[HN Gopher] The Commodore Plus/4, 3-Plus-1 and computer literacy
___________________________________________________________________
The Commodore Plus/4, 3-Plus-1 and computer literacy
Author : classichasclass
Score : 33 points
Date : 2022-07-09 17:47 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (oldvcr.blogspot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (oldvcr.blogspot.com)
| spullara wrote:
| Being non-compatible with c64 was a non-starter for any machine
| that came after until the Amiga.
| mkesper wrote:
| The most similar thing nowadays would probably be a Raspberry Pi
| 400 https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400/
| timbit42 wrote:
| While Jack intended the Commodore 16 to replace the VIC-20, and
| it was much better with its more RAM, higher resolution, larger
| palette, and more speed, he intended the Plus/4 to be used by
| small businesses. Unfortunately, the ROM apps were too primitive
| for business use.
|
| Of course what Commodore should have done is release a "C64 Plus"
| as a backward compatible system, like Acorn, Apple, and Atari did
| with their series, with enhancements such as more banks of RAM,
| faster CPU, dual SIDs, and an enhanced VIC-II with new modes
| offering 80 columns and a larger palette, and a better BASIC.
| They could have added these features without breaking much
| existing software. Instead they offered the C128 with a C64 mode
| which resulted in little software being written for the C128
| mode. The C128 is a great computer in its own right, but a "C64
| Plus" with the backward compatible enhancements above would have
| been better. The C65 had some of these enhancements but
| unfortunately, like the C128, its native mode wasn't backward
| compatible and it had a C64 mode. Also, it was many years too
| late.
| krallja wrote:
| BASIC on the Plus/4 is actually much better than Commodore
| BASIC v2.0 on the C64. It has commands for drawing shapes! It
| has TEDMon for writing machine language/primitive assembly
| programs!
| timbit42 wrote:
| Yes, the BASIC v3.5 on the Plus/4 is 20KB with 127
| commands/functions, while the BASIC v2.0 on the C64 is only
| 8KB with 77 commands/functions. The C128's BASIC v7.0 is 28KB
| with 167 commands/functions.
| aenis wrote:
| Oh my. Plus/4 was my first computer. The best thing about it was
| that pressing alt-reset brought up an assembly language editor
| and very basic debugger/memory viewer. For some odd reason it
| also zero'ed the first three bytes of program memmory. That
| allowed me to learn assembly at the age of 7 and hack pretty much
| all the games that were available for the platform. I think if I
| got the c64 I'd have turned out a different person - from what I
| recall it did not have a built in, convenient assembly editor.
| classichasclass wrote:
| That was standard behaviour for most Microsoft-derived BASIC
| implementations, since it ensured the end of program text was
| always marked.
|
| On the C64, I entered 6502 opcodes directly using the FastLoad
| monitor, which lacked an assembler like most other monitor
| programs including the +4's. To this day I can still do things
| like a9 00 8d 20 d0 60 from memory (lda #0 sta $d020 rts). When
| we got a KIM-1 from our high school math teacher, we already
| knew how to program it.
| aenis wrote:
| Ha! That makes sense (marking the end of the program). Thanks
| for explaining it!
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-07-09 23:01 UTC)