Things I like:
- Great keyboard compared to other micros of the era, for example the Apple ][ wouldn't get cursor or function keys until 1983.
- The sound chip is primitive, but has a certain charm to it. It's capable of several voices simultaneously, again compares very favorably to other micros of the era, many of which only have a simple beeper.
- Even though 22 columns of text seems a weird number, there is something about this resolution that works well. Text is very readable at this size, and it's brilliant for games using character mode tiles. I wish they'd included the VIC-I's 22-column mode as an option when they developed the VIC-II.
- Only 5KB RAM - It would have been nice if VIC had a full bank of RAM (8KB) from the factory. Asking users to buy separate memory expansions for 3KB and 8KB+ made life more difficult and probably fragmented the software market. (see below)
- Memory management - Moving the start of BASIC, screen address, and color RAM based on the amount of memory present is just insane. Same with putting a block of ROM in between RAM areas. I have to think these architecture decisions limited the commercial software developed for it.
- Only one joystick port - OK, so Commodore wasn't really pushing it as a games console, and they were cheap. I get it. But again, we probably would have seen more commercial games if there had been a second joystick port.
- Color palette - It's not a huge deal, but I'm not crazy about the colors that VIC-1 produces. The palette just seems drab. At least it's better than CGA's magenta, cyan, and white.