RE: about the plus4

I hate the cursor keys on the Plus/4. I don't like the little arrows.

 

From: owner-cbm-hackers@musoftware.de
[mailto:owner-cbm-hackers@musoftware.de] On Behalf Of Steve Gray
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 8:18 AM
To: cbm-hackers@musoftware.de
Subject: Re: about the plus4

 

Hi,

 

I think if the C64 did not exist the Plus/4 would be considered a pretty
capable little machine. Unfortunately (for the TED series) the C64 DID exist
and that was the reason for its failure.

 

1. It seems to be targed more to business so this wasn't a concern

2. It does share peripherals and the bitmap graphics modes are mostly the
same

3. Sound is much like the VIC. Remember originally the TED series was a
low-end machine to compete with the $99 Sinclair ZX-81.

4. Finally a real chip to handle the serial port. No so bad.

5. Agreed, for a "business" machine 80 col would be nice, but then you'd
need some type of RGB output to be readable.

   In stead of making the TED perhaps commodore should have updated the VIC
to 80 columns....

6. I understand there are lots of games for the machine, and lack of sprites
is not nesessarily a problem.

 

Since most of the work is in the TED the machine is quite simple. With 60k+
free memory for BASIC it makes a nice system to learn programming on. I like
the case and keyboard. The built-in software, although flawed, is an
interesting idea.

 

Steve

From: didier derny <didier@aida.org>
To: cbm-hackers@musoftware.de 
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 7:46:02 AM
Subject: about the plus4


Hi,

until recently I totally ignored the plus4 I was not even aware that it was
really sold...
so I bought one and found a strange machine.

1/ it's not running any other commodore software (c64/vic20)
2/ it's totally different...
3/ the sound is so bad that its' not even thinkable to write a game for this
machine...
4/ why a 6551 an the lack of a complete serial port  (could be nice as a
terminal for emulations)...
5/ why not 80 columns (I think it would be terrible with 80 col).
6/ more colors but no sprites, so almost useless for the games..

when I check the schematics, there is some genius in this machine
I like it's simplicity

I found the way it's designed kind of fantastic. the 7501 / TED are doing
most of the job.

but I dont see any real use :(

- bad machine for games
- bad machine for professional use





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