This first example is a PAL Commodore 64C, the later version and my personal favourite. It uses the same sleek design language as my beloved adopted C128, and the later Argentinian Drean 64C. Mine shows the later cost-reduced keyboard with the PETSCII characters printed on top, which admittedly I love for the font.

An earlier example below is this “Aldi 64” case, so named by fans for the chain that sold it in Germany. The breadbin design is shared with the earlier VIC-20, and has the same colour as other C64s if we’re to believe web forums. The most obvious difference is the beige double-shot keycaps in lieu of chocolate brown from earlier C64s.

Variants of this included the Drean 64 in the same colour scheme, and a later beige 64G, ostensibly sold in Europe for peripheral compatibility.

I think we all agree the first machine, and the keycaps on both machines, are beige. But looking at this second machine for a moment… what do you think the colour is? Brown? Tan? To me, I’d even call it milk coffee, though that might be on account of not having caffeine yet.

Most modern reproductions of the C64 are designed to mimic this colour, and I suspect most people remember these machines being a shade of brown. I’m too young to have been around when these machines were new, so I’ve only ever known them by this colour.

Grey matter

But here’s where things get interesting. Aldi 64s all shipped with serial number labels on the side, which offered some protection against UV yellowing. Check out the patch where this label would have been:

I don’t know about you, but this looks grey to me, not beige, and certainly not brown. Likewise, the inside of the case is the same grey colour throughout. Fascinating!

There are a few possibilities here. People who claim the Aldi 64 had the same breadbin colour as the original C64 are wrong. Commodore may have played as fast and loose with their pigments and plastic formulations as other components, so batches of cases might not be consistent. Maybe all C64 cases started grey, before yellowing to the brown everyone now recognises. Or, by some fluke, mine has a manufacturing defect or difference on account of Commodore’s loose QA.

Conclusion

Just when I think I’ve started to understand an aspect of Commodore computer history, something like this comes along to shake it up! I lived my whole life thinking the classic C64 breadbins was brown, and now you’re telling me some of them weren’t!?

If you have a C64, let me know what colour it is. I can’t be the only one with a secretly grey one.