In touch with Commodore

COMMODORE announced a substantial range of new peripherals for its Vic 20 and 64 computers — as well as two new business micro systems — at the Hanover Computer Fair, in West Germany last week.

The company also displayed its new 116 and 264 machines although their future now looks uncertain.

Commodore UK’s marketing manager John Baxter has announced that the 116 — a 16K micro with ‘toy’ keyboard has been shelved indefinitely: “We don’t think there is a market for it in Europe.”

He also took a step backwards as far as the 264 machine is concerned. Although this successor to the existing 64 model was originally planned for launch in Hanover, he now says: “We have not decided on a date for its introduction.”

Among the new peripherals for the 64 shown in Hanover are a touch screen, the much-rumoured mouse cursor control device called The Cat, and a light pen.

Four new printers for the Vic 20, Commodore 64 and 264 were announced — a low-cost dot-matrix, a high-end dot-matrix, a colour dot-matrix and a low-cost daisy-wheel.

All of these products are expected to become available in the second half of this year.

The first of the new business systems is a 16-bit Z8000-based machine with 256K Ram, 80-column graphics and built-in dual floppy disc drives. The machine runs the Unix operating system.

The second is the previously announced tie-up to market the Hyperion IBM-compatible 8088-based computer under the Commodore brand name. The machine, with 256K Ram is expected to under-cut the IBM PC in price and sell for around £1,500.

No indication of availability was given for either of the business machines.