ScuzzBlog: Diaries May 2018
Entry 25th May 2018: Post: 2: Commodore Plus/4
Commodore Plus/4 - Getting it wrong MSX style
Talk about getting something wrong big time... Sadly the Plus/4
lasted around a year, I think. Released in 1984 and ceased its
production one year later. I always get the feeling looking at
this computer that someone at Commodore saw the MSX style of
machine and ran scared trying to imitate it in some way. It just
has the feel of a Commodore attempt to create what they believed
was going to be the next best thing. Without really understanding
it themselves, fully.
It's not that the Plus/4 is a bad machine, it isn't in truth.
The problem is that it wasn't a Commodore 64 and it was the C64
that was the train Commodore needed to hitch their wagons to.
They appreciated this in the end, but then confused their user
base even more by launching the Amiga whist still having the
Commodore product range active.
Commodore did fail in the end from having way too many fingers
in too many pies. And the Plus/4 typifies a behaviour pattern
at Commodore that would have been better served focussing on the
things they did much much better. Had they done so maybe I would
be sitting today at a modern Commodore and not this Winblows
junk that has become today's standard of MSX.
OK I dragged out an old Plus/4 that I have. Sadly suffers from
the black screen of death which is pretty common with these
computers as they suffer with the ticking time bomb that is
the TED... and they do tend to fail. I do have working Plus/4s
but they are put in safe storage in the hope that one day they
will still be working... fingers crossed.
The Plus/4
Time to unplug and rest
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