For those who might be interested, I found another publication Amusement Life in which there is an advertisement in the very first issue, January 1983. https://archive.org/stream/amusement-life-magazine-01#page/n92/mode/2up According to historical exchange rate data for January 1983, 1 USD = 230-240 yen at that time. MAX Machine: 34800 yen ~= 165 USD Commodore 64: 99800 yen ~= 425 USD VIC-1001: 49800 yen ~= 210 USD This could be compared with advertisements in COMPUTE! January 1983:Commodore 64 RRP = 595 USD C64 advertisements = 525 USD (*) VIC-20 advertisements = 169 - 199 USD Of course you can't compare prices across like that, due to different sales taxes and other matters that settles the price, but it seems the Japanese C64 was cheaper than in the US or Europe to begin with. I'm fully aware about the price war that then took place during the spring of 1983 that cut the C64 to $399 or thereabouts, in the mean time that Commodore threw in the towel in Japan due to even more cutthroat pricing wars. (*) Actually only a single advertiser dared to print a price for the C64 at that point in time, all the others would ask customers to call for best price. The one that stood out was Tele Soft Inc in Troy, MI. Best regards Anders Carlsson Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing listReceived on 2016-08-02 23:00:02
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