Posted By
MIK
on 2013-09-24
17:52:18
 |  Re: Kelok makes an appearance on the front of a magazine.
ZX80 is way too early. 
The C16 was aimed at the potential buyers of the ZX Spectrum market and so Commodore could take a slice of that market. The C64 was still £299 when the C16 launched, or rather big bucks.
There were 2 versions of the ZX Spectrum, one with 16K and the other 48k. Now you know why the C116 looks like it does as the ZX Spec 16k was around the same price as a C16 to buy. This is also the reason why the C16 has no hardware sprites and was meant to be a game machine/computer for the masses in the style of the ZX Spectrum but of course the C16 offered a proper typewriter keyboard.
I've always said that if most coders really treated the C16 as if it was a ZX Spectrum back in the day there would of been many more quality games out there for sure but it's sister machine the C64 said differently and most coders opted for the C64 style. If you want to see a ZX Spectrum style game on a C16 then take a look at Video Meanies. I love those monochrome style graphics, lots of detail just like Spiky Harold. 
The Commodore 16 never failed as such in the UK I don't believe as a user. I own well over 300+++ original commercial games for it and taking a guess I could easily make that 400+++ as there is still a fair amount I don't have.
The C16 is viewed as a failure by ignorance mostly from my point of view and maybe partly because Commodore may of said it would of liked to of sold more... and it's the later that's stuck in peoples minds I think.
One of the biggest names in the game was Mastertronic and they supported us for 4 years with their biggest selling game of all time being Rockman for the C16, (I think it was) which out numbered titles released for other platforms! Then we had Gremlin Graphics, Anirog / Anco and Tynesoft all like 1st party supporters to us and not forgetting countless of other software labels like Codemasters, Players, Bugbyte and many more. I better say Solar Software for good measure ha!
The Commodore Plus/4 was that business machine you know of and that did fail. As luck would have it the machine took a price drop and because C16 titles also worked on a Plus4 we were saved as users from a commercial point of view! 
If you were a gamer then most of us used the Plus/4 as a C16 much of the time. If Sixteen Plus thinks the C128 had it bad then the Plus/4 was not much better really from a commercial point of view with software. Beyond the commercial games it was the scene in my eyes that made the Plus/4 shine in the way it does now and why Sixteen Plus uses a 64k C16 today, and the odd 64k/32k commercial game.
Some Failed Machines:
Jupiter Ace
Atari Jaguar
3DO
Amstrad GX 4000
Sega Dreamcast - or was it... C16 has more commercial titles than a Dreamcast even though the DC sold more hardware units than us!
Any one brave enough to say the Vic 20 was a failed machine? Does the C16 have more commercial software than a Vic 20 or is it viewed it did ok because it had good cartridge support? Some people on Lemon 64 have been wondering why there is no Vic20 site in the style of Lemon64, honestly they have been asking! C16/Plus4 has done ok in this regard. 
In my opinion the C16 did ok and if you had a Plus/4 then you had the best of both worlds aka Plus/4 World. Our 264's are a niche machine which doesn't help though as to why things may seem quiet at times. Funny thing is that your find more people on Lemon64 that own a C16 or Plus/4 than those of us that are active here... for them C64 takes priority, but yeah we are not alone. 
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