Posted By
Dave
on 2014-03-12
00:06:17
|  Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
That's my question. I live in the States, and have an opportunity to get a Plus/4, but I don't know if PAL games would work on it, and I don't know if there were any games for the Plus/4 that we're released over here.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2014-03-12
03:57:23
 | Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
There are some, as in a handful of USA "commercial" releases such as Rug Rider and Ghost Town (USA) but I'm not familiar with all of them.
If you click here your see a text list of all the games on the site, not all are commercial though... On the right hand side your see if anything is NTSC compatible and at a glance your see there is a large amount of it, quality not always assured though. Getting it across from the internet to Plus/4 can be done with a SD2IEC as you can copy stuff to SD card to use on Plus/4, that's the latest craze with these 8bit Commodore machines but it's much more common with C64 users. I don't have a SD2IEC personally but I'm sure the guys on Lemon64 forum could help with info on using a SD2IEC in NTSC land as there are many users of them there.
A Plus/4 can also run 99% of all C16 software in PAL land, some of the C16 software is compatible to run on NTSC. Most of those titles will be listed as 16k.
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Posted By
Dave
on 2014-03-12
14:45:21
| Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
OK thanks! On that page, how do I tell if a game is a Plus 4 exclusive title?
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2014-03-12
14:59:21
| Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
Unfortunately that (whether a release is a Plus/4 exclusive) is not something we keep track of at the moment. I think most games were "multi-platform", the C16/Plus4 only ones are pretty rare. One way you could check any particular title is to click through to the detail page (like this one: Rug Rider), and see if there's a link to the C64 version. (Rug Rider does have such a link, but there might be other titles where no-one has added any external links yet.)
Hope this helps  Are you looking for something in particular?
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Posted By
Dave
on 2014-03-12
15:12:00
| Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
Just games that were made specifically for the Plus 4 .
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Posted By
MIK
on 2014-03-12
15:52:34
| Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
Those that might of been once viewed as Plus/4 (only) will be programs that are over 16K and above, most will be 64k programs as that's how much memory the Plus/4 has while a C16 only has 16k.
and because of this they used to think games over 16K would only run on a Plus/4 because it had extra memory such as the PAL only game Ace +4. If you look at the cover it only lists Plus/4. It's rare to find memory upgrades for Commodore 16's but if a C16 had 64k and was PAL then it would run Ace +4 with no trouble at all.
Even Commodore them self would list stuff for just the Plus/4 such as Treasure Island which is both PAL & NTSC compatible. The game will run on a C16 with 32K of memory.
and that's all it is really. Just a little confusing at first but generally what runs on both machines will run on each other for the most part as long as a C16 has enough memory.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2014-03-12
16:10:45
| Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
To simplify what MIK said: if the list says 16k then it's for the C16 and works on the Plus/4 too. A game that requires a Plus/4 shows as 64k. 
(MIK: there are very few memory expansions here. Probably easier to leave that bit out when talking to us 'muricans, it might confuse us. )
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Posted By
Dave
on 2014-03-13
01:13:07
| Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
It does help; thanks! At this point, I'm wondering if I should get a C16 instead of the Plus 4 . Plus 4s are cheap and widely available on Ebay over here; I don't know about the C16 .
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2014-03-13
09:01:37
| Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
I guess it depends on what you're planning to do with it. If you're planning on actually using it for games/demos/utilities, you should go with the Plus/4, since it runs virtually everything. (There a handful of games that have C16 only version, but each of those also have a "proper" version which runs on Plus/4s as well.)
It's also smaller and more stylish But the biggest advantage IMHO is the cursor keys: the layout of those is excellent.
On the other hand, if you're a collector, you'd probably want whichever is missing from your collection. The C116 would be the rarest, I'm really not sure on how more common the Plus/4 is than the C16.
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Posted By
retroscener
on 2014-03-13
23:37:04
 | Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
Personally, I'd say the keyboard is a matter of preference.
I hate the Plus/4 keyboard. The keys just feels too lowly positioned and clacky for me, my fingers often slip on them and hit the wrong key (maybe it's just me), and I really don't like the cursor keys, they're too small and fiddly. The arrow shape design I feel was a bad idea. The C16 keys are better for the fingers as they're larger and higher raised which goes the same for its cursor keys. The cursor keys are better laid out than on the C64 keyboard, imho.
I also prefer the C64 breadbin style for the C16. One thing I don't like with it though is the buzzy power supply with it's flimsy connector, although at least they're easier to replace.
So if you can internally upgrade it to 64k or lucky enough to find a 64K expansion cartridge, I'd go with the C16 for function over style
All just a matter of preference
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Posted By
George
on 2014-03-14
05:40:21
 | Re: Were there any Commodore Plus/4 games released in the USA?...
The Plus/4 case design is from Ira Valinsky (who also designed the later Atari XE, ST series.. correkt me here).
For me the case design of the Plus/4 is one of the best ever made for a home computer (pehaps i like the 364 more). Of course everybody has his own taste and that is good so.
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