Posted By
BilHerd
on 2017-05-13
10:50:12
 |  Re: Hardware rarities from Rob Clarke's...
My memory is that the 116 and 264 were done but the C116 was being ignored and the 264 had become the Plus-4. Tokyo stepped in and made the C16 which is really the C116 design. Their first swing at the C16 was the single sided, and then production dual sided that you see.
I suspect that this was Sam Tramiel instructing the Tokyo office to produce this initially as a cost reduction though I think that he and Okubo were gone before production, but it's tough recalling timelines so many years later. The C16 was literally a purchasing and specification task as the C116 and chips were done, and Tokyo as really good t managing vendors and custom assemblies like we got from Mitsumi who made the keyboard, modulator and several connectors.
I think we in the US office were surprised that the C16 actually did have some legs, and the housing was pennies vs the C116 which would have had to shoot a few million before the plastic was as cheap.
|
