Jun 23, 2022
Commodore VIC-1001
Before the VIC-20 was released in the rest of the world, it was first released in Japan as the VIC-1001 in 1980. It had a special badge, custom Katakana keyboard, and a variant of PETSCII graphics where many graphical characters were replaced with Katakana.
Many VIC-1001's feature the early PCB variant, rarely seen in the United States. When you do see it, it's marked with an FCC part 15 exemption sticker due to the lack of RF shielding, which isn't required in Japan. Here's a sample of the specialized character set: