Commodore 16 rarity?

[DavidC]

Are the 16's considered to be rare, hard to find? I did a quick search on eBay and found very few listings.

 

I have one, and curiosity has gotten the better of me.

 

Thanks,

Dave

[carlsson]

Working ones are hard to find, because in particular the custom TED chip that handles graphics, sound and I/O breaks extremely easily. Also the 7501/8501 CPU is remarkably prone to failure, and that is a model only present in the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 model line. The CPU might be possible to replace with a construction that involves a 6502 and some additional circuitry, but until there is a realiable FPGA or similar implementation of the TED chip (if that even is possible, I haven't followed closely), the number of machines in service decline all the time, probably far faster than most other classic computers and game systems.

 

Also it tends to be a regional thing. Far more Commodore 16 seem to have been sold in Europe, and behind the iron curtain, in particular in Hungary, Commodore once dumped all their surplus computers at a price that not even domestic manufacturers could match. Thus an unproportionally large part of the "scene" tends to be Hungarians, in case you ever noticed and wondered how come.

[DavidC]

Thank You for the information. I am in the U.S. and I have never seen one until I was gifted one by my good friend. She found it at a random garage sale. The last time I powered it up, 6 or 7 years ago, it worked. I am going to have to try it again. Very interesting.

[RobertB]

I wouldn't say they are rare, but they are uncommon. If it is working for you, I'd advise you to heatsink the CPU and the TED chips.

 

Every little bit helps,

Robert Bernardo

Fresno Commodore User Group

http://www.dickestel.com/fcug.htm

[RetroMarky]

Are the 16's considered to be rare, hard to find? I did a quick search on eBay and found very few listings.

 

I have one, and curiosity has gotten the better of me.

 

Thanks,

Dave

Not exactly hard but not loads for sale. unboxed 50 quid maybe working, a nice boxed original set can fetch 120-150 depending on condition.

[7800fan]

One of the nice thing about C16 is the black box. AFAIK you could swap the motherboard with a C64 and get official black C64 system.