Posted By
Chicken
on 2016-02-22
17:24:55
 |  Re: Trilogy: missing software?
A bit off-topic …
MMS: According to most sources, Jack Tramiel wanted a low cost entry-level computer (i. e. the C116). Only later on, when it was clear that what the engineers came up with was something more powerful (enough for the SO/HO market), the concept changed. I'm not sure if Jack Tramiel had much to do with that decision. The sources on that topic are very limited.
Though, the plus/4 (and even the 364) concept is more or less what Michael Tomczyk had in mind with the "Max Machine" (which is NOT the reduced Japanese C64 which has the same name).
Anyway, then it was planned to have a choice of built-in software (and additional cartridges). Adding the built-in software was not a last minute decision – just giving the user no choice but always include 3-plus-1 was. (Yes, most likely because resellers didn't want to stock many different versions of the machine – even with just cartridges it's problematic).
Keep in mind not every software can run from or (or in this case rather in) ROM. In some cases, the content of the (EP)ROMs just gets copied to RAM. So the advantage is just that it's instantly there – not that you have more RAM to use.
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