The Commodore 64C personal computer is simply the old Commodore 64 repackaged in a beige, 128-style case (see photo 1) and bundled with the disk-based GEOS (Graphic Environment Operating System) version 1.3. GEOS is a surprisingly good window and icon operating system considering it runs on an 8-bit microprocessor in 64K bytes of memory. The combination sells for $???; you can purchase the GEOS software separately ($59.99) if you already own a 64 or a 128. The 64C's case is more attractive than that of the old 64 and the feel of the keyboard has been improved, though it is still not great.
For those people not familiar with the hardware of the 64, the 64 and thus the 64C uses the 6502 compatible, 6510A microprocessor at a 1.01 MHz clock speed. It has 20K ROM containing the operating system and the BASIC interpreter version 2.0, 64K bytes of RAM, 320x200 graphics, up to 16 colors (although the graphic modes restrict choices), a 3 voice Sound Interface device (SID), and, alas, slow serial disk interface, though GEOS uses some techniques to speed this up (see benchmarks).
Some recent additions to the line of peripherals available from Commodore for the 64C are the 1541C disk drive ($229.95) which internally is the same as the 1541, but has a beige case to match the new case of the 64C. The 1351 two- button mouse ($49), which can operate in either proportional or joystick mode--quite an improvement over the 1350 two-button mouse which could operate only in joystick mode. The 1902A color monitor ($349.95) will accept both composite and RGBI video signals and has a button on the front that will give you a green screen. According to Commodore, the 1764 RAM expander that will boost system RAM up to 256K will be available Spring '87 for $129. This expander, a cartridge that plugs into the cartridge/expansion port, requires an external power supply. Due to limitations in the built-in BASIC interpreter the extra RAM is only accessible to the programmer using machine language programs, PEEKs and POKEs, or may be used as a RAM-disk. The Commodore 1660 Modem/300 is an optional 300 baud modem designed to plug into the general purpose user port.
GEOS (Graphic Environment Operating System, developed by Berkeley Softworks) is an icon-oriented system similar to the Xerox PARC model popularized by the Apple Macintosh. It provides windows and icons and can be controlled by the cursor keys, a mouse, or a joystick. Drivers are also included for bit-pads such as Koala Pad, and for light pens.
Berkeley Softwork's has implemented a copy protection scheme wherein you must always boot from the original GEOS disk. The first thing that you should do when you start working with GEOS is make a backup of the system disk, but these have to be restored to the original disk. If that disk gets physically trashed, you are out of luck. Once you've backed up the GEOS disk, you must create a work disk--a paired down system disk that you can use once you have loaded GEOS.
GEOS comes on one double-sided disk: on one side is the GEOS operating system, geoPaint, and geoWrite and on the opposite side a telecommunication program, Q-Link, for accessing QuantumLink (a bulletin board designed specifically for Commodore users). When you get GEOS with the 64C, Commodore provides a tailored work disk for you.
The GEOS desktop consist of a pull-down menu bar along the top, icons representing the disk drive (or drives if you have more than one), wastebasket, and printer, and a window (initially showing icons for the active disk). The disk window works a little differently than that on the Macintosh or the Atari ST. In the latter, if the number of file icons is too big to display all at once, you can scroll the window up and down or sideways. The technique GEOS uses is to let you "flip the pages" of the window as though it were a book. A Disk Notepad page has room for eight files and it's size and position on the screen is fixed.
The desk accessories provided are a note pad, calculator, preference manager (similar to the control panel of the Macintosh) which allows you to set the time, date, set the velocity or edit the shape of the pointer, change background, foreground, border, or pointer colors, and reset the values back to the standard GEOS default value. The photo manager and test manager give you the ability to cut and paste pictures and text among applications.
Several other applications are available for GEOS, and they are quite nicely integrated. GeoPaint provides a window onto a full 8.5"x11" page, and provides for combining images and text on a document. A full array of brush styles, fill patterns, and colors is provided, although there are occasional problems with colothe way the 64 graphic modes work. (The screen may contain all 16 colors, but any 8x8 region is restricted to 2 colors in hi-res mode, and 4x8 regions are restricted to 4 colors in medium-resolution mode.)
Other applications include a number of desktop accessories, GeoWrite (a word processor), and a small font library. A variety of text fonts can be displayed simultaneously on the 64 screen with GEOS, since it is using the graphic screen rather than character screen. These can also be printed.
You can run BASIC from the GEOS desktop (one of the choices in the special menu will get you into the Commodore BASIC interpreter). GEOS replaces the default NMI vector with the vector for the reboot code for the desktop which is located between $C000 and $C100. This allows you to reboot the desktop from the original GEOS diskette by pressing the Restore key. If your BASIC program is smaller than 26K bytes, the GEOS will be able to use some of it's techniques for speeding the program's load into memory. Otherwise, the normal Commodore DOS routines will be used.
The "language" of mouse-button clicks and moves is similar but not identical to that used by the Macintosh or Atari ST. Double-clicking on an icon will open that file or activate that application, as with other systems. However, rather than the press-drag-release of other systems, dragging an icon (or drawing, in the paint program) is done by clicking once, moving and clicking again. The problem with this is that if you are a little slow in double- clicking to open an application, GEOS interprets this instead as a click-drag- click.
Since GEOS is necessarily disk based, it is somewhat limited by the slow Commodore drives. The software speedups that Berkeley Softworks has included help some. It also helps if you have a second disk drive. Installing the second drive is simple - if it is hardware configured as a peripheral other than unit 8, nothing further needs to be done.
Otherwise, the drives are turned on one at a time, with "install drive" being selected from the pull down menu before turning on the second drive. Having two drives is almost a necessity if you are going to make intensive use of GeoPaint: on a single drive system, the software insists that a copy of the program exist on the same disk as the data files. (Copying this is permitted, only the GEOS kernal is copy-protected).
The 64C comes with an introductory guide, the various components (monitor, disk drive) include all the necessary cables and documentation. Set up is actually quite easy, a matter of plugging cables into the only connectors they will fit and turning everything on (just don't force-fit the power cord into the wrong socket!). The power transformer is a separate unit, as is the disk drive and monitor. This can make for a bit of a cable snarl, and the when set up there is little clear space left on a desk. A separate shelf for monitor and disk drive is definitely recommended.
Included with the 64C is a 200-page book, "Commodore 64C System Guide", subtitled "Learning to Program in BASIC 2.0". The book includes examples of the various BASIC commands, as well as short sample programs for using the 64C's graphics and sound capabilities. These use a lot of PEEKs and POKEs, BASIC 2.0 does not have built-in commands to manipulate graphics and sound. A novice programmer may want to look for something a more tutorial about programming in general, and any programmer interested in digging into the system will want the separately available "Commodore 64 Programmers' Reference Guide."
GEOS documentation is quite good, with many examples. Again, there is a separate "GEOS Programmers Guide" for programmers interested in writing GEOS applications, not recommended reading for the casual user unless he or she has an interest in the arcana of system calls.
The system as reviewed comprised the Commodore 64C, two 1541 disk-drive, the Commodore 1902A composite/RGBI monitor, 1351 mouse, and GEOS Version 1.3. Since the hardware of the 64C is the same as that of the old 64, I ran the benchmarks of the 64C with and without GEOS and compared these to benchmarks run on the Commodore 128. The BASIC benchmarks were the same whether BASIC was entered from the GEOS menu bar or directly from bootup. The disk tests show the effect of the GEOS speedups on the drive access time.
The Commodore 64C is an attractive restyling of the venerable Commodore 64, with that machine's built-in BASIC, vast library of software, very impressive sound capability and impressive graphic capability -- for an 8-bit, 64K byte machine. The disk drive is a bottleneck, alleviated somewhat by the tricks used in GEOS. The inclusion of the GEOS graphic environment with the 64C is a smart move on Commodore's part, and will extend the life of this product. They should have also bundled the mouse, as that is a much better way of interacting with GEOS than the cursor keys, which are the only option you have right out of the box.
GEOS itself is also worth serious consideration by any 64 owner who is not entirely comfortable with the system's rather primitive command interface, and not ready to upgrade to a completely new machine. The GeoPaint and GeoWrite programs also make an upgrade to GEOS an attractive consideration. The copy- protection on the kernal disk is a negative factor.
However, the 64C is still an 8-bit, 64K machine. Even with RAM upgrade to 256K, this computer does not have the graphics capability or compute power of newer, 68000-based designs. With BASIC-in-ROM and GEOS, the 64C is an attractive entry-level system for the new user, and with an "installed base" of more than a million Commodore 64s, you'd hardly have to worry about it becoming an "orphan". However, if you're likely to want to expand your system significantly, and get frustrated by slow disk drives, you would do well to balance the extra cost against the extra power of some of the newer Commodore, Apple, or Atari systems.