Posted By
RobertB
on 2007-12-31
04:31:19
|  Re: Bil Herd converses
More from Bil Herd on the subject:
> Very interesting... Is the story the same with the non-standard
> joystick and cassette connectors?
No actually they (condensed jstick and data connectors) were done for a
reason and from the very beginning of the concept. If you can find a
picture of the very compact 116, http://www.von-bassewitz.de/uz/oldcomputers/c116/
a small 16kb computer that looks like the Timex Spectrum, THAT is what the TED series
of computers was supposed to be. If you look at that little case it is completely bounded by
connectors, they literally set the minimum size and vice versa.
The real sabotage of the TED series of computers (Plus4/264/364/116/C16/232)
wasn't from without but from within. TED was designed to cost between $49
and $79 and be a good value with some sound, 121 colors, basically superior
color management, but without game sprites. The lead off application was
Magic Desk by John Fegans now out of CBM Texas or one of those states (also
wrote the kernal for C64/Vic20 and wrote the compiler we all used)
After Jack Tramiel left, management didn't know what to do with the TED
concept, so they turned it into a clone of the C64 in price and size, they
literally would stand in line and each walk over and piss on the product
thereby marking their territory and causing the computer to bloat in size,
cost and complexity. Marketing/CorpSoftware won the contest when they put
that horrible Plus4 software in there and jacked the price into the $300
range. I must admit I added $1.12 to the design myself when I snuck a 6551
UART in there instead of relying on software UART code, without knowing or
caring about what Marketing was going to do to the computer it seemed like
the right thing to do.
16k is like a thumbnail or small image on the Internet today.
BTW, the case design of the C116 and the guy who picked out the DIN
connectors was a guy named Ira Velinski. He worked out of the Commodore
Japan office under Sam Tramiel and was very dedicated to his craft. He
later designed the case of the Atari ST series and had previously done the
DEC Rainbow. I was very saddened when I just found out at the California
anniversary gig that Ira had passed away 10 years ago at the age of 45. Ira
was a friend in spite of the fact we had occasional minor differences of
opinions, (I once broke a $40k joystick prototype to prove a point) and a
talented designer. I learned a fair amount of Japanese from him though he
would occasionally slip in words that got me into trouble.
Bil Herd
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