Be Excellent To Each Other

Prototype C65 sells for 18,000 Europounds (or thereabouts). Or in proper money 15 grand:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sehr-seltener-Prototyp-Commodore-C65-aka-C64DX-aka-C90-/271183784636?pt=Klassische_Computer&hash=item3f23d02abc

The C65 was supposed to be the pimped up follow-up to the C64. However it never got past the prototype stage and when Commodore went bust the 200 or so prototypes were sold off in a bankruptcy sale in Germany.



Commodore had obviously spent alot of money on the project before it was shelved. Design, custom chips, tooling for the injection moulding. None of these things come cheap. The prototypes are said to have 40% backwards compatibility with the 64 so there was obviously still lots to do!

If nothing else, it helped them come up with the design for the A1200.

Never understood the Plus-4.

I do know the C16 sold quite well despite poor software support. Mastertronic released games for the C16 and they sold well.

As for the C65, it was filling a gap that didn't need to be filled. However I think it may have also been intended as a long term replacement for the 64 which was still selling well. If you have a huge installed userbase you may as well capitalise on it. However the backwards compatibility was said to be woeful on the prototypes.