Commodore 65

The origins of the C65 can be traced to mid-1984 when Commodore were attempting to develop a followup to the success of the C64. The 364, as it was known, was designed with voice synthesis and even more memory. However, the Amiga purchase resulted in several projects being cancelled. The trail does not start again until 1988/9 when Commodore decided to fill the low-end market currently filled with the increasingly expensive C64 and 1541 disk drive.

According to reports it was very similar in design to the Amiga, featuring a trap door for easy upgrade and a 3.5-inch disk drive mounted in a similar way to the Spectrum +3. It uses a 3.5MHz custom 6502 processor, a DMA engine, 4 cursor keys, 128K ram as standard (up to 8MB with bank switching), and dual SID's for stereo sound. It also features a cartridge port, "user port", two types of serial ports, screen resolutions from 320x200x256 to 1280x400x2, and RGB, RF, and a slightly altered C64 video port, as well as C64 emulation mode.

Development lasted until late-1991, and unlike many Commodore prototypes people have been able to buy a few. Either at warehouse clearances, or the Commodore US liquidation auction. Whatever reason for it being cancelled it looks as though this could have been the missing link between the Amiga and C64.

Additional References
Secret Weapons of Commodore: C65

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