Credit http://yape.homeserver.hu/index.htm
Christmas 1985 in the Pounder household, and under the tree that year was a Commodore. Not the Commodore 64 – that would be under the tree a few years from now – but a Commodore 16.
The Commodore 16 was a $99 computer designed to compete with the lower-cost bracket of home computers, especially the US markets Timex and Texas Instruments range of machines. Powered by a MOS 7501 (0.89MHz) or a MOS 8501 CPU (1.76MHz, which is the version we have) the Commodore 16 was comparable, and indeed with the 8501 processor was faster than the Commodore 64. However, we had less RAM than the C64 – a mere 16KB – of which 12KB was available to the user.
The C16 followed the same aesthetic as the C64 and the VIC-20. It was housed in the same “bread bin” style case and chunky keyboard, but with a dark grey colour scheme. This has led to some C64 owners putting their beloved machines into the C16 case because the dark grey case isn’t prone to yellowing, unlike the C64’s.
The C16 is one of a family of computers known as the Commodore 264 Family, which consists of the 116, 16 and Plus/4. The Commodore 16, 116 and Plus/4 would be the only models released from this range, but others were planned and teased in the media of the era.
The 116 and Plus/4 were further reduced in price. The 116 was designed to meet the price point of the Spectrum 48K and it also featured the dreaded rubber keys. The Plus/4 was devised as a low-cost office machine with fast access to word processor, spreadsheet, graphics and file management applications stored as ROMs on the mainboard.
The Commodore 16 was a flop. It “only” managed to ship 1.26 million units worldwide, compared with the 12
