Never seen a C264 Before...

[scuzzb494]

Saw this on ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/_W0QQitemZ160420469681QQ

Was this the rumored "after Amiga" C64 predecessor?

Just curious...

The ill fated 264 range....

These competed with the C64 and really never caught on . The C264 was a prototype which became the Plus/4  Kinda like the C116... Never successful as they were incomatible with the 64 stuff... Big failure.

And so... A very collectable piece of kit. I have the C116 and Plus/4 but not one of these so very interesting.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz23.htm

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz26.htm

You can read more here

http://www.commodore.ca/products/264/Commodore_264_family.htm

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[scuzzb494]

It's always amazed me how much time, energy, R&D, etc. was wasted on things like the C128, C128D, 1581, 1571, C264, C65 and whatever else those dummies (C=) had on their plates when they should have been putting all that effort into the Amiga all along. IMO. Okay, *maybe* not the C128, but that machine was a little too late in its arrival. Guess that happens when you're used to competing with yourself.  lol

The C128 was fully developed and released in January 1985 before the release of the Amiga. During the sales of the Amiga 1000 Commodore was still making more money out of the C64 and C128. Sadly by even 1985 Commodore were in financial trouble. There was no A500, A600, A1200, A3000, A2000, A4000 etc etc and Commodore had no idea of the strengths or failures of an emerging giant on the market. If you study the history of the Amiga you will realise that much of the development of the Amiga was done without Commodore really understanding what the guys were up to.

As to the Commodore range.. you need to look at this in context of the years up to 1985 and see that the C128 was a very good computer. There was nothing wrong really. The Amiga itself was a giant leap in its own right. The team worked independently of the Commodore team.

Here is an Amiga 1000 and a C128D... I am guessing the Amiga guys did trip over to the C128 development team and have a look at what they were doing with the casing.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a1000/a36_a100005.jpg

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a1000/a37_a100006.jpg

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a1000/a38_a100007.jpg

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz17.htm

scuzz

[scuzzb494]

makes me laugh that people spend a crap load on this stuff and then complain about how expensive brand new hardware is to run OS4.1

Older kit can be seen as an investement and subject of real joy for those that like computing. I would certainly pay far more for an older piece of kit than a piece of hardware that was capeable of running say OS4.1.

I only support machines with badges on anyway and the Amiga was hardware and software. OS4.1 is an operating system not a computer so you cannot compare this with a true Amiga or Commodore. When a true Amiga is again released I will pay whatever is asked. It is doubtful that will ever happen so I will continue to enjoy computing through the window of retro.

And there is a growing band of folk that are doing just the same.

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[scuzzb494]

The 128 was cool, but 85 was totally the wrong time for it. In 85 cp/m was dead, msdos killed it mac buried it and amiga and atari pissed on the grave. In 82 or maybe even 83 a dual boot capable c64 with cp/m would have definitely turned heads. It probably wouldnt have saved cp/m, not by itself but it would have sold.

I thought the plus4 was an interesting design but it was poorly implemented. Better, more up to date software like the plus4 had but on a cart would have been better. The video chip had some good features with lots of colors but it didnt have sprites or a sid chip.

Interesting... I was still using CP/M in 1992 and BASIC... but not on an Amiga. I knew quite a few folk using CP/M. Machines like the Amstrad PCW range which I used in my office had Malard BASIC and CP/M plus Locoscript. Wasn`t a problem... things were different then though.

You can`t blame Commodore for the 264 range the styling with the directional arrows was picking up some of the trends in MSX machines. The C64 was just too popular. Even the 64C  was dumped in Germany cus they liked the old music keyboard that fit over the standard C64 keys. They then bought out the C64G which was the C in the old breadbin

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/a_scuzz_jul2005/a_scuzz_jul30_043.jpg

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/car_0706/car_0706_215.jpg

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/car_0706/car_0706_123.jpg

C64C and C64G

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz25.htm

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz183.htm

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/addons/a155_addon01.jpg

scuzz

[scuzzb494]

People talk about Steve Jobs and some of the crazy stuff he did at apple but the undeniable fact was that he had a vision: the mac. The mac was his future and nothing else could distract him from that. He even purposely killed the apple II because of it.
Atari and especially commodore didnt have that vision so they limped along with half supported systems and computer lines, no vision, no dedication.
IBM didnt need that kind of vision they had dozens of manufacturers building different versions of their system. They could afford to lead or follow or whatever.

You don`t expect me to agree on that.... :-)  On two counts.

Lets not go there......

Other than to say its one thing to have a vision, its another just to be bloody minded... Even if the idea was crap in the first place. If those guys working with Dave Haynie had been able to complete their work the world of computing would be way in advance of any gimmicky Micantoosh....

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[scuzzb494]

You might not agree with Job's vision but he had one thing he wanted the mac. he didnt want to develop for the apple II anymore in software or hardware. we wanted the mac. (stephen wozniak wanted the apple II still)
the other companies had no real vision. the vision for the amiga was quickly diluted with new c64 models and pc clones etc. same with atari. Apple had a cleaner break with the past and a more focused intent with the mac.
steve jobs was nutz though
@hell labs
who were you calling a douche? Dave Haynie, Steve Jobs or someone else

As I say not sure of that... The Amiga was, is, will always be a quite unique piece of equipment and if you look at the tech rooms featured on the deathbed vigil tapes you can see the extent of research being done. This was more about poor business management and selling the kit and sorting out supply chains. The actual technology was sound and was superior to anything Apple could produce [ novelty-wear is what I call Mac crap ]. Mr Haynie along with all the crew building the Amiga were 'gods' and it was a very sad day for computing the day that Commodore closed the facility. It breaks my heart just thinking about it, cus everything that has flowed from this point is utter junk. And I mean that.

I have no respect for anything codged together by tin box manufacturers and certainly have no time what what so ever for Crapintosh novelty-wear. Sadly the world thinks computing is about, Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, film and music downloads and other such nonsense. It has become an entertainment facility in homes.....  It can be that... but please give me back something I can really enjoy and get under the hood with... And that means hardwear and softwear. Not emulation or OSs running on archaic outdated 25 year old concepts like the tin box. We can do much better than this. The Amiga was about design, not only of OS but also the hardwear. And they were brilliant at it.  

Anyway... I would never ever be critical of Commodore or Amiga or Dave Haynie. They gave me the best years of my life. And for that I am truly grateful.


scuzz
Still crazy after all these years. And still using his Amiga ' hardwear '.