The Plus 4 was originally announced at the
January 1984 CES
as the Commodore 264. The original concept was
to sell the 264 in one of several different
configurations. The consumer would select the type of
application software they wanted built into their
computer and the dealer would install the appropriate ROM
chip. By the summer 1984 CES this concept was abandoned
probably due to the dealers refusal to either install
their own ROM chips or stock many models of the same
computer. The name was changed to the Plus 4 and all
the applications were added at the factory. The Plus 4
was redesigned with a new look and feel. Unlike the C-16
, which is a stripped down version of the Plus 4, uses the
same case and keyboard styling as the VIC/C64 line. The Plus 4 can still use the same serial peripherals as the
C-64
but comes with its own peripherals. One in
particular stands out, the SFS-481, a parallel floppy
drive using the new parallel port on the rear of the
machine allowing greater speed accessing programs. The
Plus 4's cassette and joystick ports are not compatible
with the C-64
line.
The Plus 4 is lacking a few significant feature found
on its older sibling the C-64. Although it improved on
the color capabilities, increasing them from 16 to 128
possible colors and adding 12 more sound and graphics
commands in BASIC, it is missing the 8 sprites and
sophisticated SID
chip found on the C-64. The reason for
the lack of sophisticated gaming capabilities was
probably the Plus 4 was targeting a segment of the home
market interested in more serious applications
programming. The Plus 4 was not a very good seller mainly
due to its incompatibility with the C-64 and the price
drop of the C-64
made the 64, which could do basically
every thing the Plus 4 could do cheaper, an exceptional
value dooming the Plus 4.
