Rubenerd

In all my years of collecting, writing software for, tinkering with, and learning about 8-bit home computer hardware from Commodore, I never, never thought I’d see the day where a 1984 Commodore 116 would be on the table with my other 264 machines! Almost two decades of saved eBay searches finally pinged me last night, and for a price that was shockingly fair.

Here she is at a local coffee shop after picking her up. Technically a hardware store that people in Sydney might recognise, but I thought the coffee break area had surprisingly good lighting:

Commodore fans may understand the significance of this machine, but it’s also important to me for silly, personal reasons.

The origins of the C116

The Commodore 116 formed part of the company’s 264 line of machines in 1984. Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel had commissioned a project to build a low-cost series of computers to replace the VIC-20 in Commodore’s home computer lineup, and to compete with Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum. A prototype 364 with a numeric keypad was shown at CES but never released, and Tramiel left the company soon after.

The 264 line was notable for being powered by Dave Diorio’s TED chip, which combined sound and graphics onto the same die. While its two-channel, four-octave sound capabilities and lack of sprites paled in comparison to the Commodore 64’s legendary VIC-II and SID, it sported a wider 121 colour pallete. This was paired with a vastly improved BASIC 3.5 with proper graphics and sound subroutines. It was this combination of features that made me fall in love with the 264s in the early 2000s, as we’ll cover in the next section.

Three machines were ultimately released under the stewardship of Bil Herd of Commodore 128 fame:

• The flagship Commodore Plus/4 with 64 KiB of memory. This was the original 264, but repackaged as a business productivity machine with included software in ROM. I’ve said its industrial design is perhaps my favourite of any 8-bit machine.

• The Commodore 16 with a reduced 16 KiB of memory and no user port. Bizarrely, Commodore released this in a breadbin case like the VIC-20 and C64, which likely contributed to sales confusion.

• The entry-level Commodore 116, which paired the C16’s features in a smaller Plus/4 case, and a rubber keyboard like the Spectrum.

While the Plus/4 and C16 saw better success in Europe than they did in the US, the C116’s rubbery keyboard and limited memory contributed to it being a sales flop. I’ve read reports of them selling around 51,000 units total, which was probably fewer than Commodore sold of the C64 at lunch during its peak.

I always thought the C116 was the same size as the Plus/4, but as you can see in the family reunion photo below, the C116 is clearly smaller! No wonder they thought this would target the Sinclair. It’s absolutely, gobsmackingly adorable, and I can’t stop staring at it.

Why this means a lot to me!

My history with the 264 line goes back to the early 2000s, when my parents saw I was showing an interest in computer history. They scoured eBay and picked up three machines for me: an NTSC Plus/4 and C16, and a breadbin PAL C64. The combined $50 they spent would barely cover a third-party power brick now, which is incredible to think about.

I’ve mentioned on my Retro Corner that I ended up using the C16 more than any of the others. I didn’t know about the history of these machines or how their capabilities differed; I just assumed the C16 and Plus/4 were better because they were “newer”. Perhaps there’s something to the theory that Commodore’s sales and marketing teams had no idea what they were doing with these machines, when even a budding but uninformed enthusiast like me was equally confused.

I loved the design of the Plus/4, and I ended up using the C16’s fun breadbin keyboard to write all my earliest 8-bit BASIC programs. It frustrated me at the time that the C64 had issues with the same commands; something I now understand because the C64’s BASIC is so limited.

The 264 line made 8-bit computing accessible to me, and I credit them with introducing me to this whole other world of computers I didn’t know existed when I grew up on the 486 and DOS. The C116 was the last missing piece in this beloved family of machines, and also represents the first PAL machine I have in the lineup. It’ll be so much fun trying demos on this!

10 PRINT "Does this coffee break area have a RetroTINK!?"
20 GOTO 10

I’ve tested it and it works! Stay tuned for more testing and exploration :).