Commodore 16, 116 and Plus/4 Games — The Forgotten Commodores
The Commodore 264 series — comprising the Plus/4, Commodore 16, and Commodore 116 — was Commodore’s ill-fated attempt to replace the VIC-20 with a new range of home computers featuring built-in productivity software and an improved 121-colour palette. Released in 1984, all three machines used the TED (Text Editing Device) chip rather than the separate VIC-II and SID chips of the C64, resulting in inferior sound quality but more colours. Their fatal flaw was incompatibility with the enormous C64 software library, which doomed them commercially in Western markets.
Despite their Western commercial failure, the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 found unexpected success in Hungary, where they became among the most popular home computers of the late 1980s. A dedicated Hungarian software community produced games and applications specifically for the platform, and this Eastern European connection gives the 264 series a unique place in computing history. The software library, while smaller than the C64’s, includes games that genuinely exploit the hardware’s colour capabilities and represents a fascinating parallel computing culture.
Tietokonemuseo Ata’s games:
#
10 Computer hits 3 pack T CIB
A
Atomic Mission C CIB
B
Basic Course T L
BMX Racer T CIB
C
C16 Compilation T CIB
D
Dork’s Dilemma T L
F
Favourite 4 T CIB
Five Star games pack T CIB
P
Pirate Adventure C L
R
Reach For The Sky T CIB
Rockman T CIB
Runner T CIB
S
Shark T CIB
Spectipede T CIB
Squirm T CIB
Software Starter Pack (Shoot-it, Munch-it, Climb-it, Hoppit) T CIB
Storm T CIB
T
Triple Decker 2 T CIB
V
Vegas Jackpot T CIB
Viduzzles C CIB
W
Winter Olympic T L