SIX FAMILIES / ONE EXPLICIT RUNTIME BOUNDARY
Commodore-related personal computers changed substantially across their 8-bit and 16/32-bit families. This Atlas organizes six durable entries by machine family and operating environment. It explains relationships without implying that software, firmware, media, or emulators move safely between them.
A family page explains a machine and directs readers to authoritative records. It does not claim an executable implementation, distribute historic material, or turn a relationship between machines into a compatibility promise.
The C64 is the sole family connected to the isolated local workbench. PET, VIC-20, Plus/4, C128, and Amiga are reference-only. CP/M appears only as C128 historical context and is not a deployed feature.
The PET belongs at the beginning of this Atlas as a variable family of early integrated personal computers—not as a C64 configuration or a single fixed specification.
Predecessor family; variable configurations
Read the source-cited entry →The VIC-20 introduced a color-capable home-computing design whose base memory, regional timing, and expansion choices materially shaped software behavior.
Earlier color home-computing platform
Read the source-cited entry →The C64 is the Atlas's central 8-bit reference and the only family connected to C64 Vault's isolated, local-first workbench.
Atlas focal system; sole runtime-eligible family
Read the source-cited entry →The Plus/4 is the lead reference entry for the Commodore 264 family, defined by its 7501/TED platform, BASIC 3.5, and built-in productivity software.
Parallel 8-bit platform, not C64-compatible
Read the source-cited entry →The C128 combines native C128, C64-compatibility, and historical CP/M environments with different processor, display, memory, and media assumptions.
Successor-era system; C64 mode has boundaries
Read the source-cited entry →The Amiga is a separate 16/32-bit computer lineage whose 68000 processor, custom hardware, memory model, storage, and expansion require their own vocabulary.
Separate family; reference-only
Read the source-cited entry →The Atlas deliberately avoids thin specification, port, graphics, sound, and model-variant routes. Those fragments would repeat the same historical argument and encourage unsupported compatibility claims. Each family entry instead combines architecture, memory, display, interfaces, preservation context, uncertainty, and direct source links in one substantive page.
C64 Vault is not affiliated with Commodore or any successor rights holder. These pages use newly written prose and link to museum records, preserved manuals, technical archives, and other primary or institutional sources. They do not mirror software, firmware, scans, screenshots, or catalog copy.