Commodore & launched At the January 1984 C.E.S., billed as the machines to follow up the Commodore 64. only the C116 was released in Europe, though it
was redesigned as the C16 for American consumers. The C264 became known as
the Plus/4, while the V364 was never released.

The 264 series, was unveiled just days before Tramiel’s departure from commodore. with only one of these models reaching the market in its original form. Tramiel’s exit occurred shortly after this product launch. All three computers used the custom TED (Text Editing Device). chip for graphics and sound. The CPU was the 8501 from MOS Technology. The TED chip allowed
Tramiel to bundle multiple features into one chip, cutting production costs
and lowering the overall price to as little as $50 for the cheapest model.

The C116 would be the low end of this spectrum, having about 12K of memory. The C264 & V364 would have built in software, 64k of memory, & the V364
would have speech synthesis built in. Confusion at Commodore following the
loss of founder Jack Tramiel it appered they had no real leader & resulted
in a refusal to follow up on this workable marketing plan for the machines launches.

The Commodore 116 was designed by engineers at Commodore-US. The Commodore
16, was adapted later from 116 designs by engineers at Commodore-Japan. The
C16 was meant to be the replacement for the VIC-20, which had been
discontinued a few months before. Compared to the VIC, it is indeed an impressive machine. With 16K compared to the the VICs 3.5K, better video graphics, & full compatibility with VIC peripherals.

They were designed to be low-cost alternatives to the popular Commodore 64, with built-in software & a new video & sound, Jack saw that Sinclair and Amstrad had the lower end of the market & wanted to clean up as Commodore
had done with the Commodore 64 at the higher end.

The 264 line had already started to be developed & in Bil herd (commodore Engineer) words, once the chip (TED) was designed you were limited on what
else could be done as you had a fairly strict design outline already in
place.

Bil Joining Commodore:
Bil Herd joined Commodore & initially worked on several projects,
including the Commodore Plus/4, C16/116, C264, & C364 machines (with
voice synthesizer for speech output for the first time). His role at
commodore was that of principal engineer involved designing & developing
these 8-bit home computers. The Commodore 264 series was part of his
portfolio. Bil also worked on the Commodore 128, Herd also worked on the initial architecture of the Commodore LCD computer, although that product
was never released.

Post-Commodore Contributions:
After leaving Commodore, Bil Herd continued to design faster & more
powerful computers, with a focus on machine vision. As of September 2020, he produces videos for Hackaday. In 2021, Herd co-authored a book titled “Back into the Storm: A Design Engineer’s Story of Commodore Computers in the 1980s,” sharing inside stories about his experiences designing computers for Commodore. Bill famously pointed out while playing a game on the commodore
264 range as he got near the screen sparks came out of the joystick, & he
was told to “fix it or your fired”

My View
The 264 series could I feel have been a success but for the marketing department at Commodore, even Bil remembers that marketing wanted to sell
the plus4 for the same price as the Commodore 64, However Jacks original
goal was to market the plus 4 for only $79 usd & Bil says the machines
cost only $11 usd to make at that price point the machines would have been
a real success, for people without the purchasing power to buy the commodore
64 that was retailing at $389 the Sinclair spectrum with 16k of ram sold at around $170. The cost cutting was due mainly to commodore owning and manufacturing the MOS technology chips & so weren’t held to ransom on
price. The machines still stand up today, if you look at some of the plus 4 demos & even reworked games such as we looked at last issue with Commando,
they easily would have & do “hold there own” the plus 4 sells on ebay for around $150 usd today & is definitely a machine you should be involved
with.

Commercial failure
Ultimately the 264 line failed for several reasons then. First, the machines were not compatible with the Commodore 64, which had a large library of software & peripherals. Second, the built-in software was of poor quality
and limited functionality, (but that depends on who you talk to as I know
many owners prise the software) & the machines lacked a dedicated sound
chip. Third, the machines were priced too high for the budget market, and
too low for the business market. Fourth, the machines faced strong
competition from other 8-bit computers, such as the ZX Spectrum, the
Amstrad CPC, & the Atari 8-bit family. Fifth, the machines were launched
at a time when Commodore was undergoing internal turmoil & leadership
changes, which affected the marketing & distribution of the products.

The models & prototypes in the 264 series were:
- The C16: The most basic model, with 16 KB of RAM, a 16-color graphics
mode, & a built-in BASIC interpreter. It was intended to replace the
VIC-20, but it was less powerful & more expensive than its predecessor.
It was mainly sold in Europe, where it had some success in Germany and
Italy.

- The C116: A smaller & cheaper version of the C16, with a membrane
keyboard, a smaller case, & a different power supply. It was only sold
in Europe, & it was not very popular.

- The Plus/4: The flagship model, with 64 KB of RAM, a 121-color graphics
mode, & four built-in software applications: a word processor, a
spreadsheet, a database, & a graphing program. It was intended to
compete with the Apple II & the IBM PC, but it lacked the features and
compatibility of those machines. It was mainly sold in the US, where it
flopped.

- The 364: A prototype model, with 64 KB of RAM, a built-in speech
synthesizer, & a numeric keypad. It was supposed to be the
top-of-the-line model, with advanced features & capabilities, but it was
never released to the public. Only a few prototypes were made, & they
are very rare & valuable today.

Summing up
- The 264 series was a line of low-cost computers with built-in software and
a new chip TED, four models made up the line: the C16, the C116, the
Plus/4, & the 364 (never released prototype). They had different features, prices, & markets, but none of them were successful mainly due to the
high retail price.


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SILICA SHOP
***********

Its working like a dream Looking in the local newspaper I saw an advert for
a shop assistant in a shop within Debenhams Manchester store (a concession)
I had been a Silica shop customer for years, & having just recently
purchased an amiga 4000/040 desktop model I was keen to send off my
Curriculum Viti. I like all the other eager workers were summoned for an interview at Salford docks Manchester, entering the building I was given a

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