website/content/museum/commodore-plus-4-c232-264-364.md

---
title: Commodore PLUS 4 - C232/264/364
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Home Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1984'
cpus:
- '7501'
params:
  name: PLUS 4 - C232/264/364
  company: /companies/commodore
  company_name: Commodore
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: PLUS 4 - C232/264/364
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Commodore
  - label: TYPE
    value: Home Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1984'
  - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE
    value: Commodore BASIC 3.5. Built-in machine code monitor (12 commands)
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full stroke 67 keys with 4 function keys and 4 cursor keys
  - label: CPU
    value: '7501'
  - label: SPEED
    value: 0.89 MHz or 1.76 MHz
  - label: RAM
    value: 64 KB (60 KB free for user, and 48 KB free when used in high resolution)
  - label: ROM
    value: 64 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 40 chars x 25 lines
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: 'several modes, maximum : 320 x 200 dots'
  - label: COLORS
    value: 121 (15 colours x 8 luminances + black)
  - label: SOUND
    value: two channels; 4 octaves + white noise
  - label: SIZE / WEIGHT
    value: 42.3 (W) x 23.9 (D) x 6.7 (H) cm
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Tape, Cardridge, Joystick (2), User port, Composite (CVBS) video port, memory expansion bus port, serial port, power, RF video
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: Cassette unit. Provision for 170 KB 5.25'' floppy disc unit
  - label: PRICE
    value: £249
  tabs:
  - photos
  - adverts
  - hardware
  - emulators
  - links
  - videos
  photos:
  - title: PLUS4 BOX
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: 'BOX #2'
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: INSIDE PLUS/4
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      An original and nice design, a serious keyboard, a mother board fitted with maximum RAM and ROM capacity (both 64 Kb.), but limited compatibility with the previous models (C64 and Vic 20). The Commodore Plus 4 never had great success, as it was launched too late : some competitor models had more attractive features, and the first 16 bit home computers were about to enter the market.

      **(1)** Each of the 4 function keys can call two different commands using the Shift key. The user can also define new functions (128 char. maximum).\
      **(2)** Arrow keys. Original design, but not very practical.\
      **(3)** Power connector. Power is supplied by an external transformer.\
      **(4)** Power switch.\
      **(5)** System reset button.\
      **(6)** 7501 microprocessor, compatible with the 6502 instruction set, but able to manage more than 64 Kb. of memory.\
      **(7)** 8 chips holding 64 Kb RAM, totally available for Basic programs (except in graphic mode).\
      **(8)** Extension connector used by ROM cartridges and the disk drive unit.\
      **(9)** 64 Kb ROM. Microsoft Basic and built-in software are stored in 3 ROM chips. 2 ROM sockets are left available.\
      **(10)** An imposing specialized circuit (Arithmetic and logic unit) is protected by a metal case to avoid radio interference.\
      **(11)** TV video signal modulator.\
      **(12)** RGB video output and sound connector.\
      **(13)** 2 joysticks connectors, not compatible with Atari standard. It is undoubtedly this kind of detail which slowed down the sales of the Plus/4.\
      **(14)** Serial user connector. It can manage several peripherals simultaneously.\
      **(15)** Cassette recorder connector, once more specific to the Plus/4.\
      **(16)** Serial connector used by some Commodore peripherals.
    image: null
  - title: C-232 PROTOTYPE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      Commodore had planned for a new line-up of computers based on their new TED processor. They were comprised of the Commdodore 232 at the low end with 32k on board, the 264 in the mid-range with 64k and the choice between four different preinstalled software modules, and finally the V364 at the top of the product line.\
      These products were touted in numerous pre-release press articles and advertising circulars. But, typical of Commodore, just prior to beginning production, the entire line was canned, and the 264 was retooled into the Plus/4. It was the only model with the TED to hit the store shelves.
    image: null
  - title: C-264 PROTOTYPE
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      The following information comes from Death Adder.

      With the first Commodore 264 prototype inofficially presented on the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January (?) 1984, the developers had obviously not yet agreed about the keyboard layout; some keys are unlabelled, the right shift key is missing, instead it has a key which seems to be meant as a line feed key.

      It was planned that when buying a C264, you could choose between these programs:

      3 plus 1 (word processor, data base, spread sheet, windowing)\
      Superscript (professional word processor)\
      Magic Desk (word processor, data base, spread sheet, calculator)\
      Logo\
      Pilot\
      Easycalc 264 (spread sheet)\
      COM 264\
      Financial Advisor

      The C264 should then be delivered with the selected program built in. The remaining programs could only be used with cartridges for the expansion port.

      The official presentation of the C264 series took place on the Hannover fair in 1984. Luckily, the developers didn't eliminate the right shift key in the final keyboard layout. The formerly unlabelled keys bear a label now: the key that used to be the '<-' (left arrow) key on the C64 and the VC20 says 'Esc', the key between '@' and '\*' bears the English pound sign, and the key that was labelled 'SHIFT LOCK' on all 8-bit computers Commodore ever produced now says - guess what - 'SHIFT LOCK' :-) (must have been a hard decision between SHIFT and CAPS lock).
    image: null
  - title: V-364 PROTOTYPE
    subtitle: ''
    text: This prototype was a C264 with a bigger keyboard (86 keys including a numeric keypad) and with a built-in speech synthesizer with a vocabulary of 261 words (which could be expanded by either diskettes or modules). Commodore dropped this model and decided to sell a separate speech module (Magic Voice) for the C64.
    image: null
  adverts:
  - title: LAST +4 SALES, APR. 1986
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: GREEK ADVERT (MARCH 1985)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  hardware:
  - title: TAPE-RECORDER
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_c16_taperecorder_1.jpg
  emulators:
  - title: Minus4 - Plus4 Emulator for DOS & Windows
    url: http://minus4.plus4.net/
    platform: MS DOS
    text: ''
  - title: WinEMU
    url: http://winemu.emuunlim.com/
    platform: Windows
    text: C16 / Plus4 emulator for Windows & DOS, developed by Zsolt Prievara
  - title: YAPE
    url: http://YAPE.PLUS4.NET
    platform: Windows
    text: PLUS/4 Emulator for Windows
  - title: FLAMINGO
    url: http://www.amiga.hu/amigos/rachy/projects.html
    platform: Amiga OS
    text: Plus/4 emulator for amiga, developed by Rachy
  - title: VICE
    url: http://www.viceteam.org/
    platform: Multiplatform
    text: VICE emulates a bunch of 8-bit Commodore computers including the Plus 4
  links:
  - title: Commodore Plus/4 World
    url: http://plus4.emucamp.com/
    text: Massive sites with games to download!
  - title: The C16 - Plus 4 Retro Page
    url: http://YAPE.PLUS4.NET
    text: Excellent dedicated site, full of info
  - title: www.commodore16.com
    url: http://www.commodore16.com/
    text: Excellent dedicated site with software database, forum, and much more
  - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
    url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
    text: Discussion about Commodore micros
  videos:
  - title: Commodore Plus 4 commercial
    url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX4HB4td65Y
    text: 'Length: 1 min'
  comments:
  - author: James (Ireland)
    date: Monday 20th April 2020
    text: The C116 from what I can tell over here it was suppose to compete with cheap computers like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and in America the TIMEX SINCLAIR 1000
  - author: David from Hungary
    date: Thursday 1st August 2019
    text: |-
      My dad found one of these on the top of a trash bin. It was meant to be found by someone who could put it to good use. He took it and gave it to me. It sat on the top of my cupboard for a decade. After watching videos of people like The 8-Bit Guy, I decided to refurbish it.\
      I cleaned it, added heatsinks, and so on. I managed to track down a 1531 datasette and a 1551 disk drive, both of which I refurbished myself. It was only the beginning of my Commodore refurbish mania :D
  - author: Michael Samer (Germany)
    date: Sunday 18th June 2017
    text: |-
      It was my second computer (bought in 1985 for about 540USD with 1702 CRT and 1541 floppy) after a self soldered Z80 clone. From the usability surely limited but it contained every software I wanted/needed in ROM. The spreadsheet was low compared to the competitors, but enough for me to do my stuff. Word editing was very simple (more like a simple editor) but great (compared to my Z80) and I learned how to use the printer ESCape sequences. I''d even use the colour plotter printer (Casio afair) I bought for my Z80 years before. I even wrote a fantasy book on it (1987) with about 400pages.\
      It was very hard to get the data''s I wrote converted from Floppy to PCs afterwards and a lot is still trapped on bad floppies.
  - author: Lukasz (Poland)
    date: Monday 14th November 2016
    text: Oh boy, that was my first computer. Failure for Commodore - maybe - but not for me it wasn''t. Thanks to relative lack of games it allowed me to start programming, hacking and cracking (thanks to the built in asm/debug tool). I have a lot of great memories. And there were games, too. I remember playing Mercenary, which was a proper 3d FPP game, with cool wireframe graphics.
  - author: zozo (france)
    date: Thursday 30th October 2014
    text: I bought a used one for a hundred francs ( 15 euros) in 1989 2 years after my brother destroyed it. I was sick I would have killed him for that lol
  - author: whitushade (United States)
    date: Thursday 12th July 2012
    text: I got one of these for Christmas in 1984 along with a 1541 disk drive, a 1702 monitor and an MPS-803 Printer and some C64 games. I was seriously bummed when the games wouldn''t work. My folks bought it because the store was out of C64s and he said that this would fill the bill. It didn''t. It was just as limited as the description states. I did like the default color scheme (blue border, white background, black cursor) better than that of the C64 (pale blue boarder and cursor with a light blue background), however.
  - author: Colton (Kentucky, USA)
    date: Saturday 21st April 2012
    text: I found one of these in the trash today...took it home...hooked it up and it worked...never seen this old of a computer in person...its pretty awesome.
  - author: Lyubomir (Bulgaria)
    date: Monday 20th June 2011
    text: Sweet memories! I bought this computer together with cassette device 1988 from Germany. It was very nice ... I even got some magazines with software. Later I also got floppy 1541... You may not believe, but I still have them!!!
  - author: Leszek (Poland)
    date: Tuesday 2nd November 2010
    text: This was my first computer. I was to young to remember now when I got this but it shaped my future. I got only one game for it (text only RPG) but I did not manage to pass the first page :-). It had an assembler compiler. I wrote a program to scroll the screen to the left or right (this was extremely slow). I also experimented with basic and wrote a program to jump with the horse in each field of teh chess board only once. It took I think many minutes to find a solution (maybe over an hour) but it did find many :-) I did start my programming carier with this :-) but I think it was the worst computer I could get, useless for games. I moved to PCs few years later.
  - author: Leszek (Poland)
    date: Tuesday 2nd November 2010
    text: This was my first computer. I was to young to remember now when I got this but it shaped my future. I got only one game for it (text only RPG) but I did not manage to pass the first page :-). It had an assembler compiler. I wrote a program to scroll the screen to the left or right (this was extremely slow). I also experimented with basic and wrote a program to jump with the horse in each field of teh chess board only once. It took I think many minutes to find a solution (maybe over an hour) but it did find many :-) I did start my programming carier with this :-) but I think it was the worst computer I could get, useless for games. I moved to PCs few years later.
  - author: Joe (USA)
    date: Monday 3rd May 2010
    text: |-
      The first time I saw one of these was at a store called Service Merchandise, now out of business, along with the C16. My understanding about this machine was that it was developed shortly before Jack Tramiel and his sons were ousted from Commodore. Tramiel had a specific plan for marketing the C16 and Plus 4 but was given the boot before he could pull it off. The management at Commodore had no idea what his intentions were for the two new machines so they marketed them the same way as the C64 which was a big mistake as they were never intended to compete in that market. Tramiel intended to sell them at higher margins than the C64 to business users. All the fancy graphic and sound capabilities of the C64 weren''t seen as necessary for business, which was why they were omitted.

      I must give the Plus 4 it''s due. The included Basic was extremely powerful compared to other 8-bit Basics of the day (the BBC Micro sold in the UK had the only 8-bit Basic that I have seen that was more powerful) and the memory space available to programmers on the Plus 4 was unprecedented in a 64k machine. Nearly 60k was available for programs. The real downfall of the machine, though, was software. The majority of programs were written for the C16, which was seen as the mass market machine, so not much was available that took full advantage of the Plus 4''s additional memory. Incompatibility with C64 peripherals was also a big issue.

      I''ve found the C16/Plus 4 family models to be more popular in the UK than the US. You can still find the black cassette and floppy drives made for the Plus 4 sometimes and there''s usually software on ebay UK every day of the week. You don''t see much on ebay US for these machines at all, ever.
  - author: kevin (USA )
    date: Wednesday 28th April 2010
    text: I Remember going into K-mart and seeing this for the first time then playing with it and I have to tell you that I thought it was so awesome and having built in programs to , man!! I was in heaven. Only having a Vic-20 at the time this system was mind blowing , I never got one,but I sure did dream about it , funny I now have two of them .....lol ...
  - author: Anna (Serbia)
    date: Thursday 20th March 2008
    text: Plus/4 is the computer I grew up with. My parents ordered it from Germany somewhere around 1987, and I believe it costed little over $100 (came with two joysticks and a tape). It was nothing spectacular compared to some other systems of the time, but it did have nifty BASIC and some fun games. Mostly a computer people bought for their small kids.
  - author: Damian Walker (Hull, UK)
    date: Saturday 12th January 2008
    text: I had one of these in the mid/late 1980s, when they were recognised as a commercial failure and were being sold for relatively cheap (£80 if I remember rightly). I absolutely loved mine. As a Spectrum fan who liked to program in BASIC, I wouldn't have touched a C64 at the time, but this machine with the same memory and a decent BASIC language (as well as a machine code monitor/assembler), was very different. I only wish I had room for one now!
  - author: Duncan Woodward (Preston UK)
    date: Wednesday 23rd February 2005
    text: I am a bit of a retro collector and I am looking for a power adaptor for a Commodore +4. Does anyone know where I can still get hold of this sort of equipment
  - author: Plus4Vampyre (Germany)
    date: Monday 30th August 2004
    text: Hi Dave, I am very interested in any informations about the IFR Flight Simulator and Rug Ride. Do you still have these two games?
  - author: Dave K ( )
    date: Thursday 5th August 2004
    text: The Plus-4 was my first home computer. Purchased at Sears with the Diskette Drive and Printer as a bundle. It worked great. Served well as a word processor for letters (no graphics) as a spreadsheet for checkbook and (gasp) taxes, and even the database for addresses. I enjoyed games like Jack Attack, Zork, Rug Rider and a IFR Flight Simulator (no visuals, only text clues) and a fine 2 person fighter pilot game. It served as home office and video game machine - plugged into a portable color TV as a monitor. Sadly the membrane keyboard faded, lost a few critical key contacts and was retired. But we loved it. As a geek/packrat, I recently found it in a box. Aug. 2004 Some years later, the company I worked at purchased one of the vacuum systems Commodore had used in production from a broker and used it to good effect.
  - author: Barry Beaubien (da yooper)
    date: Thursday 20th February 2003
    text: I just picked up a Plus 4 at Saint Vinnies in its origional box with all the manuals. After a few minutes spent on hooking it up to the \[gasp\] TV it fired right up. Not to bad for $2.10, eh!
  related:
  - /museum/commodore-c116
  - /museum/commodore-c16
  oc_id: 194
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230602082051/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=194
    date: '2023-06-02'
---

Among the Commodore news from the Summer CES 1984 was the renaming of the C=264 to Plus/4. This renaming came along with a slight change in the built-in software: you could not choose between many different programs anymore, but each Plus/4 was delivered with the 3-plus-1 software.

The built-in software is not worth the silicon it is etched in: a word processor (only with 40 columns and can manage documents with only 99 lines of 77 columns), a very small spreadsheet (only 17 columns and 50 lines), a poor graph generator program (which can graphically display data from the sheets, but only in text mode) and a small database (999 records with 17 fields each and only 38 characters by field).\
Most of these programs can only be used with a floppy drive.

The Plus/4 can use some of the peripherals of the [C=64](/museum/commodore-c64/) or the [VIC-20](/museum/commodore-vic-20/), like the famous MPS-801 dot-matrix printer and the 1541 Disk Drive run well with it but it can't use C=64 programs (unfortunately, it cannot use the same joysticks & Datasette as the C=64/VIC-20).

This machine wasn't built to be a competitor of the C=64, but it wasn’t meant to replace it either. It has an improved BASIC compared to the C=64’s, this one features graphic and sound instructions and a built-in assembler, but has lost lots of interesting C-64 features like great sound chip (SID: Sound Interface Device) or hardware sprites.

The Commodore Plus/4 was an error in the Commodore marketing policy and had no success.