Commodore V364

The top of the Commodore 264 Series line was to be an amazing computer indeed. Geared towards the adult home computer user, the V364 would offer its 64K of RAM (60K available for BASIC), enhanced video, speech abilities, and a wide assortment of pending productivity packages to take right up where the Commodore 64 left off. Unfortunately, this formula was not quite what the market wanted, and whether it was the cost structure, or the fear of too many computer models aimed at the same audience, Commodore decided after its introduction at the 1983 C.E.S. to leave the V364 on the shelf.

At one point I talked to one of the 264 series project managers, David Haynie. He said that one or two V364 prototypes were made for the C.E.S. These were made with a low quality plastic and then painted over. Only one was made with production quality plastic, and the project manager himself went home with that one, so obviously I own one of the show models. Mr. Haynie eventually sold his to another collector. What happened to the last one (if it ever existed), is unknown.

Statistics, features, and V364 resources:

My own Commodore V364, as you can plainly see, has a rather battered case. The plastic it was made from is extremely brittle. Some keys are also missing, though I can happily report that the machine works great.

As you can see here, the motherboard is completely socketed, and resembles the Plus/4 very closely. For a close-up of this model, click here to see the left hand side, or here to see the right hand side.

To the right, we have a back picture to show the ports. From left to right, they are power, serial, cassette, user, TED (expansion) port, joystick 1, joystick 2, video DIN, and the composite RF port. On the RHS are the power and reset buttons.

On the bottom of the machine, no serial number is to be seen. An FCC message, however, warns against selling this unit.

Personal Note : I'm not a big fan of this line of computers, though I use a Plus/4 regularly, and am fond of the V364's speaking ability. All that being said, as a collectors find, this machine really does stand out as a jewel. Although its packed away at the moment, it received more loving care from acquisition to storage than any piece of property I've ever had. And where did I get it? Believe it or not, from an eBay auction many years ago. It's extreme rarity was confirmed to me by an email conversation I once had with a former Commodore project manager David Haynie.