Commodore Free 34/Commodore_Free_Issue_34_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/iv chris 16

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 11KB | 381 lines

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    Interview with Chris Snowden
           Commodore 16
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       www.Commodore16.com

The Commodore plus 4 is often
overlooked by many users (myself
included) dismissed as a substandard
machine, however I was absolutely
astonished when I met up with Chris
who really opened my eyes. The Plus 4
is a machine I must have and play on,
some of the demos Chris showed me
were absolutely superb. I suppose
with hindsight I blame the Commodore
press at the time for pushing the
machine as a Vic 20 replacement and
with so many different versions it
confused me at the time. So I spoke
to Chris about the Commodore plus 4.

Q - Please introduce yourself to our
reader

Hi, I'm Chris Snowden and I come from
the North of England and run
Commodore16.com.  I've been a
C16/Plus 4 enthusiast from a early
age.  I started off running a small
video gaming website years ago, and
then managed to get hold of our
current domain.  Even though I work
all over the world these days, I
still try get time to update the
site, and play the C16 games I love.
I've been involved in a few projects
based around the C16 which include:
Gamebase C16, Out On A Limb PC
remake, Dark Mansion, Church Of
Death, and currently slowly working
on a few other games.

Q - What was your first experience of
Commodore?

My first experience with Commodore
dates back to 1984, when my best
friend had a C64. The games were so
bright and vibrant compared to the
basic TV video game we had at home on
our back & white TV. Before this I
was just used the Computers at school
which wouldn't play many games.  The
experience really opened my eyes and
made me want to own a Commodore
computer.

Q - What was the first machine you
owned?

The first machine I owned was a
Commodore 16, which my parents bought
for me at Christmas 1984.  I suppose
this was the largest Christmas
present I had ever received at that
point. Although my friends had C64's,
VIC20's and other 8 bit machines, I
still adored my machine and enjoyed
it so much.

Q - Tell our reader about the plus 4

The Plus 4 is a TED based machine
that has 64k of RAM, built in office
software and a user port.  Coding on
the Plus 4 is quite easy compared to
many other 8 Bit machines, due to an
advanced Basic and inbuilt machine
code monitor.

The TED machine was originally
designed to be the $99 machine, which
would be affordable and profitable
for Commodore.  Aiming to replace the
ageing VIC20, having a budget machine
running along side the C64 but not
replacing the C64.  Somewhere along
the later part of the
design/marketing TED evolved into an
array of different specification
machines, which completely confused
the market.

Q - Why is the plus 4 so over looked
by many Commodore users

In many other Commodore users eyes
the Plus 4 was inferior to the C64.
But what they neglected to experience
was that the Plus 4 had so many
positives too.  It had a good
catalogue of software, that was ready
available and some very good titles.
The main reason that this machine was
overlooked was the incompatibility
between Commodore's other 8 bit
machines.

Q - The plus 4 must have a killer
application or hardware feature not
available in other commodore hardware
can you comment

I wouldn't really say a killer
application as such, but definitely
the 1551 disk drive is the killer
hardware. As this is so much faster
than the 1541 and more reliable in my
opinion.  Although the mechanism of
the drive is the same as the 1541, it
connects to the Plus 4 via the
cartridge port to enable greater
transfer speeds.

Q - Also what is the plus 4{SHIFT-*}s weakest
attribute

For a gamer, this has to be the lack
of hardware sprites. Some may say the
lack of a SID chip too, but TED still
managed to blast out some good tunes.
For example Auf Weidersien Monty,
Icicle Works, Kikstart, and many
other games had great titles.  Later
years the lack of SID chip was
resolved as Christian Solder
developed a fantastic SID cartridge
for the TED machines.

Q - The Cassette port and joystick
ports are none standard what were
commodore thinking?

The only consideration behind this
thinking was size and cost.  There
was only so much room on the machine,
and moving to the smaller ports was
the logical option. Also with trying
to keep the machine under $99, it
worked out cheaper to have the
smaller ports for joysticks &
cassette. Initially this was a
hindrance to users as the general
industry standard was the Atari style
joystick port, but this was quickly
over come with an array of adapters.

Q - The Commodore 16 is also very
over looked; is the Commodore 16
compatible with the plus 4 machine?

The C16 is completely compatible with
the Plus 4, the only differences
being the Plus 4 has 64k of ram, 3+1
built in ROMs and a user port.  If
the C16 had 64k of ram upgrade, it
would definitely run the majority of
all the software. They are the same
machine at heart, based on the TED
model.

Q  going back to the disk drive the
plus 4 needed a different Interface
from the c64/128 for its printer and
disk interface

The TED range was fully compatible
with the existing Commodore disk
drives, 1541,1581 etc. But for TED it
was decided to have greater speed
disk drive, the 1551. It has the same
colouring as the TED machines, being
dark charcoal. The extra speed came
from it using the cartridge/parallel
port for data transfer. The speed
difference is actually very
noticeable.

Q - Was much software commercially
released for the plus 4.

Many titles were released for the Ted
machines.  Some were outstanding in
quality, like Trailblazer which was
technically superior to the C64 port.
The C16 version of Kikstart has
always been superior to the C64
version, so last year TMR ported the
C16 version to the C64.

Q - Chris you have written some games
for the plus 4 can you tell our
readers about them and where they are
available.

You are correct I have dabbled with
creating some games on the Ted
machine. Both of the games are text
adventure games. The first being
'Dark Mansion', which I created to
see if I was capable of creating a
game. It's a very simple adventure
game, which could be completed very
quickly. The second game being
'Church of Death', which was
commercially released through
Cronosoft.  COD, is very much
advanced compared to my first effort
and does take a while to complete.
Both these adventure games were
developed using 'Adventure building
system', which is loosely based on
GAC.  They are available to download
from Commodore16.com, Plus 4 world
and you can purchase COD from
Cronosoft.

Q - You have also created some plus 4
Remakes for the pc what is the idea
behind remakes, were the originals
not very good.

I have created one remake of a C16
game, which was 'Out On A Limb'.  The
original game was my favourite C16
game, so it wasn't created to better
the original.  I just wanted to see
if I could write a PC game, and I
decided on 'Out On A Limb'.  But for
some reason I never actually
completed the game, and it is very
much a demo of what I could have
done. Falling into the category of
not having enough time to spend on
it. The game has been downloaded many
times from the site, so people must
sort of like it.

Q - Your website has a shop are the
products manufactured by yourself,
what is on offer in the shop.

The whole idea of the shop was to
enhance the site, by offering
something different. My friend Jurek
Dudek in Poland produces all the
items in his spare time.  Without
Jurek, the shop would not be
possible. We have items ranging from
X transfer cables, memory upgrades
etc.  Very shortly we will be
releasing the XU1541, which is a USB
version of the X transfer cable. Also
we have plans to produce a version of
the 1541-III (2009) and eventually a
SID card (2010). The latter being
more difficult and time consuming.
The whole aim of the shop is to
provide value for money products,
that are of good quality and enhance
the site/scene and people's
experiences.

Q - Tell our reader about your
website www.commdore16.com

It actually all started well before
www.commodore16.com .  In 2002 I
began a multi format retro website
called www.tq-gaming.com  (it doesn't
exist anymore), which was great fun
to do and a huge learning curve. But
my true passion was for the Commodore
16/Plus 4 and although I liked the
other machines it didn't feel the
same. So in 2004 www.commodore16.com
was created, and I have to admit it
was extremely rough round the edges.
Its been 5 years of hard work, but
more importantly a enjoyable
experience. Personally without the
website, I wouldn't have met and
discussed so much with other users
from around the world. The website
offers lots of documentation, games
to download and play online, gamebase
C16, reviews, our shop, high score
competition and so many other areas.
We have the philosophy that everyone
one is welcome, whether you like
playing games, collecting or
interesting in the technology.

Commodore FREE the
www.commodore16.com website it well
worth a visit especially to new
commodore16/+4 users a wealth of
information Chris I think you are
being a bit hard on yourself even I
have know to lurk there

Q - You have a forum on the website
what topics are discussed, and have
the discussions ever been heated and
needed editing.

The topics in the forum are generally
all about TED.  We get topics on
software & hardware matters. We try
to keep it as friendly as possible,
so that new users do not feel out of
their depth. Topics do sometimes get
heated, especially when members are
passionate about it. But generally
they do not need editing.

Q - Is there a large demo community
following on the plus 4

There is a huge demo community for
the C16/Plus 4. To really appreciate
this, you should visit Plus 4 World,
which has an amazing collection of
demo's etc. for the C16/Plus 4. Some
of them are very impressive. If you
think back to our last Commodore
Computer Club meeting, we were all
staggered by the quality of the
'Shade' demo.  You can witness it
yourself here -- http://youtube.com
/watch?v=1vOgXf1GnO0

Commodore FREE yes I must say this
demo blew me away watching it is a
must, you will completely be blown
away with the colours, dancing
animation if ever there was an advert
for the plus 4 this must be it, I
want a plus 4 just to play this demo.
Absolutely amazing, I think Chris got
fed up with playing it, I must have
watched it (on a real machine) 10
times

Q -If our reader would like to learn
more about the Commodore 16 and plus4
can you recommend acouple of websites

Definitely so:

These are the main C16/Plus 4 sites.
www.commodore16.com
www.plus4world.powweb.com

Q - Finally do you have any comments
you would like to add

If you have never used one of these
machine's before I would certainly
recommend you downloading an emulator
and trying a few pieces of software.
Or getting your hands on one of the
original machines, which come up very
often on the more popular auction
sites. You will not regret the
experience.

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