In 1981, Commodore introduced the VIC-20, a low-cost ($300) personal computer with a color video chip, perfect for playing video games (and, according to the ad, letting the family "learn computing at home"). Who better to pitch this harbinger of the future than William Shatner? The Shatman's palaver worked well: By 1983, 1,000,000 Vic-20s had been sold—the first microcomputer to reach that sales mark.