Commodore Plus Four

CommodorePlusFour

The Commodore Plus/4 is one of the many 8-bit CommodoreComputers?, produced by Commodore.

This machine was basically a CommodoreSixteen? with a lot more memory (64K) and a series of integrated business applications (called "three plus one") in ROM. These included a spreadsheet, a Word Processor and a Database program if I remember correctly. Storing the applications in ROM meant there was more RAM to work on your documents (and no loading time).

Graphics: It had some decent graphics capabilities (including interesting graphic modes that did things like display graphics at the top of the screen and normal scrolling text at the bottom). BASIC support for graphics was excellent at the time. Full geometry and shape syntax was available.

The sound however was another story. It had full BASIC syntax support for its sound capabilities, but its sound was very poor. A real pity considering its sister the CommodoreSixtyFour had excellent sound synthesis capabilities (unrivaled on any PC until the arrival of the CommodoreAmiga? in 1985) but no BASIC syntax support whatsoever.

Today you can emulate that computer by using the Vice emulator. You can find a page for enthusiasts at http://www.stormpages.com/plus4/ - it has a series of pictures of Plus 4 variants, both production and prototypes, software and other stuff.